Fanny was born in Kent in 1719. She met Edward Boscawen, a naval officer, in 1738 when he was 27 and she was just 18. He returned from his voyages in May of 1742 and they were married by December that year, before Edward set sail again as Captain of the Dreadnought. In fact, for the 18 years of their marriage, Frances Boscawen by Allan Ramsay. Private Collection. Photograph by James Duffy. Edward was away for almost 10 of them. Fanny was an erudite and welleducated woman, as illustrated in her prolific letter writing. She was well respected and admired by her intellectual peers in fashionable society, both male and female alike. Dr Samuel Johnson referred to Fanny as a rare intellectual who could 'send back every ball he threw’. Throughout her later life she was close friends with Elizabeth Montagu, together they were founding members of the Bluestocking Society. The original bluestockings are notable for giving women a public voice and cultural standing in a time where to be an educated female was frowned upon, and women were excluded from intellectual conversation. Through their letters and diaries, we know that the Bluestockings met regularly, hosting salons at each other’s houses including at Hatchlands. This was partly to amuse one another, partly to refine their taste and increase the knowledge of the participants about the arts, philosophy and education. education for women and modern feminism. Rachel Devine Hatchlands Park House Steward. JESSICA SWALE Jessica is an Olivier award winning playwright, screenwriter and director. As playwright, Jessica's first play Blue Stockings (Shakespeare's Globe) won her an Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright nomination. Nell Gwynn (Shakespeare's Globe) transferred to the West End starring Gemma Arterton and won the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. Jessica is adapting Nell Gwynn as a feature film with Working Title, alongside original films for Studio Canal and Fox Searchlight, and writing the Horrible Histories movie for Altitude. In 2018 she directed her first feature, Summerland, also starring Gemma Arterton. Plays includes All's Will that Ends Will (Bremen Shakespeare Company), Thomas Tallis (Wanamaker Playhouse), adaptations of Sense and Sensibility, Far from the Madding Crowd (Watermill), The Secret Garden, Stig of the Dump (Grosvenor Park, Chester),The Jungle Book (UK Tour) and her new play The Mission, about secret adoptions in the 1920s. IMDb Why ‘Bluestockings’ ? Selected male intellectuals were invited to attend the meetings of the Bluestockings society and amongst them was the impoverished botanist and translator Benjamin Stillingfeet. Unable to afford the formal black silk stockings of the period, he would attend in every day blue worsted ones. ‘Blue Stockings’ became a reference to informal gatherings with an emphasis on intellect over fashion and thereafter, by association to educated intellectual women. First women’s graduations at British Universities 1878 London University 1900 Birmingham University 1886 Cardiff University 1920 Oxford University 1893 Edinburgh University ???? Cambridge University
150 years 1869 - 2019 On 16 October 1869, the ‘College for Women’ opened at Benslow House in Hitchin, 30 miles south of Cambridge. This was a small-scale start in a rented property but the new College was born of an audacious vision. Girton’s foundational aim was to enable women to gain university degrees. Victory at Cambridge was hard-won and In 1880, the first Cambridge campaign on the question was sparked by the examination success of a Girton mathematician. Although it did not bring Cambridge degrees for women, they were granted official permission to sit Cambridge University examinations. IN 1887, WHEN A GIRTON CLASSICIST OUTSHONE ALL HER MALE PEERS IN TRIPOS EXAMINATIONS, A COMMITTEE WAS FORMED TO PROMOTE WOMEN’S ACCESS TO CAMBRIDGE DEGREES, BUT THE GOAL REMAINED ELUSIVE. AN ICONIC MOMENT IN THE STRUGGLE CAME ON 21 MAY 1897, WHEN, AFTER 18 MONTHS OF CAMPAIGNING BY GIRTON STUDENTS AND THEIR LECTURERS, THE MEMBERS OF THE UNIVERSITY VOTED……. From The Girton College archive Pioneering females and Girton College By Robert Sheppard Jessica Swale credits Emily Davies as the leading pioneer for female education. Formerly girls in England were fortunate if they received any education at all: the wealthy may sometimes have employed governesses for their daughters (a disastrous role for any with the aspiration of becoming ‘a lady’) others might receive a basic elementary education but few went further. Emily Davies’ The Higher Education of Women, published in 1866, influenced a broadening of the curriculum. In 1869, with a group of like-minded friends, she went on to found the first women’s college at Cambridge. From the outset Emily Davies insisted upon Girton’s curriculum being identical to that of their male counterparts and that the women should take examinations.By 1873 the Girton girls were being admitted to the lectures of only 22 of the 37 University Professors. In 1885 the then Mistress of Girton, Elizabeth Welsh, who appears in Blue Stockings, became the first female to be admitted to the Executive committee of the University. She attempted to progress the cause of Cambridge women being awarded the right to graduate. Emily Davies Elizabeth Welsh
