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Meet the team

Kate Blakemore - Chair of trustees

I’m Kate passionate about all topics related to Women and Girls. I want to spread the word about Ada to inspire our next generation and install community Pride.  

I also lead the Her-Place Charitable Trust Charity and love to involve Adas story in our charity work when we can.

Dr Amy Barnes - trustee and relation of Ada.

I am a Senior Lecturer Art History at The Open University and have a background in researching and working in museums and heritage organisations. I am also Ada’s great-great niece! A statue for Ada is long overdue as is wider recognition of her trailblazing activism and writing.

Freya O’Brien - Trustee

I’m Freya, a history graduate with a keen interest in social history, especially those who history generalises or forgets. My postgraduate research included studying letters from the 1800s.

Dr Hannah Lavery, The Open University

As Director of Teaching for the School of Arts and Humanities I was eager to support this campaign by running workshops, based on materials from an OU free course <The history of female protest and suffrage in the UK | OpenLearn – Open University>, with two schools in Crewe, to coincide with International Women’s Day. It was powerful to see how Ada’s messaging about a living wage and fair working conditions resonated with today’s children, underlining how important and relevant her words still are.

Sheila Blackburn - Ada group member

I am a retired Primary School Teacher and Secretary of the Friends of Queen’s Park, Crewe. My work on the Victorian Heritage of the Park and its locality corresponds to  Ada’s time and work in Crewe. As a result, I am in total of support of a statue to  recognise the important, lasting contribution she made to our town and to society – something to be recognised with pride and gratitude.