03/11/2024

full cycle community event

Full Cycle QR Heritage Bike Trail, starting from Forest Gate Library E7 0QH. Meet outside the library at 12.15pm to join a guided tour of the trail with Newham Cyclists.

The 60-75 minute ride is on quiet roads, so is suitable for children who are confident riders, accompanied by their parents. Find the first of 8 QR codes outside Etty & Tyler iconic bike shop in Upton Lane. Follow the trail through West Ham Park, to Forest Gate, finishing at Wanstead Flats.

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Full Cycle

‘Full Cycle’ is a Heritage Lottery funded project which celebrates the unique cycling heritage of Forest Gate and explores why it is an important legacy for Newham’s communities.

‘Full Cycle’ explores this unique heritage through the lens of Edward Ernest Etty, better known as Ted, the 95 year old owner of Etty & Tyler motor & cycle repair shop on Upton Lane E7 Est. 1963.

Ted has lived and worked in Newham most of his life and witnessed over 70 years of changing socio-political and cultural trends from a two-wheel perspective. The project will create a fascinating documentary film, ‘Mechanically Minded’ preserving Ted’s legacy.

Full-Cycle has worked with cycling organisations, community groups, primary school children and Newham Archives to collect anecdotes, photographs and memorabilia. This archive of fascinating material, intertwined with Ted’s stories, has  informed an immersive ‘Full-Cycle QR bike trail’, across Forest Gate.

Photos from left to right:

Ted aged 19 on his Raleigh ‘Superb’ cycle. Photo taken in Field Road, E7, 1947.
Children on bikes, 1984 – Newham Archive
Enamel sign, featuring Forest Gate Cycling Club
with kind permission, Robin Stephenson, Veteran Cycle Club 2018 vol 21

Header and Footer Photographs, Ted Etty, The National Lottery Heritage Fund/Andrew Baker @andrewbakerphoto

the great bicycle bubble

As the ‘gateway’ to Epping Forest, Forest Gate was the perfect location for cycle-centric activities, fuelling the craze for wheel-based leisure, activism & women’s liberation.

Did you know that during the ‘great bicycle bubble’ of the late 19th Century Forest Gate produced as many bikes for women as men ?

“Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on
a wheel.”

~ Susan B. Anthony, 1896

Photograph Permission: Newham Archives

The perils of cycling in Newham
in the late 1940’s

Frames of Mind, worked with artist Toby Melville-Brown to co-produce the Full Cycle, Heritage QR bike trail map and accompanying  worksheet, which can be downloaded and printed, or collected from Forest Gate library.

The Full Cycle bike trail map  takes participants on an immersive journey of QR-code accessed multi-media material, engaging them in Newham’s cycle heritage; archive photos, stop frame animations, film footage, voice overs and punchy text.

Eight QR-code heritage stops, at site-specific locations are  punctuated and brought to life with fascinating cycling-related snippets and local history, from Ted’s life story. The Full Cycle Heritage Trail will be supported by trained ‘trail’ volunteers and local organisations, Newham Cyclists & BikeWorks.

full cycle heritage QR bike trail

Resources

Frames of Mind have produced some downloadable resources to help you explore Forest Gate’s cycling heritage.

Download the Full Cycle map to navigate the Heritage QR bike trail:

Download the fun worksheet designed to accompany the bike trail:

The worksheet is ideal for parents, carers and educators looking to engage children aged  5-11 in local heritage.