The manufacture of official signs had been delayed a considerable time until 1888; the original shield emblem which dated from the formation of Cotterell's Bicycle Touring Club had not been superseded as the Club's badge by the daring `Winged wheel' until in 1886 and it presumably took a couple of years for the CTC to hit on the idea of charging hoteliers a hefty deposit for them. The cast-iron wheel nevertheless remained the property of the club - and so it remains to this day, although it might be a little difficult to enforce after all this time! Nothing is known today of the place of manufacture, but the badges were issued to be painted black with white wings and lettering.

In parallel with these appointments came the appearance of the CTC Handbook, an impressive volume in which hoteliers paid for inclusion. Appointments were also made for `Repairers', and this is now a very rare badge. Great emphasis was placed on the inclusion of temperance hotels, a burning social issue of the time. A sign remains on Sykes House, Askrigg, which was at one time a temperance hotel.

The History
of the
Winged Wheels

Other Signs

From the beginning of the Club in 1878 it was realised that certain dangerous roads and hills needed warning signs and local groups often posted their own until in 1883 the CTC took over the matter nationally. There are still a few of these, but they have not been as durable as the hotel signs. Erected in conjunction with the old NCU - partial forerunner of today's BCF, and then latterly alone, they were finally superseded by local authority road signs. At first, local authorities sought CTC help and, to this day, the CTC retains the same rights as the AA and RAC to erect signs.

After the heyday of the cast iron sign, several other versions have been used to indicate appointments. These are much less well documented. After the Great War, embossed copper square badges were used. These were followed by black-and-yellow enamel square signs and then similar round signs available through into the 1950s. There are still many of these in existence.

A summary

Tracing this aspect of CTC history seems a small thing. The twentieth century preoccupation with the motor car still obscures a full tribute and realisation of the role that the bicycle played in the development of modern society, paving the way for technical developments in many fields, and paving the way for the emancipation and levelling of modern society. The persistence of these signs marks a grand gesture in a particular transient point of history, and in that fleeting instant we can look back and marvel at the breadth of vision of the Club that placed them.

Keith Matthews was a member of the CTC Council and secretary of Wessex CTC at the time of writing this article which appeared in the CTC Club Magazine in June 1993. In compiling the listing of the signs and the research into their history, he acknowledges the help of the CTC archives and the responses of many interested club members and non-members around the country.