BSA Ladies' Bicycle

Description:Tight controls on cycling were imposed by Birmingham’s Parks Committee from the earliest days of the activity. In the 1870s, before the invention of the ‘safety bicycle’ opened up cycling to women, children, and older people, bicycles were completely prohibited from the carriage drives in Birmingham’s parks.^{<small>1</small>} By 1885, people were allowed to ride bicycles through the parks, but only before 9am, and only in one direction. Tricycles were permitted during park opening hours, but any racing was forbidden, and cyclists ‘riding recklessly’ or disregarding regulations would be warned by the park keeper and removed from the park if the offence was repeated.^{<small>2</small>} There are repeated references to ‘fast and careless’ cycling, and in 1898 it was decided to reverse a decision made the previous year to allow cycling in Cannon Hill, Victoria, Aston and Summerfield parks up to 1pm on Sundays, when the parks were most popular, and to restrict cycling times to before 10am because of the perceived danger to the public.^{<small>3</small>} The Birmingham Cycle Parade Committee were, however, allowed to use Cannon Hill Park to assemble the cyclists taking part in the event in September 1896.^{<small>4</small>}

Evidence from the Parks Committee minutes suggests that it was actually quite difficult to ride bicycles freely in the parks and recreation grounds. Prosecutions for cycling outside the set times or in ways the park keepers or parks police thought were ‘dangerous’ were common throughout the period from 1880 to 1960, with offences mainly committed by boys and young men, but also by some girls after the Second World War. By the late 1920s cyclists were annoyed that cars were allowed to drive through the parks during opening hours when cycling was prohibited. The Parks Committee refused to consider a request in 1930 from the Cyclists Touring Club to prevent cars from entering the parks after 10am,^{<small>5</small>} but reversed this decision after receiving a letter from a resident living near Cannon Hill Park, and hearing from the park keeper that some car drivers were putting park visitors in danger at weekends ‘going round continuously and not always with the same people in the car... it is clearly a matter of joy riding... many of the car drivers are continually sounding their motor horns for the pedestrians to get out of the way’. The Committee explained that it had originally allowed cars to enter the parks so that people with mobility problems could enjoy the park environment.^{<small>6</small>}

In 1940, the still fairly strict rules about cycling were relaxed to allow members of the Local Defence Volunteers, later the Home Guard, to ride bicycles through the parks in emergencies.^{<small>7</small>} After the war, there is evidence that the authorities considered allowing new types of cycling activity. In 1950, the Parks Committee asked London County Council for advice about setting up cycle speedway tracks, though none of the proposed sites were in the south west of the city.^{<small>8</small>}


<font color="#666633"><small>¹ BCC Parks Committee Minutes, 6 December 1876 [BA&H: BCC AL/1/1/6]
² BCC Parks Committee Minutes, 16 February 1885 [BA&H: BCC AL/1/1/7]
³ BCC Parks Committee Minutes, 27 June 1898 [BA&H: BCC AL/1/1/11]
⁴ BCC Parks Committee Minutes, 22 July 1896 [BA&H: BCC AL 1/1/10]
⁵ BCC Parks Committee Minutes, 6 January 1930 [BA&H: BCC 1 BO/1/1/12]
⁶ BCC Parks Committee Minutes, 2 June 1930 [BA&H: BCC 1 BO/1/1/12]
⁷ BCC Parks Committee Minutes, 3 June 1940 [BA&H: BCC 1 BO/1/1/21]
⁸ BCC Parks Committee Minutes, 6 November 1950 [BA&H: BCC 1 BO/1/1/27]</small></font>