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16 English journey

Sweeping back down from Teesside to Thames
  • Jill Liddington
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Vanishing for the vote
This chapter is in the book Vanishing for the vote

Abstract

Middlesbrough, just beyond the North Yorkshire Moors, had a lively WFL branch and active plans for the boycott. But come census night, only two households ~ both prosperous business families ~ did not comply. Why? Further south, WSPU organizer in Bradford co-ordinated an impressive mass evasion. In Huddersfield, with a one-time very active WSPU branch, no suffragette apparently evaded locally. While in Sheffield, Adela Pankhurst hosted a mass evasion in the home she shared with another suffragette. This mixed pattern is echoed on the journey south ~ Nottingham, Ipswich and Portsmouth. Finally, this English journey meanders back down the Thames ~ past the riverside homes of individual census resisters, and a group of darkened evaders’ caravans parked on Wimbledon Common. At last the journey returns to central London and Battersea. Here Charlotte Despard naturally refused to provide any information. And nearby Muriel Matters inscribed her schedule defiantly ‘No Vote No Census’.

Abstract

Middlesbrough, just beyond the North Yorkshire Moors, had a lively WFL branch and active plans for the boycott. But come census night, only two households ~ both prosperous business families ~ did not comply. Why? Further south, WSPU organizer in Bradford co-ordinated an impressive mass evasion. In Huddersfield, with a one-time very active WSPU branch, no suffragette apparently evaded locally. While in Sheffield, Adela Pankhurst hosted a mass evasion in the home she shared with another suffragette. This mixed pattern is echoed on the journey south ~ Nottingham, Ipswich and Portsmouth. Finally, this English journey meanders back down the Thames ~ past the riverside homes of individual census resisters, and a group of darkened evaders’ caravans parked on Wimbledon Common. At last the journey returns to central London and Battersea. Here Charlotte Despard naturally refused to provide any information. And nearby Muriel Matters inscribed her schedule defiantly ‘No Vote No Census’.

Chapters in this book

  1. Front matter i
  2. Contents 237
  3. List of maps vii
  4. List of figures viii
  5. Acknowledgements xi
  6. List of abbreviations xiii
  7. Chronology xiv
  8. Introduction 1
  9. Part I Prelude: people and their politics
  10. 1 Charlotte Despard and John Burns, the Colossus of Battersea 13
  11. 2 Muriel Matters goes vanning it with Asquith 24
  12. 3 Propaganda culture 36
  13. 4 Parallel politics 48
  14. Part II Narrative: October 1909 to April 1911
  15. 5 Plotting across central London 63
  16. 6 The battle for John Burns’s Battersea revisited 71
  17. 7 The Census Bill and the boycott plan 78
  18. 8 Lloyd George goes a-wooing versus Burns’s ‘vixens in velvet’ 86
  19. 9 The King’s Speech 97
  20. 10 Battleground for democracy 108
  21. Part III Census night: places and spaces
  22. 11 Emily Wilding Davison’s Westminster – and beyond 125
  23. 12 The Nevinsons’ Hampstead – and central London entertainments 132
  24. 13 Laurence Housman’s Kensington, with Clemence in Dorset 145
  25. 14 Annie Kenney’s Bristol and Mary Blathwayt’s Bath 154
  26. 15 Jessie Stephenson’s Manchester and Hannah Mitchell’s Oldham Road 169
  27. 16 English journey 183
  28. Part IV The census and beyond
  29. 17 After census night 197
  30. 18 Telling the story 209
  31. 19 Sources and their analysis 219
  32. Front matter
  33. Contents 237
  34. Introduction 239
  35. Abbreviations 242
  36. Key mass evasions 243
  37. London boroughs and Middlesex 245
  38. Midlands 300
  39. Southern England 333
  40. Northern England 342
  41. Notes 363
  42. Select bibliography 389
  43. Index 395
https://doi.org/10.7765/9781847798947.00027

Chapters in this book

  1. Front matter i
  2. Contents 237
  3. List of maps vii
  4. List of figures viii
  5. Acknowledgements xi
  6. List of abbreviations xiii
  7. Chronology xiv
  8. Introduction 1
  9. Part I Prelude: people and their politics
  10. 1 Charlotte Despard and John Burns, the Colossus of Battersea 13
  11. 2 Muriel Matters goes vanning it with Asquith 24
  12. 3 Propaganda culture 36
  13. 4 Parallel politics 48
  14. Part II Narrative: October 1909 to April 1911
  15. 5 Plotting across central London 63
  16. 6 The battle for John Burns’s Battersea revisited 71
  17. 7 The Census Bill and the boycott plan 78
  18. 8 Lloyd George goes a-wooing versus Burns’s ‘vixens in velvet’ 86
  19. 9 The King’s Speech 97
  20. 10 Battleground for democracy 108
  21. Part III Census night: places and spaces
  22. 11 Emily Wilding Davison’s Westminster – and beyond 125
  23. 12 The Nevinsons’ Hampstead – and central London entertainments 132
  24. 13 Laurence Housman’s Kensington, with Clemence in Dorset 145
  25. 14 Annie Kenney’s Bristol and Mary Blathwayt’s Bath 154
  26. 15 Jessie Stephenson’s Manchester and Hannah Mitchell’s Oldham Road 169
  27. 16 English journey 183
  28. Part IV The census and beyond
  29. 17 After census night 197
  30. 18 Telling the story 209
  31. 19 Sources and their analysis 219
  32. Front matter
  33. Contents 237
  34. Introduction 239
  35. Abbreviations 242
  36. Key mass evasions 243
  37. London boroughs and Middlesex 245
  38. Midlands 300
  39. Southern England 333
  40. Northern England 342
  41. Notes 363
  42. Select bibliography 389
  43. Index 395
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