Acrobatics on bicyles is part of Sussex Blazing Saddles performance © Raysto Images

Sussex Blazing Saddles celebrates Bexhill’s bold and Brassey women cyclists

Sussex Blazing Saddles is a Heritage project which honours the pioneering women cyclists across Sussex. Erica Smith recommends you get to Bexhill to view one of the free performances on Sunday 10 September.

Sussex Blazing Saddles explores women and cycling across four locations – Bexhill, Newhaven, Worthing and Brighton & Hove, looking at the role of the bicycle in the transformation of clothing and society and its role in the campaign for the vote for women across Sussex.

Activities include a free outdoor performance of Blazing Saddles in Bexhill on 10 September. The Bicycle Ballet Company’s outdoor performance celebrates the impact of the bicycle on women and fashion. The visual narrative uses movement, character, clowning, costume and cake to tell the story of a group of women caught up in the excitement and possibility of travel, freedom and independence.

Sussex Blazing Saddles aims to reveal untold stories of Sussex’s women’s cycling history, such as Tessie Reynolds, the 16-year-old Brightonian who set a Brighton-London-Brighton record on 10 September 1893 whilst wearing bloomers, she designed and made herself. Tessie is the poster girl and brandmark for this Heritage Lottery funded project.

Above: Bexhill PSA Cycling Club taking part in a ‘Paper Chase’ from 1911. Credit: Bexhill Observer newspaper, Bexhill Museum

In Bexhill there was a pioneering ‘bicycle boulevard’ and bike hire chalet, opened in 1896 by Muriel Brassey – the explorer and all-round feisty woman as well as the wife of Gilbert Sackville, the 8th Earl De La Warr. The chalet and boulevard provided women cyclists with a place to exercise their new hobby, despite disapproval. The Sussex Blazing Saddles team have been working with Bexhill Museum to find out more about the history of local women cyclists.

The Sussex Blazing Saddles performance will be at the Coronation Bandstand on Bexhill seafront at 1pm and 3pm.
For more information, visit the Heritage Open Days website.

Also in: Heritage