Cycle racing events in Wolverhampton began at the Vauxhall Pleasure Grounds, in Cannock Road and later at the grounds of Molineux House. On Monday 6th June, 1870, 1,000 people came to Vauxhall Pleasure Grounds to watch William Turner's All-England cycle contest for amateurs who have never won any prize. In reality most of the competitors were from the local area. The early races in Wolverhampton were organised by cycle manufacturers Forder and Traves.

Due to the success of the events at Vauxhall Pleasure Grounds, the proprietor of the Molineux Hotel, Mr. O. E. McGregor began to organise cycle races in the hotel’s spacious grounds. He began promoting the races in 1870 and turned Molineux grounds into one of the most important cycle racing venues in the country.

Large numbers of spectators came from all over the country to watch the events at Molineux, which attracted the best riders of the day. As many as 20,000 people flocked to watch some of the races that attracted such riders as Henry Pascoed from Paris; James Moore, who won many of the first races, Jack Keene, one of the fastest riders of the day, Mr. Shelton, a local rider, H. O. Duncan, who was the 50 mile world champion in 1885 and R. Howell who was world cycling champion.

Cycle Clubs and Road Racing

During the 1870s cycling became extremely popular, no doubt helped by racing events such as the ones held at Molineux. Clubs sprang up across the country and one on the first was the Aston Cycle Club of Birmingham, founded in 1869. The following year saw the formation of the Edinburgh Amateur Bicycle Club and the prestigious Pickwick Bicycling Club with branches in many towns.

In 1878 two important and influential clubs were founded. The first, the Bicycle Touring Club was formed at Harrogate and soon had over 500 members. In 1883 it became the Cyclists Touring Club. The second, the Bicycle Union became the National Cyclists Union or N.C.U. in 1884. By 1880 there were around 250 clubs and by 1890 thirteen magazines dedicated to cycling were on sale.

Like most towns, Wolverhampton had many cycling clubs including the Sun Bicycle Club formed in 1874 and based at the Sun Inn in Commercial Road. In 1884 the Wesleyan Cycle Club was formed and meetings were held at the Darlington Street Wesleyan Schools. They had around 40 members with an annual subscription of 2s.6d. Other clubs such as the Mount Zion Cycling Club and St. Matthew's Cycling Club were based at church schools, whilst most of the others met at local pubs.

The Wulfruna Cycling Club met at the New Inn, Horseley Fields and The Grosvenor met at the Popler Hotel, Wednesfield Road. Its annual subscription was 4 shillings for ordinary members and 10s.6d for honorary members. A lot of money at the time. The Queen Victoria in Ablow Street, near to Sunbeamland was home to the Sunbeam Cycle and Athletic Club, and the famous Wolverhampton Wheelers, founded in 1880, met at the Talbot Hotel.

Many cycling clubs soon turned their attention to road racing and the wheelers were no exception. After an initial decline the club reformed in 1924 as a racing club with many prominent and well-known members such as Percy Stallard, Bob Thom and Benny Whitmore. The newly formed club held meetings in Percy Stallard's shop at 30 Broad Street. Other clubs also met at cycle shops, including the City Cycling Club based at Poyners on Dudley Road and Central Roads that met at Hayward's Cycles on Snow Hill.

Wolverhampton clubs including The Clarion joined forces with the Walsall Cycle Racing Club and Walsall Roads to form the South Staffs Time Trial Association and organised many time trials, often run on Watling Street between Gailey and Newport. In 1938 George Courier of Wolverhampton's City Cycling Club held the 60 mile record from Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury and back, in a time of 2 hours 46 minutes 2 seconds. Local dealers such as Percy Stallard and Jack Green of Bilston Street built many specialised racing machines for club riders and they were "a must" for many of the riders.

The Wolverhampton Racing Cycling Club was founded in May 1938 and affiliated to the N.C.U. and the Road Time Trials Council (R.T.T.C.) with a membership of around 60 members including some of the best road men of the day. By 1984 Wolverhampton Wheelers had around 200 members including Hugh Porter M.B.E. and the successful rider Bob Thom. The club had excellent club rooms and facilities at Aldersley Stadium.

Local manufacturers also had racing teams which helped to increase sales of their products. Viking Cycles of 34 Princess Street and Princess Alley had a very successful team as did Wearwell of Colliery Road and Hateley's cycle shop on Stafford Road.

Some Local Riders and Their Successes

Percy trained his own team of Wolverhampton cyclists, and in 1938, one of the team, Ray Jones, won the silver medal in the Empire Games.

J. Jones came in third and J. Kremers finished in fourth place. The race had been a great success and the Express & Star Comforts Fund benefited by the sum of £105. Percy Stallard should have felt proud of his achievement but all of those involved were suspended by the N.C.U. and the R.T.T.C.

The enthusiasts were undaunted by the expulsions and formed the Midland League of Racing Cyclists. Other similar organisations were formed and in November 1942 they came together to form the British League of Racing Cyclists (B.L.R.C.) with Percy Stallard as event organiser. This led to a bitter 17 year long conflict with the N.C.U., during which all of the cycle clubs in the country were forced to declare allegiance to one body or the other. Percy was soon expelled from the league for criticising its standard of race organisation, but soon returned. In 1951, he organised the first London to Holyhead race, which was the longest race in Europe at the time. His influence led to the setting up of the Milk Race and the Tour of Britain. In 1955 the first British team took part in the Tour de France.

In 1959 the B.L.R.C. and the N.C.U. merged and Percy, who was disillusioned, quit the sport. He even sacked Ralph Jones, who was his assistant in the cycle shop, because Ralph was the B.L.R.C. delegate at an international meeting in Spain. Percy's campaigning eventually paid off, as government legislation was introduced on March 1st 1960, which made road racing legal and paved the way for such events as the Tour of Britain. Percy returned to cycle race organisation, running events for veterans. In 1985 he organised the first age-related race in the country which took place at Albrighton on 28th April.

During World War 2 he joined the RAF and on his return after the war his competitive career with the wheelers continued. He joined the B.L.R.C. and became Independent Road Champion and a member of the winning team that competed at Tilburg. His first league win was at the 100km circuit at Dudley and many more successes followed. He was 15th in the National Road Championships in Scotland and won the Grand Prix at Weston Super Mare. He also won the first Severn Valley Grand Prix and repeated his success in 1948. Bob went on to win the notorious Tour of the Peaks and finished in 12th place in the 1947 Brighton to Glasgow race.

Bob's racing career really took off when Reg Davies of Viking Cycles decided to form a racing team and Bob became a member along with Ben Whitmore and Bill Allen. The team was very successful and did a lot to promote the company's products.

In the 1950s he decided to retire from active racing and give back to the sport some of the pleasure he had derived from it. As Viking team manager and England team manager he was the architect of many famous British victories. He continued to support local clubs and give any help he could to young riders. His son Bob junior, who was a mechanic in his father's team later became England team manager in his own right.

Wolverhampton's best known racing cyclist must be Hugh Porter who was four times World Pursuit Champion. He is a great celebrity in Europe, but even though he cycled on British roads he is virtually unknown over here.

References:

“Wolverhampton Cycles and Cycling” by Jim Boulton. Published in 1988 by Brian Publications.

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