Speedy Cycle Works, Retail Store, Christchurch, early 1900s - Cycling Craze #19

Jack Suckling's Speed Cycle Works located at 114 Manchester Street, Christchurch, circa 1912-14. Jack is the moustached man wearing a cap and watch chain at centre right just a fraction behind the row of cyclists. A number of the "scorchers" (cyclists) are in their racing gear, perhaps for a day's track racing at Lancaster Park or for road racing. Photo: Adam McLay. Alexander Turnbull Library. Click on image for larger view.

Jack Suckling was an integral part of the Christchurch "cycling craze" in the late nineteenth, early twentieth century. He ran a retail store at several different locations around the central city in the early 1900s, operating at the corner of Kilmore  and Barbadoes Streets in 1906 but by 1909 had relocated to 256 Oxford Terrace east. By the time the above photo was taken his business had moved to 114 Manchester Street, a street along with High Street, that had become popular among cycle businesses as a retail location.

Jack promoted his Speedy cycles to the young men known as "scorchers", the competitive racing cyclists who lived for either the track races at Lancaster Park and out in the small towns around Canterbury or for the road races across the province. Good money was to be made from winning racing prizes to pay back the price of a cycle, so Jack suggested in his advertising, and he'd make a few bob in the process.

Christchurch Star ad, 27 January, 1906

 

Christchurch Star ad, 6 October 1906

Christchurch Star ad, 26 December, 1908.

So why don't you give Jack a call at Christchurch 2574? Don't be surprised if you get a busy signal.

Cycle Store Interior, Christchurch 1910 - Cycling Craze #18

Unidentified Cycle Store Interior, Christchurch, 1910, photo Steffano Webb.

Alexander Turnbull Library

During the cycling craze of the late 1890s and early 1900s, cycle works and retail stores mushroomed in Christchurch as the public embraced the idea of personal transport that did not require catching, harnessing, grooming, feeding and cleaning-up after the "beast". While the horse-drawn tram was giving way to the electric tram, the car was only beginning to make an appearance from around 1900 and was financially out of the reach of the average household. The bicycle could improve one's health and provided greater convenience and flexibility in terms of getting where the rider wanted to go directly rather than be limited by the tram tracks. Of course, in inclement weather, the bicycle presented its own challenges.

The store pictured above is not identified and could be one of several selling the popular BSA brand cycles displayed. Advertising on the walls include items such as Taylor Tyres, Palmer Tyres for Motor Cars, and one for National Cash Register behind the sales counter.

Christchurch Cycling Craze #17 - Don't Try This At Home!

Cycling Stunt on the Madras Street Overbridge in 1900

Christchurch Cycling Craze #16 - The Long Arm - or Wheel - of the Law

With all that cycling going on, some of it had to be a threat to law and order, surely? So if you can't beat them...

A police cycle patrol in Christchurch, which was raised to thwart a horse fiend.
From left: Constables J Andrews, D G Sinclair, W Ainsworth, A E Rowell, P Fitzgerald, District Clerk A Stanton, Constables T Barrett, J Hayes, S Flewellen, Cycling Instructor Mr F Painter, Constable D H Hannafin, Sergeant Major W T Mason, Detective R Marsack, Constable J Dougan, Station Cook W Kwoe, Constable W Tonkin, and Detective L D Benjamin. Taken by Frederick Nelson Jones in 1896. Alexander Turnbull Library

And then there was the small matter of enforcing the emerging rules of the road:

Traffic Officer Herbert MacIntosh prepares to mount his bicycle while his brothers and sisters watch in 1895, a time when motor cycles and cars were yet to become police equipment. Photo: Standish & Preece. Christchurch City Libraries.

Christchurch Cycling Craze #15 - Lancaster Park - Grandfather Was A Bikie

Ten mile championship of New Zealand (Jan. 1896) at Lancaster Park, Christchurch.
1st: C. H. Jones, N.Z.; 2nd: W. L. Kerr, N.S.W.; 3rd: Peterson. Christchurch City Libraries.

Paternal grandfather was a competitive amateur cyclist in the early 1900s during the days of the "cycling craze" in New Zealand. He was a card-carrying member of the Christchurch Cycling Club (est. 1891) in 1901/02 and competed in the New Zealand Wheel Race Meeting at Lancaster Park on 19 December, 1903 - at least that's what the programme states. I've not been able to trace whether he placed or not.

Grandfather's interest in cycling was obviously strong as he worked at Adams Ltd, a cycle sales company, before establishing his own Fern Cycle Works for what was probably a fairly short period before moving into the motor taxi business.

