Around the world on a PENNY FARTHING

This month, 135 years ago, a Berkhamsted born grocer set off on a world first – to circumnavigate the globe by bicycle

- Heather Harris

Socks, a spare shirt, a raincoat that doubled as a tent, a bedroll and a small pocket revolver. A checklist that could belong to your average teenager heading off on a Duke of Edinburgh expedition (well, minus the firearm). But these were the essentials of a trip rather more arduous than a week in the Lake District; Thomas Stevens was embarking on a transcontinental journey across America. On a penny farthing. In 1884.

No lightweight, fibre glass, aerodynamic super bike for this Berkhamstedian. His was a 50-inch black-enamelled Columbia Standard bicycle with nickel-plated wheels and a handlebar bag. The whole contraption weighed 45-60 pounds, considerably more than the British Olympic Cycling team’s entire current fleet.

The high wheeler also had no gears, prompting its manufacturers, Pope Bicycle Company, to admit, ‘A rider needed strong leg muscles and vigorous pedalling to propel the vehicle up the smallest of hills. Going downhill could be even more hazardous.’

And Thomas was no athlete. He was born on Castle Street in Berkhamsted on Christmas Eve 1854, and after leaving Bourne’s charity school in the town he became an apprentice grocer.

Emigrating to America with his family in 1871, Tom worked at the Wyoming railroad mill. Here a maverick approach to life made its first appearance – he was run out of town for importing British labourers in exchange for part of their salaries.

‘Even the most experienced riders had ‘headers’ over the handlebars which were sometimes fatal’