6 August 2026
Back To The Market Research Blog
Back To The Market commissioned artist Cecily Loveys Jervoise updates us on the research surrounding Jeremy Thorpe’s wedding reception at Barnstaple Pannier Market in 1968.
“Born at the same time as the science of history, the science of dress has long lagged behind its development”, the main difference is “of all of the types of cultural research, it has, up to now, been the most overlooked, abandoned above all to rather anecdotal banalities”
Roland Bartes, The Language of Fashion, 2006, p14
“Any kind of queer past is full of silences; clothing, so often, acts as the wearers voice.” Elenor Medhurst, A History of Lesbian Fashion, 2024, p208
Queerness is impossible to quantify. Even harder when shame, laws and social codes are rife, forcing people to hide and leave parts of who they are unsaid. In the early 1960s, when it was illegal to be gay, queerness became a topic shrouded in mystery and gossip, with jobs on the line, illusive notes being scrutinised and people’s clothing being a source of ‘evidence’ of queerness.
My commission is about Jeremy Thorpe – an MP in north devon 1959 to 1979 and Leader of the Liberal Party from 1967 to 1976. In 1979 he was put on trial for charges of conspiracy to murder is former boyfriend Norman Scott. The judge ruled him not guilty. However, what happened in between this series of events is buckets of dramatized news headlines and local gossip. I’m interested in how oral stories and speculation around queerness can spread, with anecdotes and rumours taking centre stage.
Like the above quote from Bartes states, clothing is rarely considered as a language or a science. However, it is a language which we read every day without realising. On its own an item of clothing is an object, however within a social context of style and self-expression clothing becomes fashion as a language. One reoccurring theme in the newspaper descriptions of Thorpe is how he was apparently ‘immaculately dressed’, and how this is being used as a signifier that he is gay. I'm interested in how clothing and gossip inform ideas around queerness and can be how queer expression comes out. Something internal becomes external - a collage of nearly ironed trousers, matching tie or a coloured hanker chief.
Thorpe describes what he went through as a “witchhunt” with people and papers seeking craving and crafting allegations of homosexuality. This also relates to the Stone Circles around Devon many of which are named after supposed witch folklores and is another area of research I may explore.
The sculptures I will make in response to this will take the form of metal and textiles works. Using metal found around devon to forge a relic of gossip and clothing, metal turning like words and stories being twisted every time they are told. Fabric works will be dyed with medieval ink, which gets darker whilst brewing and then fades over time, much like the cycle of gossip. The fabric works will be made solid and freestanding using crystals from sea salt from the north Devon Sea, balancing and fragile like a queer identity under scrutiny. I want to use local materials to tell a local tale.
The Lib Dem peer Baroness Seear said of Thorpe: “You’ll never get to the bottom of him” a statement which I am eager to explore in this commission.
Refs:
Roland Bartes, The Language of Fashion, 2006
Elenor Medhurst, A History of Lesbian Fashion, 2024,
Jeremy Thorpe review – Michael Bloch’s gripping and insightful biography
Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. Thanks to National Lottery players, we will be able to deliver a year-long project that provides research opportunities, fun activities for the community, and the chance for people to think more deeply about what the Pannier Market means to our area.
