Anyone from Brighton?

[Hilldodger]

Just wondered if your local paper has a history suppliment or regular page?

If so, is there a contact name?

I want to find about a little more about Tessie Reynolds, the 16 year old girl who caused outrage in September 1893 by cycling from Brighton to Hyde Park and back in 8 hours. On a mans bike, too

 

[rich p]

I've looked in the websites of The Evening Argus which is the current local paper but nothing there as far as I can see. Two now defunct papers from the town are the Gazette and the Herald which may or may not have archives but since they went under some years ago it's doubtful.

 

[Dayvo]

HD! I found this! There's a short mention of said girl. All you need is a knowledge of French (or a mate who can)!

https://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/cws/article/viewFile/6616/5804

And this, with a picture!

http://www.cyclonordsud.org/voir.php?id=17

 

[Hilldodger]

Hi Dayvo,

Thanks for finding the links. I do have a lot of info about the ride Tessie did and the controversy she caused. She was featured in 'The Lady' magazine but was photographed sitting on a ladies bike because they thought it too scandalous to print the picture in the lin of her astride a mans machine!

What I'd like to find out is a little bit about the girl herself - she was obviously quite fit and a competent cyclist - and also what the people of Brighton thought of her ride.

Guess I'll just have to visit the local records office.

 

[dellzeqq]

yebbut, nobbut, she was accompagnée de quelques compagnons masculins

touch of the Paula Radcliffe world records, methinks. Beryl Burton never needed male pacemakers!

Roger - do you ever go down to CTC World HQ in Railton Road to look at the old mags?

 

[Hilldodger]

yebbut, nobbut, she was accompagnée de quelques compagnons masculins

touch of the Paula Radcliffe world records, methinks. Beryl Burton never needed male pacemakers!

Roger - do you ever go down to CTC World HQ in Railton Road to look at the old mags?

But Beryl Burton wasn't a cycling pioneer riding on unmetalled roads and open to much verbal abuse. Also, she was only 16!

Yes I do go to the CTC - I'm their new archivist....

 

[johnoc]

I can add a little on the subject of Tessie REynolds. She was my Great aunt, one of eleven children of my great grand parents. As a child my mother taught me to recite the eleven names and though my grandmother, Edith and my auntie Alice were the only ones surviving in the fifties when I was born, they have collective become part of the family legend. The eleven were:
Tessie, Ada, Bobby, May, Eddie, Edie (Edith), Alice, Charlie, Willie, Jimmy, Joey. Their father, my great grandfather, I believe owned a cycle shop in Brighton. Charlie was also an interesting figure (not that the others weren't). He lived in Belgium during WW2 and ran a hotel, "Anglo-Belgique" which for a while provided an escape route from the Nazis. He was caught and died in captivity but not before exxchanging some very moving letters with his Belgian wife.
John O'Connor, Cheltenham

 

[Aperitif]

Amazing! Welcome to the forum johnoc.

 

[Paulus]

Not bad for a first post. Bravo.

 

[Arch]

I can add a little on the subject of Tessie REynolds. She was my Great aunt, one of eleven children of my great grand parents. As a child my mother taught me to recite the eleven names and though my grandmother, Edith and my auntie Alice were the only ones surviving in the fifties when I was born, they have collective become part of the family legend. The eleven were:
Tessie, Ada, Bobby, May, Eddie, Edie (Edith), Alice, Charlie, Willie, Jimmy, Joey. Their father, my great grandfather, I believe owned a cycle shop in Brighton. Charlie was also an interesting figure (not that the others weren't). He lived in Belgium during WW2 and ran a hotel, "Anglo-Belgique" which for a while provided an escape route from the Nazis. He was caught and died in captivity but not before exxchanging some very moving letters with his Belgian wife.
John O'Connor, Cheltenham

Wow, excellent! You're onto something here Hilldodger! If her father owned a cycle shop, it'll probably be in trade directories of the era... (but you know that, you're A Historian...)

It's possible/likely that the defunct papers will have back issues at the local records office too.

You need a nice trip to the seaside. Get RichP to show you round, just buy him a bag of crisps or something as a thankyou...

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Adam Trimingham aka the sage of sussex, retired ex-argus reporter, does a bit of freelance. If anyone knows he would. and he was a dead keen cyclist iirc. someone on the argus will have his contact details.

trivia; his daughter Carina is shagging Chris Huhne our energy minister.

 

[Aperitif]

Same age 'bracket' as us...does he look as though he's...oh never mind.

 

[dellzeqq]

Chris Huhne is Tony Blackburn and ICMFP. As for you johnoc - a stunning debut. You've set yourself a very high standard.

 

[Paulus]

Chris Huhne is Tony Blackburn and ICMFP. As for you johnoc - a stunning debut. You've set yourself a very high standard.

Or, Chris Huhne is Philip Schofield??

 

[johnoc]

Have asked my folks for more details about Great Aunt Tessie. My mother, who said Tessie Reynolds was her godmother as well as her aunt, confirmed that Tessie Reynolds father did indeed own a cycle shop at 25 Bristol Road, Brighton. He had previously been in the army and then a PE instructor to the Brighton Police. He apparantly encouraged sporting activities in all his eleven children of whom Tessie was the oldest. He taught them fencing and boxing as well as encouraging their cycling. Later, Tessie married and moved to Barnett where she was a road safety Officer. She outlived three children and died, I think sometime in the early 1950s.