The Great Miss Lydia Becker
1st April 2024 - 7:30 pm
Hazelmere, Winsford Cheshire
Title of Talk: Lydia Becker and her pioneering role in the Suffrage Movement
By Joanna Williams
Joanna tells the forgotten story of a suffragist, scientist and trailblazer; the feisty and single-minded Lydia Becker (1827 – 1890). Lydia was a leader in the early British Suffrage movement, as well as an accomplished scientist who had regular correspondence with Charles Darwin. She established Manchester as a centre for the suffrage movement and, with Richard Pankhurst, arranged for the first woman to vote in a British election.
A fourteen year old Emmeline Pankhurst was taken by her mother to a women’s suffrage meeting in Manchester. She recalled in her 1914 autobiography that she heard ‘the great Miss Lydia Becker’ speak and as a result she came out ‘a conscious and confirmed suffragist’!
Sponsor: Fowles Funeral Services
All Welcome: £3 at the door for visitors
Read moreWarrington's Hidden Transporter Bridge
13th May 2024 - 7:30 pm
Hazelmere, Winsford Cheshire
Title of Talk: Warrington’s Hidden Transporter Bridge
By Margaret Ingham
Margaret tells the amazing story of a historical gem in Warrington, the Warrington Transporter Bridge! We are all aware of the Runcorn Transporter Bridge but there is another spanning across the River Mersey which has been forgotten in the mists of time. It is a structural steel transporter bridge with a span of 200 feet (61 metres), is 30 feet wide (9 metres), and 76 feet (23metres) above high water level, with an overall length of 339 feet (103 metres). It was commissioned in 1916 and, although it has been out of use since about 1964, it is still standing. It was designed by William Henry Hunter and built by William Arrol and Co. We will hear how it was used and why it fell into disrepair.
Sponsored by Mr & Mrs I Rogers
All Welcome: £3 at the door for visitors
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