Honouring Ellen

Unite helped organise a unique domestic violence commemorative event on Sunday November 29 and will now assist with establishing a website that will honour domestic violence victims and provide advice and information to women needing support.

Forty people defied severe weather and trekked across the muddy Lancashire moors to assist the Unite north west regional chair Martin McMulkin to lay a wreath on the world’s oldest site to commemorate a domestic violence victim.

The impetus for the event arose from the Unite education department Rebel Road project that catalogues plaques, statues or something similar commemorating trade union and labour movement heroes.

Ellen Strange does not fall into these categories but when her story became known it was added to the project under sites of interest.

Ellen Strange was brutally murdered late at night by her husband John Broadley on Holcombe Moor near Ramsbottom in January 1761. With no eye-witnesses to the attack and forensic science yet to be developed then Broadley was never convicted.

Local people though were determined to ensure Ellen’s death did not go unmarked and raised a pile of stones (cairn) in her memory, a practice that has continued to the present day. In 1989, John Simpson, a local author and librarian, published a well-researched booklet on the murder.

Earlier this year a group of Unite members and campaigners against domestic violence agreed to visit the cairn and lay a wreath as part of the annual two week domestic violence awareness events that are organised each November.

Over ÂŁ1,000 from the Unite north west region and ÂŁ500 from the Unite branch at Jost helped raise almost ÂŁ2,500. This helped to reprint Simpson’s book, pay for leaflets and book a local church hall to serve refreshments after the wreath had been laid. The driving wind, rain and sleet on the day itself meant the church really was a sanctuary afterwards.

The walk to the cairn took an hour. Those assembled heard Tracey Dewe from the PAWS for kids domestic violence charity project say, “What Ellen suffered late at night happens today as women are still being left battered and bloodied.”

Injustice

“Bridget Bell from Women against Pit Closures said, “There’s no place I’d rather be than here today as we recall a great injustice and look towards the future knowing that it is only through organising that you achieve advances.

“That was the case in 1974 when women organised a Federation of Women’s refuges through Women’s Aid. That struggle continues as there still is not sufficient public funding for refuges.”

Jane Fletcher, a retired health visitor, former Unite member and a church reader in the Parish of Holcombe and Hawkshaw then said a prayer for “those who have lost their lives from domestic violence and those who work with the victims and their families.”

The ceremony ended as Martin McMulkin laid a wreath before “Thanking everyone who has made today very special.

Honour

“We will be holding a meeting to discuss plans to develop a well-resourced website that will honour domestic violence victims and provide advice and information to women who need support. We are going to put the remaining monies in our funds towards this and then look for further finance to employ a part time worker on the project.”

This is something Unite is looking to support with the union’s head of equalities, Siobhan Endean, saying, “Unite is committed to ending violence against women and our workplace reps work with employers to support women escaping violent relationships.

“We welcome the Ellen Strange story highlighted by the Rebel Road project and we have invited one of the campaigners to discuss with us how we can support the future plans.”

Find out more about Ellen Strange

Download John Simpson’s booklet

Pic by Mark Harvey