Over the past few years, increasing emphasis on fitness and green issues have helped give the bicycle a new lease of life. Today bikes are available in a wide range of styles and prices, but the first bicycles to be produced were extremely expensive and very difficult to ride.

The first bicycle designs

A Cardiff couple on a lady-front tandem. The man, a piano tuner, was blind.

Bikes called High Ordinaries, later known as Penny farthings were particularly uncomfortable and required the rider to have very long legs, in order to reach the pedals.

In the 1870s the new cycle owners formed exclusive clubs, had caps emblazoned with their badges and wore military-style cycling suits. Although women initially steered clear of bicycles many became enthusiastic tri-cyclists, choosing more stable three wheeled varieties and special clothing designed for safety and comfort. Pleated skirts allowed more freedom of movement and the more modest individuals often wore breeches beneath their skirts.

There was a bicycle boom in the 1890s. New models were appearing almost weekly and new factories making bicycles opened up all over the country. The development of the safety bicycle, with chain-driven wheels of equal size, meant cycling was no longer restricted to tall athletic men. As cycling became more common cyclists' dress became less strange and men stopped wearing their cycling suits and began simply to wear their everyday clothes.

Because women were initially riding men's bicycles for which skirts were totally unsuitable, the Rational Dress Society and many cycling clubs encouraged them to wearing of a form of knickerbockers known as 'rationals'. The 'rationals' were not flattering and made their wearers objects of public ridicule. This proved too much for most women and by the turn of the 20th century most women had stopped wearing them.

As mass production brought bicycle prices down, the working classes grasped the opportunity to own their own transport. Bicycles replaced the pony and trap for the country postman, helped policemen cover large areas and speeded up shop deliveries. There were even experiments with bicycle-driven fire engines.

Local ironmongers and suppliers of agricultural goods began to sell bikes and many local blacksmiths became experts at repairing them.

The evolution of the bicycle

The desire for speed had a great effect on bicycle design. As the wheels of the early bikes were directly driven by the pedals, the only way to increase the speed was to make the wheels bigger. There were some models produced with a wheel diameter of 62 inches which weighed approximately 50 pounds. Other efforts to increase speed by reducing the weight of the machines resulted in bicycles which were only 22 pounds, needless to say they were very unsafe.

Bicycle racing

Long distance road races, such as London to John O'Groats, captured public interest and helped increase the popularity of cycling. However, as speeds increased, accidents became more and more frequent and eventually the police put a stop to racing on public highways. Controlled racing over selected courses of 50 to 100 miles were then organised by the National Cyclists Union. Road races, like the Tour de France, did not really catch on here until the early 1950s. The first Tour of Britain race, which later became known as the Milk Race, took place in 1951.

Track racing, on the other hand, was one of the original sports of the 1st Olympiad in 1896. World Championships were held in track racing from 1892, although women's events were not introduced until 1958.

Bicycles in the Museums collections

The earliest bicycle in the museum's collection is called a 'boneshaker'. It dates from around 1865, has an iron frame, wooden wheels and iron tyres, and is said to be the first of its kind in Cardiff. The collection also includes a country-made wooden 'boneshaker' copied from the manufactured type and built by a local craftsman. As well as the boneshakers, the museum also has Raleigh bikes from the 1930s, World War II roadsters, a 1938 New Hudson tandem and a sociable tricycle produced in the 1880s.

Over a quarter of a million Welshmen enlisted to fight in the First World War. Among them was the poet Ellis Humphrey Evans of Trawsfynydd, better known under his bardic name of Hedd Wyn. He was dispatched for active service in 1917. Just a few months later he was dead - killed in battle on the fields of Flanders.

The Black Chair

Six weeks later he was posthumously awarded the chair at the National Eisteddfod at Birkenhead for his poem Yr Arwr (The Hero) which he had completed shortly before his death. The chair itself was draped in black during the chairing ceremony, and has since been known as the Y Gadair Ddu (The Black Chair). By the age of 28 he had won four Eisteddfod chairs for his poetry.

Witness account

Mr Simon Jones of Aberangell, Mid Wales, served in the same regiment as Hedd Wyn, and witnessed his falling on the field of battle. Hear or read his account, as recorded by St Fagans National Museum of History in 1975:

"It was the last day of July, you see. The first day of probably the biggest battle that ever took place. The battle of Passchendaele. And we were going over the top at half past four. We started over Canal Bank at Ypres, and he was killed half way across Pilckem (Ridge). I've heard many say that they were with Hedd Wyn and this and that, well I was with him as a boy from Llanuwchllyn and him from Trawsfynydd. I saw him fall and I can say that it was a nosecap shell in his stomach that killed him. You could tell that. You couldn't stay with him - you had to keep going, you see.

