Clarion call for members old and new of Pendle's Clarion Clubs

Clarion Cycling Clubs, Clarion Ramblers and Clarion Choirs will be meeting at Clarion House on Jinny Lane, Newchurch-in-Pendle, this Sunday from 11am to 3pm.

Andrew Livesey, from London Clarion Cycling Club, who was Captain of Burnley Clarion Cycling Club in the 1960s, said he would love to meet old members, and those from other Clarion Cycling Clubs.

He said: “I’d like to take photographs of riders and their bikes for a new book that I am working on.

“There will be songs from The Clarion Choir and we will be joined by the Clarion Ramblers.

“This is the biggest yearly Clarion Meeting, and we would like to make it the biggest ever this year. The Clarion Cycling Club is the longest continuously running cycling club, and is 127 years old this year.”

The Clarion House in Pendle was built in 1912 for the Nelson Independent Labour Party. Clarion houses provided a place in the countryside for people to enjoy fresh air and comradeship, a tradition that continues to this day in Pendle.

The club was formed in 1895 as part of the socialist movement, taking its name from Robert Blatchford’s socialist newspaper.

In the days before the working class could afford cars, bikes offered freedom and fellowship, and in the 1900s the club thrived with over 8,000 members.

For over 125 years, cyclists from Clarion cycling clubs across the North of England converged on Hardcastle Crags, near Hebden Bridge, to listen to speeches by leading Socialists.