Suffragettes honoured in street names

Pioneering women are being celebrated at a new housing development.

Streets at the new The Hedgerows development off Whinney Lane in Blackburn are being named after brave and bold women who fought in the Suffragette movement to gain rights and votes for women. The homes are being built by Wainhomes (North West) Ltd.

And the first street under construction – Entwistle Drive – was inspired by local woman Louise Entwistle, who was part of a group which took part in a raid on the House of Commons in February 1907.

Aged just 20 and a mill worker in the town, Louisa travelled to London to take part in what was called ‘The Battle of the Suffragettes’ and was arrested and jailed for a week in Holloway Prison.

Following her release from prison, Louisa said:

“It is not because we want to make ourselves into martyrs, it is because the working women suffer so much under the present conditions by which they are oppressed.

“We don’t want to make a name for ourselves, and it is for women who work in the mills, and who have their homes and their children to look after, that single women are trying to get the vote.  It is for these helpless women that we are fighting.  Our opponents know that if we get the vote we shall alter a lot of things, and they are frightened.”

The idea of the street names was the brainchild of local students and Councillors Julie Gunn and Phil Riley. Cllr Gunn, a lecturer in social science at the University Centre at Blackburn College, set her students a challenge to compile a list of suffragettes that could be used to inspire street names in the new development.

Other streets are currently under construction include prominent suffragettes and women’s rights campaigners Millicent Fawcett, Nancy Astor, Bessie Braddock, Christabel Pankhurst, Constance Bulwer-Lytton, Emily Davison and Eleanor Rathbone.

Councillor Julie Gunn and Councillor Phil Riley, Executive Member for Growth and Development, paid tribute to Louise Entwistle while recognising International Women’s Day, with this year’s theme being #EachforEqual.

Cllr Gunn said:

A group of students and I worked together on International Women’s Day to come up with some important and significant women from the North West and this idea came up.

Louise Entwistle was a Blackburn lass, who at the age of 20 marched on parliament. She appeared in court and couldn’t, or wouldn’t pay her fine and served time in prison for the right of women to vote. It’s really important to realise that she was a good old working class Blackburn girl.”

Cllr Riley added:

We are obviously pleased with these housing developments and we are also pleased that with the agreement of Wainhomes we have named the streets after important women who played parts in the Suffragette movement.”