A Town on Two Wheels - Cycling in Ilkeston 1880-1900, by Jeff Wynch

A Town on Two Wheels - Cycling in Ilkeston 1880-1900, by Jeff Wynch

Published by the Ilkeston and District Local History Society, 259 pages. Paperback (N7952)

Ilkeston is a small town situated on the banks of the River Erewash in Derbyshire, and it lies a couple of miles from the very western edge of the city of Nottingham, and this book tells the history of cycling in the town in the least years of the 19th century.

From the rear side cover: At the start of the period covered by this book cycling was a pastime and sport for well-off young men with a taste for speed, and bicycle clubs were a focal point of male social life. It remained a minority pursuit just as long as bicycles were both expensive and dangerous to ride. The development of the modern bicycle, known as rhe'safety, to distinguish it from the more dangerous penny-farthing, and the availability of cheaper mass-produced machines, made cycling more accessible by the mid 1890s. Cycle racing grew to be a mass spectator sport and cycling for leisure was extended to men and women of all social classes. The new personal mobility provided by the bicycle affected everything from work and leisure to courtship and women's emancipation. The bicycle was suddenly the fastest form of transport (other than the railways) and life on the roads and streets would never be the same again. In this book the author describes how this cycling revolution played out in Ilkeston, a small industrial town in the East Midlands

The condition of the book is generally very good. The covers are clean and bright, the spine is intact, and all pages are clean, intact, unblemished and tightly bound.