March 2022

70
Wanstead Village Directory
HISTORY COMES HOME
Redbridge Museum will open a new permanent exhibition later this
year exploring 200,000 years of local history. In the second of a series of
articles, Museum Officer Nishat Alam looks at some of the items on show
For Women’s History Month, I want
to celebrate a major event in British
women’s history – winning the right to
vote. From the mid-19th century, women
across the country campaigned endlessly
for this right. Redbridge was no exception.
Much like today, Ilford, Wanstead and
Woodford each had their own distinct
identities, often informed by affluence and
class, and this influenced the kinds of suffrage
activity that took place in each area.
In Ilford, campaigners known as ‘suffragettes’
who aligned with the Women’s Social and
Political Union (WSPU) were considered
militant in their approach, smashing shop
windows and setting fire to post boxes to
bring about awareness of their cause. Women
in Wanstead and Woodford tended to be
more conservative. Woodford had its own
branch of the National Union of Women’s
Suffrage Societies who believed in peaceful
protest, distributing petitions and pamphlets
or writing letters to their local MPs. Perhaps
unsurprisingly, the shock factor of the WSPU’s
methods drew more attention, and in 1918
some women were finally given the vote.
One woman who did not stop fighting,
even when both groups suspended their
campaigns during wartime, was Sylvia
Pankhurst. Sylvia had been deeply involved in
WSPU activities; her family had founded the
organisation, she had designed flags, badges
and banners, and had undergone forcefeeding
while on hunger strike in prison. She
was also a pacifist and opposed the WSPU’s
support for the war. As Sylvia’s politics became
increasingly socialist, she was expelled from
the organisation but continued to campaign
with her own working women’s group in
London’s East End.
WSPU membership card
and badge designed by
Sylvia Pankhurst
In 1924, Sylvia moved to Woodford. From her
home on Charteris Road, she campaigned in
support of mothers’ rights and against racism
and fascism for 30 years. She opposed the
Italian colonisation of Ethiopia, and in 1956
was invited to move there by the Emperor
Haile Selassie. She died and was buried in
Addis Ababa in 1960.
Sylvia’s legacy in Redbridge remains and
women continue to connect with her struggle
for social justice. The Anti-Air War Memorial
in Woodford Green, which she commissioned
in 1935, became the site for events held in
the 1980s by the Wanstead and Woodford
Women for Peace, a local activist group
that campaigned against the use of nuclear
weapons during the Cold War.
The story of Sylvia’s life is documented on a
new website (sylviapankhurst.com) and will
be explored through objects, photographs
and film in the new Redbridge Museum.
Redbridge Museum is located on
Clements Road, Ilford. Visit wnstd.com/rm
To complete a survey about what else
should go on display, visit wnstd.com/rms
© Redbridge Museum
To advertise, call 020 8819 6645 or visit wnstd.com