The Centenary Club
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Getting together, sharing stories and making memories on the bicycle
ABOUT US
The club was founded in 1939 by executives of the bicycle industry.
It is generally agreed that a Scotsman, Kirkpatrick Macmillan, invented the bicycle in 1839 at his smithy at Courthill, Dumfriesshire. He produced a pedal-operated machine with wooden frame, wooden wheels shod with iron tyres and, the important development, wooden treadles driving cranks on the rear wheel through connecting rods.
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To celebrate the centenary of this achievement that noted midland cyclist, Francis John Urry (Frank to almost everyone), long-time member of the Cycling Tourist Club, member of the Midland Cycling and Athletic Club and the cyclist's representative on the Transport Advisory Council, conceived the idea of a centenary celebratory weekend cycle tour by leading members of the cycle industry.
WHAT WE DO
WEEKEND CYCLING
We meet twice a year in Autumn and Spring. The weekends usually run from Friday evening to Sunday lunchtime. Saturday is an all-day ride of 25 to 30 miles planned by the Secretary, with a suitable stop for lunch somewhere en route. Sunday morning is devoted to a 10 mile or so circular tour.
ANNUAL DINNER
The Club holds its annual dinner in November when the toast of the evening, usually proposed by a visiting celebrity, is: “The Bicycle, Its Makers and Riders.” A silver statuette of Frank Urry, who died in 1956, always graces the top table.
MEMBERSHIP
The club presently has around 60 members. And while membership had been, to a large extent, restricted to company executives involved in manufacturing, in more recent years the rules have been relaxed a little to open the doors to senior managers who might claim to be “associated with” the cycle industry. It is though, above all, the cycle club for those who enjoy the mental as well as physical experience of being with other grandees of the industry in a congenial environment.