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Thursday 24 March 2022

ON YOUR BIKE - Sepia Saturday

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph  showed a woman. probably in the early 1900's,  standing alongside  a bicycle.    I wrote about "Wheel Women" only in January 2022, so instead today I turned to cycles with an engine - i.e. motor bikes - and women were to the fore here as well.  

There was just one photograph in my family collection that fitted this my theme.  Here  in c.1949 is my husband as a little boy on the back of his  father's motor bike, which I am told was a  pre-war 500cc Rudge Spurts Special.

Nowadays there is a Rudge Enthusiasts Club, dedicated to the Rudge-Whitworth Motorcycles. 



No concerns in those days about health and safety and wearing crash helmets and leathers, with husband in his school cap and coat and his Dad in a beret.  

They rode all over the North of England  together, including journeys  from South Shields to Catterick Camp  where brother Ian (below)  was doing his National Service - a 120 mile round trip.

But if pundits frowned upon the first women cyclists, what would they have made of the move onto motor cycles?  The photogrpahs below all come from my local heritage group Auld Earlston, here in the Scottish Borders.






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Again they all look as if they were enjoying themselves, oblivious,  in their choice of clothing,  of the potential dangers we identify today.  
 
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 Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity
 to share their family history through photograph
 
 
 
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6 comments:

  1. Wonderful shots of women on their motorcycles! And your father riding 120 miles behind his father! Oh my! Thanks for these amazing pics!

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  2. A great match to the prompt. Your Dad looks so cute and serious there perched behind his dad. And I like that you chose to show women riding the motorcycles! :)

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  3. Great photos. I've never been on a motorcycle in my life!

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  4. Those early women motorcyclists must have created quite a stir!

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  5. A great mix of images! I like bicycling but once upon a time I converted into a real biker complete with helmet, leathers, and gloves. Just a few weeks ago I finally gave the last of my kit away since the motorcycle is long gone and I haven't ridden in 30 years. Yet I can't help dreaming of getting one of those new electric scooters.

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