Call for women to appear on green plaques around Lancaster and Morecambe

This was a question asked of Lancaster Civic Society chairman John Regan by Rachael Bowers, manager of Lancaster City Museum, when discussing the green plaque scheme in Lancaster and Morecambe.

Lancaster Civic Society, since its inception in 1967, has arranged – in conjunction with English Heritage - for green commemorative plaques to be purchased and placed around the Lancaster district to celebrate and remember prominent citizens.

Rachael pointed out that while there are many women from around the area who have made significant contributions in lots of different fields, there are no green plaques to perpetuate their achievements.

As today, Monday March 8, is International Women’s Day, and March is Women’s History Month, the civic society suggested to Lancaster City Museum that they provide them with the names of some suitable women that they should be considering.

Mr Regan said: "It has to be said that when the list was received, the Civic Society Executive were quite astounded by not only the number of women put forward, but also the courage, determination and grit of many of them. I could have quite easily voted for all of them.

"As a result Lancaster Civic Society jointly with Lancaster City Museum and Lancaster City Council are working together to address this imbalance and celebrate Lancaster’s women by launching a survey to ask the people of Lancaster and Morecambe to give us their opinion on which of these women they think richly deserves to be commemorated, by running a daily item listing them and their achievements and asking for their votes.

"At the same time we are sure that the residents of Lancaster and Morecambe may well be aware of other women who have equal claims to fame and we, and the City Museum, would be delighted to hear from you about them so they may be considered and added to our list

"We will publish a selection of the candidates each day, together with details of their achievements, commencing on March 8 to coincide with International Women’s Day, and also asking for your opinions through our web page www.lancastercivicsociety.uk and social media on Facebook and Twitter.

"At this stage we are particularly keen to identify deserving women whose role in our local society should be remembered but it is not a guarantee that a green plaque can be erected to them as there are many other considerations which need to be taken into account. One particular one is cost as green plaques typically are around £400 plus cost of erection.

"Clearly whilst we are anxious to identify women of significant merit to deserve such an honour we would at the same time be pleased to hear from any organisations who feel that they could contribute towards the cost or who have appropriate premises that they could be attached or erected on. "

If you would like further information about this project, or to tell the civic society about women that you think deserve recognition, please contact David Morgan by email at [email protected] or Rachael Bowers at [email protected]