Harold Briercliffe

Who is Harold Briercliffe?

Harold Briercliffe was a Rochdale born author of a series of cycle touring guides. These were a spin-off from the magazine Cycling. They were cheaply made volumes with attractive colour print covers, designed to be kept in the pocket of saddlebags.

In 2010, Clare Balding presented a BBC TV series that retraced some of Briercliffe's routes using his old Dawes Super Galaxy.

As a result of the publicity arising from Clare Balding's television series, the popularity of the books rose greatly and three were republished by Batsford Books in 2012; with brief additions by Mark Jarman and Sustrans indicating that alternative routes exist to those suggested by Harold Briercliffe where those routes have become subject to heavy road traffic.