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Stevenage Museum, working with North Herts Museum, Knebworth House, the Garden City Collection and YC Hertfordshire, have received National Lottery support from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for Stevenage and North Herts Suffrage Stories: 100 years of votes for women. Made possible by National Lottery players, the project focuses on the local stories of women’s campaign for the vote.

The project will look at key players in the national movement who have links with the area, like Lady Constance Lytton of Knebworth House, alongside other local women of all ages and backgrounds who joined the fight for the right to vote: Elizabeth Impey of Hitchin, and Rachel Peace, who used the alias Jane Short and lodged in Letchworth are just two of the fascinating stories that will be explored. There will be exhibitions at North Herts. Museum and Stevenage Museum, with many related events.

Young people aged 14-24 will have the opportunity to get involved in research including trips to Knebworth House archive, the Museum of London and the Women’s Library at the London School of Economics over the summer. They will write exhibition text and articles and share their findings via social media. In the autumn they will work with an artist to devise an installation what will light up the town centre in Stevenage and the Town Hall in Hitchin, the latter a building that hosted many public meetings calling for votes for women; speakers like Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst addressed the audience while outside police horses held back an angry crowd who were opposed.