Sussex Blazing Saddles is a new project by KP Projects CIC, exploring the pioneering heritage of women & cycling since the 19th century. The role of cycling in the suffrage movement and the transformation of clothing and society across Sussex & the UK as a result. For more information visit https://www.kp-projects.co.uk/sussex-blazing-saddles-project/
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00:00 So this show Blazing Saddles is on this afternoon in Bexhill 1 and 3 and it's a show which reflects
00:09 the history of women's cycling. So in the 1890s when bicycles first became available
00:14 and women wanted to ride, they were wearing really hefty skirts, so up to 25 pounds of
00:20 skirts and petticoats and whalebone corsets which kind of pulled everything in and pretty
00:26 difficult to breathe let alone ride a bicycle. There were quite a few accidents, there was
00:31 a story about someone who got her skirt caught in the wheel and was unconscious for 20 minutes.
00:38 So yeah, quite dangerous. But people really wanted to ride so they remade their clothing.
00:44 There were long trousers so they literally, I can't think of the name of it, bi-trousers
00:48 or something like that, but they literally cut their skirts in half. And other ladies
00:52 who were slightly more modern made bloomers which were essentially knickerbockers at the
00:57 time which was your underwear. So absolute outrage caused a storm. And then there were
01:03 some ladies who wanted more of a middle ground. So there were patented designs around 1896,
01:11 95, 96 and they had things, you know, panels and buttons and poppers and things to kind
01:19 of pull the skirts up at the front and the back so that you could get on your bike, ride
01:24 safely and then pull it down and be modest afterwards. So our show is about that moment
01:30 and those costumes. I've just got to say that it's part of a wider project, a heritage project
01:36 where we're looking at the heritage of women cycling across Sussex, so Bexhill, Newhaven,
01:43 Brighton and Worthing. And it's really important because most women don't ride bicycles. Girls
01:50 tend to stop cycling at about the age of 11 at puberty and it's really, really good for
01:56 you. It's cheap, it's healthy, freedom and independence, very much the same things that
02:02 women in the 1890s discovered.
02:04 [Music]
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02:14 (upbeat music)