Getting started with Bikes and Bloomers

Hardcore Victorian velocipedestriennes. Source: http://sixday.org.uk/html/early_photos.html

I’m now a couple of days into joining the Bikes and Bloomers team at Goldsmiths College in their highly infectious quest to investigate the designs Victorian women developed in order to adapt very proper attire so it was functional – and still proper – whilst riding bicycles.

We’re talking the 1890s here: skirts were full length, corsets de rigueur and heaven forbid a limb should be identifiable.

Sociologist Kat Jungnickel and the team have been digging around in patent archives and have selected some interesting designs that they’re now starting to reconstruct from the descriptions and diagrams given.

One of the patents we’re focusing in on: an improved skirt available also as a cape for lady cyclists

It’s a wonderfully interdisciplinary project and the office table seems to mostly look something like this:

Technical drawings, fabric swatches, sticky notes, paper-clip-and-string proto-mechanisms, notebooks and yes, ahem, maybe the occasional snack. What’s not to like?

Whilst the others keep busy with adapting sewing pattern blocks, automating a 5’8″ wooden mannequin, lusting over reflective tweeds and figuring out what it all means with respect to mobilities and gendered bodies, I’ve been given the mission of developing a guided tour style cycle ride that incorporates relevant locations around central London and weaves together key themes from the research.

Yum.

Kat already has some nice ideas involving pocketses and my early research has brought up a lovely link to a professional cyclist sister-in-law to one of the patentees – it’s clear this is going to have to be an exercise in self-restraint as much as anything else.

We’re optimistic we can rein in our curiosity and excitements though: keep an eye out for a date for the ride sometime in April.

A Road Trip for Longbridge – dates announced

Austin Park, with Bournville College in the background.

I’ve been working with cultural planner Jenny Peevers to find a way to harness the Road Trip I’ve been developing as part of my Longbridge Public Art Project commission so that the conversations catalysed though it can be more effectively turned into actions.

As a result, we’ve linked two of the Road Trip events to two Supper Club meals that Jenny’s organised as part of a larger series.

Here’s how she describes the Supper Clubs:

…an exchange of food, stories and future possibilities. We bring the food, you bring the stories.

Through your stories we will map collective hopes and aspirations, getting more local voices heard as the new Longbridge grows.

So, on the 5th and 26th of April, you can spend the afternoon with me touring different corners of Longbridge and the surrounding areas looking for new angles on the theme of community, and then segue smoothly into a meal and some activities designed to identify what changes people would like to see taking place in Longbridge over the next few years.

Both events are free, but you will need to sign up in advance via these eventbrite pages (NB ticketing closes the Monday before each event so Jenny has time to prepare all the food!):

Road Trip + Supper Club combination, 5th of April, starting from Reaside Community Centre.

Road Trip + Supper Club combination, 26th of April, starting from Longbridge Methodist Church Hall.

For those of you who would like to take part in the Road Trip but not the Supper Club events, there is a Road Trip only taking place on the 29th of March. Sign up for your place on the minibus here.

Our conversation (although not necessarily the journey itself – check the sign-up pages for starting locations!) will start at Austin Park where the River Rea has been ‘realigned’ to look more natural. Our effect on our surroundings and our surroundings’ effect on us will be a recurring theme throughout the day.

Join us and add your feet and your voice.

These events are part of Longbridge Public Art Public (LPAP) conceived by EC Arts for and on behalf of Bournville College. For more information visit www.lpap.co.uk.

Tell me something about… Frankley Services and St Leonard’s Church

As part of my research for the A road trip for Longbridge guided tour, I’m keen to hear your stories, anecdotes and interesting facts about places on the route.

First up are two locations over Frankley way…

Frankley Services

Photo credit: Robert Soar

Apparently one of the oldest service stations of its kind (opened in 1966) Frankley Services must have seen some interesting things. Have you? Can you tell me about something that happened here?

St Leonard’s Church

St Leonard’s Church at Frankley – click through for location on Google maps…

A rural church a stone’s throw from Frankley Reservoir. I hear it’s really popular for weddings. Can you tell me anything about it, or perhaps describe why you chose to tie the knot there rather than anywhere else?

If you’ve got something to share, please add it to the comments for this blog post.

A road trip for Longbridge

As I mentioned recently, I’m one of a cohort of artists and other practitioners involved with the Longbridge Public Art Project (now with its own website).

Following those first explorations on foot, Colin Corke (vicar at St John the Baptist, former chaplain at the Longbridge car plant and general Austin/Rover aficionado) was kind enough to give me a motorised tour of the area.

We talked about communities, places to gather, places to get away to, landmarks, things that aren’t there and, yes, maybe a bit about cars too!

I found this a really eye-opening way to think about Longbridge and, as a result, I’ve decided that my main project for the residency will be to develop a guided tour taking in a selection of locations that relate to the themes of community, roots, travel and flows. A road trip for Longbridge.

I’m working with local residents and staff and students of Bournville College to pull together the content for the tour. See this post for my first request for stories about Frankley Services and/or St Leonard’s Church.

The draft route is currently weighing in at about 25 miles, so I think I’ll be researching mini-bus hire in the near future too!