The Clarion Cycling Club was founded in February 1894 by six young cyclists who were members of the Bond Street Labour Church in Birmingham. Their aim was to ‘combine the pleasures of cycling with the propaganda of Socialism’. The next twelve months saw similar Cycling Clubs being formed by readers of The Clarion newspaper in many other industrial towns. The first Easter Meet of Clarion Cycling Clubs held in Ashbourne (1895) led to the formation of the National Clarion Cycling Club. The object was to be ‘the association of the various Clarion Cycling Clubs for the purpose of Socialist propaganda and for promoting inter-club runs between the clubs of different towns’.

National Clarion Cycling Club 1895 (North Lancs Union), formed in 2006, is an offshoot from the present day Clarion Cycling Club:

It is a Club which remains committed to the Socialist Principles of the founders of the first Clarion Cycling Clubs.

A Club whose members are keen to share their love of cycling and of ‘boundarising’ with every stranger they meet. ‘Meet a stranger ~ make a friend’ is the Club’s guiding philosophy. 

The Club is also proud to be seen on the streets with our brothers and sisters in the Trade Union and Labour Movement campaigning for a New Society with Justice as its Foundation and Love as its Law.
The Club issues ‘The Clarion’, a thrice yearly newsletter, free to members, one penny plus postage to none members.

Membership is £2 per annum.