Shakespokes : Stratford Cycling

UPDATE : In December 2009 Shakespokes became a formal club, affiliated to the Cyclists Touring Club.  See under About us on the main menu

Lobbying for the best interests of Stratford cyclists can be traced back to 1980 when a local Friends of the Earth was set up. At that time the promotion of cycling was one of FoE’s national campaigns and Stratford’s local group set to work to show what could be done in Stratford to push the cause along.

There were one or two little successes – the provision of a cycle facility along the line of the Northern Bypass, for example, and the initiation of the campaign which led to the building of The Greenway.  FoE also organised some ‘fun’ cycle rides to point up the sheer pleasure of getting around on two unmotorised wheels; this included an annual sponsored cycle ride of thirty miles or so which took place throughout the ‘80s, on occasion attracting up to eighty riders.

But by the early 1990s, FoE nationally was beginning to concentrate its efforts on broader issues, and cycling as a specific issue dropped off both the national and the local group’s agendas.

So in February 1992, a determined body of Stratford cycle users, with the help of the Cyclists Touring Club (CTC), got together to set up a new group, launched at a meeting at the Town Hall. Following Stratford’s one and only ‘critical mass’ cycle ride, in September 1993, the group got more serious and rechristened itself the Stratford Cycle Campaign, combining business meetings to lobby for improved conditions, with weekend and evening rides. Each year, from 1994, it also sought to stress the fun side of cycling by organising events in the town to mark the annual celebration of National Bike Week. On a more serious note, in 1995, it published Cycling in Stratford-upon-Avon: some proposals to improve conditions for cyclists and thereafter was regularly consulted by both the District and County Councils on planning issues affecting the interests of cyclists. In the summer of 1996, the group adopted the name Shakespokes.

By 2000 central government had at last come to accept that cycling had a role to play in modern transport systems and in 2001 this led to the setting up by Warwickshire County Council of the Stratford Cycle Forum. Several Shakespokes members serve on the forum, giving them the opportunity to comment and contribute pro-actively on the development of cycling provision in the town.

There has been significant progress in the provision of cycle facilities in recent years - and Shakespokes has never wavered in its other main objective: the promotion of organised rides as a means of getting people out on their bikes to enjoy a day in the country.