My Bike
At about the age of ten, I was given a bicycle as a Christmas present; it was nothing special; just a "Hercules", with a blue frame. It had a single gear (in other words, none), the usual handlbars with a bell at the front end, and a saddle with a dinky little saddle bag, at the back.
Underneath the cross-bar was hung a bicycle pump, which could be used for sucking up water from any easily available source and squirting this all over an unsuspecting friend - it could also be used for pumping up bicycle tyres.
One of the essential modifications that I carried out, as soon as I could, along with my friends, was the addition to the back wheel of a piece of card (I think it was the front of a cigarette packet). which I attached somehow, and somewhere, to the frame but leaning against the wheel spokes so that, as the wheel went around it, the card hit each spole and made a sound just like motorbike ..... or we thought. I don't believe, for one moment, that it did but we all agreed that it did and that was the important bit.
That was the choice back then - you could get 5-gear bicycles and a few other refinements, like panniers, but nothing like today.
I keep thinking of buying myself a bicycle, something I haven't had since the 1950s, but the choice I get, for a modern Raleigh, for instance, baffles me.
For a start, do I want a Mountian Bike, a Comfort, Cruiser, Fitness, Shopper, Electric, Racing, Touring, Jump, Trials, Tandem, Folding or a BMX bike? No, none of those, I just want a bike!
If I chose one of the above, I could, then, have, not just single gear but - "18SPD Gears with grip shift Shimano Leavers" or "21speed Shimano with EZ Fire Shifters" or "Single speed with FSA Alpha Drive cranks with 36T chainring" or, wait for it, "18speed Shimano Tiagra front and rear derailleurs with Tiagra STI levers. FSA C400SS 46t/36t and Tiagra 12/25T cassette"
And then there's the frames - "AL6061 Triple Butted, AIRLite U6 Alloy Triple-Butted main-tube cyclo cross frame", "AIRLite aluminium frame with hydroformed tubeset" or "Alloy hydroformed frame with CNC gussets".
I believe (but don't quote me on this) you can, also, get a choice of prawn, sweet and sour, ready salted, pistachio, walnut or cheese and onion flavours.
Then, there's the safety helmet - I look comical in any form of hat so that's something that will need serious consideration.
Oh, and then there are knee pads - It's a whole new world ---- and I just want a bike!
Anyway, my bike was painted a beautiful blue - as an aside, it took me another 50-odd years to realise that blue was, and always had been, my favourite colour - I'd always said it was green, please don't ask me why - I have no idea.
I loved that bike because it gave me freedom to go where I wanted, when I wanted. I forgot to say, earlier, that it had a small saddle bag just big enough to put a puncture repair kit in, with a few small bicycle spanners, but not big enough for sandwiches and a bottle of "pop", which was a distinct disadvantage!
For those who have no idea of the area around Ironbridge, what follows next will be pretty meaningless but those who do may well be impressed! Then again, perhaps they won't!
One of the things I loved to do was to ride from our house along the Wharfage, in Ironbridge, up through the town, down "Waterloo Street", over the "Free Bridge", and up the hill to Broseley, by the hospital. A lot of that was, actually, walking, pushing the bike, because of the steepness of the road that ran from the river up the hill to the junction of the road going into Broseley and the road that continued on to Bridgnorth. Having got there, I'd turn aropund, climb on board and push the bike off without peddling. The aim was to freewheel, past the old cottage hospital on the left, at the top of the hill, to my home. The rules were simple, and there was only one - I must not use the pedals until I reached home, along the Wharfage. It could be done; I did it on most occasions but it was dependent on the traffic, of which, luckily, in those days, there wasn't much around!
Having cast myself off, I sailed down the hill, past the Church of St Mary, in Jackfield, which was more commonly known as the "Red Church" because of the colour of its brickwork. In fact, I only ever knew it under that nickname, which much more fitted the ghostly stories of coffins opening and spirits rising from the ground to roam the area at night! I, always, thought it was in Broseley, because Jackfield was at the bottom of the hill, by the side of the river, but, years later, I read that I had been wrong. Just a small aside as it really dioesn't matter!
