In this post Abbie Evans interviews Kathy Atherton, a local historian and Exhibitions Team leader at Dorking Museum, and Royal Holloway PhD researcher, Katie Broomfield, about the Citizens project upcoming short film on the Pethick Lawrences and Women’s Suffrage.
Abbie: Kathy, can you start by telling our readers about Dorking Museum?
Kathy: Of course, Dorking Museum is a completely independent museum which is run solely by volunteers and focuses on the history of the town and surrounding villages. It engages the local community with its own history via permanent and temporary exhibitions, educational activities, publications, and a programme of walks, talks, cave tours and other projects.
Abbie: So how did you come to hear of the Citizens project and what made Dorking Museum want to get involved?
Kathy: I heard of the Citizen’s project through our website and social media volunteer who became acquainted with the Project’s Director, Dr Matthew Smith. I decided to get Dorking Museum involved because it was obvious from talking to Matthew that we had a very strong and unique story to tell that fitted very well with the projects themes.
Abbie: Indeed, we’ll go onto discuss Dorking’s unique story in a moment. Beforehand, let’s introduce Katie, a Citizens project volunteer who has been working with Kathy at Dorking. Firstly, why did you decide to get involved in the Citizen’s project, Katie?
Katie: Well I also heard about the Citizen’s Project through Matthew, as part of my MA in Public History at Royal Holloway. As a mature student, with an employment history in law, Matthew supposed I might be interested in working on a project celebrating liberty, protest and reform – and he was right!
Abbie: And what made you want to assist with Dorking Museum specifically?
Katie: I have just started reading for a PhD in history at Royal Holloway and my thesis will focus on the women who sought to become lawyers at a time, before the passing of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919, when they were barred from the legal profession. I am seeking to set their campaign within the context of the wider women’s movement at the turn of the twentieth century and in particular the campaign for votes for women. I was therefore really keen to be able to be involved in Dorking’s project on the Pethick-Lawrences who, despite their enormous contribution to the campaign for votes for women, have been largely overlooked.
Abbie: So Kathy, can you tell us about the story Dorking Museum wants to tell?
Kathy: The story we want to share is about Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence who was a leader of the Women’s Social and Political Union and key-figure in the Suffrage Campaign. The house she shared with her husband Frederick Pethick-Lawrence, who was also an activist, was based in Dorking and used as a weekend base for the campaign – women even recovered here from the force-feeding injuries they received in prison! She has been neglected by history but played such a large part in the fight for the vote that we may never have heard of the Pankhursts without her. She also played a key role in a campaign for peace during the First World War, and kept pressure on the government for the vote throughout the war when others had given up campaigning.
Abbie: Undeniably Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence has been overshadowed by Emmeline Pankhurst. Can you tell us more about how you and the Citizen’s team plan on bringing her back into the spotlight?
Kathy: We are going to make a film to tell the story of Emmeline and her husband’s involvement with the militant suffragette movement. The film will examine and expose facts such Emmeline’s responsibility for policy and tactics and her financial and fundraising abilities which gave a stable base to the militant campaign. It will also discuss her husband Fred who was one of the WSPU’s major funders and known by the women as ‘Godfather’ for standing bail for 1000 women. We aim to film scenes from the couple’s country home in Surrey, where WSPU leadership came to plan, plot and recuperate.
Abbie: I can’t wait to see this! So Katie, what has been your role in this?
Katie: My first task was to read a manuscript of Kathy’s forthcoming book and to condense (not without difficulty) all of this fascinating information into a script for a five-minute video! One of the things we were particularly keen on was to present the story from the point of view of Emmeline and Fred and to bring the men and women featured in the video to life. I therefore included quotations from Fred, Emmeline, Mrs Pankhurst and Annie Kenney in the script with a view to employing actors to voice the parts and using images of Fred and Emmeline. Obviously, video is a visual medium so while drafting the script I had to identify images that we could use in the video. Again, Kathy’s manuscript was invaluable and I also searched The Women’s Library Collection on Flickr (which is a fantastic resource) and the archive at Royal Holloway (to source some images from Votes for Women, which was the magazine edited by Emmeline and Fred).
Abbie: And what is the next step in the creation of the film?
Katie: Not long ago Kathy and I met with Matthew and Bill Thisdell, one of the Citizens project’s freelance filmmakers, to discuss the draft script and filming locations. We met the owner of Fred and Emmeline’s former home who has agreed to allow us to do some filming in the house and garden, including, hopefully, a speech Fred made to large numbers of members of the WSPU. The next step is to finalise the script and to hold castings for potential actors. We are hoping to start filming in late October.
Abbie: It sounds like you have all been very busy. How have you found working with Dorking Museum Katie?
Katie: It has been busy but I have really enjoyed working with Dorking Museum on this project. The museum is a fantastic example of a local museum which, although limited by physical constraints, seeks to present a wide-ranging history of the town and its environs and has sought innovative ways of reaching the local community. I understand from Kathy that on Halloween the museum will be hosting ghost walks for the first time! There is so much that the museum could cover but I am really pleased that, to coincide with the centenary of votes for (some) women in 1918, they have commissioned this video on the Pehick-Lawrences. It has been great fun working with Kathy and finding out how much she knows about Emmeline and Fred.
Abbie: Kathy, to wrap up, could you explain why the Citizens project is important to the telling of Dorking’s story?
Kathy: The project gives Dorking Museum the opportunity to give this story the space that it deserves, allowing it to reach a much wider audience. Our current exhibition space allows for just one small panel on the fight for the vote locally – and we have little in the way of artefacts to engage visitors. But by making a film we can say a lot more in the space than on a static panel and really engage visitors in a way that is not possible through written text. We have had visitor comments about the lack of film/sound within the museum, but without the funding of the project a film like is something that we would never have either the skills or money to produce. We also hope that the exposure that the project provides will honour the Pethick-Lawrence’s memory and support our aim to install a plaque to commemorate Fred and Emmeline on The Mascotte as there is currently no memorial to them.
Abbie: It is certainly true that museums are constantly striving to find new ways to tell their stories through new methods of interpretation. This digital form will be of great benefit to Dorking’s Museum and its website and will provide the exposure that the Pethick-Lawrences deserve. Thank you both for participating in this interview and good luck with initiating a plaque in their memory. Readers keep an eye out for a follow up blog in the next couple of months when their filming has been completed.
