Hello & welcome to our spring newsletter

Spring is in the air & we're excited to share some fantastic news, dates for your diaries, updates on our activities & research, & opportunities to get involved.

Sussex Blazing Saddles is a National Lottery Heritage Funded project, exploring the transformative impact of the advent of bicycles on women and society from the 1890s to 1928, when women won the right to vote.

With partners across Worthing, Brighton & Hove, Newhaven and Bexhill we're uncovering stories of pioneering women cyclists, which we'll tell through a touring exhibition, upcycling sewing workshops to remake cycling fashion, and free outdoor performances.

SUSSEX BLAZING SADDLES NEWS

Newhaven Funding Award

We're absolutely delighted to announce a successful funding award from Creative Newhaven's BN9 Arts Growth Fund. The funding will enable us to run a series of taster dance/cycling workshops & remaking activities leading to performances & a fashion show - more below & at the various links. Read on...

Dates for your Diaries

Sussex Blazing Saddles Touring Exhibition

1-16 June, Bexhill Museum
18-30 June, Worthing Museum
1-16 September, Newhaven Library
16-29 September, Brighton's Jubilee Library

A small touring exhibition featuring archival material & stories discovered by SBS volunteers from across the region.

Also in September, Blazing Saddles performances created with local people on:

7/8 Sept in Newhaven & 21/22 Sept in Brighton

Find out more & how to get involved HERE

FREE workshops coming up - Get Involved

Blazing Saddles Taster Sessions - come & dance with your bike, in Newhaven & elsewhere, dates coming soon. More info HERE

Remaking & Upcycling Cycling Clothing Sewing sessions.
More info HERE & the first session on

13 April at CREW, South St Worthing, 11am-4pm

Heritage Rides & Upcycled Cycling Fashion Shows in Bexhill & Newhaven, more on these soon

Keep an eye on our website, Facebook & Instagram pages, for details as they become available & also in our next newsletters

Update on SBS Activites

Its been a busy start to the year. Our heritage expert, Nicola Benge, led an archival training course for SBS volunteer researchers. This was followed by visits to archives at The Keep, East Sussex Records Office, in Brighton & West Sussex Records Office in Chichester.

Our Reimagining, Upcycling sewing sessions kicked off in Worthing & Bexhill, bringing together seamstresses, community organisations & museum archivists to talk about the historical impact of the bicycle on transforming women's clothing & brainstorm ideas for workshops to upcycle women's cycling clothing today.

Please get in touch if you're interested in getting involved

Archive Research Update

In previous newsletters, we've explored how women embraced cycling & transformed their clothing to ride safely. The reaction to Tessie Reynold's 'radical' outfit gave a taste of what was to come - 'The cycling costume of the future' (5) or 'of a most unnecessary masculine nature & scantiness...' (6).

Backlash & Push Forward

In 'Bikes & Bloomers' Kat Jungnickel writes:

'Women unchaperoned, moving at speed & in different places & times of the day than was familiar, shocked the establishment. This was not just about cycling. For some parts of society, these women were seen as rejecting their 'natural role,' challenging the very essence of Victorian life & many of the taken-for-granted assumptions underpinning the home & masculine power' (7)

'Some parts of society felt threatened by the sight of women cyclists.... & responded with verbal & sometimes physical abuse.' (8)

Historian, Sheila Hanlon outlines HERE the rise of pseudo-medical ailments to discourage female cyclists. From hysteria to inflamed fallopian tubes, to the risk of foetal deformity, cyclist's hump (kyphosis bicyclstarum) & the infamous Bicycle Face.

Essentially lady cyclists would lose their feminine charms, start to look like men, become 'fast' & leave their husbands to look after the children!

