The old meets the new as Tour de Britain riders speed through Harley

With racers speeding past in the blink of an eye, the village decided to make a morning of it and invited in a couple of enthusiasts with bicycles from a different era.

Ralph Boreham’s penny farthing dates from the 1880s, though with Ralph now in his 80s, he feels too old to ride the precariously high-saddled machine.

Muir Mennell took along his 1860 era bone-shaker, a model with steel tyres more suited to grass and gravel than today’s tarmac roads.

Both helped entertain crowds who gathered at the Mission Rooms to see the riders pass on their way from Chapeltown to Wentworth.

The Rooms are now operated as a community centre and Cynthia Shaw MBE, who was central to saving the building when it was threatened with closure as a church, said they wanted to provide a focal point for spectators, while raising funds to help keep the building open.

Among those who turned up to watch was Mayor of Rotherham, Councillor Sheila Cowen, a former resident of Wentworth.

She said: “I am here partly because of Cynthia Shaw MBE. Harley is a very busy village and it is people like Cynthia who keep it alive.

“I am all for communities within Rotherham borough doing things like this.”

One element of unexpected drama happened when a stone wall collapsed beneath a spectator who had climbed up for a better view.

He was thankfully unharmed.