Leaders
Jane Austen was born 1775 Steventon Hants
Jane Austen possibly the greatest female writer of all time and one of the top 5 of both men and women, well thats what the distinguished critic F R Leavis believed…
Read MoreMarried Women’s Property Act 1870
Married Women’s Property Act 1870 was one of the most significant acts passed that changed how society and the courts perceived women.
Read MoreNewton states laws of motion and gravity in Principia Mathematica 1686-1687
Newtorn’s major work impacts on thinking of the Enlightenment’s philosophers and social reform…the world is not the centre of the universe!
Read MoreFlorence Nightingale and Women’s Suffrage
Florence Nightingale and Women’s Suffrage Florence had a vision that went beyond her incredible organisational and nursing abilities. Her attitudes made her capable of anticipating the dramatic events that would unfold for women in the late stages of the C19th and early C20th. She wrote ‘Till a woman can be in possession of her own…
Read MoreRené Descartes the father of modern philosophy
Descartes kicks -off the perod of Enlightenment and the ae of reason…
Read MoreThe Age of Reason…dawns
The dawning of the age of reason, how would it impact on our families lives and those of the communities our relatives lived in…
Read MoreWomen and children – Custody of Children Act 1839
Children no longer just the property of their father, Caroline Norton influences the first piece of feminist legislation protecting their rights to how a child should be cared for…
Read MoreLord Shaftsbury built on John Pounds Ragged School idea…campaigned to improve the lot of working children
“The future hopes of a country must, under God, be laid in the character and condition of its children;…” Inspired by John Pounds and his own increasing religious conviction Lord Shaftsbury was a leader in social reform for children as the best way to improve society overall…
Read MoreCharles Dickens – supporter of Ragged Schools
In 1843, Charles Dickens visited the Field Lane Ragged School and was so shocked and moved by what he saw there, he decided to write a pamphlet about it. Instead though he penned ‘A Christmas Carol’ as he thought he could reach more people through a novel. An intriguing connection is that John Pounds set…
Read MoreFirst Ragged School Portsmouth
In all history there are unsung heros and one of these must surely be John Pounds. Born in Portsmouth Hampshire, in 1766, John Pounds was crippled after a fall in the dockyards where he was an apprenticed shipwright. He became a shoemaker and was known as the crippled cobbler. There were many destitute children living…
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