#I_AM_CLARION (via the Rebel Pen Club)

Sunday 19 September

Clarion Sunday 2021

An artist’s project to celebrate this unique and historic event

Clarion Sunday is the annual pilgrimage to the last Clarion House by Clarion Cycling Clubs across the north of England.  It is always a special occasion.  This year, after repeat postponements, it really means a lot.  So we have commissioned Alan Ward for an artist project to make the experience of taking part just a bit more special.  If you are a club member, an individual cyclist, or just a Clarion enthusiast, Alan wants to hear from you.

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To find out more, including how to take part, read our Rebel Pen Club blog.

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We’re Going To Need A Bigger Songbook (via the Rebel Pen Club)

Fresh air and green space are precious commodities at present.  Our Radicals researchers want to honour the pioneers who gave working class people a chance of sharing those bounties.  Walking guide author and Pendle Radicals volunteer Nick Burton writes about T A Leonard and the collective joys of rambling and singing.

I’m a rambler, I’m a rambler, from Manchester way,

I get all my pleasure the hard moorland way,

I may be a wage slave on Monday,

But I am a free man on Sunday.

These words are the familiar chorus from Ewan McColl’s celebrated hiking song, The Manchester Rambler. It was a song written soon after and inspired by the Kinder Trespass of 1932 which has become synonymous with rambling. But what ramblers’ songs came before it? After all, rambling and singing were popular with the working classes of the industrial north in the 19th century and the two free communal pursuits went together so naturally. The story of our own Pendle Radical, Thomas Arthur Leonard, provides an interesting insight into how rambling and singing became dovetailed in perfect harmony.

Read the rest of Nick’s post on the Rebel Pen Club blog.

The Two Toms Trail (via The Radical Echo)

Pendle Radicals’ volunteer, Bob Sproule, tells us about a walk he, and other volunteers, went on in May, retracing the steps of the Two Toms…

Tom Criddle Stephenson (1893–1987) a leading champion of walkers’ rights in the countryside.

Thomas Arthur Leonard (1864–1948) a British social reformer and pioneer in developing organised outdoor holidays for working people.

Find out more about the Two Toms on The Radical Echo blog.

Building walls, community and skills… (via SVR)

A snapshot of what’s been happening as part of Spodden Valley Revealed recently, from this SVR blog.  Featuring drystone walling; artist in residence; Rushcart; researching the stories of Spodden Valley..

Read more

 

via the Spodden Valley Revealed blog

Pendle Radicals Needs Your Help!

Pendle Radicals is a brilliant new project which will be exploring Pendle Hill’s amazing heritage of radical thinkers and non-conformists. Unfolding over four years from spring 2018, the project will carry out research, commission new art and celebrate its findings with community events.

In order to get things started, we need volunteers to get researching: bringing history to life, infusing familiar locations with new meaning and building pride of place in the process.

Who do we mean by Pendle Radicals?  They include George Fox, founder of the Quakers, who had his great vision on the summit of Pendle in 1651…  Sir Jonas Moore, known as the ‘father of time’, born at Higham and part responsible for the Greenwich Observatory and the creation of Greenwich Mean Time…  Selina Cooper, a hero of the suffrage movement in spite of having to work in the mills from the age of 12.  Selina, like many members of Nelson ILP (Independent Labour Party) made strong connections to Clarion House at Roughlee, now the last of the Clarion Clubs but still thriving and an inspiring location for followers of socialist politics.

These are just a first, few names, but the stories are many, and we are just starting on this exploration.  Over four years our project will bring some of those stories to life.  In doing so, we can give current residents, especially young people, a new understanding of their history, a reinforced sense of local identity and new pride in where they live.

One particular local woman who might just spark your interest, is Ethel Carnie Holdsworth.  Ethel was a working-class writer, feminist, and socialist activist from Great Harwood. You may not have heard of her as she has been largely lost to history because of circumstances, but as a young woman she was a poet, journalist (for example writing for the Woman Worker in London), children’s writer and author.  She published at least ten novels during her lifetime and her work is significant not just locally but also nationally, as she is the first working class woman in Britain to be published.

We are excited to get started with Ethel especially as the National Poetry Archive are keen to add her to their list of poets whose poems can be heard and explored online, but also because we are hoping that her story can be told through story and song some time in 2019.

So if Ethel’s story has inspired you, or you have an interest in local history and want to tell the story of another particular individual, or special local place, please make contact with the Pendle Radicals team.  For volunteers on our research team, we offer training to develop your archive skills, excursions to investigate source material, and plentiful tea and biscuits.  We promise you a fascinating journey of discovery and chance to bring to life those who deserve not to be forgotten!

A presentation – A short introduction to the life and work of Ethel Carnie Holdsworth plus an overview of relevant sources (approximately 40 minutes in total) can be presented to local history groups or other groups who have an interest in bringing her story to life.  Just contact Nick Hunt, Creative Director at Mid Pennine Arts.

There will be a presentation about Pendle Radicals and a short introduction to the life and work of Ethel Carnie Holdsworth, plus an overview of relevant sources, on Tuesday 2 July from 2-4pm at One Sixty Café, 160 St James Street, Burnley. See the MPA website or contact Nick Hunt, Creative Director at Mid Pennine Arts for details of both, or the project in general.

 

Website:        www.midpenninearts.org.uk

Email:          nick@midpenninearts.org.uk

Phone:          01282 421986 ext: 209