HERITAGE TALK – ANGELS OF THE NORTH (VOL TWO)

We are very pleased to welcome local authors, the Rt Hon Baroness Joyce Quin and Moira Kilkenny to the Old Low Light Heritage Centre, following their publication of the second volume of Angels of the North.

Baroness Quin will talk about some of the inspirational women whose achievements are shared in the book, including some from North Tyneside.

The subjects’ lives span a period of over 500 years, covering a diverse range of activities and fields of interest, including aviation, archaeology, architecture, philosophy, medicine, various branches of science and the arts, football, politics, education and social and political engagement.

Baroness Quin will explain how in writing these profiles, a number of themes emerged. One was the key role in education in transforming women’s lives and how it enabled many of the women featured to challenge the limits imposed upon them, allowing them to gain new freedoms.

The authors will have copies of Angels of the North (Vol Two) with them for anyone who wishes to buy a copy.

The North Tyneside women included in this volume are:

Susan Mary Auld (1915-2002) – the first woman to receive a degree in naval architecture and successful ship designer. As a child she lived in Tynemouth and from the age of ten attended a local school. During the war and because of being recognised nationally as Britain’s only woman naval architect, her help was sought by the coalition government in two ways. First, the Ministry of Labour sought her advice on how women could be better and more extensively used in the shipbuilding industry and second, the Ministry of Information recruited her to broadcast to the UK’s war allies to encourage them to harness the skills and abilities of women in their war efforts. In 2022 a blue plaque was unveiled outside the house in Northumberland Terrace, Tynemouth, where she was born.

Norah Balls (1886-1980) – dedicated her life to public service and the women’s movement. Norah spent a large part of her life in Tynemouth and made a significant contribution to three nationwide feminist organisations, the Suffragettes when she travelled widely giving lectures and speeches and was arrested in London for taking part in demonstrations, the Girl Guides Association setting up Girl Guides in Northumberland and the Electrical Association for Women, which aimed to educate women about science and the great benefits that electricity could bring in the home. In 2022 Norah’s story was highlighted in a display at the Old Low Light Heritage Centre which coincided with the unveiling of a blue plaque outside her former home on King Edward Road, Tynemouth.

Dame (Annie) Maud Burnett (1863-1950) – feminist, politician and the first female Mayor of Tynemouth. Born in Tynemouth, she attended local schools before completing her education in Switzerland. She dedicated her life to good works, at the same time demonstrating that women could and should be equal participants in national and local political life. After being co-opted onto Tynemouth’s Local Education Committee, she founded a Tynemouth branch of the Women’s Local Government Society, aimed initially at getting women into local government but later seats in Parliament. After an unsuccessful first attempt, in 1910 she was elected for the Dockwray ward becoming the first woman municipal councillor in Northern England. She was the first and only woman councillor in Tynemouth for the next 20 years, becoming the first ever woman to serve as Mayor of Tynemouth in 1928-29 and 1929-30. In 1990 a blue plaque was placed outside her birthplace in Prior’s Terrace, Tynemouth.

Mary Elsworth Greaves MBE, OBE (1907-1983) – pioneer of disability rights. Mary contracted polio as a young child, when people with disabilities were often confined to an institution or home with little involvement in the outside world. Her family lived in Lish Avenue, Whitley Bay and she attended local schools. On leaving school she was accepted at the local shorthand and typing school. She later set up and ran her own shorthand and typing school at her family’s Whitley Bay home for 14 years. Later, seeking new challenges she undertook more educational qualifications, eventually gaining permanent employment at the Ministry of Labour. She became increasingly committed to highlighting the needs of employees with disabilities and after retirement ‘this work became a crusade’. She became director of the Disability Income Group and played an important role in the campaign for the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970.

Mary Ann Macham (1802-1893) – escaped slavery and lived in North Shields for 60 years. A mixed-race woman, she arrived in North Shields on Christmas Day in 1831, at the age of 29, having escaped a life of unspeakable hardship and cruelty in Virginia, USA. She was met by two Quaker women, Mary and Sarah Spence, abolitionists, who welcomed her into their community. In a later account of her life as a slave, she said she was regularly whipped and often locked up, once for helping a young girl who was learning to knit. Her escape was assisted by a friend who hid her until she could get on board a vessel to take her to Holland and from there to England. The journey to Holland took 60 days in rough seas. Once in the UK, she travelled by coach to York and then onto North Shields, arriving in a town with a long tradition of Quaker-led anti-slavery activity. She later married James Blyth, a ropemaker. Her story was featured in an exhibition at the Old Low Light Heritage Centre in 2019, where volunteers raised money to pay for a memorial stone on the grave she shares with her husband in Preston Cemetery, North Shields.

Ellen Richardson (1808) – anti-slavery campaigner and promoter of education. Ellen was born into a prominent Newcastle Quaker household. Her commitment to the abolitionist movement was shared by other family members. She is best remembered for her key role, along with that of her sister-in-law Anna, in bringing about the liberation of two famous and celebrated African Americans, Frederick Douglas in 1846 and William Wells in 1854. However, a cause equally close to her heart was providing educational opportunity to the children of poor and working class families. She was involved in schools in Newcastle and founded one in Cullercoats, along with her cousin Ann Richardson. This began as a ‘creche school’ for children in the fishing community aged 18 months and older. This was a highly unusual initiative but Ellen knew how difficult it was for the fishwives to look after babies and young children when they were selling the fish their husbands caught around local neighbourhoods.

Host or Publisher The Old Low Light