Clydeside Women's Heritage Bike Ride
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clothing getting tangled in the chain, sharpshooter but also to be hired by a Wild Produced as part of the Glasgow Cycle Festival 2014. The Festival is a This ride will take us from Riverside Museum shipping company until the 1960s. Looking women adopted the use of divided skirts, West outfit in a role traditionally held by men. partnership between Glasgow Women’s Library, Free Wheel North, CTC along the Clyde, through Glasgow Green, north is Haugh Road, the current site of the contributing to radical changes in women’s Also known as the “Little Cycling Sure Shot”, and Glasgow Bike Station. to the Velodrome. The stops along the way Glasgow Bike Station, headquarters of Belles fashion. she ordered her first bicycle in Glasgow. One illustrate some key events in women’s history on Bikes. This cycling group, which was of her most famous performances aboard About Glasgow Women’s Library and the role cycling has played in these. set up for women in and around Glasgow, On Customs House Quay, just after the the wheel involved shooting clay pigeons Glasgow Women’s Library is no ordinary library. An Accredited Museum, it organises rides and women-only bike Glasgow Bridge, we find La Pasionaria, or We begin our ride at the Riverside thrown into the air whilst riding a bicycle. is a national treasure and the only place of its kind in Scotland. A place for maintenance sessions. There are rides for all The Passion Flower, one of only three statues Museum, Scotland’s Museum of Transport Produced by Glasgow browsing, borrowing and being inspired, GWL is welcoming, free and open abilities and whether you want to commute representing women in Glasgow. The statue Our next stop is Nelson’s Column, Women’s Library’s and Technology. The museum opened to all, with programmes of events and activities that oer something for confidently by bike or (re)learn how to take is of Dolores Ibarruri (1895–1989), a Spanish in Glasgow Green, which was once an ‘Women Make History’ on 21st June 2011, on a site where everyone, from film screenings to literacy support, from talks to supported o on two wheels, communist who became a symbol of important meeting point for suragette project bustling Glasgow shipyards once stood. volunteering opportunities, and from exhibitions to workshops. this group is for you! Republican resistance during the Spanish rallies. The bicycle became instrumental Clydeside Looking westwards we can see the River Mixed cycling clubs Civil War. The Republicans, who were in suragette campaigns, making it easier Clyde heading towards Helensburgh and About Women Make History that developed fighting in Spain against Franco’s regime, to advertise rallies and Greenock. The museum is situated along Women Make History is GWL’s women’s history project. Volunteers Women’s Heritage during the 1930s received support distribute leaflets. It also the Sustrans 75 cycle route, which we will research and deliver pioneering Women’s Heritage walking and cycling gave young women from the people of made quick getaways be cycling on towards Glasgow Green. tours in Glasgow and related maps and audio tours. Other activities a chance to socialise Glasgow and many possible, but not Bike Ride include talks, workshops, recording the history of living heroines, tour Amongst the many vehicles on display in and gain freedom women showed their always. One account guiding,training and ongoing women’s history detective work. For more Riverside is the Faslane Caravan (also known away from the dedication to the tells of two suragettes details contact GWL. as Number 10), which housed protesters at home. The 1930s cause. Amongst them attempting to set fire to Faslane Peace Camp for over twelve years. also saw the revival were Ethel Macdonald Robert Burns’ birthplace How To Get Involved The camp was originally set up on 12th of the socialist Clarion Cycling Club, which (1909–1960) and in Alloway in 1914, Glasgow’s women’s history is still largely hidden from the general public. June 1982 when anti-nuclear protesters sought to promote freedom and class Jenny Patrick (1884– and failing to escape There are many ways to get involved to address this. Why not join our Margaret Harrison and her husband Bobby equality through cycling. 