Arlington’s Brasserie, in Ipswich, has an historic link with the women’s suffrage movement and next week it will host a celebration of International Women’s Day.
Organised by the Ipswich Women’s Festival Group, the celebration will include a fun quiz and afternoon tea at the brasserie, in Museum Street, on Sunday March 5 from 3pm until 6pm,
The galleried building, which has also been a dance studio, began its life as the town’s museum rooms and it was at these premises in 1911 that suffragettes campaigning for the vote spent the night in their census boycott. The idea was that “if women don’t count, don’t count women.”
As many as 30 women stayed over to avoid being at home. In this way they were not obliged to record their presence on the census forms. Contemporary accounts reveal they spent the night singing songs and telling stories. It is likely some of the husbands of the women were there to offer protection if needed.
International Women’s Day is on March 8 with the theme of #BeBoldForChange aiming to help forge a better working world – a more inclusive, gender equal world.
For this year’s Women’s Day the festival group is inviting people to go along to Arlington’s as a ready-formed quiz team (max six per team), or people can just turn up and form a team on the day.
The Ipswich Women’s Festival Group was formed in the 1980s with the aim of researching and celebrating local women’s history and achievements.
In 2012 the group launched a Women’s History Trail around Ipswich which guides people to 21 sites across the town where notable women lived and worked. Sites include the Manor House on St Margaret’s Green where Margaret Catchpole was in service and Foundation Street where the poet and archaeologist Nina Layard first excavated the ruins of Blackfriars Priory.
Last year the group was instrumental in gaining four new blue plaques in Ipswich commemorating the life and work of:
• Nina Layard - who excavated the ruins of Blackfriars Priory
• Margaret Tempest - artist and illustrator
• Constance Andrews - trade unionist and founder of the Ipswich branch of the Women’s Freedom League
• Mary Whitmore - Ipswich’s first woman mayor
Tickets for the fundraising quiz and tea on Sunday, March 5 are £10, available from Arlington’s on 01473 230293 or via email
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