Simon Jones in the First World War

"I saw him fall and I can say that it was a nosecap shell in his stomach that killed him. You could tell that. You couldn't stay with him - you had to keep going, you see".

(Simon Jones, 1975).

 

Lost generation

Hedd Wyn was one of 32,000 soldiers to be killed in the attack on Pilckem Ridge. The devastated village of Passchendaele itself was not captured until 6 November, 98 days after the start of the battle. This slow advance over little more than five miles of ground was achieved with the loss of 310,000 Allied and 260,000 German lives.

The Black Chair remains a potent symbol of the devastating impact of the First World War on communities throughout Wales, and the unfulfilled potential of a whole generation of young Welsh men.

Bertie Stephens

Bertie Stephens, Carmarthenshire ballad singer (1900-1978)

Wandering singers, or balladeers were once an important source of storytelling and entertainment in Wales before the rise of the music hall and cinema.

'Y Baledwr Pen Ffair
'Rwy'n cofio ers dyddiau am hen gymeriadau
Yn canu baledi mewn marchnad a ffair,
Hwy ganent mor ddoniol, mewn gair mor gartrefol,
Nes twyllo o'r bobl eu harian a'u haur...'
Dafydd Jones ('Isfoel'), 1881-1968

'The Balladeer at the Fair
Oh, how I recall the old balladeers
Singing their stories with sadness or mirth,
From market to fair, they'd go a tramping,
Taking your money for all they were worth...'

The 19th century marked the golden age of ballad singers in Wales, when songs were composed and performed in fairs, markets and taverns. Of the several hundred archive recordings relating to folk song held at the National History Museum; St Fagans, many references are made by interviewees to these nomadic balladeers.

Bertie Stephens was one such interviewee. Born in Abergorlech, Carmarthenshire in 1900, he was influenced by the balladeers from an early age. In total he recorded an astonishing 80 or so songs for the Museum. With his amazing memory he often remembered in detail where and by who the particular songs were sung, most being performed at the local fairs he visited as a boy.

Stories told through song

Designed to entertain, ballads were sung in plain, uncomplicated language, and usually covered a specific occasion or experience. Daily newspapers were not yet generally available, and many of the older generation at the turn of the 20th century were illiterate, and dependent on balladeers for the latest news. The lyrics were, therefore, paramount, for each composition was primarily a story narrated through song.

Bertie Stephens began visiting fairs at five or six years old, and most of the songs he heard were sung by tramps, who often used their hats to collect money from spectators. Their ballads created such an impression on the youngster that he memorised them instantly.

Hen Feible Annwyl Mam

Bertie Stephens vividly recalled his childhood songs when interviewed by the Museum. Religious pieces were his favourites: he considered them more substantial than comic ditties. Songs like Beibl Mam (Mother's Bible) could take hold of a performer, and he stressed how placing one's whole personality into a piece was essential.

Another Bible-linked song, Hen Feibl Mawr y Teulu, (The Great Old Family Bible) he heard during a trip to Mumbles, from a shabbily dressed man with a collecting cap, carrying a Bible under his arm. Coming from a religious family, Bertie Stephens felt saddened that the singer used the Bible to raise money for beer.

Balladeers often had dubious reputations, and the police were known to arrest scruffily attired, drunken tramps, for disturbing the peace. Bertie Stephens told how his family gave food and shelter one evening to two of these tramps, who in return taught him C'ân yr Asyn (Song of the Donkey). Bertie's father soon discovered that they had stolen some of his newly shorn wool.

His son's rendition to the police of C'ân yr Asyn enabled them to catch the villains near Carmarthen, on account of their singing the same ballad in that area.

New forms of entertainment

With the rise of industry and the creation of cinemas and music halls, wandering balladeers gradually lost their appeal. By the early 20th century they had virtually disappeared.

Fortunately, as these old customs disappeared, there began an interest in collecting melodies and related information. The Welsh Folk Song Society was formed in 1908. There is no doubting the value of ballads as important social comments and our knowledge of these historical customs is due to individuals like Bertie Stephens.

Background Reading

Ballads in Wales / Baledi yng Nghymru by Mary-Ann Constantine. Published by FLS Books (1999).

I Fyd y Faled by Dafydd Owen. Published by Gwasg Gee, (1986).