I carried on, past a bungalow, built up on the top of the bank on the right-hand side; a bungalow that I was always told had electrically operated doors that opened as you approached them and closed as you went through; it was my best friend who told me that and he never lied to me - or so he said and I belive him - the liar.
Further down the hill, the road split into two, and I had a choice to make; take the left hand one and the hairpin bend, through the edge of "Ladywood" and down to the Free Bridge or the other way, down past some bungalows (with normal doors!), and over the railway crossing. If I took the former, should a car or a bus be coming up from the Free Bridge, I might have had to slow down at that very tight u-bend, and, in doing so, lose precious speed, but if I took the latter, the roads were bendy and there was always the possibility of the railway crossing being closed. I, usually, took the "Ladywood" road because the closed crossing would be the end of the attempt and it was more fun with that element of risk! How daring can you get?
Having made it to "Ladywood" and around the hairpin bend without having to slow down too much, I reached the bridge where there was my next problem. The bridge wasn't terribly wide, and while I was only on a bike, for safety reasons, I, generally, slowed down if buses or lorries were coming the other way as it was, really, only suitable for single line traffic and they didn't leave much room.
Cars, buses, and lorries always used to wait for the bridge to be clear before moving onto it but I, obviously, couldn't do that, not if I were to complete the challenge I'd set myself.
However, with the bridge safely negotiated, I free-wheeled along "Waterloo Street", toward Ironbridge and the penultimate hurdle.
The problem was that the road climbed up, quite steeply, for a short distance, as it approached the old "Central" cinema. This was located on the left, just before Waterloo Street met the road coming down the hill, from Madeley.
At this junction, on the left, was the Police Station (still in use, then, by our one and only policeman) and on the right, Wooley's clothes shop.
Holding my breath, and not daring to touch the pedals, it was a question of whether I could get the bike to continue to the top of this short incline or feel it running out of steam? Again, I usually managed it, though, on the odd occasion, I didn't quite and a few kicks on the pedal had to be employed to get me to the top. This was very disappointing but there was always tomorrow!
Having succeeded to get past the cinema, there was one final problem – just a short distance ahead, at the junction - the worry of whether there would be any traffic coming down Madeley Bank? In those days, by law, you had to stop at junctions to check for oncoming traffic. you couldn't slow down and continue over the line if the road were clear, as you can today - you had to stop, by law, and our one policeman was hot on that. I suspect that it was because he didn't have much else to do.
Just once, on one occasion, I didn't stop at the junction when attempting this heroic deed (worthy of Jason and any Argonaut - at least, I thought so then) of freewheeling from Broseley to home and, on that one occasion (thankfully only one), I was stopped by the only policeman we had, who fate had planted right on the corner, at the bottom of Madeley Bank, just out of my sight, and looking my way. Thanks, Fate.
I gave a quick glance, it was clear of traffic, os off I went. He shouted after me to stop, which I did and he told me off. I thought that was the end of it but, a few days later, he called in to see my mother and told her what an evil person I was so she, also, gave me a ticking off.
At every other time I didn't meet this policeman, so, having got over the junction, and this last major problem, I was faced with nothing more than the traffic situation through Ironbridge itself, and down Tontine Bank, and along the Wharfage. This was never too much of a problem as traffic, in those days was nothing like today. To give some idea of the road "congection", the number of motorists, on the road, in 1959, was three and a quarter million cars. Compare this with the over thirty million there are today on the roads.
The road by the Square was only busy when we had two "Midland Red" buses turn up at the same time and, then, perhaps, a couple of cars. This was what we knew as a traffic jam – hardly, however, gridlock!
Once past the Square, it was, then, easy - freewheel past the Tontine Hotel, Pryce's the butcher's, Bellamy's the greengrocer's, Tufnell's the sweetshop, the M.E.B. shop, Cox's the grocer's, Mason's the paper shop, which was on the corner, at the bottom of Tontine Hill, and the beginning of "The Wharfage", then past the the Co-op, and on to our house, about 100 yards further on the flat.
Those were the days when kids had real challenges - or is that, just, nostalgia?!
