The History Of The Club And How It Was Formed

The Club was founded in July 1933 after a group of cyclists led by Herbert Dent and Dave Farmer went to a rally at Torksey and found that they had to be members of a club  in  order to enter the sports. They used the name Barton Wheelers for the weekend and held an inaugural meeting on their return to Barton.

Competitions  started in 1934 with riders taking part in time trials, track racing and endurance events. The ride to Meriden and back, a distance of over 200 miles, is the endurance event most frequently found in the club records. Photographs of club runs and events show that the club had a substantial membership of both sexes and it is known that there were 11 couples riding tandems in 1938.

The club prospered until the late 1950s when private motor transport gradually became more common and the club declined to such an extent that organised activities ceased in 1959. However, Mike Frow, who is still with the club today, looked after the trophies and bank account and continued to pay the National Cycling Union subscriptions.

In 1978 some of the previous members and new enthusiasts revived the club and held their first club run on 23rd. April. Time trialling and road racing followed later in the year. The club now has an average of 70 members each year and is involved in practically every aspect of cycling.

The majority of our club competitions involve time trials but we do have groups competing regularly in road races, cyclocross and mountain bike events. Between April and September we have club time trials every Thursday evening at distances from 5 to 25 miles. We also promote at least one open time trial each year and have promoted the National Juvenile 10-Mile Championship (1983), the National Junior 10-Mile Championship (1994) and the National Junior 25-Mile Championship (1999).

We ran our Carnival Road Race on the evening of the town carnival in July for 23 years up to 2001. The event brought cycling into the town centre and was popular with both riders and spectators. However, difficulties in policing the traditional course forced us to try alternatives for two years but both options proved to be to complex and dangerous to continue with the event.

Road racing still features in the Club promotions with three events on our Deepdale circuit. Two of these events are for veterans (40+ age group) who have their own organisation 'The League Of Veteran Racing Cyclists'. Their events are well supported with fields of 60 or more riders taking part. The third event is the Lincolnshire League road race run on a Wednesday evening under TLI rules.

Members preferring to ride longer distances at a more leisurely pace join in one of the Hull & East Riding CTC rides that cater for various abilities throughout the year. (Go to hullctc.org.uk).

The main social event in the winter is the Prize Presentation evening.