Black Canon Collective

Category: Local Community

  • Frome Bike Jumble – This Saturday!

    Screen Shot 2014-03-17 at 22.00.52Frome Bike Jumble. Frome Scout Hall, Welshmill Lane, Frome BA11 3AP.

    Saturday 22nd March, from 9am to 2pm (set-up from 8am).

    It’s this Saturday, people. If you want to book a pitch, let me know as soon as possible.

    A jumble-sale of pre-loved bike parts, spares, accessories, clothing, tools, et etc. Turn your unwanted shed-fulls of spare bike parts into cash, and/or grab yourself a bike-based bargain. It’s open to every cycling enthusiast who feels like coming along – this is not exclusive to BCC members and it will cater for all forms of cycling.

    Claud The Butler (a pop-up Citroen café) and Livin’ The Cream ( tricycle ice-cream seller) will be in the car park providing refreshments.

    Sellers: £5 a pitch, Buyers: £1 admission. (All profits from pitch hire and admission go to Wiltshire Air Ambulance. The club makes nothing out of this venture, so you keep whatever cash you make from your stall, unless you’d like to donate more to WAA).

    I’d love a couple of extra pairs of hands to help out on the day, please, mainly to tidy up afterwards and ensure the Scout Hall is left clean.

    Contact me on fromebikejumble@gmail.com

    @fromebikejumble

    https://www.facebook.com/events/1374826699458297/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular

     

     

  • BCC statement in response to media coverage of damage to Roddenbury Hillfort

    First and foremost, neither the Black Canon Collective (BCC), nor its members were to blame for the damage caused to Roddenbury Hillfort, and were saddened to find the damage.

    The BCC is a local mountain bike (MTB) club based around Longleat forest which is entirely run by local volunteers. The club has been running for 4 years and is comprised of 200 members including qualified MTB ride leaders, skills instructors and British Cycling commissaires. The purpose of the club is to support and develop the local MTB community by working in harmony with local land owners and has, to date, proved successful. It is affiliated to national cycling bodies British Cycling and the CTC, is constituted accordingly and is run by a formal committee.

    The club licences 30 acres of woodland, the ‘Allotment‘, from the Longleat estate on which it has been creating a range of permanent trails for all MTB disciplines by hand for the past 4 years. The trails built and maintained in the Allotment are best-practice and built to the International Mountain Bike Association’s (IMBA’s) trail-building guidelines and standards. The BCC does not build trails anywhere other than the Allotment, which is approximately 5 km from the site of the Roddenbury Hillfort.

    In addition to providing support for the local mountain biking community the BCC has organised litter-picking rides in Longleat forest, built a children’s cycling track in a nearby village, and been involved with the organising and marshalling at numerous community events and charity fund raisers across the region. The BCC is a responsible organisation and has the utmost respect for Longleat forest, the landscape and the environment.

    In response to the appearance of the dirt jumps at Roddenbury Hillfort, the BCC notified the estate and offered then to help with any repairs, as a gesture of good will. The BCC then set about building an equivalent legal set of trail features at the Allotment to accommodate and give a focus to that style of riding in an effort to prevent further occurrences of similar ‘wild’ trail building.

    This regrettable matter highlights the importance and need for the continued existence of a purpose-built, managed mountain bike area within Longleat forest such as the Allotment.

    The BCC is currently involved in discussions with the Longleat Estate due to the recently announced plans for restricted access to parts of the Longleat Estate which, unless altered, will mean the loss of the Allotment site, the legitimate MTB trail network it contains and 4 years of hard work by local volunteers. The BCC is keen to explore every alternative to the closure of the Allotment site.

    Black Canon Collective

  • Frome's Missing Link

    Most of you have probably heard of Colliers Way, National Cycle Route 24 which runs from Dundas to Southampton. At the moment there’s two bits missing from Great Elm into Frome and at the southern end of Frome to Feltham Lane. Some of us got pretty fed up that nothing was happening so we set up a group to get things moving.

    Yes I know that a cycleway is not too interesting to you but it does give you a safe off road way of getting into the Longleat woods or up to Radstock without too much bother. There are temporary routes but they do involve hills that would give many unfit cyclists a coronary. They are “maintained” by Somerset so while they do form part of their pothole collection there is not usually deep mud or stumps to jump over so are beneath your notice.

    We are hoping to apply for planning consent in the autumn and will need all the support we can get first to get consent and then to build it, With so little money about we can expect a lot more voluntary work will be needed.

    To support us just go to http://www.fromesmissinglink.org.uk and sign up as a supporter. Whether you are just good with a spade or have the odd £500k to spare we would be pleased to hear from you and keep you updated with progress.

    Geoff Pell.

    Make sure you sign up to the petition here: http://www.fromesmissinglink.org.uk/petition.aspx

     

  • WE NEED YOU (Elizabethan Evening)!

    Each year the BCC helps to set up and pack away at this event held close to the Allotment, at Manor Farm, Corsley. Last year a few of us were lucky enough to attend the event too, and ate as much game stew as we possibly could whilst watching the play sat in the grounds of the Elizabethan manor. The evening is organised by local volunteers who do so to raise money for local charities and community organisations. So far the BCC has benefited from money towards ride Leader training, the BCC shelter and the Longleat MTB Feasibility study.So, please put the 18th and 19th June in your diaries and come along to help out, there’ll be more info on the Forum soon, but all you need to know is that they gave us all cups of tea and lush bacon butties as we worked last year…

    So please come along and help out from 10:00am until done (around 01:00pm) on Sat 18th, and from 10:00am until done (around 12:00 mid day) on Sunday 19th. We need all the help we can get!

