To mark International Women’s day, on 8^th March, we look at a document that features several of Tameside’s best-known and most influential women.

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Tameside Local Studies & Archives Centre have the meeting minutes from the Ashton branch of the North of England Society of Women’s Suffrage that was started in 1909, held under the reference DD18. The minutes offer a peek into the committee meetings that brought these remarkable women together:

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Mrs Mamouriam, who was the 1^st woman to become a Labour councillor in Ashton. She organised a meeting of the ‘Open Door Council’ (a group arguing for equal economic opportunities for women) in Ashton, the first such meeting outside of London. She later became the president of the ‘Women’s Citizen Association’, which was the new name given to the Suffrage Society once they acquired the vote.

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Bertha Mason, daughter of mill owner and political figure Hugh Mason, became the first female member of the Board of Guardians at the Ashton Union of Poor Law. In 1912 she wrote a book; ‘The Story of the Women Suffrage Movement’.

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Ada Summers, the first woman to sit as a British Magistrate and the first woman to become a Justice of the Peace in England, as well as Stalybridge’s first female mayor. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1918, and became an honorary Freeman of the borough in 1939.

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Elizabeth Kenyon, the first female mayor of Dukinfield 1917. During WW1 she was chair of the Dukinfield Branch of Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild who sent socks and shirts to those serving abroad. The Archive Centre hold the letters of thanks she received from the men.

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Hannah Mitchell, a suffragist and author living in Ashton, was imprisoned for spitting at a policeman during one of the many demonstrations. Hannah was also among those who entered The House of Commons, lobbying against Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman who was not presenting a women's suffrage Bill.

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Asenath Moss, was secretary and a founder member of the Women’s Liberal Association for 27 years until 1913, and was presented with a silver salver on her retirement. She also worked enthusiastically for the British Women’s Temperance Association. Asenath died in 1922 in Southport, where she had retired to.

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You can read more about the Ashton Suffragettes in the local newspapers of the time, which are available on microfilm at the Local Studies & Archive Centre, Cotton St East, Ashton.

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The A Woman’s Place exhibition is available to view in the atrium, and archives from Ashton-Under-Lyne & Stalybridge Suffrage Society are displayed in the reading room in the Archive Centre, which is open Tues, Weds & Thurs 10-5pm and Saturdays 10-1pm.  

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