To read the previous parts of this series click on the relevant links below
Introduction.
In 1875 the six-day concept was introduced as a standard in long-distance pedestrianism in the USA while an equestrian race between Paris and Vienna was ridden with bicycles. The aim of the competition was to compare the velocity-related abilities between horses and bicycles, while it was used at the same time as a propaganda tool to show the speed and reliability of the ordinary bicycle.[1][2]
In October 1875 John Stanton took the race to the enclosed circuit of the Lillie Bridge Grounds in West Brompton and successfully rode the six-hundred-and-fifty-mile distance between the two capitals in seven consecutive days.[3]
In the fifth part we will discuss the arrival of six-day pedestrian races in 1876 in the UK, and the implementation and the final amalgamation of the six-day concept with the six-hundred-and-fifty-mile distance in the first six-day bicycle races.
Poster of the six-day walk of Edward Payson Weston in the Agricultural Hall at Islington, London.[4]
After its sudden emergence in the Northeastern United States two years before, in 1876 the six-day pedestrian mania spread across Britain. After his defeat in ‘The Great Walking Match’, a six-day race in Chicago against the Irish immigrant Daniel O’Leary, the American walkist Edward Payson Weston traveled to the UK with his family in December 1875. The American newspaper The Northern Tribune ironically wrote that “Weston has gone to Europe in a very unprofessional manner. He should have walked”.[5]
In February he took part in several long-distance walks in preparation for his first six-day race. Short after midnight on Monday, March 6, Weston started a five hundred mile walk in the Agricultural Hall in Islington (London) against two English long-distance pedestrians who had served in the military. James Martin, of Maidstone, was a fifty-two year old man and the fifty-mile world record holder. He had served in the 28th Middlesex (London Irish) Riffle Volunteer Corps during the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny in the eighteen fifties. The other one, Alexander Taylor, was a thirty-two year old former soldier of the 24th Regiment (probably the 24th Regiment of Foot or South Wales Borderers).[6] On the second day during the afternoon, both men were ordered to leave the track by the judges for medical reasons, and Martin was replaced by W. Newman.[7] In the attendance of fourteen thousand loudly cheering spectators Weston ceased his walk on Saturday night after a total distance of four hundred and fifty miles.[8]
Three months later, after several gigs in Manchester, Birmingham, London, Brighton and Nottingham, Weston made a second attempt at the Royal Patent Gymnasium in the current King George V Park, Edinburgh, from 19 till 24 June 1876, but failed again after a walk of four hundred and thirty five miles.[9]
And another month later, from 17 till 22 July, a retry was planned at the same place but probably never started as further information is missing.[10]
An advertisement of the Royal Patent Gymnasium in the Waverley Handbook to Edinburgh.[11]
In the mean time the Irish American Daniel O’Leary also crossed the Atlantic and arrived in England in September 1876.[15] He challenged Weston to a walking match of any distance for a wager of hundred pounds a side, and even offered him a twenty five mile advantage, but the latter declined to take the bet. Weston promised to compete against O’Leary only if he could excel Weston’s distance. Consequently on Monday, 16 October 1876, five minutes past midnight O’Leary started a six-day race at the skating rink in Liverpool. The first two days were difficult for O’Leary as he suffered much from constipation. After a doctor’s visit on Wednesday morning, he faced no further significant interruptions anymore for the rest of the week.[16] On Saturday evening, amidst tremendous applause of a crowd of two thousand, he covered his five hundredth mile with an hour to spare. Then he walked a few additional laps in order to beat Weston’s distance record.[17]
From 18 till 23 December, 1876 Weston tried to exceed O’Leary’s distance in the Agricultural Hall in Islington, in a six-day walk of five hundred and five miles. His opponents were a relay of three English athletes: G. Ide of Woolwich, Parry and Peter Crossland of Sheffield, who had to walk forty eight hours each.[18] On Saturday evening Weston ceased after a walk of four hundred and sixty miles and failed to complete his task, while the three pedestrians had walked four hundred and eighty nine miles.[19]
Agricultural Hall, Islington.
The two great pedestrians- O’Leary pitted against Weston over a six day 500 mile race.[20]
Finally, at five minutes past midnight on Easter Monday 2 April, 1877 the clash of the titans began in the Agricultural Hall, Islington. Each man had a track on his own; Weston, who had the inside track that measured seven laps to the mile, while O’Leary had to walk six and half laps for the same distance on the outside track.[22]
At Saturday night O’Leary won the contest in the presence of more than twenty thousand exited spectators with a staggering distance of five hundred and twenty miles, ten miles more than his opponent. And as he already had covered the milestone of five hundred miles around three o’clock in the afternoon, in normal circumstances O’Leary could have reached a much longer distance but he was not feeling well and only walked twenty miles for the rest of the day.[23]
In conclusion, originating from the late eighteenth century, pedestrianism was the most popular spectator sport in Britain during the eighteen seventies. Every month several walking gigs were organized as is shown on the image below. And the six-day concept was successfully introduced as the standard of long-endurance walking in the UK in 1876 by Edward Payson Weston and his Irish-American rival Daniel O’Leary.