1971), who worked on their bicycles from women’s history detective or tour guide teams? You may have information pitched their tent on the side of the A814 to as journalists in Spain the authorities. The Women’s Social and Riding along the cycle path towards the you think could be added to this tour or suggestions on how it could be protest against the presence of the nuclear during the height of Political Union (WSPU) had a dedicated River Clyde and heading east we pass improved. If so, we want to hear from you. Some people have chosen to submarine fleet being based on the Clyde. the civil war. There team of Cycling Scouts, whose role was the Millennium Bridge, Bell’s Bridge and show their support of GWL by sponsoring a book, shelf or library section A year prior to establishing Faslane Peace Ethel worked in an anarchist radio station to spread the word beyond urban areas. The Clyde Arc (known locally as the Squinty and dedicating it to one of Glasgow’s forgotten heroines. This fundraising Camp, Margaret and Bobby set o on a and during her time in Spain she was The renowned Flora Drummond oversaw Bridge). We continue until we pass the campaign is called Women on the Shelf and you can donate at pilgrimage of peace, cycling from Iona arrested several times, finally returning the group as an extension to her role within Kingston Bridge in the Anderston area www.womenslibrary.org.uk to Canterbury to campaign for nuclear to Glasgow in 1937 to a welcome of 300 the WSPU. of the city. At the start of the 18th Century disarmament. They made several stops people at Central Station. Her speech was Anderston was a village located a short We continue our cycle through Glasgow Contact Us along the way to hand out leaflets and to reported by a newspaper: “I went to Spain distance from Glasgow. The textile weaving Green, keeping to the right, heading towards To find out more about Glagow Women’s Library, Women Make History, speak to residents about their campaign to full of hopes and dreams. It promised to be industry was prolific during the following the crossroads that lead on to James Street. our downloadable maps, audio tours and dates of other guided rides and change public and Utopia realised. I returned full of sadness, decades, before giving way to shipbuilding To our left, in the last stretch of Glasgow walks please visit our website at www.womenslibrary.org.uk political perception dulled by the tragedy I have seen”. and engineering during the Green, we can see a cycle training centre or email us at [email protected] about nuclear 19th Century. Women’s We pass the Briggait (Glasgow’s old fish where Free Wheel North carry out their weapons. There involvement in all of these market) on the left and cross the road at the training classes. The organisation promotes “Let me tell you what I think of are newspaper industries has often been Albert Bridge, stopping as we reach Glasgow physical and mental health, providing bicycling. I think it has done accounts of the two overlooked (you can Green. The McLellan Arch welcomes us opportunities for people with additional cycling on a tandem more to emancipate women find out more about the into the area known as needs to participate in cycling activities. bicycle, for a period hidden histories of female the Saltmarket. If we Katy O’Rourke, than anything else in the of 6 weeks. Their shipyard workers like Big were to continue north a bicycle journey concluded in June 1981. Margaret’s world. It gives women a feeling Rachel in GWL’s West End up this road we would mechanic, eorts, along with her husband’s, were Women’s Heritage Walk) reach Duke Street. works at Free of freedom and self-reliance. instrumental in changing public attitudes to and they were also amongst some of the Just o Duke Street Wheel North. I stand and rejoice every time nuclear weapons but also in alerting people, early champions of cycling. Cycling brought is where Bualo Bill’s She had her on an international scale, to their danger. I see a woman ride by on a freedom to women, importantly in relation Wild West Show was first bike at the Glasgow Women’s Library, 23 Landressy Street, Glasgow G40 1BP From the Riverside Museum, let’s cross onto to the way they dressed. In the late 19th staged from November age of 16 and Email: [email protected] wheel... the picture of free, the cycle path leading east, continuing until Century there was discussion as to whether 1891 to February 1892. quickly learnt www.womenslibrary.org.uk untrammelled womanhood.” we get to The Pumphouse on Yorkhill the corset should be discarded for cycling. Amongst the main acts how to maintain and repair it. Working as Registered Company No. 178507. Charity No. SCO29881 Quay. Built by the Clyde Navigation Trust Wearing long skirts proved to be dangerous, of the show was Annie a mechanic she has worked on tricycles, Susan B. Anthony, 1820–1906 This trail was developed by the Glasgow Women’s Library ‘GWL Heritage Bike Ride’ group. around 1908, Yorkhill Quay and Basin were especially with the Safety Bicycle which Oakley (1860–1926), one of the first women tandems and side-by-side bikes.