Cycling Touring Guides, Howard Briercliffe (1947 – 1950)

A series of guides to cycling in Britain from the baggy-shorts-and-saddlebags era

Temple Press Paperback approx 110 pp 2’6

Briercliffe’s guides were published as a spin off from Cycling, the main magazine devoted to bicycling, which now appears as Cycling Weekly. They were inexpensively produced volumes, albeit with very attractive thee-colour covers, intend to be tucked into the pocket of a saddlebag.

They appeared at, roughly, six monthly intervals and were intended, volume by volume, to cover the British isles. A map at the back of volume one suggested that there would be nine in total. So far as I can tell, however, only six ever actually appeared: Northern England, Wales, Scottish Highlands, South-West England, The Midlands and Southern England. Planned volumes covering Eastern England, The Boarderlands and Southern Scotland and, Ireland appear to have been abandoned.

In 2010, the books were used as the basis for a BBC tv series about cycle touring ‘1950s style’.

They were intended as practical guides for the touring cyclist, and while there are occasional observational asides, the language is for the most part functional. The volumes vary a little in their organisation, but most include suggested circular tours, some of several days, as well as gazetteer-style sections on places and attractions in each area.

Each volume has a section of eight black-and-white plates at their centre, and there are occiasional line illustrations dotted through out the book, which look like they have come from the pen of Frank Patterson.

Considered sixty years after their publication, they still have some merit as touring guides. Many of the roads that Briercliffe recommends are, of course, now too clogged with traffic to be much fun, but these could still be used to plan a trip – particularly in some of the quieter areas. His notes on rough-stuff routes in the Scottish highlands are also still useful.

However, his books do not shine much of a light on what the country was like in the years immediately after the Second World War, nor do claims that Briercliffe might be cycling’s Wainwright really stand up. (For that, see James Arnold). The series is currently being used as a narrative prop in a series of BBC programmes about cycle touring in the 1950s, which has reasonably successfully, applied the ‘Coast’ format to two wheels.

PS July 2010