Pedestrian fixtures for December 1876.[24]
In due course the six-day concept was also successfully implemented in long-endurance bicycle races. In doing so, in addition to the lucrative and organizational advantages, the cycling sport was able to benefit from the popularity of six-day pedestrian racing. Consequently, six-day cycling races were quickly accepted in the cycling world as a new discipline. As mentioned in the introduction, the first try-out for this concept happened in 1875 when John Stanton successfully rode six hundred and fifty miles at the Lillie Bridge Grounds in seven consecutive days.
On Monday morning July 17, 1876, S. Rawson tried to cover six hundred miles in six days of twelve hours each at the Molineux Grounds in Wolverhampton. Rawson was a plucky twenty-two year old printing machine maker from Derby who rode a fifty two-inch ordinary bicycle for a bet of forty pounds.[25] On the first day he hurt his knee after being thrown to the ground by a child crossing the track.[26] Until Thursday he was way ahead of the average schedule, but on Friday he suffered from stiffness of his limbs all day, probably due to the crash on Monday, and only covered seventy five miles. However, on the last day he had recovered well and rode one hundred miles, finishing the six hundred mile race at an hourly rate of fourteen miles at eighteen minutes to nine o’clock in the evening.[27] After dismounting his bicycle he was lifted on the shoulders of the exited crowd and carried around the grounds amidst deafening applause.[28]
Two months later, from 18 till 23 September, Frank White from Wolverhampton tried to break Stanton’s six-day record at the Arboretum in Walsall.[29] The first two days the race knew a cumbersome and complicated development. After the start on Monday morning at seven o’clock White experienced several mechanical breakdowns and the course was in bad condition due to heavy rainfall. On Tuesday his ordinary bike was irreparable damaged after falling over a dog, and above all when after a while a replacement device was found it turned out to be too big. As a result of the various setbacks and delays, he got behind the planned schedule.[30] Fortunately the rest of the week everything went smoothly, except for a heavy rain shower on Saturday morning. During his last laps Frank White was loudly cheered by the assembled multitude and with thirteen minutes left he finished his task.[31]
A picture of a twenty-five-mile race in February 1875 at Lillie Bridge.(32)
Coincidentally, in the same week at seven miles away from the Walsall Arboretum, at the Molineux Grounds in Wolverhampton the French champion Camille Thuillet also adopted the idea to attack the six-day record. More than that, he intended to ride six hundred and fifty miles in six days of twelve hours each, which is the distance that David Stanton covered in seven days the year before. On Monday the track was heavy just like in Walsall due to abundant rainfall the weekend before, but still Thuillet was able to make considerable progress.[33] The days after the weather improved significantly providing Thuillet a smooth race the rest of the week. On Saturday morning at intervals he was accompanied by his friend, the English champion John Keen who had made the trip from London, especially to support him.[34] At twenty to seven in the evening Thuillet finished his incredible task in the presence of ten thousand spectators with nearly half an hour to spare. As the bell rang for the last lap the crowd burst in upon the track, lifted the two riders on their shoulders and carried them over the whole circuit in loud cheers.[35]
Three weeks later, a six-day race between Frank White and Camille Thuillet was arranged in the Walsall Arboterum. From October 9 till 14, between six o’clock in the morning and half past six in the evening they had to cover a distance of six hundred and fifty miles for a fifty pound wager, including a forty mile advantage for the Englishman. The weather on the first day was mostly unfavorable, boisterous with a gusty wind and several showery outbreaks leaving the race track in bad condition. As a consequence White crashed badly over a roller that had been used to level the course during forenoon, but nevertheless a painful injury to his left hip and thigh he mounted his bicycle and rode on.[36] On Tuesday the weather improved significantly, but White still rode in great pain. For a moment it was even considered to seek surgical help to bandage his damaged limb, but he persevered and courageously continued the race.[37] Both men rode the rest of the race in good conditions, although it became quite clear that the Parisien would easily win the contest. But White could keep up with Thuillet who strangely lost the race by nearly a lap. The fact that even to the latter end of the afternoon White was offered a bet of ten to one, gave rise to various theories that his victory was cut and dried.[38]
The Wolverhampton Times argued in a large article on September 23, 1876, halfway Camille Thuillet’s six-day race at Wolverhampton the following:
“The success of Rawson, the well-known Derbyshire man, in his six hundred mile ride at the Molineux Grounds, Wolverhampton, some two months ago, has set the fashion of local bicycling. As usual, upon the accomplishment of a great feat, a host of imitators have sprung up, with the intention not only to equaling, but of eclipsing, Rawson’s famous ride against time.”[39]
Therefore it seems plausible to conclude that from that moment on the six-day concept was successfully implemented in the cycling sport and became a legitimate cycling discipline, just like in pedestrianism. As the following years the distance of six hundred and fifty miles was often far surpassed during six-day bicycle races, the distance concept gradually disappeared.
