Summer 2014 saw cycling mania take to the streets of England as thousands of spectators cheered on the hardy riders when the Tour de France’s Grand Départ came to town. Many of the towns, and chocolate-box villages, lay in the heart of Yorkshire, England’s largest county. But very few, if any, of the gathered masses would have heard of a champion cyclist of the 19th century; a product of one of Yorkshire’s countless former mining communities. A working-class hero to his fellow colliers, he led a turbulent life and went by the name of Elijah Scott, the Darfield Flier.

He was born near Rotherham in the West Riding on 1 August 1869, the son of Elijah Scott senior and Sarah, née Mellors, who’d come to Yorkshire from their native Nottingham.

Young Elijah led a stormy childhood. His father flitted from one failed business venture to the next, never far from trouble. In July 1871, Elijah senior appeared before local magistrates charged with resisting the police. The 28 shillings fine he received was a bitter blow to the family purse and old man Scott tried to alleviate the strain by setting up an unlicensed working men’s club in a backroom at his home. Hauled before the bench, he was handed a huge £100 fine. After this he slunk quietly back to the coalface.

As for his son and namesake, Elijah junior was growing up quickly, and by his 21st birthday had begun competing in amateur bicycle races, his skill as a rider attracting the attention of the local press.

On 15 June 1891 the Yorkshire Post described the third annual festival of sports at the Cleckheaton Football Club. The event took place before a crowd of almost 3,000, with £160 up for grabs in prize money. Elijah entered the one-mile bicycle handicap, which he won with ease in three minutes. He also won that day’s two-mile handicap.

On Christmas Day, 22-year-old Elijah married 21-year-old Annie Maria Lawrence, at All Saints’ Church, Darfield.

Further cycling successes followed, and in July 1892 Elijah competed for the Darfield Club in the one-mile National Cyclist’s Union (NCU) race at Sheffield. He won by four yards in two minutes 31 seconds, receiving a silver shield worth 50 guineas, presented by Councillor A. Muir Wilson, and a gold medal worth five guineas. He would amass a treasure trove of prizes: marble clocks, cups, pots, watches and cash, more than he knew what to do with.

In 1894 at Herne Hill, Elijah set a new record time for an unpaced mile of two minutes 17 seconds, leading to nicknames such as ‘The Wizard of the North’ and the ‘Darfield Flier’.

However, it wasn’t all unmitigated praise for Elijah. In April the Sheffield Daily Telegraph reported that he wasn’t so highly regarded in the Midlands, not being the flier he was said to be, and competing poorly at an event in Aston.

He was back to his best by June, however, when he beat the ‘hot favourite’ O’Neill at a contest in Birmingham.

His best year was 1895, when he won the Hull Hundred Cup; the Doncaster Seventy Guinea Cup; the £100 Mile Race and £50 cup at Headingley, and the 25 Miles Championship of England at Fallowfield. Consequently, Elijah represented England at the World’s Cycling Championships at Cologne in the one-mile and 100 kilometres amateur championships. In Cologne on 19 August, Elijah was riding in the 100 kilometres race when he fell and dislocated his ankle, putting him out of action for months.

By January 1896, the Sheffield Daily Telegraph announced that Elijah, now a father of three, was seriously ill with inflammation of the lungs and pleurisy, and hadn’t been well since his fall. A few weeks later he tried to compete in a scratch race at Barnsley, but was easily beaten, illness and injury having taken its toll. A fifth place finish in the 20-mile championships at Wood Green, London, and the loss of his one-mile record, caused further disappointment. In July Elijah’s amateur licence was withdrawn, and he was suspended by the NCU. He didn’t care, however, for he’d already turned professional with the Yorkshire Road Club.

On 27 September 1896, Reynold’s Newspaper reported that the Crystal Palace had held its first racing event at its newly opened track. Five thousand spectators cheered on the competitors, who included Elijah Scott. He was no longer the Darfield Flier, for he’d moved his family south, to Penge in Surrey. The evening’s racing saw Elijah finish second in the one-lap scratch race. Around this time he also began riding as a pacer for the Dunlop team. In October Elijah attempted to ride for 100 miles at Crystal Palace to break another speed record. The Sheffield Daily Telegraph explained that he started well, but at 40 miles “showed signs of fatigue”. He abandoned the attempt at 60 miles.

The same paper’s 30 November edition reported that Elijah had attended a cyclists’ show back in Yorkshire, dressed in long hat, frock coat, kid gloves, etc. The people of Barnsley hardly recognised their ’Lijah. The family then returned to Yorkshire, moving to Great Houghton, near Barnsley, where Elijah opened a cycle repair shop.

Then, on Wednesday 27 February 1900, a shocking story, concerning his marriage, appeared in the Yorkshire Telegraph. ‘CHAMPION CYCLIST AND HIS WIFE: CHARGE OF PERSISTENT CRUELTY,’ screamed the headline.

“On the 10th instant they separated because he told her to take her ****** things and go,“ the copy went on. Annie Scott told the court how her husband was in the same bad temper as usual owing to his nastiness through drink. A series of unsavoury incidents as described: stones being thrown, heads threatened with a bashing, and a black eye sustained by Annie in her mother’s presence.

The bench, however, was unconvinced by any of this. They dismissed the case and told Annie to return to the family home where her husband would be waiting.

Money was Elijah’s ultimate downfall, owing to his inability to deal with the riches cycling had brought. His repair shop was wound up with debts of £92 17s. 7d. He tried to pay some of his creditors with his old prizes, one local man receiving a silver cup weighing 40 ounces, before Elijah was declared bankrupt.

Few races followed, with Elijah occasionally competing at exhibition events, and newspaper reports now barely mentioning him, excepting when his drunken excesses landed him in trouble. In 1906 he was fined 40 shillings for drunkenly assaulting a policeman with a poker.

In 1908 Annie passed away, aged just 38. Later that year Elijah married again, and went on to have more children. His second wife, Emily, died in 1931. Lonely and old, Elijah married for a final time in 1934. Just days after his sixth wedding anniversary he died and was buried at Christ Church Cemetery, Ardsley.

A few months earlier he’d enjoyed a happy day celebrating the marriage of his son, no doubt looking forward to the arrival of more grandchildren who he could regale with stories of his former glory days as the Darfield Flier.