Phil is pictured, aged 20 outside Colchester Castle in August 1950 during a tour of East Anglia.

Then he was riding with Loughborough CTC and was already on the county CTC committee. In the spring the following year he founded Charnwood CTC which is still going strong after 67 years. He was secretary for 25 years and was awarded the CTC National Certificate of Merit in 1976. Resurrected the Leics Cyclists Rally, and organised it for many years at Griffydam. He set up the “Rural Rides” programme to encourage newcomers to cycling in conjunction with N.W. Leics District Council. A long serving member of the CTC national “Right to ride” campaigning team covering N.W. Leics.

Phil Allen worked tirelessly for years to help bring about the Cloud Trail. He could see the advantage of the trail as soon as the Derby to Ashby railway line was lifted, he never did like riding up Melbourne Hill!

It was a proud day for Phil when he was invited to officially open the trail along with Sustrans Officer Patrick Clarke and unveil the plaque denoting the co-operation of the two organisations, Sustrans and our Cyclists' Touring Club.

In the 1950's founder of Charnwood Cyclists' Touring Club Phil, organised Saturday afternoon rides as working parties to Staunton Harold, then a Leonard Cheshire home. The Cloud Trail and Staunton Harold Trails will feature on the routes. Phil died on 26th January 2016 after a long illness.

Breakaway group becomes backbone of the DA

An extract from an issue of the Loughborough Monitor of 1951 records that a Mr Phillip Allen went into their offices in 1950 to enquire about local cycling clubs. They were pleased to tell him that Mr KW Pepper, of the Cyclists’ Touring Club, was the man to see. Many happy cycling miles later, with Loughborough section still growing, riders from the Ashby, Coalville and VVhitwick areas decided they had enough keen riders to form a new section, to be known as Charnwood.

Many of these founder members are still supporters of the DA and participate in social events and occasional rides. Phil Allen, Frank and Nancy Holden, Adele Heafield, Stan Kent, Roy Johnson and Reg Fletcher are just some of the names remembered from that time. The inaugural run was to Repton Shrubs on the first Sunday in May 1951, with lunch at the Shakespeare. Phil described how he became a member of the CTC in 1950 by responding to an advertisement in Cycling and Bicycle while doing his National Service at RAF Benson.

He returned to Whitwick where he lived with his parents, got a job at Brush, Loughborough and joined a keen group of CTC members who rode with the Loughborough section. So began a lifelong involvement with the club. He recalls how Charnwood booked hot lunches in addition to tea and how favourite venues were visited on many occasions. At Blakeshay Farm near to Ulverscroft the teas were served at plain deal scrubbed tables, with benches for seats. Good farmhouse teas of boiled eggs, bread and butter and home made cakes would cost about 2/- with the chance of a game of football, cricket or rounders to follow.

Plenty of tea, piping hot in large teapots, circulated making this very close to a cyclists’ idea of heaven. Another local magnet was Annie’s in Newtown Linford. She had tables and chairs on her small lawn but when it got dark, or was wet, she would welcome you into her tiny cottage sitting room where you sat on the floor when the chairs were full.

Hostelling was very popular in the 50s and 60s, with groups going away at Easter, Whitsun and the annual holiday break from work. In the first year (1951) the section went to South Wales and took the paddle steamer from Cardiff to Weston super Mare ‘at CTC rates.’ Somerset, Devon and Cornwall were all visited at different times and because it was so easy to take bicycles on trains, it was possible to return from Bath this way. Families often joined members of the club on these trips.

During the 60s and 70s, the section regularly enjoyed overnight rides to Harrogate and York, specially to visit the weekend rally held on York race course each year. In the early 1960s the DA rally was instituted at Blakeshay Farm and continued for many years at various sites around the area. Phil organised these rallies for a long time and local racing clubs and neighbouring DAs would enter the events in the hope of winning the coveted award. It was usually a fine day, but there was one year Phil remembers the rally being washed out. In later years the rally became the CTC’s contribution to the calendar of the Leicestershire Cyclists’ Association and was hotly contested by many clubs. Traditionally a tug of war was waged throughout the day, but when one year the Coalville Wheelers turned up with heavy boots and swept the board, it was decided to change the rules!