General conclusion (Part 1-5)
Analytical research in sports history shows that a sporting event or discipline did not appear out of thin air, as sometimes is assumed. Its roots can often be found in (several) predecessors or other sporting disciplines that only can be revealed through specific and in-depth research.
In this case the emergence of six-day bicycle races goes back to the combination of six-day pedestrian races that were launched for the first time in the Northeastern United States, and an equestrian race between two capitals on the European mainland.
The time aspect of the six-day concept that started on Monday morning and finished at Saturday night was introduced in pedestrianism with Edward Payton Weston as pioneer in the years 1874-1875.
Economical motives and practical reasons gave rise to the idea of organizing sports competitions on enclosed circuits. During the six-day pedestrian races in the Northeastern United States often the accommodations of skating rinks were used, while the first six-day bicycle races in Britain mostly went on in open air athletic grounds and public parks.
The distance of six hundred and fifty miles of the first six-day bicycle races was lent from the equestrian race from Vienna to Paris, which in turn was based upon one of the first public means of transport with a timetable halfway the eighteenth century in Western Europe. As the bicycles became lighter and more reliable, and the riders better trained, the distance concept gradually disappeared over the years that followed.
Article 2023 @ Filip Walenta
References
[1] Walenta, Filip, The Pedestrian Prehistory of Six Day Bicycle Races (Part 2: 1875).
https://www.playingpasts.co.uk/articles/archival-research/the-pedestrian-pre-history-of-six-day-bicycle-races-part-2-1875/.
[2] Walenta, Filip, The Equestrian Prehistory of Six Day Cycling Races (Part 3: 1874-1875).
https://www.playingpasts.co.uk/articles/archival-research/the-equestrian-prehistory-of-six-day-cycling-races-part-3-1874-1875/.
[3] Walenta, Filip, The Prehistory of Six Day Bicycle Races (Part 4: 1875).
https://www.playingpasts.co.uk/articles/archival-research/the-prehistory-of-six-day-bicycle-races-part-4-1875/.
[4] Hackett & Rawlinson, Agricultural Hall, 500 mile walk in 6 days! Edward Payson Weston. March 6,7,8,9,10 and 11, 1876, 1876, poster, 59 x 44 cm, British Library, London
(photo: https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/evanion/Record.aspx?EvanID=024-000000284).
[5] The Northern Tribune, January 1, 1876, 1.
[6] The Bury and Norwich Post, March 7, 1876, 2; The Cardiff Times, March 18, 1876, 7.
[7] The Huddersfield Chronicle, March 8, 1876, 2.
[8] The Essex Standard, March 17, 1876, 6.
[9] The Glasgow Herald, June 26, 1876, 4.
[10] The Western Mail, July 8, 1876, 5; The Londonderry Sentinel, July 18, 1876, 2.
[11] The Waverley Handbook to Edinburgh (Edinburgh 1869) Advertisements, 25.
[12] Sporting Life, September 20, 1876, 4.
[13] The Liverpool Mercury, October 2, 1876, 7.
[14] The Liverpool Daily Post, October 2, 1876, 7.
[15] The South Wales Daily News, September 25, 1876, 5.
[16] The Manchester Evening News, October 23, 1876, 4.
[17] The Liverpool Mercury, October 23, 1876, 3.
[18] The Graphic (The) (UK) – 1876.10.21 p18 (411)
[19] The Glasgow Herald, December 18, 1876, 5; The Cardiff Times, December 30, 1876, 6.
[20] London Illustrated News, April 14, 1877.
[21] The Western Mail, January 5, 1877, 5.
[22] The Cambrian, April 13, 1877, 7.
[23] The County Observer, April 14, 1877, 2.
[24] The Sportsman, December 15, 1876, 3.
[25] The Evening Express (Wolverhampton), July 17, 1876, 2.
[26] South Wales Daily News, July 18, 1876, 5.
[27] The Liverpool Weekly Albion, July 22, 1876, 6.
[28] The Blackburn Standard, July 29, 1876, 3.
[29] South Wales Daily News, October 10, 1876, 7.
[30] The Wolverhampton Times, September 23, 1876, 2.
[31] The Kenilworth Advertiser, September 30, 1876, 3.
[32] The Pictural World, February 6, 1875, 448.
[33] The Sporting Life, September 20, 1876, 3.
[34] The Athletic News, September 30, 1876, 4.
[35] The Kenilworth Advertiser, September 30, 1876, 3.
[36] The Sporting Life, October 11, 1876, 2.
[37] The Wolverhampton Times, October 14, 1876, 6.
[38] The Wolverhampton Express, October 16, 1876, 2.
[39] The Wolverhampton Times, September 23, 1876, 2.
Resources
British Newspaper Archive [https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/]
The National Library of Wales [https://newspapers.library.wales/]
Ultrarunning History. Podcast and stories [https://ultrarunninghistory.com/weston-invades-england/]
