The
battle for women's voting rights and the extraordinary story of Ashtead Pottery
are the two main exhibitions at Leatherhead
Museum
Jim
Fuller, a lifelong Ashtead resident, cut the ribbon formally re-opening the
Museum at Hampton Cottage in Church
Street
The road
to suffrage for the women of Leatherhead was often bumpy. When the Women’s
Suffrage Caravan rolled into town on Saturday, 16 May 1908, it produced riots
among many menfolk. In December the local Unionist Club passed a motion that it was ‘unpropitious’
for legislation on the question of women’s suffrage. Yet from her home in Belmont Road
Ashtead Pottery had a short life, operating in Ashtead village for just
12 years from 1923 to 1935. It provided jobs for ex-servicemen disabled during the
First World War. Its main driving force was Sir Lawrence Weaver (1876-1930),
backed by the architect Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis (1883-1978) who built the
extraordinary village of Portmeirion in Wales, and Richard Stafford Cripps
(1889-1952), the prominent Labour politician and later government minister. The
company's vast array of wares ranged from figurines and commemoratives designed
by leading artists of the day, through to everyday crockery in bold bright
designs. The potters showed off their skills and
wares at the British
Empire Exhibition in 1924-25, an event organised by Weaver and for which he was
knighted.
Pearl
Kew, who died recently, lived
her whole life in Leatherhead where she was one
of the first women to own a car. She drove it to work as a teacher in Guildford . When she died she left the Museum her father’s scrap-book
from the First World War. Fascinating entries can now be seen at the Museum. In
at least one incident his horse saved his life and he was allowed to bring it
back home to England
Staffed entirely by
volunteers, Leatherhead
Museum Church Street