Sharing the Square with Mrs. Pankhurst ............

Now the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst in St Peter’s Square remains a popular one.*

Mrs. Pankhurst, 2022

On any one day there will be someone having their picture taken beside her.

And that is as it should be given her contribution to the campaign for extending the franchise to women.

Equally significant is that she was the first woman in 117 years to be recognised with a statue in a public place in the city since that of Queen Victoria in 1901.

But of course, Mrs. Pankhurst was not alone in the campaign, and we rightly remember Annie Kenney whose statue stands in Oldham’s Parliament Square, and those who died during the struggle.

Annot Robinson, crca 1895

And then there are the less well-known ones like Ada Chew who was active in the Trade Union Movement and the Independent Labour Party and whose name is on the plinth of Millicent Fawcett's statue in Parliament Square, London.

Here in Manchester, there were a host of working class women including Annot Robinson who is less well known but deserves more recognition.**

So perhaps we shall have more statues to those who made that contribution to maintaining the campaign, and perhaps Mrs. Robinson would be a start.***

Location; St Peter’s Square

Picture;  Sharing the Square with Mrs, Pankhurst, 2022, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and Annot Robinson, from ANNOT ROBINSON: A FORGOTTEN MANCHESTER SUFFRAGETTE***

*Emmeline Pankhurst, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=mrs.+pankhurst

**Annot Robinson, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Annot%20Robinson

***ANNOT ROBINSON: A FORGOTTEN MANCHESTER SUFFRAGETTE, Kate Rigby, Manchester Regional History Review, Vol 1 Nu 1 Spring 1987, http://www.hssr.mmu.ac.uk/mcrh/files/2013/01/mrhr_01i_rigby.pdf

The beer festival .......the swing band and an apology

Now, the 12th Didsbury Beer Festival was a success.

The Swingin' Affair Big Band

There were lots of people there, and lots of them had travelled some distance to enjoy the event.

Leaving aside those of us who had taken the tram from Chorlton, along with those who had crossed the city from the north, there were beer fans from Yorkshire, Somerset and the south east.

And I doubt anyone was disappointed by the range of beers on offer, or the wonderful Swingin’ Affair Big Band, which were everything Andrew Holland told me they would be.

Andrew Simpson, Andrew Simcock, and Peter Topping

Peter and I were there from just after midday and within the space of a few hours the venue was full, and plenty of people showed an interest in our new book, Manchester Pubs – the Story Behind the Doors- Didsbury.

And here I have to offer up an apology to Andrew Simcock, who supplied some excellent photographs of the Royal Oak, and as ever we were careful to acknowledge Andrew in both the credits and again in the story.

But somewhere along the line those credits disappeared, and it remains a mystery, for which as the author I have profusely apologized to Andrew.

Emmeline Pankhurst

And as these things go I know Andrew will not have made the same mistake with his new book, First in the Fight,  which is out later this month, which began as an account of the project to create a statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, and developed into much more.

According to the press release, First in the Fight has been “written by Helen Antrobus and Andrew Simcock, and with 20 individual Women in Print illustrations, First in the Fight tells of a city where, from the women who marched to St Peter’s Field flying the flag for reform to the first entrepreneurs, women have stood shoulder to shoulder in the fight for equality and change.

First in the Fight has been on a fascinating journey of its own, beginning with the public campaign championed by local councilor Andrew Simcock that led to the creation of the Emmeline Pankhurst statue, that now stands in St Peter’s Square in Manchester.  

All 20 women featured in the book were also part of the campaign, with their stories united by historian and author Helen Antrobus in First in the Fight.  

First in the Fight

The stories featured in First in the Fight are those of Margaret Ashton, Lydia Becker, Louise Da-Cocodia, Margaret Downes, Elizabeth Gaskell, Annie Horniman, Sunny Lowry, Kathleen Ollerenshaw, Emmeline Pankhurst, Christabel Pankhurst, Sylvia Pankhurst, Mary Quaile, Elizabeth Raffald, Esther Roper, Enriqueta Rylands, Olive Shapley, Shena Simon, Marie Stopes, Ellen Wilkinson and Emily Williamson”.