One wonders what Grandfather would think of the abomination that has become AMI stadium. Name aside, the ground has long since lost any suitability for cycling and cricket has been vanquished more recently, the grandstand configuration being useless for any decent spectating of the game. Perhaps though he would find solace in the fact that rugby still thrives.

Though he died just two weeks after I was born - and hence I never got to learn directly from him about his enthusiasm for cycling and his inevitable stories of his experiences, the cycling tradition lives on to the present day among his descendants as yet another example of one of those informal inheritances that often goes by unremarked.

Christchurch Cycling Craze #14 - Mother Was A Biker Chick

My mother attempts to get her turn on a tyre-less tricycle in a Christchurch backyard jungle, circa 1920. Her older brothers teased her relentlessly, but, as it is with brothers, they were her biggest protectors.

Who would have guessed that twenty years later those two older brothers would be in the army with a later departure for the North African campaign in World War Two. Pictured here in November 1940 with their maternal grandmother, a month after entering training camp. Happily, both returned all in one piece at the end of the war.

Although she might not appreciate the label "biker chick", mother could appreciate a bit of humour.

Like most Christchurch residents of that era, Mum was an ardent cyclist - not for the health benefits, but for getting from A to B in a low cost, relatively effortless way. She never did learn to drive a car; that all ended rather unhappily one day with the car on the front lawn inches from the front of the house, not in the driveway.

One of my first memories is of riding home from the doctor's, no doubt after a jab in the arm, in a child seat on the back of Mum's bike. No helmets, of course, but the wind in our hair, the thrill of familiar places passing by at a speed faster than walking, and the whirr of the chain & wheels in motion, just Mum and I.

In loving memory, Mum, 1917-2002, on Mother's Day.

Christchurch Cycling Craze #13 - A Taranaki Gate

Although this humorous, though dangerous, tale does not refer to events occurring in Christchurch, its cycle theme and expression of the New Zealand sense of humour is reason enough to squeeze it in under the rubric of the Cycling Craze:

"He was fond of cycling, and was more or less of a scorcher. He revelled in pace-making, and he boasted that no hill was too steep for him to take full tilt. One recent day, however while entering a Taranaki town, he altered his opinion about rushing down hills, for, instead of going round the corner at the bottom of a very steep descent, he went straight on and smashed through the window of a jeweller's shop. In due course he crawled out of the hospital and paid the jeweller a good round sum for damages.

"But, history has a way of repeating itself. It did in this case, anyway, and another cyclist entered the jeweller's shop by the window. Then it became apparent to the shopkeeper that it was time to take action. When a third window had been put in, an amused crowd stood outside and read this notice — "Cyclists are particularly requested to enter this establishment by the door."

New Zealand Free Lance, Volume VII, Issue 360, 25 May 1907, Page 12.

--------------------------
tar·a·na·ki gate [ tàrrə nákee gàyt ] (plural tar·a·na·ki gates):

New Zealand roughly made gate: a serviceable but roughly constructed gate made using battens and wire.

Christchurch Cycling Craze #12 - Scorcher Jones - Lancaster Park circa 1890

"Scorcher Jones" - Clement Goodwin Jones (1875?-1908) being paced by a quad team of cyclists at Lancaster Park, circa 1890. Photo: Standish & Preece. Christchurch City Libraries.

Scorcher Jones was a well-known competitive cyclist in Christchurch and New Zealand in the 1890s and early 1900s. In the above photo he can be seen being assisted by a quad team in a track trial. The quad or tandem teams would pace the trialist, helping to create a draught that allowed the cyclist to ride in the slipstream.

Clement Jones was employed as a manager at the Star Cycle Company on Colombo Street, later moving to Best & Towne, cycle makers and repairers in Manchester Street.

Scorcher graduated to motor cycles in the early twentieth century. Sadly, it was to be an ill-fated transition. While practising for a 5 mile motor cycle race at Lancaster Park in December 1908, the front wheel of Scorcher's machine collapsed, causing him to crash into a picket fence, killing him.

Christchurch Cycling Craze #11 - Lancaster Park Wheelmen, December 1887

Fred Wood "professional champion rider of the world" and W Brown, amateur, both of England, at Lancaster Park, 1887. Christchurch City Libraries

To encourage competitive cycling in New Zealand, national associations such as the New Zealand Wheelmen in collaboration with local clubs like the Pioneer Cycling Club sponsored international cyclists to compete in New Zealand.

In late 1887 and early 1888, Englishment Fred Wood and W Brown participated in a series of Champion Test Races around the country.

