West of England and South Wales Women's History Network Blog

Imagined conversations between Julia Neville and some of the women who she ‘meets’ in the course of her researches. The content of the ‘conversation’ is based on items originally featured in archives and local newspapers. This month’s ‘interviewee’ is Mrs Emily Ward, 50 Preston Street, Exeter, October 1929 Good morning, madam, what can I get you? Well, fancy that – Miss Neville, isn’t it? I remember you. You were one of the teachers down at Rack Street Infants when our Maud and our James were there, weren’t you?   I remember you bringing James back home once when he’d cut his knee in the playground, and coming in to put another bandage on. He was no more than a tot then, can’t have been at school long. Yes, you’re quite right, we were living at our shop in Preston Street then, at no 19. A wardrobe dealer’s it was to start with, a lot of second-hand stuff from house clearances and what people brought in. Nowadays I do a lot more haberdashery. There’s always a place in the West Q...

For our latest blog, we caught up with WESWWHN Treasurer, June Hannam. June was one of the speakers at our AGM in December 2020, when she spoke to us about her research into Helen Cordiner, a Bath Labour Party activist and social reformer between the wars. Hallo, June, and welcome to the blog. First of all, tell us a little about yourself.   I worked for many years at Bristol Polytechnic, subsequently University of the West of England, where I was always keen to promote women’s history through teaching, research and membership of the Women’s History Network, both locally and nationally. My research and publications focused on socialist women and feminism from the 1880s to c1930s, and publications include Isabella Ford, 1855-1924 (Oxford, Blackwell, 1989); Socialist Women; Britain c1880s-1920s (with WESWWN Committee Member Karen Hunt) (Routledge, 2002); and Feminism , (Harlow, Longman Pearson, 2012). Since I retired, my research has had a more local focus on Bristol. I’ve ...