A group of women came together to celebrate inspiring Maxonian female achievements.
Coun Alift Harewood-Jones, Rhona Marshall MBE, Eileen Talbot and Diane Turner all organised the Macclesfield Pioneering Women event, which celebrated the past and current achievements of the town’s ladies.
During the day a host of special guests all paid a visit to the event to talk about either their own or other people’s accomplishments at King’s School. Rhona Marshall, of Rugby Drive, Tytherington, said: “Because Macclesfield was a successful mill town, with jobs for women as well as men, it has always had a tradition of strong women’s involvement in the town’s activities.
“Today Macclesfield still owes a great deal of the success of the community to the contributions of local women. With this in mind we had our first event at King’s before an audience of local women.”
The audience was entertained by Macclesfield singer and songwriter Izzie Naylor at the start of the occasion before Coun Harewood welcomed the speakers.
Contributors on the night included King’s Girls’ Division History Club members Ellie Hopewell and Lilian Breese-Tovey, who showed off a power point presentation they had made about Marianne Brocklehurst and her Egyptian adventures; Dr Gerald Coope, who talked about his mother Dr Jean Coope’s medical research and her great contribution to life in Bollington, and Rev Marion Tugwood, who told the meeting about the inspiring work done by Street Angels, a local group organised by the local churches to man the town’s streets at night offering people help and support.
Paralympic silver medallist Libby Clegg, from Bollington, also spoke about her life growing up and how she achieved her Olympic win as a blind contestant. Well known historian Dorothy Bentley Smith also gave a talk all about her interest in our local history after coming to live in Macclesfield and falling in love with the town and its heritage.
Rhona said: “After such a successful day we are now hoping to make this an annual event.”
