QueerQuest #5

Streetview: https://maps.app.goo.gl/gknhAjyLti5bYETm6
Geocache code: GCBE1XG

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Gawain finds refuge with Bertilak, a powerful lord whose robust welcome and open challenge hint at a deeper connection. Here, Gawain experiences a strong bond, a sense of brotherhood and camaraderie.

When we venture into the unknown, we often struggle to imagine that we won’t be alone there. But in that wilderness, we meet others having a similar experience. What kinds of ‘brotherhood’, friendship or chosen family have provided you with a sense of survival and support outside conventional norms?

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Artist Statement: This piece celebrates the local with a nod to the colours of the Port Vale football strip by way of an up-cycled, tiny, ceramic cup and saucer. The footballs spilling out and the little people speak of fond memories of ‘Lads ‘n’ Dads’ at Biddulph playing fields in the 1990s.

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We chose this location based on a story shared by a community member at Pride In The Moorlands in June 2025.

“I probably had my first moments of gender euphoria and brotherhood on those pitches at Halls Road playing fields, going to play football at Lads and Dads in the early 1990s. At the time, I was one of the only girls in the group, but when I was 26 I transitioned and live as a male now. In those days, I didn’t really even realise that I wasn’t one of the lads – I just felt that I was where I belonged. Football has always been that space for me.”

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This gay night in Milton, less than a mile from the Staffordshire Moorlands, is significant due to its early date. Male homosexuality had been decriminalised just two years earlier in 1967, after a ten-year delay from the Wolfenden Report, during which the government claimed the public was not ready. Therefore, it was quite remarkable to find a gay night in what was essentially a rural area in 1969.

LINK: https://olgbtstoke.org.uk/lgbt-history-in-the-staffordshire-moorlands/   

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“[You found out about ‘gay’ nights] By word of mouth… in rural areas too, on a Tuesday night it was The Admiral Rodney in Prestbury… on Thursday it was the Market Tavern [in Sandbach].

That’s where we [groups of homosexual and bisexual people] met… it was in people’s houses. You might call them parties these days but it was just a getting together… Wherever you go, you could find out. Ask friends, ‘do you know anybody who…’”