Shipley’s role in votes for women fight highlighted in new tour

The story of one of the biggest rallies outside of London in the early 20th Century calling for women’s right to vote is to be retold at a series of events in the town where it took place.

An estimated 100,000 people took part in a mass rally in support of the suffragette movement at Shipley Glen in West Yorkshire in 1908, with local campaigner Nell Kenney one of the key speakers.

A new heritage tour being launched this weekend in Shipley, and running for much of the year, aims to highlight the town’s role in the suffragette movement, with actress and singer Joanne Crowther playing the part of Ms Kenny.

Ms Crowther said the aim was to reclaim a story of “women who stood up and demanded change”.

Ms Crowther said it must have been a huge moment when “up to 100,000 people surged from Bradford city, and across the region, up to the Glen to take part in this amazing rally”.

In fact, the event at Shipley Glen is considered to be a direct precursor to the famed Hyde Park rally held later that year in support of women’s right to vote.

At the Shipley rally, Ms Kenney, who worked for a stationers in Bingley and was a leading member of the Women’s Social and Political Union, spoke alongside famous suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst.

Ms Crowther explained that Ms Kenney and her sisters not only campaigned across West Yorkshire, but also travelled widely – from the North East to the Midlands – on bicycles and trains to spread the word about votes for women.

Ms Kenney also famously led demonstrations at the Houses of Parliament and at one point was jailed for 14 days as a result.

Ms Crowther said: “She had a very significant impact in the provinces in the votes for women movement. She was fearless.

“These women risked everything – reputation, freedom, safety – so we could have the right to vote today.”

Ms Crowther said the aim of the new tour, the first of which is due to take place at 13:00 BST on Sunday 25 May and which will be run regularly until the autumn, was to bring the story of Ms Kenney and other “forgotten” suffragettes back to life.

It would “really celebrate and appreciate all that dedication, hard work and sacrifice that enabled women now to be able to vote”, she said.

Ms Crowther explained that the inaugural performance would begin in Saltaire with her first playing another character, Pollie Toothill, a Victorian woman re-created from historical research and census records.

Ms Toothill would recount her life as the wife of a scandalous Victorian character in the 1870s – and would also give the audience a window onto the world of famed local personalities including Sir Titus Salt, the founder of Saltaire.

Ms Crowther said that as the audience boarded the famous Shipley Glen Tramway – dubbed the “time machine” – she would switch hats and costumes and grab her sash and umbrella, which was known as the suffragettes’ “weapon of choice”, to morph into Nell Kenney.

“Bringing this to life isn’t just about history,” she said.

“It’s about reclaiming a story of women who stood up and demanded change – and showing that this corner of Yorkshire was right at the heart of it.”