MANY modern-day cyclists are criticised for riding without lights, jumping red traffic lights and pedalling on pavements.

And it seems cyclists of yesteryear were little better, with complaints of similar erratic behaviour.

Memory Lane reader Peter Bowell, of Deanfield Road, Dean Court, Oxford, has been looking through Jackson’s Oxford Journal and has found interesting snippets of cycling misdeeds in Oxford 100 years or more ago.

He writes: “What they appear to show is that human nature is little changed and many issues raised then would doubtless be familiar to today’s readers.”

A ‘country parson’ wrote a letter in 1900 asking if anything could be done to protect pedestrians from cyclists in the city, particularly at Carfax.

He wrote: “Yesterday, I was hurrying across the High to catch a tram, near the old shop of Slatter and Rose, when suddenly a lady cyclist sailed round the corner of Carfax from Cornmarket Street, and without any sound of bell-warning, charged down upon me, to the bruising of my ribs and giving no little shock to my nervous system.

“I caught the tram, leaving a shattered eyeglass at the feet of my assailant. My journey home, some 25 miles distant, was accomplished with much pain and discomfort.

“The day happened to be the very date of my coming to BNC (Brasenose College) as an undergraduate, 46 years ago.

“Happy times those when there were no such perils in the way! Not that I would denounce cycling – it is one of the most marvellous and most useful of the inventions of the age.

“But, perhaps, your clever and entertaining correspondent, ‘Miss Barbara’, might kindly and beneficially suggest to her sister cyclists a happier form of recreation than battering the ‘Corpus Vile’ of such as, yours, a country parson.”

In 1895, the paper reported complaints about the speed of cyclists through the city streets.

“One or two incidents have occurred of persons being knocked down, and this in broad daylight.

“A ‘gentleman’ rider this week collided violently with a lady in Cornmarket Street, and had the manliness and good taste to make off without making any enquiry as to what injury he might have caused.

“Fortunately nothing serious resulted and in this case, as in a similar running down which occurred in Broad Street this week, the rider gave no indication of his approach by ringing his bell – in fact it is stated that he was minus that article of his equipment.

“That there is a great deal too rapid cycling through the streets of this city cannot be denied.”

Not all cyclists were irresponsible, however – one woman without a lamp borrowed one to make sure she got home safely.

She told the paper: “I cycled to Bartlemas Farm with friends who had prudently provided themselves with lamps, whereas I was worse than the foolish virgins in the parable. It was not the oil I lacked. I had no lamp.

“It was quite dark as we re-entered the city, and I was prepared to walk my bicycle home, when one of my companions suggested I should borrow a lamp from a bicycle shop near. I went into the shop, which turned out not to be a bicycle shop, as she had imagined, but a general store.

“The salesman, on learning my predicament, fetched me his own lamp, saying he would not want it until Thursday afternoon and without asking my name, put the lamp on my cycle and let me ride away.

“I took the lamp back next morning and offered to pay him for so kindly helping me in my need, but the owner politely declined to receive any remuneration.

“I refrain from mentioning the name of the stores, as I am afraid if I made it known, every damsel in Oxford would rush off and borrow that cycle lamp, which would be too much of a good thing.”

pMore cycling stories of yesteryear next week