Swindon in the Past Lane

Suffragette, the first film to portrait the working class woman's involvement with the Votes for Women campaign, features an early scene where laundry worker Maud Watts gets caught up in the great window smashing demonstration that took place in the West End in March 1912. One hundred and thirty demonstrators, mostly women, were sent for trial on charges of malicious damage to plate glass windows. Among them was Edith's friend and fellow suffragette, Winifred Bray, sentenced to four months imprisonment in Winson Green Prison, Birmingham. On her release Winifred wrote the following letter to Edith, describing her experience of forcible feeding and prison life. Wed: June 26 [1912] I'm home again at last, & feel just like a soul snatched out of hell & deposited in heaven! Still feeling desperately weak, & with a throat so sore that I mustn't talk, but nevertheless a peaceful soul, suddenly released from almost intolerable torture, & therefore ha...

About forty people joined the Swindon Suffragette team on a guided walk around Old Town today visiting the places significant to Edith New, the Swindon born suffragette, who was the first to to chain herself to railings and to break windows at 10 Downing Street as a means of protest in the Votes for Women campaign. Following her release from Holloway prison in August 1908, Edith returned to Swindon to recuperate from her ordeal.  She stayed with her mother at 29 Lethbridge Road where a reporter from the Swindon Advertiser visited her and the following account was published in the newspaper. Swindon Advertiser Monday, September 7, 1908. Votes For Women Miss Edith New in Swindon The Active Suffragist interviewed Swindon to be visited Miss Edith New, whose name has been so prominently before the public in connection with the votes for women campaign, and who is a native of Swindon, has been taking a well earned rest in the railway town during the past fe...

On general release from today, the film Suffragette puts fictional character Maud Watts at the very heart of the Votes for Women campaign. The film focuses on the increasingly violent tactics employed by the suffragettes and the level of danger the women were prepared to risk in the battle for enfranchisement. Confusing pre release publicity announced that Helena Bonham Carter would be playing Swindon suffragette Edith New, however, with the film set in 1912, it soon became obvious that the Helena Bonham Carter character was based on a different source, as our Edith had already returned to teaching by that date. Carey Mulligan gave a compelling performance as young mother Maud Watts whose early involvement with the Votes for Women campaign begins because of the plight of fellow laundry worker Violet Miller, played by Anne Marie Duff. The stories of Maud and Violet throw emphasis on the working class members of the Votes for Women campaign in contrast to the more familiar upper ...

A sell out attendance at the talk last night at Central Library, Swindon and how lucky were we to have Tamara, Edith's great-niece as guest of honour? Tamara made the journey from Leicester to share various items from Edith's effects, including her hunger strike medal. These two photographs of Edith were taken approximately 45 years apart.  In both of them she is pictured with her lifelong friend Nea Campion.  The two women met in around 1906 as teachers at St Mary’s Church of England School in Lewisham and Nea was with Edith when she died in 1951. Here they are pictured as young women taking tea – a setting straight out of a period drama. And here they are some 45 years later – Edith puffing on a cigarette – sharing some letters. What incredible times these women lived through. They had won the vote, survived two world wars, witnessed the beginnings of social reform and the creation of the National Health Service. I’m sure you’ll agree, some...