Phil has retained. his interest in all things which involve cycling and now works very hard on behalf of Sustrans, the charity dedicated to providing safe. cycling routes throughout Great Britain. He is also involved in cycle training for schoolchildren.

Phil Allen

by his brother John

Phil passed away in Coalville Nursing Home on Monday January 25th, he would have been 86 in March.

He was born on St. Patricks Day, March 17th 1930 in one of a row of tiny terraced cottages on Wilne Lane, Shardlow, adjacent to Canal Shardlow, a thriving inland port during the canal age.

After the war in 1945, I remember Phil very last county CTC event - cycling to Skegness on Dad's heavy bike, December 2014, the carol service rod brakes, steel mudguards and no gears! He loaded the bike with a borrowed canvas tent, cooking stove and utensils and enough, if spartan, food to see him through, including potatoes. It was a solo adventure at the age of 15 and he camped on Skegness beach which still had stretches of barbed wire.

From the late 1930's to 1948 we lived in Trafalgar Square, not the one in London, but the unadopted street in Long Eaton with terraced houses, just round the corner from the imposing co-op buildings.

During 1948 we moved to a brand new council estate at Whitwick near Coalville.

Phil was called up for national service in the RAF and after six weeks of "square bashing" was posted to RAF Benson in Oxfordshire. Here he made his one and only flight in an Avro Anson, practising aerial photography. Back on the ground he pieced together the photos to produce maps, oh how he loved maps.

Most of his time was on an electrical course and often used the camp bikes to explore the Thames Valley in his spare time..

De-mobbed from the RAF, he gained employment at the Brush Electrical Engineering works in Loughborough where he worked for over 40 years until his retirement. When he started work at "The Brush" in 1950 he cycled to work every day over the Forest.

He rode with the Loughborough Section, of which Ken Pepper was the secretary. There was no CTC group in N.W. Leicestershire and Phil was about to start one. This was the beginning of "Charnwood CTC" with Phil knocking on the doors of CTC members in the area.

Charnwood CTC officially came into being in the Spring of 1951, later to become the largest CTC group in the county. Phil was very fit cycling to work and on county CTC monthly committee days, riding on for tea at Ken Pepper's Barrow-on-Soar home before the pair rode into Leicester for the meetings. Phil then rode home alone over the Forest before setting out for work early next day.

He led breakfast rides in the summer of 140 miles, usually into the Peak District, no such thing as "car assisted" then, few people had cars. There was always a sing song on the way home after tea - usually led by Phil with the Gracie Fields number "Sing as we go - and let the world go by."

He loved the county CTC ("D.A.") and enjoyed the events - meeting up with other members of the "CTC family" - many of whom became life long friends.

Phil resurrected, and ran for many years, the annual cycling rally at Griffydam and also many of the Cyclists Carol Services.

He was awarded the CTC certificate of merit in 1976 after completing 25 years as Charnwood secretary, plus all his other work.

During 1978, the centenary year of the CTC itself, he was elected as president of Leicestershire and Rutland CTC.

He was very much involved in cycle campaigning and his efforts to bring about "The Melbourne Trail" - the route of the former Derby to Ashby railway line - eventually bore fruit with the help of Sustrans.

Phil's funeral was at Bretby Crematorium on February 3rd - very well attended, including no less than ten former county CTC presidents. There would have been eleven as Ken Pepper now aged 90 intended to cycle to the funeral from Barrow - but could only make it as far as Ashby before turning back due to the wind. Ken, Phil would have understood!

On the day of his passing, there was a county CTC committee meeting and a standing minute’s silence was held in his memory.

The Sunday after, Charnwood had a planned ride to Trent Locks and Great Wilne - passing the site of Phil's birthplace.

Phil was married to his beloved Anne for well over fifty years.