In Christchurch, the Test races consisted of one, five, and ten mile races with prizes totaling 100 pounds ($18,100 in 2009 prices). With race days on Boxing Day (26 Dec.) and 29 December, 1887, Wood and Brown raced against the competition from around New Zealand.

A crowd of 3,000 saw Wood outperform the competition in the Five and Ten Mile races, resulting in Wood placing first in the Champion Test Races with Wilmot of North Canterbury placing second.

Cycling was not without its dangers. As reported by the Otago Witness of 30 December 1887, in the Five Mile race, Hall of the Pioneer Club held first place some 300 yards from the post but when Wood challenged him for the lead at that stage, Hall missed his pedal causing him to fall from his cycle, dislocating his wrist. In a Half Mile race, Steadman and Bean collided which resulted in both incurring severe cuts about the face.

F Wood comes a cropper at Lancaster Park.

This appears to be a staged crash as the newspaper reports do not mention any crash or injury to Wood, although other riders were injured in the racing. Christchurch City Libraries

Christchurch Cycling Craze #10 - Nurse Maude Association, District Nursing

Nurse Maude's District nurses, with their bicycles, utside South Durham St District Nursing Office, Christchurch, 29 August 1914. Reference Number: 1/1-005293-G. Alexander Turnbull Library.

District nurses, in uniform and with their bicycles, outside the South Durham Street headquarters in Christchurch. Left to right they are: E Browne, Sister Constance, M Palmer, M Rogers, Sibylla Emily Maude, D Savory, L Laing and Tolerton. Taken by the Steffano Webb Studio on the 29th of August, 1914.

Sibylla Maude, 1862-1935, born in Christchurch but who later trained in nursing in England returned to become matron of Christchurch hospital. She was the first to establish a system of district nursing in Christchurch after she chose to practise nursing rather than continue to deal with the dead hand of hospital bureaucracy. (See Nurse Maude's biography at the NZ Dictionary of Biography.)

Concerned for the health care of the poor, especially the aged and infirm, Nurse Maude set up an office in South Durham Street in the working class suburb of Sydenham in 1896 and in 1901 formed the Nurse Maude Association to provide in-home nursing for those in most need.

In the early days carrying out her practice on foot, burdened by her equipment and supplies, Nurse Maude and her nurses eventually were provided with a horse and cart for transport then bicycles. Apparently in later years she received a car but her driving was reputed to put other road users in fear of their lives.

In addition to in-home care, Nurse Maude established camps for the treatment of tuberculosis until a sanatorium could be built and in the 1918 Influenza epidemic she was placed in charge of coordinating nursing services.

Nurse Maude, circa 1900. Canterbury City Libraries

The Nurse Maude Association continues to carry out Nurse Maude's mission today with community, acute, and hospice nursing care. Several generations of this bird's extended family have both benefited from and contributed to Nurse Maude's good work for which he is sincerely grateful. The work of such communitarian organisations helps bridge the sometimes yawning gap between private effort and state largesse.

Christchurch Cycling Craze #9 - The 1918 Influenza Epidemic

A nurse leaving a sub-depot on her daily round of visits, during the 1918 influenza epidemic, Christchurch [1918]. The Weekly Press, 4 December 1918. Christchurch City Libraries.

In the influenza pandemic between October and December 1918, New Zealand lost about half as many people to influenza as it had in the whole of the First World War.

The death toll had topped 8600 before the pandemic subsided in December, with Maori affected disproportionately with an overall rate of death of 42.3 per thousand people, seven times that of the European death rate of 5.8 per thousand people.

The flu's impact on communities was uneven too. Some were hit hard while others escaped without much loss. The most consistently lethal sites for death from influenza were the military camps such as those at Featherston and Trentham where the rates were 22.6 and 23.5 deaths per thousand people respectively.

With the medical profession already stretched to the limit by wartime conditions with many doctors and nurses serving in the military abroad, volunteers were called upon to serve in providing medical care, food service, transportation, funeral and burial services. The bicycle provided the means for volunteers and nurses to make house calls upon the ill & dying at a time when quarantine regulations and the lack of manpower prevented transportation to hospitals and temporary treatment stations.

Walter Ford Gibbs (1893-1918), Kuaka's great uncle, was one of 458 Christchurch residents to die of influenza.

Walter Ford Gibbs, 1893-1918

Like many of those most severely ill or who died, Walter was young. In early November 1918, Christchurch was crowded with people attending the Show weekend races and as a cab driver Walter would have no doubt appreciated the increased business. But the large crowds were the ideal breeding ground and transmitting device for influenza.