    Here’s the location.


    View Elizabethan Evening in a larger map

  • Go Frome

    For those who are interested in giving a bit of XC MTB’ing a go, see you at 6:45pm:

    The ride is suitable for any adult with a mountain bike, and a good level if fitness. Riders will need to wear suitable weather specific clothing, a helmet, and have good lights with a run time of at least 2 hrs. Riders must also bring their own food and drink.

    FOR THOSE WITHOUT LIGHTS I WILL BE LEADING A 1-2 HR ‘LIGHT RIDE’ THIS EVENING ONLY.

    Any questions just give me a ring 07870609871

  • 2011 Elizabethan Evening

    Each year the BCC helps to set up and pack away at this event held close to the Allotment, at Manor Farm, Corsley. Last year a few of us were lucky enough to attend the event too, and ate as much game stew as we possibly could whilst watching the play sat in the grounds of the Elizabethan manor. The evening is organised by local volunteers who do so to raise money for local charities and community organisations. So far the BCC has benefited from money towards ride Leader training, the BCC shelter and the Longleat MTB Feasibility study.So, please put the 18th and 19th June in your diaries and come along to help out, there’ll be more info on the Forum soon, but all you need to know is that they gave us all cups of tea and lush bacon butties as we worked last year…

  • FUN in the PARK

    Welshmill Park, Frome

    Saturday 21st May, 12 till 4pm

    Frome Recreation and Open Grounds Supporters (FROGS) have got through the first stage for a £50,000 grant to improve Welshmill park and the bid includes a bike track, natural play features, woodland trails, etc, but there is a lot to do before the deadline in September.

    We are running a Consultation event on Saturday 21st May, because we need to hear people’s views, and also gather evidence to include in our bid.

    Please come along!  Bring your bikes!  No hard work involved.  I will put up a gazebo and be organising a few bike games involving balloons, water pistols and tightropes. The idea is to attract people to Welshmill and sample their views about what they would like to see in the space.

    All help will be very welcome, so why not pop by? Fill in a questionaire! Help with the activities! Talk to people about the loveliness of biking in general and bike tracks in Frome in particular!

  • A crime we didn't commit

    On Thursday evening a crack litter picking team was sent to longleat forest by the BCC Committee for litter dropping crimes they didn’t commit. These men (and a woman) promptly went about picking litter all over the Longleat estate whilst riding bikes and doing skids. Today, still trying to work out why so many people left bags of poo all over the place, they survive as riders of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire… The BCC Litter Picking Team-crew-gang.

    Al, who had spent most of the evening wearing an unnecessary amount of jewellery and talking street, was keen to comment that “I ain’t gettin’ on no plane!” though we, like you, have no idea what the hell he was going on about.

    Chas Thursfield, who organised the pick declined to comment on Al’s oddness but was heard saying “I love it when a plan comes together” on a number of occasions.

    Say, are we a groovy, happenin’ bunch o’ guys, or what?

    Listen!

  • Wotta Lotta Litter…

    Following on from Sunday’s Dig Day, I can report that The Allotment is absolutely devoid of litter. Not a trace. Not so much as a Werther’s wrapper or an EPO syringe. Rien. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

    Sadly, however, the same cannot be said of the rest of Longleat forest, and this has become something of a bugbear of mine over recent weeks. For me, a ride is partially spoiled when I’m nipping gazelle-like [don’t laugh] through some sinewy singletrack deep in the undergrowth only to find a discarded carrierbag with an empty six-pack of “Monster” cans nearby.

    I’m certain that BCC members are not responsible. But there’s an awful lot of litter around the trails we use. A Mule-bar wrapper here, a Powerade bottle there. Everybody drops litter. Sometimes accidentally. Even I’ve been known to stuff a wrapper in my pocket only to find it’s not there by the end of the ride. I had to punish myself quite severely for that one.

    So, it’s a big forest, but if we approach it methodically, I reckon we can put a substantial dent in the litter levels out there. I suggest a Bike Ride/Litter Patrol one evening, which will combine a leisurely ride with litter collection along the way. It should only take an hour or two if there’s enough of us. We’ll set off for a section of the forest in pairs, each with an empty rucksack, lined with a bin-liner. One rider fills the others person’s rucksack so he/she doesn’t have to keep taking it off or putting it on. Simple as.

    I realise collecting other people’s litter is an unpleasant chore, but as well as giving you that inner glow of being really useful, there will be the added incentive of free drinks/cakes for all do-gooders supplied from Mr Denham’s van. I have also hidden a £50 note in an empty Quavers packet somewhere in the forest. And if nothing else it’s a gesture of goodwill to the Longleat estate, proving that we genuinely care about the forest we ride in.

    A show of hands, first, please, to see who’s willing to help out. So as not to intrude on the Tuesday Nightrides, I suggest a Thursday evening and maybe starting earlier than 7pm? Possibly even THIS Thursday (21st Apr) to make the most of the good weather?

    Who’s with me?

  • Time-lapse – Corsley Bike Track

    A little time-lapse from the Dig Day Away last month:

    Dig Day Away from Black Canon Collective on Vimeo.