Can you help the pavement pounders?

We need your help



Pavement Pounders Community Interest Company, a firm based in the Creative Quarter, Folkestone, needs your help. We are artists, writers and teachers.

For 2011, the year of the Folkestone Triennial, we are working on “Pride of Place” a five part project in which we plait together the three strands of writing, visual art and local history. The five parts are:



Smugglers. A night time guided walk exploring Folkestone’s link

with the nefarious smuggling trade.

Bizarre Crossings. A visual exploration both of unusual channel crossings and of the channel swimming races of the 1950’s

The Harbour. A guided walk exploring the history of Folkestone harbour And the Old Town

Transitions. An invitation to writers to produce stories that explore the idea of transition, crossings and rites of passage.

Ghurkas. An exploration of communities that have made the transition

to a different culture.

Bizarre Crossings and Transitions; may be presented as Triennial Fringe events.





Bizarre Crossings

We are now working on Bizarre Crossings and are hoping to hear from anyone who was involved in or has memories of the channel swimming races held throughout the 1950’s

Bizarre Crossings is an element in the wider “Pride of Place” project It is about Channel swimmers and unusual channel crossings









More About Bizarre Crossings

1. An illustrated talk about Folkestone's part in channel swimmers and unusual crossings.

2. An exhibition of drawing and paintings on the theme. David one of the two directors of Pavement Pounders is an artist who has exhibited widely in London and Kent .we would invite local artists and students to get involved. UCF have expressed interest in running workshops on the theme with their students.

3.

Research for this would involve the whole community but particularly the over 60's as we would be inviting memories from the heyday of channel swimming in the 1950's when Billie Butlin offered an annual prize of £1000 for the fastest crossing. Although swimmers most often arrived in Dover. The swimmers would practice in the Folkestone Lido and judging from the British Pathe newsreels of the time, pilot boats usually came from Folkestone.

Over the years there have been many strange and wonderful crossings in ever more bizarre craft. Many an intrepid adventurer has been from Folkestone .

Zetta Hills who made many attempts to cycle across to France before joining the circus with a very successful sea lion act lived in Dover Road Folkestone. There were many others and bizarre crossings still take place.Title: Pavement Pounders logo

pauly :: 2011 :: Comment / reply