OLDHAM Coliseum Theatre trustees Gail Richards and Susan Wildman have undertaken an Annie Kenney walk dressed as suffragettes to raise awareness of the local heroine.

The duo also recruited another local heroine Cinderella on their way.

The two suffragettes walked from Anne Kenney’s childhood home in Springhead, past the church where she worshipped and the site of the mill where she worked, to the Town Hall where she berated her MP Winston Churchill, and onto the theatre where they met up with Cinderella, played by Shorelle Hepkin, before the matinee performance of the Coliseum’s ever popular pantomime.

Board of trustees chair Gail and vice-chair Susan are raising money to help fund the statue to commemorate Annie Kenney’s role in extending the rights of women in Britain, due to be unveiled in Oldham outside the Old Town Hall on Friday, December 14.

Annie Kenney was one of the few working class suffragettes. She was imprisoned for the cause alongside Christabel Pankhurst and went on to become deputy leader of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1912 while Christabel was in exile abroad.

Not as well-known as other suffragette leaders, she convinced Prime Ministers and working women alike with the power of her public speaking.

The commemorative statue of Annie Kenney follows two years of hard work and fundraising overseen by Oldham West and Royton MP, Jim McMahon, who is also chair of the Annie Kenney Memorial Fund. The date of the statue unveiling marks 100 years since women in Britain first exercised their right to vote.