After becoming ill, Walter was transported from his home at 20 Melrose Street, a small side street just south of Bealey Avenue to Christchurch hospital. He died there on 14 November 1918. Two days later he was buried in an unmarked grave in the Sydenham cemetery in Simeon Street. He was just 25 years old.

It wasn't until towards the end of the century that a modern generation "re-discovered" Walter and restored him to family memory.

Christchurch Cycling Craze #7 - The Atalanta Ladies' Cycling Club

The Executive Officers of the Atalanta Cycling Club for Women. The officers were Miss Blanche Lough, later Thompson (1847-1963) (Captain), pictured standing in the centre; Miss Keating (Sub-Captain); Mrs Alice Meredith Burn (Hon. Secretary), pictured on the right; Miss Barker (Hon Treasurer). Committee members were Mrs Kate Sheppard (1848-1934); Miss Bertha Lough, pictured seated in the centre; Miss F Adams. Christchurch City Libraries

The Atalanta Cycling Club was formed by twin sisters Blanche and Bertha Lough and friends in Christchurch in 1892 to organise day trips and longer tours as well as picnics and balls. It was named after Atalanta, the female athlete in Greek mythology.

Clearly of an independent spirit and keen to blaze new trails for women, a number of the Atalantans were to rise to prominence beyond their cycling activities as the observant, knowledgeable reader will note. Blanche (Lough) Thompson was to become a social reformer: she participated in the free kindergarten movement, was active in the Red Cross, served in soup kitchens during the 1918 Influenza Epidemic and became the first woman to win a motor car driving competition in New Zealand.

The most famous member of the Atalanta Club, however, was undoubtedly Kate Sheppard, suffragist and social reformer, who was a founding member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) that campaigned for the vote for women who, it was believed, with a majority of the electoral vote would favour prohibition. Working with the likes of Tommy Taylor, reformer & prohibitionist, at The Prohibitionist, Sheppard and the WCTU successfully forced the hand of Richard Seddon's Liberal Government to secure New Zealand women the vote in 1893. New Zealand was the first nation to extend the franchise to women.

But the struggle was far from won: it took another forty years or so for one of their gender to gain a seat in parliament.

In the early days on the streets of Christchurch, the Atalanta Club members were subjected to abuse and even stone throwing as some members of the public found the act of cycling by women to be scandalous. Often one of the brothers of the Lough twins accompanied the group to deter such hecklers and troublemakers.

One of the contributing factors to the unwelcome attention the women cyclists received was the view held by a number of the club members that "rational dress" - bloomers or knickerbockers - should be worn for cycling. By September 1893, such negative publicity had been generated that the Club decided that none of its members should wear rational dress when cycling, though this was relaxed in succeeding years as public attitudes thawed.

Thus, the Atalantans swept up in the Cycling Craze played a key role in transforming social attitudes to women's participation in sport, in improving their health and leisure opportunities as well as contributing to securing the women's franchise.

The Atalanta Ladies' Cycling Club, circa 1892.
Christchurch City Libraries

Christchurch Cycling Craze #6 - Cycling Sydenham Rugby Club 1900s

photo by Adam MacLay. Alexander Turnbull Library

By the early 1900s, cycles and their cyclists were everywhere. A couple of Super 14 squads worth of men & boys stand outside the Sydenham Football Club Hall displaying their cycles before, perhaps, retiring inside for a few beverages. Mr CH will be along shortly to help out with an exact street location! Hastings Street? (And probably to tell me Sydenham was dry then - which will truly astound me).

Or per chance, the lads were about to play a game of cycle rugby with a half time show by the bicycling band?

And should push-bike power fail to budge an immovable object, the trusty steam traction engine could be prevailed upon to haul the Oddfellows Hall from its Lichfield Street location in the central city to a site 3/4 of a mile away in Sydenham in 1903. Skids rather than trollies were used under the Hall as they didn't want to unnecessarily raise its height and snag the telegraph lines overhead.

The Weekly Press, 25 Nov. 1903, p. 45

Christchurch City Libraries

A small child on a tricycle provides an attentive audience and managerial supervision.

Christchurch Cycling Craze #5 - Cycling Corps World War I

Again, the title is a bit misleading since there is no direct Christchurch connection in this post, but in a follow-up to Jayne's post on the NZ Cycling Corps of World War I over at Our Great Southern Land here are a few more pictures of the bicycle's role in World War I.

Click image for larger view.
Photo Henry Armytage Sanders. Alexander Turnbull Library

Another view of Premier Willian Massey and John Ward reviewing the New Zealand Cyclist Battalion as they march past in dismounted fashion on 3 July 1918. The ground looks dry but somewhat bumpy underfoot. Perhaps that's why they do not "march" or ride by cycling in review.

