| The Serpollet Sculpture
The Bexhill Observer report - 30/9/2002 |
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Breezy Bexhill turned an unveiling ceremony into something rather different on Saturday morning.
Town Mayor Cllr Peter Fairhurst's skeletal sculpture on De La Warr Parade depicting the car which won Britain's first international motorsport meeting on the spot should have been under wraps as the public gathered. But despite bright sunshine, a strong souwester made it impossible to keep any form of sheeting over the shot-blasted stainless steel impression of the artist-mayor's design. |
 The Sculpture of the Serpollet on the seafront |
| But tribute was paid to M. Leon Serpollet and the "Easter Egg" - the steam car of his own manufacture on which the French competitor won the Bexhill Motor Trials of 1902. | |
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Led by Old Town Preservation Society chairman Michael Kent on his 1899 Peugeot, a convoy of cars
of the era motored the 1902 race route from Galley Hill to the Sackville.
The Town Mayor rode aboard Bexhill's reproduction Serpollet, arriving before the knot of bystanders and guests huddling from the wind in a swirl of steam and with Bexhill Regeneration Partnership chairman Malcolm Mitcheson at the wheel giving a joyous hoot on the Serpollet's train-like whistle. |
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Youngsters of the Blue Stars marching band struck up a fresh number in honour of an occasion seen as
marking the start of the landscaping and improvement of the seafront as part of town regeneration.
Appropriately, the sculpture is entirely a "Made in Rother" effort. |
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The tubular sculpture is intended to give an "impression" of the Serpollet, complete with elliptical wheels
wheels depicting the distortion characteristic of early photographs of speeding cars.
The Mayor explained: "I did a drawing then made a model. I gave the drawing and the model to Anvil Tubesmiths of Sedlescombe and they produced this. I think they have done a terrific job." The Serpollet, first of a planned series of sculptures to adorn the parades, has cost just £2,500. In a speech, the Town Mayor thanked the regeneration partnership's town centre and tourism action group for backing the project. |
 The serpollet replica alongside its sculpture |
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With a whoosh, a rocket soared into the air and 40 helium-filled balloons executed a horizontal
getaway from under the Serpollet over the heads of the crowd and out across a storm-tossed Channel.
Guests at the ceremony included town MP Gregory Barker, Rother chairman Cllr Ron Parren and his wife and the leader of Rother, Cllr Graham Gubby. | |