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OUR SPEAKER at February’s meeting was our own Lynn Mellor and the subject of her talk was ‘The Belles of the Clock Tower’.

I’m not sure where to start as the talk was, as always from Lynn, very interesting and informative with so many facts given to us in a relatively short space of time but she is a born story teller and manages to put humour into the most gruesome of tales! I apologise in advance to Lynn as some of my notes made no sense when I came to write this and I did have to resort to my friend Google!

The Clock Tower in Leicester was built in 1868 by architect Joseph Goddard and was originally called the Haymarket Memorial Structure. Most of us will probably not have noticed the four male figures on the Clock Tower but they are: William Wyggeston 1467 - 1536 (sometimes spelt as Wigston), a wool merchant; Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester 1208 -1265; Sir Thomas White 1492 - 1567, a cloth merchant who set up a fund in 1542 to help young men start up in business and Alderman Gabriel Newton 1683 -1762. a wool-comber and Mayor of Leicester in 1732.

I’m sure of you will associate these names with familiar Leicester buildings: Wyggeston Hospital, now a retirement Home; Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys (my own father was a very proud pupil there and 80 years on I still have his school tie); De Montfort University; Alderman Newtown’s School for Girls - the list goes on!

But back to the title of Lynn’s talk and the four women she would choose to be statues on the Clock Tower: Aethelflaed; Lady Jane Grey; Mary Linwood and Alice Hawkins.

AETHELFLAED (c.870 - 918) was the eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, King of West Saxons. She was born at the height of the Viking Invasions and by 878, most of England was under Danish rule and the Danes were creating their own settlements. Mercia was partitioned between the English and the Vikings. The West half of Mercia came under the rule of Aethelred who was known as Lord of the Mercians and he accepted Alfred being overlord, having the new title of King of the Anglo Saxons. Alfred arranged a marriage of convenience between Aethelflaed and Aethelred to seal the alliance between the surviving English Kingdoms, they had one daughter, Aefwynn. After Aethelred’s death in 911, Aethelflaed became the Lady of the Mercians and her succession was one of the the most unique events in Medieval history. In the Midlands and the North she dominated the political scene and was renowned as a competent war leader. In 913 she built forts at Tamworth to guard against the Danes entering Leicester. Records show that in 1744 (and maybe even earlier) a fair held in the Newarke area of Leicester took place on Shrove Tuesday to commemorate the chasing out of the Danes in the 10th century. The fair would have music, entertainment and food and part of this celebration were the ‘Whipping Toms’, a group of three men carrying whips, one with a bell and the aim was for men and boys to try to grab the bell whilst they were being being whipped below the knee! This brutal celebration was abolished in 1846.

In 1922, Aethelflaed’s statue and fountain was unveiled in Victoria Park. This was funded by a bequest made by Miss Edith Gittins, an active promoter of women’s rights and social reform. The statue, minus the fountain, now stands in the yard of the Guildhall in Leicester.

LADY JANE GREY, 1537 - 1554, will be known to all of us as the nine day Queen. She was born at Bradgate Park to Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, and Frances, Duchess of Suffolk. She had a very strict upbringing, sustaining physical violence from her parents. Jane was an English Noblewomen who claimed the throne of England and Ireland for just nine days, as part of an unsuccessful bid to prevent the accession of the staunch Catholic, Mary Tudor. The great granddaughter of Henry VII, Jane inherited the crown from her half cousin Edward VI on the 9th July 1553. In 1553 Jane married Lord Guilford Dudley. In early 1554, the Wyatt Rebellion took place to try to prevent Mary marrying a spaniard and bringing Catholicism to England. The Rebellion failed and Jane and Guilford were accused of being part of it. On 12th February 1554, Jane watched Dudley’s execution before being executed herself for high treason. She was found guilty of assuming the title and power of a monarch. It is said that the tops were lopped off the oak trees in Bradgate Park as a mark of respect for Jane.

MARY LINWOOD, 1755 - 1845, was an English needlewoman who exhibited her embroidery in Leicester and London. She moved to Leicester age nine and after the death of her father, Mary’s mother set up a private boarding school for young ladies in Belgrave Gate. When her mother died, Mary took over the school and continued it for 50 years. It later became the Mary Linwood Comprehensive School. She made her first embroidered picture when she was 13 years old and by 1775 she was established as a needlework expert and considered a pioneer of embroidery as an art. She embroidered over 100 pictures that specialised in full size copies of Old Masters. Interestingly, one of her works was of Lady Jane Grey! She exhibited in Russia and Catherine the Great offered her £40,000 for her collection but Mary refused as she wanted her work to remain in England.

In 1860s/70s the Royal School of Needlework and the Arts and Craft Movement began to criticise Berlin Wool Work (needlepoint) for having led to a loss of embroidery skills and Mary’s notoriety was put into question for her work in this field. Age 78, she produced her last picture. She was also said to be the last person in Leicester to use a sedan chair. In 1845 she caught ‘flu and died. She was buried at St Margaret’s Church in Leicester, where she had previously worshipped.

The last, but not least of Lynn’s Belles of the Clock Tower is Alice Hawkins, 1863 - 1946. Age 13, she was working in the boot and shoe industry and became a leading Suffragette among boot and shoe machinists in Leicester at a time when women had no voice. In 1884, she married Alfred Hawkins after meeting him at a socialist meeting and went to have six children.

In 1907 she was imprisoned in Holloway prison for 14 days after attending a Suffragette meeting in Hyde Park and she met Sylvia Pankhurst who ran the Women’s Social and Political Union, their motto being ‘Deeds not Words’. Alice was imprisoned on several occasions, once for throwing a brick through the Home Office window!. Alfred heckled Sir Winston Churchill at a meeting in Leicester to support Votes for Women but was unsuccessful and once again, Alice was imprisoned.

Whilst in prison, she befriended women wardens. The WSVU agreed to cease activities at the start of 1914 if women in prison were released. Many Suffragettes were working women rather than ‘ladies’. Alice died in 1946 and was buried in a pauper’s grave at Welford Road Cemetry. The colours of the Suffragette Movement are purple for loyalty, green for hope and white for purity. A lot of Suffragettes were part of Women’s ‘Institutes, enabling them to become women in their own right, what a wonderful history that we should all be so grateful for and so proud of.

Thank you so much Lynn for this fascinating talk about our home town, I hope I’ve managed to be accurate and do it justice in this potted summary!

We have two theatre trips coming up, both at Curve: Fisherman’s Friends and The Bodyguard. There is also our 70th birthday celebration in June which is to be held at Groby Club with a hot meal included. A river cruise from Nottingham (with food) is being planned for later in the year, so you will see that apart from our regular meetings we have some exciting visits ahead. If you think you might be interested in joining the WI just come along to our next meeting, we’re a very friendly bunch!

The next meeting is on Thursday 16th March and the speaker will be from Hannah’s Chocolates. Hopefully, after the chocolate demonstration, we will have some chocolate goodies to sample!

Ruth Rolinson