About Ada

An introduction

Ada Nield Chew

Ada Nield Chew was born into a farming family in rural Staffordshire in 1870. When her father sold the farm, the family moved to Crewe, where she found work at Compton Brothers as a tailoress. Her activism was borne out of the injustices that Ada and her fellow workers experienced there. As the anonymous ‘Crewe Factory Girl’ she exposed the poor and unfair working conditions at the factory. Later, she became a fierce campaigner for universal suffrage and the rights of working class women.