Treasure Hunt

Where are the most isolated places in Derbyshire?

This the question we began to ask ourselves.  What do we call isolated?  What do other people think is isolated?  How do we know where to take the museum?  What do we mean by isolated?  Is it culturally or physically or is it both?  How can we work this one out?

Sally L had heard about a conference that was all about art in rural places, specifically in Derbyshire.  The event was part of Re:place and lots of artists that work and live in Rural spaces would be there.  Perhaps we could ask them? They perhaps have a better understanding than us?...  

We decided it would be much more fun to create a piece of work that would invite interaction from the people at the conference.  That's just how we do things.  So, we devised a little game of Treasure Hunt. A map of Derbyshire made of cloth and full of sand, flags with labels to put into it and a collection of pens to write on the flags. But no prizes, which was a bit unusual for us.

We got ready, costumes as usual.  We decided on a tweedy looking affair with hats, jackets and shirts.  Sally L made a lovely tweed skirt to go with her jacket and really looked like a lady of the country.

We trollied up with our bag of sand, fabric map and flags.  Set up the whole thing on a table in the Gothic warehouse, Cromford Wharf.  As people arrived we asked them to take part in the activity.  It was more difficult to get these people to help than it was the general public- perhaps a prize would have been a good idea.  We didn't think they would need it...

In all we collected 23 flags with various places listed, some villages, and others just woods, rocks and various geological features rather than places we could visit.

So, what did we think about all of this?  Well, firstly that we should have been more specific in our questions about 'places'.  We were looking for isolated places were people might live or be, rather than a geological feature.  So we needed to define what we meant by 'place'.  The other very noticeable thing was that for a group of people who has come to talk about what it was to produce art in rural spaces, specifically Derbyshire, and a group that contained people from out of the area that had been paid to produce art works in Derbyshire, it was incredible how they all commented on the difficulty of the task!  Does anyone know about isolated places in Derbyshire.

We thought we might ask the people on the street for an answer- perhaps they would have a better idea of isolated places in the county.

Can you ride Tandem?

Well, Neil said, we could borrow his Tandem, but we thought we ought to have a practice.  We took it out tentatively.  Within 10 minutes we were co-ordinating, riding up and down and having conversations!  One man had advice on better places to cycle and another man, with tattoos, told us about the time he rode on a unicycle to raise money for charity.  He was intrigued by what we were up to... That's the sort of interaction we would like to have on the route. Do we need a Tandem to get this sort of reaction, We wondered?


We parked the bike back in Neil's shed and went off thoughtfully, thinking about how a Tandem would fit into the plan.  Neil's bike was far to big and we felt a bit unsure of how we might go up all the hills that Derbyshire contains on one bike.  Is a Tandem the way forward?  Could we put a trailer on it?  How practical could it be for this project?  Will we be interesting enough on separate bikes?


Sally went off to Derby the next day and happened to meet up with Dave Gladsby in Sound Bites and talked about all sorts of different bikes.  We could have tricycles, delivery bicycles, tandems, electrically assisted bikes...  We could have just about anything.  But we were concerned with the weight of these options and the practicality of towing our trailer.  In the end, we went and bought a second road bike.


We tootled off to Chesterfield one sunny afternoon, and met Dean 
at J E James cycles.  He found the bike we had been looking at online and Sally L had a sit on it.  It was a bit too small- she's got long legs for a small gal!  We arranged to go back the next day when a larger version was available to try.


The next day was an even sunnier day and the perfect day to be buying a bike.  Sally tried out the two sizes and the largest felt the most comfortable.  Dean agreed that in order to support 2SALLY4TH on our adventure that he could do us a pretty good deal.  We promised to promote cycling and the support of J E James and their brilliant services whilst on our tour.


We had some interesting conversations about locks and dark alleys with Robert before we left and Sally L learned how to take the wheels off the bike from Paul, since Sally N had scarpered, hastily to complete her bike ride with a pint in the pub with her old Dad.


Now the hard work begins- Sally L has lots of training to do and Sally N is hoping to support her in this effort.  Plus finding a trailer and making all the objects, a museum and marketing.  All in a days work in the world of 2SALLY4TH.