Thoughts and reflections
The two groups felt that they had discovered important information about the role Birmingham women played in the movement for women's enfranchisement.
They had previously been unaware of the rich history of suffragette activism in Birmingham.
The groups used archival material from Birmingham Archives and Heritage and Parliamentary Archives to find out about the individuals involved and the acts they took part in, as well the risks they took and the treatment they experienced in prison. As they encountered the records, they discussed the motivations of the suffragettes. They also explored their own responses to the actions, and to the force-feeding experienced by suffragettes imprisoned in nearby Winson Green prison.
As part of the project, the groups went on guided walks around Birmingham, looking at sites of various suffragette actions. They were struck by the fact that buildings which had previously seemed ordinary actually had interesting stories to tell of suffragette arson and vandalism, or of mass meetings and protests.
Along with the (sister) project examining Birmgham's connections with the electoral reform movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, this project has resulted in the creation of a historic trail around Birmingham, which features some of the key Birmingham sites in the history of the electoral reform movement.
