A landmark protest will be marked in Corsham next week, as the town remembers its role in the fight for women’s suffrage.
In 1913 a group of Suffragist campaigners marched from Land’s End to London to demand equal votes, and their welcome in Corsham will be re-enacted on Monday to mark its centenary.
A group of modern-day suffragists will march down the High Street to the town hall, where extracts from a play based on the march will be performed.
A shop in the Martingate Centre has been used as a temporary headquarter for the Suffragists, where children were invited on Saturday to make badges ahead of the march.
Anne Lock, president of the Corsham Civic Society, helped plan the event. She said: “The shop was a hub of activity, with over 50 people coming in.
“It was very interesting to hear the mothers explaining what we were about, and the fact that women didn’t have the vote.
“We’re also holding a vote at the exhibition so children can nominate someone as their Local Heroine, to get them thinking about voting, and about local women.”
The idea for re-enactment came about last year while she was reprinting a book about Corsham.
She said: “There were two pictures of the pilgrims arriving in Corsham in 1913 and it hit me that the centenary was coming up, and I thought we really had to celebrate it.”
Natalie McGrath, who directed Oxygen, a play based on the march, will speak at the town hall on Sunday, ahead of two performances at Chippenham’s Yelde Hall on Monday and Tuesday, with the re-enactment starting at 10.30am on Monday outside the Methuen Arms.
Mrs Lock said: “There has already been a lot of support for it from the town, and I hope people will join the re-enactment; you only have to find a long skirt, white blouse and a straw hat.”
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