Heritage Fund success!
Herstory.York have been awarded a grant by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. This funding will allow us to build on the work of the project, in particular to develop a book and educational resources in partnership with local history teachers through Yorkclio.
Barbara Cass, Sculptor
Barbara Cass (1921 – 1992) was born in Berlin, Germany. She studied sculpture in Berlin and came to Britain in 1950. Her friend and pupil, Juliane Montgomery, says ‘’Barbara offered me a twelve-month apprenticeship. She was normally quite a solitary person – often showing a bit of a rough exterior to the world – so […]
Zoe Bounds, Chair of York Breast Friends
After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, and in response to the lack of non-medical based support in the York area for those with a breast cancer diagnosis, Zoe and her friend Rachel founded York Breast Friends. They believe that peer support is very important, having received “amazing support” from an online forum following […]
‘Epic’ in the Press
Two fantastic articles by York Press who have reported on Herstory.York as an epic and unique project which has documented the lives of 100 women who have helped ‘shape the York we know today’
Walking Trail – now available
Herstory.York are working with The Good Organisation to develop a free walking trail in York based on some of our 100 women. We hope to launch this on International Women’s Day 8 March 2022. Update: walking trail launched! And see this great article from York Mix
Norah Gurney, Archivist
Norah Kathleen May Gurney, nee Dewar (1921 – 1974) was the second Director of the Borthwick Institute for Archives in York.. She was born in 1921 in London, the daughter of Frank J. Dewar and Mabel M. Mulholland. After graduating in modern history at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, she worked for naval intelligence during the Second World War. […]
Mary Sessions and Margaret Sessions – Printers, Editor and Author
Mary Sessions (1841 – 1926) was married to William Sessions who died at the age of just 43 in 1886. By then he had established himself in a printing business in York which he had bought in 1865. When he died, Mary led the business until their son was of an age to take the helm. This involved a transformative move to larger premises to accommodate bigger (and […]
Jeannie Mercer, Magistrate
Jeannie Mercer (1880 – 1969) was sworn in as a magistrate in September 1920, one of the first women on the York bench. A schoolteacher, she had moved to the city with her husband, John (who is listed in the 1920 York Directory as a plumber with a business in Scarcroft Road). Her appointment had […]
Dr Frances Charlotte Naish, pioneering medic
Charlotte Naish (1908 – 1959) spent much of her working life in York contributing to the development of medical services and knowledge. Born to parents Lucy Naish, a lecturer in osteology, and Albert Ernest Naish, a professor of medicine, Charlotte was one of the first women to study at and receive a degree from Cambridge […]
Sue Lister and Ann Murray
Ann and Sue were the first same-sex couple in York to be joined in a Civil Partnership in the pilot scheme of 2003. Sue was born in Leeds in 1945. Her father joined the R.A.F. and was posted to India where Sue and her mother joined him in 1946. Though the British had to leave at the partition of […]