Now this may seem a long way from the Didsbury Beer Festival, but not so as Andrew was there all three nights working as a volunteer behind the counter and was on hand to have his picture taken with us.

Pictures; the Swingin’ Affair Big Band, 2019, and part of the Beer Festival, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the picture of Andrew, me and Peter, along with the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, 2019, from the collection of Andrew Simcock

Standing in front of Annie Kenney and Mrs Pankhurst .......

Now, amongst all the press coverage of the unveiling of the statues of Ememeline Pankhurst in Manchester and that of Annie Kenney in Oldham’s Parliament Square, one fact leapt out at me which is that we have had to wait a long time for both.

Mrs Pankhurst, Manchester, 2018

In the case of Mrs Pankhurst, hers is the first statue of a woman to be erected in the city since Queen Victoria statue  was unveiled in 1901 and until relatively recently the role of working class women in the campaign for the vote was largely overlooked.

At best working class women like Annie Kenney, Selina Cooper and Annot Robinson get “walk on parts” and at worst were almost completely ignored.

Many combined their campaigning activities alongside full time work and bringing up young families.

Others were also involved in their trade unions and in the campaigns to improve working conditions and during the Great War arguing for peace.

All of that said, to have two statues unveiled at the same time just eight miles apart commemorating the struggle to achieve the right of women to vote in Parliamentary elections is to be applauded.

Looking towards the Free Trade Hall, 2018

Mrs Pankhurst’s story is well known, and now she is represented by a bronze statue by sculptor Hazel Reeves which stands in St Peter’s Square facing towards the old Free Trade Hall  where some of the first demands for the vote and just a short distance from her home in Nelson Street.

The original idea came from Councillor Andrew Simcock who  launched a campaign in 2015,  to identify a Manchester “woman of significance” who would be remembered by a statute.

Andrew asked for suggestions and Mancunians voted for Mrs Pankhurst.

From there the project took another step forward with the invitation of 19 sculptors to produce a design from which a short list of six was chosen which resulted in the winning design by  Hazel Reeves, and the result was unveiled this week.

With Annie Kenney in Oldham, 2018

And while that event was happening, over in Oldham the statue of Annie Kenney was also unveiled.

Ms Kenny was born in 1879, and started part-time work in a textile mill at the age of 10, before going full time at 13.

She remained at the mill for 15 years, was involved in trade-union activities, furthered her education through self-study and promoted the study of literature among her work colleagues. She was a regular church attender.

One day I hope that there may also be a statue to Annot Robinson, who was born in Scotland in 1874.*

Annot Robinson, circa 1895

She had become active in Scottish politics in the 1890s and by 1895 was working for the Independent Labour Party in Dundee.

After her marriage she settled in Ancoats and became active in the labour movement in Manchester, continuing her work after she and her husband parted.

Subsequently living as a single-parent in an unaccepting age, she remained an active member of the ILP and at different times of the WSPU, the NUWSS and the Women’s Labour League (WLL), Women’s War Interests Committee, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, an ebullient speaker and tireless traveller and twice a candidate in local elections.

We shall see.

Location; Manchester and Oldham

Pictures; at the unveiling of Mrs Pankhurst and Annie Kenney's statues, courtesy of Matthew Benham and Annot Rbinson, from ANNOT ROBINSON: A FORGOTTEN MANCHESTER SUFFRAGETTE**

*Annot Robinson, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Annot%20Robinson

**ANNOT ROBINSON: A FORGOTTEN MANCHESTER SUFFRAGETTE, Kate Rigby, Manchester Regional History Review, Vol 1 Nu 1 Spring 1987,
http://www.hssr.mmu.ac.uk/mcrh/files/2013/01/mrhr_01i_rigby.pdf