Clarion Club Gets Back On Its Bike

Family Cycling Tours, Newspapers And Much More At The Working Class Movement Library

Published on January 9th.

A NEW exhibition opens tomorrow at the splendid and curious Working Class Movement Library, telling the story of how a newspaper came to inspire a way of life.

People can enjoy guided family cycle rides from Bolton and Stockport, both arriving at the People's History Museum, where the Clarion Cycling Club will also arrive on their penny farthings and vintage cycles.

Little did Robert Blatchford know when he started the socialist newspaper The Clarion in the 1890s that it would inspire its readers to set up a whole range of activities for working people, from Clarion cycling and rambling clubs to choirs and bands.

The Library's Clarion exhibition brings together materials produced by ‘Clarionettes' for their fellows, including books, sports trophies and memorabilia, newspapers, and programmes for musical events. Here visitors can browse the Bolton Clarion Scrapbook, dating from 1898, turning the pages with an electronic flipbook alongside the fragile original book.

You can also sit on one of the original chairs from Market Street's Clarion Café - shown on the right of the main picture at the top of the page. (I wish this still existed. We need a good left-field debating space. Ed).

Events taking place alongside the exhibition include talks, and a concert by Bolton Clarion Choir – see www.wcml.org.uk/clarion for details. And on Sunday 26 February join in a special cycling event.

People can enjoy guided family cycle rides from Bolton and Stockport, both arriving at the People's History Museum, where the Clarion Cycling Club will also arrive on their penny farthings and vintage cycles.

Take the opportunity to speak to riders and see their cycles up close, and explore the museum displays of Clarion material. Then at noon join a guided family ride with the Clarion cyclists to the Working Class Movement Library where cyclists will be treated to a Clarion tea!

This exhibition is presented as part of the 2012 Manchester Histories Festival, and is open Wednesdays to Fridays 1pm to 5pm until 30 March. (Jonathan Schofield, the Confidential editor, is also running tours during the festival www.jonathanschofield.com).

Working Class Movement Library, 51 The Crescent, Salford M5 4WX. 0161 736 3601 www.wcml.org.uk

Working Class Movement Library