Struggle and Suffrage in Morpeth & Northumberland: Women's Lives and the Fight for Equality

122 Pages·2020·20.553 MB·English

by  Craig Armstrong

Struggle and Suf frage
in Morpeth and
Northumberland

Struggle and Suf frage
in Morpeth and
Northumberland
Craig Armstrong
First published in Great Britain in 2020 by
Pen & Sword History
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Limited
Yorkshire - Philadelphia
Copyright © Craig Armstrong, 2020
ISBN 978 1 52671 9 652
The right of Craig Armstrong to be identified
as Author of this work has been asserted by him in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Contents
Introduction vii
Chapter One Victorian Northumberland 1
Chapter Two The Edwardian Era: Struggle
and Suffrage 19
Chapter Three The First World War 59
Chapter Four The Second World War 74
Endnotes 94
Index 99

Introduction
Northumberland was, and remains, a sparsely populated
county and, according to the 2001 census, had the lowest
population density in England with just sixty-two people per
square kilometre. The total population in 2001 was just 307,190.
These factors impacted on the development of the county and
the population throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries dwelled largely in small – by British standards – market
and former market towns and in widely scattered small villages
and hamlets.
For the women of the county, life could at times be
harsh and a degree of resilience and self-reliance was often a
necessity. Although traditionally a patriarchal society, women,
especially older women, had significant and often unseen
influence upon their menfolk. Lying on the Scottish border as
it does, Northumberland and its inhabitants had been strongly
influenced by border history and many observers stated that the
Northumbrian character was more in keeping with the Scottish
borderer than their English neighbours. This, to a large extent,
remains true, and the historical and cultural links remain strong
between the two areas. Some even claimed that this had an
influence upon attitudes towards marriage and sexual behaviour
among both men and women.
The largely rural county was dependent upon agriculture,
and a unique system that relied upon female labour developed
and continued throughout the period. Other than agriculture,
the county developed an economically powerful and influential
coalfield in the south-east, while fishing played a significant role
in the coastal economy. Until 1400 Newcastle had been a part of
the county, but this city had then been designated as a county in its
viii STRUGGLE AND SUFFRAGE IN MORPETH AND NORTHUMBERLAND
own right, although it still exerted a strong economic and social
influence over Northumberland. It was only in 1844 that the
historic shires of Bedlingtonshire, Islandshire and Norhamshire
were incorporated into the county, having previously been under
the power of the bishops of Durham.
This book considers in a very broad sense the lives of the
women of Northumberland. An in-depth study of every aspect
of women’s lives in the county is impossible given the brevity
of the current book, but it is hoped that a very good idea of
the challenges that faced the women of Northumberland can be
discerned from these pages.
Particular consideration is given to the impact of the
suffragist movement and, especially, to the life and untimely
death of Miss Emily Wilding Davison. The radical suffragette
has become one of the heroines of Northumberland, spoken
of in the same awed tones as those reserved for women such as
Grace Darling. Miss Davison’s memory has become a rallying
cry for feminism in the region (and beyond), but the truth is
that she was not born in the county (although she had extremely
strong family links to Northumberland and loved the county
throughout her brief life) and spent relatively little time here.
Nevertheless, Emily, a complex character whose life remains, in
some respects, shrouded in mystery, has become synonymous
with Northumberland and its women’s spirit of determination
and independence.
The book also includes two chapters giving a very brief
overview of the impact that the two world wars had upon the
women of Northumberland and the significant part they played
in maintaining morale, supporting the armed forces, protecting
the home front and working as part of the war effort.
CHAPTER ONE
Victorian Northumberland
For those women who were born into and lived in rural
Northumberland opportunities and options were far more
limited than for their counterparts who resided in the larger
towns. Agriculture in Northumberland was unique in England
during the Victorian period in the number of women who were
employed in labour and by the employment terms that governed
their lives. In the rural parts of the county, the system known as
bondage held sway for many years.
The women hired on as bondagers at the annual hirings,
which were a feature of the Northumbrian market towns. At these
hiring fairs agreements would be made between the farmers and
male labourers (known locally as hinds) whereby payment, both
in cash and in kind, would be agreed along with accommodation
and, for much of the century, a common contractual stipulation
that the labourer would also provide a bondager for a term of
either six or twelve months. The bondager, unlike the hind, was
guaranteed pay only for the days she worked and wages varied
depending upon the type of labour that was carried out on a
particular day. The bondagers could be clearly identified as they
wore a form of unofficial uniform consisting of a distinctive
bonnet (quite often referred to as an ‘ugly’), headscarf, blouse
(often blue), sackings around the legs and striped woollen skirts,
below which were, if they were lucky, hard-wearing boots.
There were two other options within the field of agriculture
for Northumbrian women. In the south of Northumberland,
particularly around Newcastle and Morpeth, women frequently