To mark the publication of Volume Three of The Women Who Built Bristol series, author Jane Duffus writes about uncovering another 250 extraordinary women from our city’s past
The Women Who Built Bristol project is a series of three books celebrating women with a tangible connection to this city who got stuff done. Maybe the woman was born here, died here or lived here for a bit in the middle of her life. Maybe she invented something, wrote something or achieved something memorable while within our city walls. She might be a woman whose name is already recorded in other history books for whatever it is she did, or perhaps nobody ever took any notice of her achievements.
Then again, maybe she hid her light under a bushel or didn’t think what she was doing was anything out of the ordinary and so she would be astonished to even find herself in a book. All Bristol women who did something of public interest are welcome in these books. The only rule for entry is she must no longer be alive.
Since getting the green light for volume one of The Women Who Built Bristol in spring 2017, the project of finding and recording stories about forgotten women has taken over my life in a wonderful way and this March, to coincide with International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, I’m excited to be publishing the third volume, bringing the grand total of women celebrated to 750. That’s 750 extraordinary stories of (largely) unsung sheroes who were long overdue their moment in the spotlight.
The one question I am asked more than any other is where I find the women to write about and there is no short answer to that. The women come from all over the place: newspaper archives, census reports, graveyard tombstones, building names, street signs and, my favourite, via emails that readers send me to tell me about one of their own long-passed relatives.
It is also important to consider why these women are hidden from history. As a sweeping generalisation, I would say it is because most other history books (traditionally written by and about men) did not think women’s stories were worth recording at the time, and did not want women to have any power or authority, so did not publicise their achievements. Consequently, contemporary historians have to pick at tiny threads and unravel the most throwaway of comments to try and find the untold stories of our past.
One frustration is that I always come across a handful of really interesting sounding women but they don’t seem to have names. I mean, of course those women did have names, it’s just that they have been completely lost to history meaning that we’re left with a scrap of a story but nobody concrete to pin it to. In most instances, I have to let the story go. However, sometimes I think the story is so good that it still needs to be told, and perhaps one day a name will come to light that matches the story. After all, historians are always uncovering new information.
Another sticking point is the habit of referring to women by their husband’s names, such as the suffrage campaigner ‘Mrs Frederick William Rogers’. The problems here are numerous. To start with: 1) These are her husband’s names, therefore 2) her achievements are now being linked to him, and 3) it’s now really hard to find out her name on account of his name dominating the newspaper reports. I eventually found out that her name was Blanche Rogers and, just by learning her name, I was able to research a great deal more about her life.
Despite the fact that everyone in these books is dead, there is lots to be positive about and there are many hundreds, if not thousands, more women still to be researched. After all, we have only just started to scratch the surface of women’s untold stories…
Three standout women from Volume Three
Elizabeth Burns
In 1888, Elizabeth (1871-1925) married gasworks labourer Thomas Burns and the couple started a family. In the coming years, Elizabeth and Thomas would have 11 daughters and the large family lived at 22 Frogmore Street. A reporter from the News of the World came to visit them in 1910 because word of Elizabeth’s impressive brood of girls had spread. A doctor from the States had 11 sons and he hoped that nobody could beat him for the most number of children of the same sex and he hired a private detective to prove him right. However, Elizabeth proved him wrong! She was rewarded with £60 from the doctor as well as a willow plate from the News of the World that was decorated to say: “Britain beats the world family”.
Ruby and Elsie Browne (okay, two women!)
On 18 September 1896, 12-year-old Ruby (1884-1917) and her three-year-old sister Elsie (born 1893, death date unknown) endured an horrific ordeal at the hands of their father, grocer Charlie Browne. Facing bankruptcy, Charlie took his daughters to the Clifton Suspension Bridge and threw them over, thinking that by reducing the size of his family he would reduce his living costs.
In an astonishing twist of fate, a boat was passing under the bridge and the crew picked up the unconscious girls. The sailors quickly took them into a nearby hotel, where policemen rushed the girls to the BRI. After spending six months convalescing at the Clifton home of Greville Edwards, both girls recovered.
At the ensuing court hearing where Charlie was charged with attempted double murder, he was declared insane and temporarily placed in an asylum.
Ivy Heppell
In December 1906, 19-year-old Bristolian Ivy Heppell (1887-1918) took part in the suffragette raid on the House of Commons, for which she was one of five women who were arrested. The arresting officers had to literally drag Ivy out of the building because she was clinging to the furniture in an effort to stay put.
She was sent to Holloway Prison for two weeks and was the youngest woman, and the first Bristolian, to be imprisoned for the cause.
A copy of Ivy’s 1917 prison diary is in the Bristol Museums collection and a section from her time in prison reads: “Tuesday Jan 1st: Miss [S] Allen & Miss H came to see me yesterday afternoon, the last day of the old year, they were at the court when I was tried & got the wool and needles for me. The knitting needles have been most useful to eat boiled rice with, much better than a wooden spoon.”
In the following years, Ivy continued to work for the suffragettes but she died in London in 1918, aged just 31.
To order a signed copy of any books in The Women Who Built Bristol series, please order directly from Jane’s website at janeduffus.com. Copies of Volume 3 come with a free copy of the limited-edition Volume 3.1 while stocks last.
