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Celebration of Ethel Carnie Holdsworth
16 September 2023 @ 1:00 PM - 3:30 PM BST
Ethel Carnie Holdsworth – celebrated as a working-class writer, feminist, and socialist activist and the first working-class woman in Britain to be a published novelist.
Her popular novel, Helen of Four Gates notably became an acclaimed silent melodrama, directed by Cecil Hepworth in 1920 and filmed locally.
Sue & Irene Wilde (the current owners of her former home in Slack Top) continue to keep her legacy alive and have created a collection of items sharing her remarkable achievements.
Local filmmaker (and Museum Trustee) Nick Wilding is more familiar than most with Ethel’s story. Instrumental in the restoration of Helen of Four Gates and bringing it back to the big screen in Hebden Bridge in 2008. It is now proudly part of the British Film Institute National Archive.
He has been working collaboratively with Sue & Irene and will be curating their unique collection as a small exhibition, alongside a short screening of various extracts relating to her work in The Undercroft as part of Heritage Open Days Weekend.
A short walk will then take those interested across to her former home, where Calder Civic Trust have worked alongside Sue and Irene, to erect a blue plaque marking the home she lived in during the 1920’s and at that time was producing the anti-fascist newspaper, The Clear Light.
Timings*:
1pm – Exhibition in The Undercroft
1.30pm Screening from Nick Wilding
2.30pm Walk to Slack Top
3pm Plaque Unveiling
Approximate dependent on weather conditions – ticket holders will be advised of any last-minute changes.