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.
Sue Munro - Ada group member
Susan Munro has lived in Congleton for over 20 years. She is a retired civil servant having worked for many years in the Social Services Inspectorate based in Manchester.
She has a life-long interest in women’s issues and has been on protests and marches for women and animal rights on many occasions. She is mentor to working-class girls helping them to find their path in life and make good decisions.
In 2018 she formed the charity Elizabeth’s Group to campaign for the memory of Elizabeth Wolstenholme Elmy to be brought back into public knowledge and the group raised £70k in four years to erect the statue “Our Elizabeth” which now stands in Congleton Town Centre. At the present time Elizabeth’s Group has a sub-group to encourage women to write. She remains Chair of the charity.