Click image for larger view.
Photo Henry Armytage Sanders. Alexander Turnbull Library

As the war drew to a close and the Germans ran out of rubber for their bicycle tyres, they resorted to spring-loaded wheels to soften the ride around the front line. Above, soldiers inspect a captured example of a springed wheel cycle on 14 September 1918. Note that before retreating the Germans have "spiked" their vehicle by removing the seat, exposing the unwary Allied soldier who would seek to mount the cycle to severe rectal injury. Those dastardly Hun!

Click image for larger view.
Photo Henry Armytage Sanders. Alexander Turnbull Library

And should you get tired of the cycling life in wartime, you could always hitch a ride on something a bit more substantial such as "Jumping Jennie", a tank, pictured here in a trench at Gommecourt Wood, France, on 10 August 1918.

Christchurch Cycling Craze #4 - Pricing Cycles 1905

Click image for enlarged view Advertising poster for J B Clarkson, Palmerston North, Feilding, Levin, & Dannevirke - all the main population centres of the lower North Island - listing prices of various models of bicycle and the Centaur motorcycle in 1905. Alexander Turnbull Library.

Ok, it's not Christchurch prices and it's not 1890 prices but 1905's, but you can get the idea of prevailing prices and what a king's ransom it was to buy one of these machines a century ago. A £20.00 Centaur cycle in 1905 is the equivalent of NZ$3034.58 in 2009 prices.

Imagine the shiver of dread down the spine, the cold sweat of fear, & the feeling of being swept away by the winds of change if you had recently purchased a bicycle and the new-fangled motorcycle arrived on the scene deep-sixing your previously cutting edge, oh, so fashionable, plain bicycle into the dustbin of the previous century...

Or if you couldn't afford a bicycle perhaps you could afford the price of a ticket - at 1 shilling - in the first combined Auckland annual charity fete & art union in September 1905 with the possibility of winning the fourth prize, a lady or gent's bicycle valued at 25 guineas:

Alexander Turnbull Library

Christchurch Cycling Craze #3 - Boys & Their Bikes

Boys & their (expensive) toys, Christchurch circa 1890
Christchurch City Libraries image

These brave young fellows put to shame those of us in a later age who took a million circuits of the backyard lawn before we would countenance unassisted self-balancing travel on a now standard uniform size two wheeler...

A Rudge Safety bicycle, presumably used, advertised for sale in the Evening Post classifieds of 8 March 1890 at 12 pounds would be equivalent in value to NZ$2011.57 in 2008 dollars according to the Reserve Bank historical inflation calculator. (Our thanks to Timespanner whose post on the historical price calculator directed us to said handy dandy calculator). Clearly, not a scientific estimate of value in current prices but an indication of the expense of pursuing the cycling life in 1890.

At those prices, these young lads either delivered a heck of a lot of newspapers, robbed a bank, or, most likely, had well-heeled parents.

Christchurch Cycling Craze #2 - The Gang Puts In Some Miles 1907

photo Steffano Webb. Alexander Turnbull Library

A mixed group of men and women cyclists put in some miles on a dusty road somewhere on the outskirts of 1907 Christchurch. Their procession obviously attracts some attention as householders come out to their gates on the leftside of the road to see the swarm of cyclists pass by.

The Christchurch Cycling Craze #1

A peloton of cyclists of the Pioneer Amateur Sports Club, in front of the AMP building in Cathedral Square, about to head out for a Saturday afternoon run, circa 1886. Christchurch City Libraries image.

Christchurch has been known as the Cycle City for more than a century. Its flat terrain, temperate weather, and wide streets lend themselves to the cycling way of life, even if the infrastructure has not always been provided to a standard or availability that cycling enthusiasts may have liked.

A mix of bicycles and folks are arrayed in front of the AMP building above prior to embarking upon a Saturday afternoon rumble, er, ramble.

Christchurch Bicycle Band Reprise

The Christchurch Bicycle Band on the "march" once again. circa 1895.
Alexander Turnbull Library

We sincerely hope Mr Canterbury Heritage will stop by & perhaps help us out with a suggestion as to which of Christchurch's fine streets this parade may be on.

Update: And he did:

"This is a westerly view of Kilmore Street from the Victoria Street intersection, looking past Cranmer Square toward Hagley Park.

The two storey building in the distance still exists; formerly a convenience store and then a school tuck shop, it stands at the corner of Cranmer Square opposite the former Normal School."

Earlier post on the Christchurch bicycle band here.