There was excitement in our Archives recently when a newspaper cutting from July 1910 surfaced revealing that “Mrs. (Emmeline) Pankhurst addressed a woman suffrage meeting in the grounds of Knebworth House. Lord Lytton and Lady Constance Lytton also spoke.” We are delighted to have a record that Mrs Pankhurst visited Knebworth. She will have spoken in what we know as ‘The Lytton Hall’, on our drive off Old Knebworth Lane, which is now home to a company making holograms. If only they could make holograms of the ghosts of the fascinating characters who’ve been in that hall!
You can see suffragettes in Knebworth Park this September – in the place Mrs Pankhurst would speak now if a venue was needed – the Knebworth Park Barns. On Sunday 16th there will be two performances (2pm & 7pm) by the Hertfordshire-based theatre company Pins & Feathers of a new drama with music marking the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage. “The March” features the extraordinary Great Pilgrimage of 1913, in which thousands of women from all over the country marched to London to demonstrate peaceful mass support for the vote. Marchers came down the Great North Road and passed along the brand new High Street of the village of Knebworth.
I will be taking part in a panel discussion after the 7pm performance, to talk about the role of my great-great-aunt Constance. Do come if you can – details on our website – and if you haven’t yet seen our Archivists’ excellent new exhibit on Constance and her sacrifice for suffragette cause, it remains on display in Knebworth House on weekends through the end of September.
Henry Lytton Cobbold
@HenryCobboldKH