An ideal talk for local, family and women’s groups and organisations.
In this talk Chris dips into a fascinating range of diaries, letters and other personal documents mostly produced by women themselves.
You can listen to extracts from Abigail Gawthern’s diary, written between 1751-1810. She recorded lots of gossip but on one occasion she visits the dentist ‘who drew me nine teeth at one sitting’! Then there’s the letters of an 18th century lady traveller who, despite poor health, toured extensively round Europe.
From the world of work there’s evidence of women working on country estates, including Welbeck, where they helped with everything from the harvest to planting crops. With the rise of industry girls and women found employment in hosiery and the lace trades women. At the mill at Norton Cuckney girls as young as 7 and 8 years were taken on as apprentices. Some women fell on hard times and their treatment could be very harsh. Sarah Holt of St Marys in Nottingham was sentenced to transportation in 1837 to Australia for stealing 8 lbs of cheese.
The talk also looks at the increasing influence of women on political life, focusing on the impact of suffragette Helen Watts of Lenton. It looks at the origin of women’s organisations like the Women’s Institute and at the lives of some distinguished women including the artist Dame Laura Knight.
Memories of household life are recalled. One woman, Peggy, remembers helping to run the house as her ‘Mum’ was out cleaning offices in the Lace Market….’there wasn’t enough money for the light and heat so many a time we had to sit in the dark’…..