In 1897 male students, protesting a vote to grant Cambridge University's female students full degrees, hung an effigy of a lady cyclist wearing 'rational dress' over the market square. The image had already become synonymous with the modern woman. Read more HERE

Nothing could stop the tide of change: 'In possession of her bicycle, the daughter of the 19th century feels that the declaration of her independence has been proclaimed.' (11)

Dr Sheila Hanlon explores HERE how cycling became a powerful tool & symbol in the suffrage movement.

The Great Pilgrimage 2013

SBS volunteer researchers have unearthed the fascinating story of Flora Merrifield a suffrage campaigner in Brighton & Lewes. She led suffrage campaigners, walking & cycling, through Sussex to London in the 1913 Great Pilgrimage to Hyde Park. In the image above, she is in front of the van wearing a dark cape, holding her bicycle.

About 100 pilgrims started from Brighton on Monday 22 July 2013, joined by supporters from Worthing, Littlehampton & Seaford, then picking up more as they passed through towns. At Burgess Hill they were joined by a contingent from Eastbourne, then on to Cuckfield where they spent the night & were joined by a mid-Sussex group. Over the next few days they passed through Crawley, Reigate & Redhill, Purley, Croydon & Vauxhall & on Saturday arrived in Hyde Park.

A programme of meetings & talks was organised in each location &, apart from a riot at the East Grinstead meeting, the pilgrimage was 'nothing less than a revelation... of the almost universal sympathy.' More info HERE & a report of the pilgrimage's first day HERE

How YOU can get involved in 2024

Archival Research

Help us uncover more stories of Sussex's pioneering women cyclists. We're offering archival training, monthly meetings & group research visits to The Keep in Falmer & West Sussex Records Office in Chichester.

Please get in touch HERE or pass on the info to anyone else you think might be interested.

FREE Workshops - Remaking and upcycling cycling outfits

In the 1890s women remade their clothing to be able to ride bikes & started the transformation of everything.

Today, if you search 'cycling' and 'women cycling' online, all the images involve lycra which is great for racing, long rides etc, but many women wouldn't want to wear lycra, especially to nip to the shops or library, for example.

So over the next year, we'll be taking a inspiration from Tessie Reynolds, & many other lady bicyclists from the 1890s, and inviting women to remake and upcycle their old or second hand clothes to wear on a bicycle and ride along on one of our 2024 shows.

Register your interest HERE & let us know where you are - Worthing, Newhaven, Brighton & Hove or Bexhill.

FREE Blazing Saddles Performance Workshops

Come & dance with your bicycle & be part of performances in Newhaven & Brighton & Hove in 2024. Find out about the 19th century cyclists who inspired the show, learn the show choreography & make friends for life!

All ages & abilities welcome, a level of cycling proficiency - Bikeability Level 2 is recommended. In Newhaven, contact the Active Travel Hub if you would like to learn to ride, they may also have some bicycles available to borrow for the workshops/shows.

Sign up HERE to get involved

Thanks for reading. Before you go, watch Creative Director Karen Poley talking about Sussex Blazing Saddles on Bexhill Seafront

References:

1. Sussex Blazing Saddles logo with daffodil image by pngtree.com
2. Blazing Saddles participatory performance in Milton Keynes © Raysto Images 2018
3. SBS researchers at West Sussex Records Office © Nicola Benge, SBS
4. Introductory Reimagining, Upcycling sewing session at CREW, Worthing © Kate Laird, SBS
5. Violet Lorne, Bicycling News 30 Sept 1893; 2nd quote Cycling Magazine, 16 March 1893
6. Cycling Magazine 16 Sept 1893
7. Bikes & Bloomers, Kat Jungnickel, Goldsmiths Press 2018, p16
8. Bikes & Bloomers, Kat Jungnickel Goldsmiths Press 2018, p15
9. Box o'Lights image (unknown)
10. Cambridge effigy image from Sheila Hanlon website: Cambridge Daily News, 21 May 1897
11. Godey's Magazine

Finally, huge thanks to volunteers for digging out stories and quotes this month, and to our funders, partners and supporters