Shropshire Routes to Roots

2. Sources

SOURCE A A copy of the 1872 Bill petitioning Parliament to "remove the electoral disabilities of women"

1872 Bill Transcript and larger image, opens in a new window [Shropshire Archive reference: DA2/134/10/4]

SOURCE B A pamphlet from the National Society for Women's Suffrage calling for greater organisation in the fight to secure suffrage. Dated 1872

National Society for Women's Suffrage Larger image and transcript, opens in a new window [Shropshire Archive reference: DA2/134/10/1]

SOURCE C Letter from the National Society for Women's Suffrage Central Committee, to the local board in Bridgnorth, Shropshire

Request for the support of the Suffrage campaign Transcript and larger image, opens in a new window [Shropshire Archive reference: DA2/134/10/4]

SOURCE D The suggested form of a petition with which to express satisfaction for a bill to "remove the electoral disabilities of women"

Suggestion petition Larger image and transcript, opens in a new window [Shropshire Archive reference: DA2/134/10/2]

SOURCE E

"On 18th November 1910, the day which the Suffragettes subsquently referred to as Black Friday, they organised a massive demonstration outside the Palace of Westminster...By this time the WSPU [Women's Social and Political Union] had its own newspaper, 'Votes For Women'. The edition of 25th November 1910 lists all the women who were arrested on Black Friday and includes the following reference to Violet Ann:
'Miss V A Bland, late of Bristol, has been interested in many reform movements and has been doing much voluntary work at Bristol'
No record has been found of her appearance in courst arrising from this arrest and apparently on this occasion she was not imprisoned"

['Violet Ann Bland 1863-1940; Bayston Hill's Suffragette' Ken and Allan Bland, SA Ref: BB64 v.f]

Violet Ann Bland was born in Bayston Hill, Shrewsbury in 1863. She worked at Dudmaston Hall, near Bridgnorth, before moving to Bristol and then London, where she was able to take a more active role in the Suffrage movement.

SOURCE F

"The next known records of her [Violet Ann Bland] activities arise from the Great Window Smashing Demonstrations of 1912..The issue of 'Votes For Women' dated 15th March 1912, gives details of the many cases heard at West London Police Court on 8th March and included the following report:
Miss Violet Bland and Miss Ethel Baldock were sent for trial for damaging to the extent of £10 a window at the offices of The Commercial Cable Company, Northumberland Avenue.

['Violet Ann Bland 1863-1940; Bayston Hill's Suffragette' Ken and Allan Bland, SA Ref: BB64 v.f]

Violet Ann was subsquently imprisoned for 4 months at Aylesbury Prison for her role in the demonstration. Whilst at Aylesbury Prison, Violet Ann refused food and her account of being forcibly fed appeared in the 'Votes For Women' newspaper on 5th July 1912, she wrote:
"They pinched and clutched my nose unmercifully and at the end of the assault, when I did not rise quickly from the chair because of my helplessness and breathless condition, they snatched the chair from under me, and flung me on the floor."

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