Writer and historian Jill Liddington is to talk at an event on ‘Votes for Women in Halifax and West Yorkshire’. The event takes place in the Albany Club, Hope Hall, Halifax, on the evening of Friday 20 February, and will include book signing opportunities.

Tickets can be booked via Eventbrite here.

Event details

When Votes for Women campaigns swept the country, Yorkshire was no exception.

In Halifax, suffragettes campaigned vigorously. Mary Taylor was a Poor Law Guardian. Lavena Saltonstall worked in a Hebden Bridge clothing factory. In 1907, in Westminster, they were arrested and sentenced to 14 days in prison.

By chance, we know more about Huddersfield. Their minute book has miraculously survived! Young Dora Thewlis was Huddersfield’s ‘baby suffragette’, Her vivid Daily Mirror front-page arrest photo appears on the Rebel Girls cover (Virago 2006).

Of course, not everyone supported militancy. Across in industrial Lancashire, women campaigned as ‘radical suffragists’ (One Hand Tied Behind Us, 1978, 2000). And near Huddersfield, Colne Valley artist Florence Lockwood recorded her life as a fearless suffragist in her autobiography, An Ordinary Life (1932, 2024).

Doors Open 5.30 pm: With a chance to admire this magnificent house.
Refreshments from 6 pm: Open bar. Please arrive by 6.15.
Venue: The Albany Club, Hope Hall, 57 Clare Road, Halifax HX1 2JP.
Tickets: £16.95. (Click here Eventbrite, or search ‘Halifax Civic Trust’).
Walk ins welcome on the night.  
Bookstall & signing: Rebel Girls and (for Anne Lister fans) As Good as a Marriage (2023).
Street Parking nearby: small fee up to 8pm. Contactless payment.