Phone Box Bought for £1 Becomes Touching Suffragette Memorial

Someone bought an old phone box for just one pound. They turned it into a suffragette memorial. Batheaston Parish Council made this purchase from BT. The memorial opened in December.

The opening marked 106 years since women first voted. Liz Hardman spoke to about thirty people. She talked about Batheaston’s past and how it used to house a “nest of Suffragettes.”

Eagle House was the hub. The Blathwayt family owned it and made a unique monument to the women. The phone box sits near Eagle House’s old garden. The Blathwayts invited suffragettes there.

The phone box now tells a story, remembering women wanting the vote and the same rights as men. Councillor Liz Hardman gave a speech, to honor the memorial.

The Blathwayts helped suffragettes who had worked hard. Mary Blathwayt devoted eight years to the cause. She worked at a suffragette shop and befriended Annie Kenney, a suffragette.

Annie and others visited Eagle House, a safe place for them to recover from tours or prison. Prison became very harsh after hunger strikes started, with the government force-feeding them, which hurt or killed some women.

Suffragettes made their mark on Batheaston. Many planted a tree at Eagle House, and the land became “Annie’s Arboretum.” There was even a Pankhurst Pond.

Each suffragette planted a tree and Lillies grew around it. They took a photo and made a plaque. The cowshed became the “Suffragette Rest,” helping them recover.

Only one suffragette tree remains. Rose Lamartine Yates planted it in 1909. University of Bath students helped design the memorial.

Women’s rights face trouble worldwide now. Afghanistan bans women from many things while the US saw a woman die after Roe VS Wade ended.

In the UK, a man kills a woman every three days.