Hastings & St Leonards Cycling Club

The Hastings and St Leonards Cycling Club was formed on 12th October 1876 at the Swan Hotel, Hastings, and is one of the oldest UK cycling clubs in continuous existence, (third after the Pickwick Bicycle Club and the Peterborough Cycling Club).

Our Collection

The core collection of cycling material was collected over 70 years by Esther and Maurice Carpenter and includes their own items from when they started cycling in the early 1950s, as well as material they saved or had been given by older members of the club. There is a huge quantity which was not organised but “stored” in various suitcases, boxes, envelopes as well as random pieces of paper, and occasionally photos. Over the last 18 months we have started sorting, cataloguing; digitising and then publishing this material into our web archive at hastingscc.org.uk.

The web site currently has over 500 photographs and 2500 documents, from single pages and notebooks to the club histories written in 1956 and 1976. It includes club newsletters from the 1890s and various documents and photographs of George Jenkins competing at the 1929 Cycling World Championship in Switzerland. There are also club minutes, medals, certificates, trophies, clothing, and other ephemera belonging to club members. There are currently details of over 600 club members.

The archive also includes material for the Hastings Warriors and Spartan CRC , who co-existed with the Hastings & St Leonards CC during the 1950s – many members of these clubs were members of the Hastings as well. The club and its members were also involved in the formation of the East Sussex Cycling Association, and Fellowship of Kent and Sussex Cyclist, and this material will form part of the digital archive.