Cycling

With the summer weather there are definitely more cyclists about. Here is a splendid picture from Imogen Thomas's Haileybury 1806 - 1987. The caption says that it was taken in 1886 by the 'in' gate at the end of Avenue. There are seven Penny-farthings; a more modern looking machine on the left, and a wonderful contraption on the right that looks a bit like a wheel chair. Does it have a special name?

I was intrigued to discover a couple of years ago that my parish had a cycling club at just this period, the late 1880s and that a favourite ride was to Haileybury. The trip meter in my car tells me that it is sixteen miles from the church to the school, but that involves a bit of  a detour from the modern A10 down into Hoddesden and then back on yourself up the road to the Heath. I guess in the old days it would have been possible to get off the London Road and come up Hailey Lane. Maybe those with a better knowledge of the road layout at that time could confirm this?

The goal of the cyclists from Tottenham was tea with The Rev'd WD Fenning, an Old Marlburian who taught at Haileybury from 1875 - 1910; he then became chaplain to the Christ's Hospital girls' school in Hertford. My parish is the Marlborough Mission, so we are to Marlborough what Stepney was to Haileybury, hence the link with Mr Fenning.

I do cycle a bit round the parish and a bit further afield in London, but I am not one of those people who goes to Brighton and back in a day. To get to Haileybury form Tottenham on one of those machines muct have ben no mean feat. It is amazing just how far people cycled before cars became ubiquitous. I have a little book called The Country Round Haileybury which details the geology, biology and history of the whole region round the school. It was designed to be a practical and educative guide for use on field days and at other times when the school would empty and boys would go off on long walks and longer cycle rides. The walks are further than I would cycle and the idea of riding to St Alban's and back on an old bone shaker bicycle without gears is something that fills me with admiration.

Fenning by the way, was a keen photographer and because of him there are two fine photographs of my S. Mary's in the Haileybury archive. I wonder whether he cycled to Tottenham with his equipment to take them?