Celebrating the radical legacy of Pendle’s revolutionary women World Leaders Tuck Into a Slice of

Celebrating the Radical Legacy of Pendle’s Revolutionary Women

Guerilla artists’ plan to celebrate the pioneering achievements of Pendle’s overlooked poets, writers and campaigners

As anyone who has been following the progress of the Pendle Radicals programme will know, there is a long and proud history of extraordinary women doing extraordinary things for the communities around Pendle Hill. Mid Pennine Arts was delighted to welcome a contemporary band of extraordinary women to celebrate their sisters’ achievements via an eye-catching public art campaign. Rosie’s Plaques – an award-winning arts and crafts offshoot of the Common Lot Theatre Company from Norwich – visited Clarion House as the first date on their national tour.

This lively group of ‘guerrilla artists’ specialise in making unofficial blue plaques traditionally marking the homes of the great and the good across the UK. In 1867 the very first blue plaque was unveiled to mark the London birthplace of Lord Byron. These iconic heritage plaques can now be found on buildings across the UK, celebrating ‘great figures of the past from all walks of life who have contributed to society’. But do they tell the whole story? There are more © Rosie’s Plaques than 4500 heritage plaques in the UK. Less than 12% of them celebrate the lives, achievements and spaces of women.

In 2018, while researching their show All Mouth No Trousers, The Common Lot theatre discovered that, of 300 heritage plaques in Norwich, only 25 celebrated women. Outraged by this shocking imbalance, they instigated a guerrilla art project, creating their own plaques to commemorate the women of Norwich that history has forgotten or erased. The plaques rely on traditional, hands-on clay crafting and typography to create beautiful hand-crafted items. Working alongside local collaborators, the Rosie’s Plaques team produced plaques for half a dozen overlooked women in Pendle which will be revealed on International Women’s Day: 8 March 2022. The primary focus of the plaque making was for Ethel Carnie Holdsworth, the first working class woman to have a novel published and who was a tireless campaigner for the rights and working conditions of mill workers in East Lancashire. This powerhouse prolific, radical writer lived in three Pendle towns during her adult life, but how would anyone know? Maggie Wheeler from the Common Lot theatre company who facilitated the workshop said: “It was wonderful to hear the stories of the amazing women of East Lancashire and help local women celebrate their legacies. “We had a wonderful time at the Clarion House and we hope the plaques the participants made will burnish the memory of some extraordinary local women who stood firm for their beliefs and made a lasting impact on society. “We still find it amazing that the books of Ethel Carnie Holdsworth – who was a more popular author than HG Wells in her day – are no longer in print!” For further information visit: midpenninearts. org.uk/programmes/pendle-radicals

© Rosie’s Plaques