Fame and fortune of our feisty women
Reporter: DAWN MARSDEN
Date published: 31 August 2009
Exhibition celebrates Oldham’s women of substance
HERE come the girls . . . feisty females will be the focus of a new exhibition celebrating the character, independence and achievements of Oldham’s greatest women.
Women of Oldham, which opens on September 12 at Gallery Oldham, will tell the story of local women who have won national fame and explore the ways women have contributed to the wealth and growth of the borough over the last 200 years.
From mill-workers to opera singers and landgirls to supermodels, there are dozens of stories to be told.
You can discover the tale of suffragette Annie Kenney who fought for women’s right to vote.
She joined the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1905 and was a supporter and friend of Christabel Pankhurst. The working class heroine is credited with sparking off suffragette militancy when she addressed Winston Churchill.
During a Liberal rally at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall she asked him if, when he was elected, he would make women’s suffrage a government issue. Uproar broke out when she got no reply and a battle began. Miss Kenney was imprisoned in Strangeways Prison for three days for her part in the protest and 13 times in total.
Born in Shelderslow, Springhead, in 1879, Miss Kenney studied the great thinkers at an early age and joined the Pankhursts in the women’s movement.
She took her message as far afield as France and America but married and settled in Herts after women won the vote in 1918. She died in 1953 and the plaque in her honour was erected at Leesbrook Mill in Lees where she started work in 1892.
The exhibition includes a sculpture of Annie, a suffragist banner and photos of a suffragette march.
Other women featured include local benefactor Dame Sarah Lees who became the first female Mayor of Oldham in 1910.
She did not become involved in local government and women’s suffrage until after her husband Edward Lees’ death in 1894. After the act was passed allowing women to serve on councils, she joined the town council as a Liberal member for Hollinwood.
She was very generous to Oldham, presenting recreation grounds, establishing a nurses home, endowing scholarships and helping to create the Garden Suburb before her death in 1935.
A commemorative plaque to honour Dame Sarah was put up in Werneth Park on November 10, 1999, exactly 90 years after she became the first person to be given the Freedom of Oldham.
Councillor Mohib Uddin said: “Next year is the centenary of Sarah Lees becoming the first female Mayor of Oldham. She was only the second woman in the country to achieve a role like that and in the male-dominated world of local politics it was an amazing achievement.
“We wanted to mark the centenary in some way and celebrating the achievements of local women through an exhibition presented the perfect opportunity to do this.”
Famous Oldham artist Helen Bradley started painting at the age of 65 to show her grandchildren how different the world looked when she was a child.
Her distinctive scenes of Edwardian life gave Helen celebrity status and she carried on painting right up until her death in 1979.
Helen is celebrated in the exhibition with her painting “A Special Treat” on display.
“Coronation Street” actress Anne Kirkbride, who started life at the Oldham Coliseum, has played long-suffering Deirdre Barlow since 1972.
Photographs from some of her early stage shows right to her Street days (complete with those famous big glasses) will be on display.
International supermodel Karen Elson, wife of Jack White from the rock band White Stripes, has worked for all the top designers since winning the VH1 Model of the Year accolade in 1998. The former North Chadderton School pupil shot to fame when she famously shaved off her eyebrows and cut off her long red hair.
The lives of female mill workers, and the way the job gave them newfound financial independence, confidence and assertiveness, will also be explored throughout the exhibition.
Women of Oldham is on view at Gallery Oldham from September 12 to January 10.
