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Celebrating Flintshire Women Past and Present - an Open Doors event at Flintshire Record Office, Hawarden on Saturday, 15 September 2018

Published: 20/08/2018

Flintshire Record Office are hosting an exciting event, ‘Celebrating Flintshire Women, Past & Present’ at the Old Rectory, Hawarden, on Saturday 15th September 2018. The theme ties in with the centenary of women’s suffrage, 1918 and aims to celebrate the experiences of Flintshire women in the past as well as today. A new exhibition about Flintshire Women in history will be available to view on the day, researched and compiled from the archives at Flintshire Record Office.

There will also be the opportunity to meet with women from local Community Groups including Mold and Hawarden Women’s Institute (W.I.), Buckley Townswomen’s Guild, Soroptimist in Flintshire and the Order of Women Freemasons.  The groups are holding stalls at the event, where you can find out more about what they do – who knows, you may be persuaded to join in!

At 12.45pm the Mountain Harmony Ladies’ Barbershop Chorus will perform an uplifting opening to the event.  There will then be a fascinating talk about Women in the North Wales Asylum, Denbigh, by Lindsey Sutton, Project Archivist at Denbighshire Archives at 1.15pm. Lindsey has taken on the complex but exciting job of cataloguing the records of the North Wales Asylum, to make them available to the public, and will be talking about women in the Asylum, their stories, and some of the reasons why they were admitted. Booking is required for this talk, please tel. 01244 532364 or e-mail: archives@flintshire.gov.uk to ensure a place.

At 2.00pm there will be break for tea and delicious cakes whilst you browse the groups’ stalls. A costumed re-enactor will join you to tell you about the Suffragette Movement and answer your questions about women campaigning for the vote 100 years ago. At 3.15pm, Joan Williams will then deliver an entertaining ‘in character’ talk about Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the Suffragette movement. Booking is required for this talk, please tel. 01244 532364 or e-mail: archives@flintshire.gov.uk to ensure a place.

This will be a celebratory day where you can learn more about Flintshire women through the ages, meet women active in the local community today, and enjoy the surroundings of the 18th Century Old Rectory building, which was once the home of Rectors of Hawarden including Stephen Gladstone, son of the Prime Minister W.E. Gladstone.