Suffragettes

A unique collection of suffragette images taken at Eagle House, Batheaston. The house was owned by the Blathwayts, a family of suffragette supporters. Realising the toll that prison and hunger strikes was having on the suffragettes, they opened their home as a refuge, somewhere they could recover physically and mentally. Each suffragette was invited to plant a tree and Colonel Blathway took photos of the event along with portraits of the women which were then sold to raise money for the suffragette cause.

Sadly only one tree remains. The rest were torn down when a housing estate was built on the site in the 1960s. It is believed that the remaining Australian pine tree was planted by Rose Lamartine Yates.