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Cycling Profile Road Book Of England (1919)
Cycling 7cm x 14cm 142pp
A pocket book providing distances, altitude profiles and notes
on road surfaces, covering journeys between the principal destinations
of the Kingdom
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It is almost impossible to imagine what it must have been like to cycling
around England in the years immediately after the first world war. But
within this tiny books' covers are a few clues as to what one might have
found setting off awheel in the year of its publication.
Each page shows a profile strip of the route in question - travelling,
or course by the main road. To judge by contemporaneous records - like
the Pennels - Sunday cycle travellers were quite a common site all over
the country. How many were actually venturing around the country as this
guide sets out is hard to know. They must have been pretty hardy. 'Road
surface is rough', is a common observation.
Before road signs, before many decent maps, before mileometers on bikes,
a guide such as this was vital - particularly if you are relying on your
own strength and stamina to travel from place to place. I would like to
think that my battered and much repaired edition accompanied many epic
explorations of our roads. The routes that it describes would be all but
impossible to find today. Many will be beneath motorways and duel carriageways.
One or two will have been downgraded and forgotten.
If it makes me think one thing, it is this. Why shouldn't we travel
from place to place by decent, direct routes? I love tiny, winding back
routes - but too often they take you miles out of your way. Perhaps we
should nominate a day a year when we reclaim a trunk route for 12 hours.
We could change route from year to year, and give other road users plenty
of notice. Then we could experience the A5, the A1 and the A4 (designations
that post-date this volume) at a speed where they can really be appreciated.
PS June 09
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