Tarvin Meeting Point – Famous Women from Cheshire and Beyond

Tarvin Meeting Point met last Thursday to discuss notable women from Cheshire and the surrounding area – as the county borders have fluctuated over the centuries and members felt justified in choosing women from beyond the current boundaries, including Birkenhead (Glenda Jackson), Tintwistle (Vivienne Westwood) and Manchester (Emmeline Pankhurst).

Of the eight women chosen, the earliest was the notorious Mary Fitton of Gawsworth Hall, who may not have been the "Dark Lady" of Shakespeare's sonnets, but who certainly lived a scandalous life – as did the next candidate, Ness-born Emma Hamilton (as she became),

the famous eighteenth-century beauty (see painting right) and "model/actress/whatever" (as we would say now) who became Lord Nelson's mistress.

The next candidates for discussion were rather more respectable: first, Elizabeth Gaskell, much-loved novelist who immortalised her childhood home of Knutsford as "Cranford" and whose Manchester
home has recently opened to the public; then Emmeline Pankhurst, the political activist and suffragette leader who is surely one of the most influential women of the last century.

Other choices were women who are still alive: Margaret Burbidge, pioneering female astrophysicist who was the first woman Director of the Royal Observatory; actress and politician Glenda Jackson (the only MP to have won an Oscar – in fact two Oscars); fashion designer and "Queen of Punk" Dame Vivienne Westwood pictured below

and finally the Very Reverend Vivienne Faull, currently Dean of York, who is hotly tipped to become one of the first women bishops in the Church of England.

An amazing range of personalities and achievements, which made for a fascinating evening.