Arthur Linton - the True Story of a Great Cycling Champion

 

Posted 21/11/08

On Saturday 6th December, Cynon Valley Museum and Gallery will be celebrating the story of often overlooked local hero, Arthur Linton.

 

Born in Somerset but brought up in Aberaman from 3 years of age in 1871, Arthur Linton was one of the great cycle racing champions. He held innumerable British records at distances up to 200 miles and reached celebrity status in France, where his finest achievement was victory in the 1896 Bordeaux-Paris race, although he tragically died later the same year. 

 

Stuart Stanton will talk about his research on Arthur Linton’s record breaking life, including his Bordeaux – Paris epic. Born in Blaenau Gwent, Stuart is an active member of the cycling world, where he is best known as the announcer on the Junior Tour of Wales Race. Digital copies of his research will be available at the Museum on the day of the talk, ahead of a printed publication which is expected to come out next year.

 

Arthur Linton is also to be recognised as part of a Blue Plaque trail funded by the Heritage Lottery. Rhondda Cynon Taf council's Libraries & Museums Service has been working with various voluntary organisations and individuals to identify 30 sites in the County borough as yet unrecognised for their historical background. Ten of these sites are in the Cynon valley area and Arthur Linton is to be commemorated for his achievements on one such plaque, to be placed where he lived in Aberaman.

The talk will be held at 2pm. Entry is free of charge.

 

For further information contact Cynon Valley Museum, Depot Road, Aberdare CF44 8DL, telephone 01685 886729, email cvm@rhondda-cynon-taff.gov.uk

 

 

Arthur Linton and the World One Hour Record

We can justly claim that Arthur Linton should be regarded as a genuine holder of the world record for an hour’s unpaced riding – ‘The Hour’

 

Prior to the foundation of the Union Cycliste International – U.C.I - as the controlling organization for cycle racing a body known as the ‘I.C.A – (International Cyclists Association) was in charge. The I.C.A organized the first world championships (beginning in 1893) and did its best to regulate the rapid growth of cycle sport. Inevitably races were established which went either unacknowledged or simply not reported upon.

 

On May 23 1893 at the Velodrome Buffalo, Paris a ride of 35.325kms, which converts to 21.937 miles, by none other than Henri Desgrange was accepted by the I.C.A as being the world record – or at least the I.C.A’s world record. Desgrange is reported to have promptly retired from competition and returned to his newspaper desk where he spent the next ten years dreaming of founding the Tour de France. Which he eventually did.

 

On May 27 at the Cardiff Harlequins Sports Ground on the eastern boundary of Cardiff, Arthur Linton recorded a distance of 22miles 1,510yds on the spanking new track which had been laid there. It was promptly claimed as a Welsh record.

 

Uproar followed. This was not because Linton’s ride eclipsed that of the Frenchman but because along the way he had done enough to better the ten-mile record set by a bitter rival from just up the road in Newport!

 

The cycling correspondent of the ‘South Wales Echo’, known only to his readers as ‘Pneumatic’ commented so;-

“Linton’s ride on Saturday speaks well for the going condition of the ‘Quins track though the Newport Wheelmen, in view of his performance, are rather inclined to be sceptical as to its measurement. I have been asked whether the track has been measured and certified as being a quarter-mile long and whether it is not really a few inches short of that distance……….”

 

He then continues to issue an open challenge to anyone who can disprove the record ride to do so through his weekly column.

 

As has been stated earlier, cycling was an enormously popular sport in South Wales at the time of Linton’s record ride. The registered clubs with the N.C.U numbered 20 and between them they totalled 850 active, paid-up members. Race meetings were flourishing from Tenby in the west to Chepstow on the ‘disputed’ English border with the three hotbeds being Cardiff, Newport and Aberdare. The track at the Harlequins was constructed on an area of open ground which, remarkably, is still in use today as the base for varied activities by St. Peters Sports Club. It was the first dedicated cycling track in the area and is clearly marked out on a map dated 1891. Along with its attendant grandstand and outbuildings, there it is neatly sandwiched between Taff Vale Railway branch line and the Newport Road. A photograph from the previous year, prior to its construction, details a game of cricket taking place. The backs of an adjacent housing terrace are pretty much unchanged from their present-day appearance. To build the track must have taken a tremendous amount of finance and physical effort. There are remarks in ‘Pneumatic’s’ columns concerning appeals for assistance to keep the surface of it in top-class condition. Whether such a construction would have been in any way unreliable as regards to its true distance is extremely unlikely. There was a great fastidiousness amongst officialdom of the time regarding accuracy, not only in sport but also in general life – nowhere better instanced than by the signpost in Aberdare “London 180 2/3”. It is very hard to realize that such people would have allowed false measurement of a cycle track; their reputations depended upon it after all.

 

The track eventually fell into disuse and is hardly known by anyone among the current racing fraternity of Cardiff. The present-day venue at Maindy is about 2 miles distant and itself has a considerable history being constructed for the ‘1958 Empire and Commonwealth Games’ during which the name of Tom Simpson came to public attention. That rider will play a role in this narrative as well. The site of Arthur Linton’s World Record - one of many he established but the one which has been completely neglected – was later used for a variety of purposes; among them the staging of major games by Cardiff City F.C in the seasons before they were elected to the Football League (1908). There are moves afoot to relocate Cardiff R.F.C there as their professional arm itself moves away from the city centre Arms Park. The grandstand will have to be rebuilt should this move happen. The access roads required could just give provision for a racing circuit, a fitting memorial to the first great Welsh world-record holder.