NEWS RELEASES
6,000 Year Old Bicycle Race Discovered
5 August 2008
Lying buried amongst thousands of photographs and other items collected by Cecil Cramp was evidence that Neolithic man cycled. Or rather lay proof that Edwardian Britain knew how to have fun with sport! In 1905 Horsham had a cycling race and some brave soul dressed in a leopard skin endeavoured to cycle on a wooden wheeled bicycle. This remarkable picture is part of the forthcoming photographic exhibition ‘Starting Guns and Finishing Lines’ opening at Horsham Museum on 8 August.
8 August is, as we all know by now, the start of the sporting extravaganza, the Olympics. Horsham Museum is celebrating this and sport in general by exhibiting a remarkable selection of images. Images showing that taking part was and is as important as winning in this era of Victorian and Edwardian gentlemen and women. It doesn’t mean that winning wasn’t important, as pictures of Horsham’s Olympic swimming champion Mr Hill or Alfred Shrub Horsham’s greatest record breaking runner who broke the amateur rule thus missing out on Olympic Glory, show.
But the overriding impression from the 40 images on show is how sport became so much a part of everyday life. From the local football team to cricketing, from cycling to rugby sport was being played out on the rough patches and tendered lawns of Horsham. Many of the images are taken from the early days of regulated sport, the very same time that the West was discovering China, the 1860s and 70s and pre First World War period. This is the era of long shorts, flat caps and woollen or cotton vests – not the Lycra or body hugging air breathing kit of today’s sportsmen.
The exhibition ‘Starting Guns and Finishing Lines’ also reveals that sport was fun. Many of the images are of smiling faces and pride in their team’s achievements, an escape from the drudgery of everyday work and a sense of belonging to groups outside the family. For the most jaded of sports fans this exhibition is a real tonic, whilst those who hate everything about sport the exhibition will be of interest as it opens up a real opportunity to look in on Victorian and Edwardian society enjoying themselves.
‘Starting Guns and Finishing Lines’, which opens on 8 August is a marathon rather than a sprint, running through to 1 November 2008.
For further information please contact
Jeremy Knight, Curator.
Horsham Museum
9 Causeway, Horsham, West Sussex RH12 1HE
Tel: (01403) 254959 Fax: (01403) 282594
Email: museum@horsham.gov.uk
www.horshammuseum.org