The York Festival of Ideas website is live today, with an exciting schedule of activities including two super hybrid events here at The Mount. This year’s theme is “Rediscover, Reimagine, Rebuild”. Bookings can be made via the Festival of Ideas website.
Rediscovering Women’s Lives: a Panel Discussion
10 June, 10.00 – 11.00, School Hall
In this panel discussion, the UK’s only all-girls Quaker school joins forces with the A Few Forgotten Women project and the Rowntree Society to investigate ways in which women are omitted from historical record. Join us to find out more about this important topic and to discover how we can better preserve women’s stories and voices that might otherwise be lost in perpetuity.
Janet Few is a Family and Local historian of over 40 years experience and has presented across the English-speaking world. She is also a historical interpreter and author with a book on Marginalised Women due out later this year. Along with eleven other women, she founded the A Few Forgotten Women project in December of 2022.
Fiona Grimshaw moved to Yorkshire 12 years ago and has worked in York for most of the last 10 years at the National Railway Museum and now at the Rowntree Society – with brief stints in Haworth, at the Brontë Parsonage Musuem and at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford. She has a lifelong interest in history and heritage and obtained an MA in History from Sheffield University and is a visiting lecturer at Durham University. She is particularly interested in the roles, contributions and motivations of women in history and looks forward to the opportunity to rebuild and research women’s stories which have previously been overlooked.
Master of Ceremonies: Sarah Sheils first came to York as an undergraduate and apart from five years has lived here ever since. She taught at the Open University, and for a number of York Schools, and spent twenty-three very happy years at The Mount and Bootham Schools. She has written a History of the Mount School, Among Friends, and more recently on the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, Cave To Cosmos. She has a keen interest in the role of women in York life, in politics, the arts and the sciences, and is very pleased to see the recent research being done to uncover more of the contribution made by women that until recently has been somewhat overlooked.
Researching Women in History: an Interactive, Hybrid Workshop
Saturday 10 June, 11.30 – 14.00 with a 30-minute break at 12.30 – 13.00.
Join us for an exciting opportunity to conduct real-time interactive research in The Mount School’s picturesque Library or online.
Hone your research skills and discover more about the women in history! Workshop attendees will choose from a Census record for The Mount School York or information about World War 1 Voluntary Aid Detatchment Nurses as their research starting point. Attendees will have access to professional online resources and researchers from the Few Forgotten Women project. In the plenary session, led by Fiona Grimshaw of the Rowntree Society, attendees and researchers will have the opportunity to reflect on their progress and share findings with the other participants.
- There will be a 30-min break at 12.30.
- This is a hybrid event that you can either attend in person or online. You will be asked to choose how you will attend this workshop when you register via the online form. After registration, you will be contacted with the necessary details to access the venue or the online forum, accordingly.
- Please note that The Mount School’s main Library does not have wheelchair access. We hope that those needing wheelchair access will enjoy this session via our live, online feed.
The researchers
Janet Few is a Family and Local historian of over 40 years experience and has presented across the English-speaking world. She is also a historical interpreter and author with a book on Marginalised Women due out later this year. Along with eleven other women, she founded the A Few Forgotten Women project in December of 2022.
Helen Shields is an amateur genealogist and active member of Ryedale Family History Group, who regularly addresses historical societies. She is a co-founder of the ‘A Few Forgotten Women’ project, which seeks to work with the wider community to preserve the stories of the marginalised.
Fiona Movley (A Few Forgotten Women project) has been an amateur Family and Local historian for nearly 30 years and is currently studying with the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Societies.
Chris Braund is a Historical Interpreter who believes in the importance of understanding how our ancestors lived. He is President of Devon Family History Society.
Other members of the A Few Forgotten Women team who will be available remotely to help with research include Pat Adamson, Jane Braund, Linda Brignall, Janice Brinley-Codd, Liz Craig, Wendy Durston, Ann Simcock.
Sarah Sheils first came to York as an undergraduate and apart from five years has lived here ever since. She taught at the Open University, and for a number of York Schools, and spent twenty-three very happy years at The Mount and Bootham Schools. She has written a History of the Mount School, Among Friends, and more recently on the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, Cave To Cosmos. She has a keen interest in the role of women in York life, in politics, the arts and the sciences, and is very pleased to see the recent research being done to uncover more of the contribution made by women that until recently has been somewhat overlooked.
