Iconic cycle shot brought to life
It is an iconic image that captures the genteel side to life for one of Wolverhampton's most famous Victorian families.
Dressed in prim blouses, starched hats and Mary Poppins-style full skirts, the daughters of Thomas Bantock gathered for an outing around the grounds on their bicycles.
The family estate has now become Bantock Park, the historic home of a museum, library and popular cafe.
And this week a new generation of Wulfrunians recreated the steps of the Bantock daughters, who were captured on camera in the 1880s.
Their version of the famous photograph, which is on display inside the Finchfield attraction, will be used to help dramatise the story of the Sunbeam company in a stage production by Wolverhampton's Central Youth Theatre.
The young actors were at Bantock to record a short film as part of Supreme Sunbeam, which they will perform at the city's Grand Theatre from September 20 to 22.
The sisters are pictured standing alongside Sunbeam bicycles.
The Wolverhampton drama stars are continuing their filming outside the old Sunbeamland factory off the Penn Road island, plus other areas of interest including Vicarage Road in Penn, the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, the former Sunbeam experimental car workshop off Sunbeam Street and the Great Western pub in Sun Street.
The group, based in Whitmore Reans, plans to take audiences on a nostalgic trip from the Victorian workshops of the Sunbeam Company to the heat of 1920s Daytona Beach, Florida, where the company's car broke the world land-speed record. It is the biggest performance they have undertaken and the play has been written by professional playwright Peter Roberts.
It is based around the experiences of 96-year-old former Sunbeam worker George Peck, who still lives in Bilbrook.
The completed film will premiere on July 1 at Bantock House on the same day as Marston Heritage Trust holds its annual rally of Sunbeam bicycles and motorcycles.
