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Lavena Saltonstall: local tailoress and suffragette
June 27 @ 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM BST
Free – £5.00
Author Jill Liddington joins us to tell another story of Hebden Bridge’s involvement in historical change. This time, Lavena Saltonstall, daughter of a fustian dyer who became part of the suffragette movement.
Lavena Saltonstall was born in 1881 in the valley below Heptonstall, and around her tenth birthday became a half-time tailoress. In 1906 Lavena got caught up in the dramatic swirl of labour and suffrage politics. After moving to Halifax, along with other local suffragettes, she travelled to Westminster, was arrested and sentenced to 14 days.
She wrote about the stultifying expectations of Edwardian women: ‘As I am a tailoress many people think it is bound my bounded duty to make trousers and vests…and thank God for my station in life… The exceptions are considered unwomanly and eccentric people’. Despite her passionate writings, Lavena remained virtually forgotten till Rebel Girls (2006).
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jill Liddington is an author and historian whose main research interest lies with women’s history ~ most especially the Votes for Women story. Much of her writing has centred on her fascination in discovering the history of forgotten suffragists and suffragettes, wherever they lived. Indeed, ‘Votes for Women – everywhere!‘
Jill will also be signing copies of her book “Rebel Girls” on the evening.