Dates for the Friends’ diaries:
(With regret, our session of 22 May with Dr Laura Lammasniemi, ‘Archiving women’s struggles with the law’, had to be cancelled due to the speaker’s illness, and will be re-scheduled for the autumn term).
Wednesday June 19th
You are invited to join us on an outing to Tunbridge Wells,, where we have arranged a tour of the Amelia Scott Centre. The Tunbridge Wells Museum and Library has been renamed after Amelia Scott (1860-1952), a suffragist, reformer, local councillor and activist, and the Centre’s holdings of her papers and memorabilia complement those held at The Women’s Library (archive collection 7ASC).
The Curator, Dr Ian Beavis, will be our guide, and we are promised glimpses behind the scenes as well as in the galleries.
The tour will begin at 3.00 pm.
We suggest meeting up between 2.30 and 2.40 pm at Tunbridge Wells Central station. A suitable train leaves Charing Cross at 13.45 pm, taking in London Bridge at 13.54 pm.
It would be helpful to know numbers, and whom to look out for! The Centre is at Civic Way, Tunbridge Wells TN1 1AW. It is a short walk from the station, but it is uphill, and if anyone would like a taxi could they please inform us in their reply. Kindly let susan.pares38@gmail.com know if you are coming.
Wednesday 3 July
Our Annual General Meeting will take place at LSE Library at 5.00 pm, with formal business followed by a drinks reception, and a celebration of the work of the late Dale Spender.
And two events beyond TWL (though closely related):
1) A new exhibition on ‘Women and the Church of England: 200 Years of Women’s Ministry and Agency’ at Lambeth Palace Library marks the 30th anniversary of the ordination of 1200 women to the priesthood in the Church of England, the 80th anniversary of the priesting of Florence Li Tim-Oi, and the 10th anniversary of the legislation passing which allows women to be consecrated as bishops in the Church of England.
The ordination of women within the Church of England, and across the Anglican Communion, was and remains a subject of impassioned debate. In the exhibition we have provided a small selection of material which gives a flavour of the debates, discussions, and concerns which surrounded the ordination of women. We are pleased to be able to display a copy of the 1944 letter announcing Florence Li Tim-Oi’s ordination and explaining the situation which led to it. The exhibition also explores the broader context of women’s ministry in the Church in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Central to the narrative are the stories of some of those women whose steps led the way to women’s ministry within the Church of England, such as Angela Burdett-Coutts, Octavia Hill, Dame Betty Ridley, Elizabeth Ferard, Isabella Gilmore, Florence Li Tim-Oi, and the 32 women ordained as priests in Bristol on 12 March 1994.
Free Entry
9 April – 29 August 2024, 9:30 – 17:00 Monday to Friday
Mezzanine gallery
Anteroom display until 21 June 2024
Saturday 1 June, 6 July, 8 August 10:00 – 17:00
2) A new play about the suffragette movement – Hourglass: A Suffragette’s Story, which tells the story of Lady Caroline Braithwaite who enters the suffrage movement blind to the pitfalls that lie ahead, with Cordelia, her daughter, following in her footsteps. In a parallel story their maidservant, Kitty, faces dire consequences for attending a suffragette rally. It is a black comedy which will keep audiences on the edge of their seats. It also illustrates the inequalities both within the suffragette movement and in society as a whole. To find out more, visit: https://www.
Hourglass will make its debut at the recently re-opened Soho Poly (part of the University of Westminster), as part of a festival on 25 June (7pm) and 26 June (2pm and 7pm). It will then move to Actors East in Dalston on 28 June (7.30pm), 29 June (2pm and 7.30pm) and 30 June (3pm).