Otley, Tour de France and Bolton Clarion.

Well what binds the three components of the heading? Well for a start, as a cycling club, we have history with Otley and the massive hill named the Chevin that the town stands in the shadow of. On top of the west side of the hill lies real Clarion history, the clubhouse of the Yorkshire Clarion, sadly privatised in the last few years.

In recent history Bolton section have regularly used the hospitality it offered, the bunkhouse, self catering kitchen, dining room/lounge. Along with showers and washing room facilities were also camping facilities, much used by members cycling to and from York Rally, CTC’s annual event.

May Bank holidays and August Bank holidays afforded long weekend rides for the club, ride over on the Saturday, or Friday in the event of a late Easter weekend, then following a day or two touring the delights of the Yorkshire Dales ride back to Bolton.

While the rides were superb it must be said that the real highlight of the weekend would be long evenings spent in the nearby Chevin End Inn, boy what good times were to be had here. The times we had in the pub have become legend, many tales, tall stories and true, will be recounted by those fortunate enough to have stayed there.

Albert Winstanley was a frequent visitor, along with other members of the Autumn Tints, Albert wrote a book of the origins of the ‘Tints’, Owd Tom from Wigan was the cycling stalwart who formed the club in reverence of cycling old timers reaching the venerable age of ‘seventy’. If you get the chance, read it, Bolton Clarion are prominently referenced. There was growth in the Yorkshire section of the ‘Tints’ though in general there seems to be a lack of interest these days.

Another notable time for Bolton section was bonfire weekend in November, it was during these weekends that the club ‘hill climb’ was brought back into being after disappearing from club events, again tales from these events are still alive and vibrant.

The clubhouse being at the top of the notorious ‘Chevin’ climb was a natural selection for the event, it was also extremely familiar to members as the trek up the hill was the route from the Otley supermarket at the bottom. Laden down with food and panniers, bulging saddlebags for the weekend, the hill was extremely daunting, especially ‘the hump’ three parts of the way up, if you made it over the hump, you had conquered the hill, a mile was never so hard at the end of a sixty mile ride. The hill was also a kind of unofficial hill climb as there was always someone able to romp up the hill even at the end of the day.

The hill climb champs were often ridden by members with a heavy hangover, thoughts of climbing the hill were put at the back of the mind when enjoying a night at the pub, often after hours drinking allowed by an amiable landlord was responsible.

The clubhouse was perfectly placed for rides out to the Dales, Bolton Abbey, Rievaulx Abbey and Fountains Abbey, Selby and York, all popular destinations, Knaresborough being a favourite.

Notable rides to the clubhouse would be via the beautiful valley B roads along the river to Otley, Beamsley and Keighley, these roads on a late Easter weekend would be heralding the forthcoming summer with a fantastic show of Daffodils and Bluebells, wonderful.

Returns back to Bolton would often be via Bingley Moor and  Haworth. on a nice day, arduous but well worth the effort.

I look forward to the staging of a Tour Etape from Otley, I’m certain many of my grey cells will be stimulated as the cavalcade of colour makes it’s way over familiar terrain.

Before leaving this subject I must mention the fact that the Yorkshire Clarion clubhouse was often used as a meeting place for the National Clarion committee, often with the memorable National Secretary Marion Lamb in the chair, accompanied of course by husband Harold.

I could go on and on writing about the Menston clubhouse, Otley, and the Chevin pub, I have a head crammed with memories but no doubt ‘Le Tour’ will release many more. Cycling, why would you want to travel any other way?