Notes Photo shoot March 2019 The director and the Blue Stockings ‘leg’ models. In the forward to her play Jessica Swale dedicates Blue Stockings to the youngest ever Nobel Laureate with the words: For Malala Yousafzai and all those who dedicate their lives to our education, from the Girton pioneers to teachers, like my mother, who inspire us all. judge the men in the story, although it’s hard not to do so. The boos, reserved for the deeply misogynistic views of some of the men in the play were quite a feature in rehearsal, but these men are ‘a product of their time’. We should, however, roundly condemn these attitudes where they persist today and give thanks for the determination of these extraordinary educational pioneers. When I first read the play, in preparation for Guildburys 2015 production, the opening lines leapt out at me “It may be a pity for women that they are born women, but in running the intellectual race, it’s unlikely they will succeed and perilous to even try“ - it certainly had my attention from the very first page. I was drawn into the astonishing story of the battle of the Girton girls – a battle that still continues all over the world today in societies where women are still refused an education. With a total of 26 scenes in 19 locations this is an ambitious undertaking, especially when staged in this beautiful music room at Hatchlands Park. I have been blessed with a wonderful cast - they have all worked their stockings off. The extensive Guildbury production team listed elsewhere in this programme has been greatly assisted by the team at Hatchlands who have welcomed us so warmly and enabled us to stage an innovative production which we hope you enjoy. However – it’s important to say that the play is no feminist rant, and shocking as the chauvinist sentiments expressed may appear to us in the relative freedoms of the 21st century, the beliefs should be seen in the context of their historical period. We should not harshly I thank everyone who has made ‘Blue Stockings’ an even more rewarding play to direct than it was in 2015. Gilly Fick Blue Stockings, of course, has a historical background and some its figures are actual. It opens with a lecture delivered by Dr Henry Maudsley, where he vitriolically condemns the notion of female education. The expressed sentiments come from his treatise ‘Sex in Mind and Education’. Men of Learning By Ian Nichols The brilliant Maudsley had graduated at the age of 22 with an M.D. degree after which he spent 9 months working in Wakefield asylum. By 27 he was appointed editor of the flagship Journal of Medical Sciences. His meteoric rise included his election as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians where he delivered the Galtonian lecture ‘Body and Mind’. Charles Darwin widely used Maudsley’s notes in his work on evolution. Becoming wealthy from his lectures, his writing and his lucrative private practice for the Henry Maudsley exclusive care of aristocrats, Dr Henry Maudsley donated an enormous £30,000 to the foundation for the Maudsley Hospital. In his final years he became increasingly reclusive, regretted his career in psychiatry and destroyed his own papers and correspondence. Charles Darwin Maudsley’s close acquaintance and fellow scientist , Charles Darwin, was amongst many evolutionist who taught that ‘women were biologically inferior to men’. He commented that ‘there is many a happy slave’ and warned that ‘the increasing female militancy threatened to divert the orderly process of evolution’. Although challenged for their negative view on women, with such heavyweights of science propounding such views, the influence over young male students is perhaps unsurprising.
Join our mailing list at www.guildburys.com Guildburys were founded in 1963 & over the years have performed predominantly in Surrey, but have been seen as far north as the Edinburgh fringe, and as far west as the very tip of the U.K. at the Minack Theatre in West Cornwall. We pride ourselves on productions that are varied and innovative, but most importantly we produce shows that are enjoyable as well as challenging. They all share the high production values of which we are so proud. Over the years Guildburys have performed more than 150 different shows and have given in excess of 1,000 performances. The Government Inspector at The Minack - August 2019 Our open air shows alone have been seen by more than 40,000 people. We perform at The Electric Theatre in Guildford in Spring and Autumn and our Summer Picnic Theatre in July is at Merrist Wood just outside Guildford. Every 3rd year we tour our summer show to the stunning 700 seat Minack ‘Theatre Under the Stars’ in Cornwall where we play to capacity audiences. Our next production is “People” by Alan Bennett at The Electric Theatre, Guildford from 1 - 4 April 2020
GIRTON STUDENTS TRINITY STUDENTS Tess Hannah Cartwright Lloyd Cameron Watson Celia Claire Howes Will Person Person Carolyn Lauren Phillipou Edwards Ian McShee Maeve Alice Walsh Ralph Joe Hall GIRTON STAFF THE MEN Mrs Welsh Kathryn Attwood Miss Blake Caroline Walsh Professor Collins/Billy/Waiter Eddie Woolrich Miss Bott Pamela Hemelryk Professor Anderson/Dr Maudsley Jonathan Arundel Minnie/Lady Tuuli Abekoglu Professor Radley/Mr Peck Kim Fergusson Mrs Lindley/Librarain Tina Wareham Mr Banks Jonathan Constant CREATIVE AND PRODUCTION TEAM Director Gilly Fick Designer Robert Sheppard Production & Stage manager Michael Burne Logistics & ASM Graham Russell Price Crew Paul Wareham Costumes The Guildbury Costume Team Properties Manager Cris Wakeham Hair and Makeup Jemma Jessup Build team Michael Burne, Mike Dean, Graham Russell Price Publicity Gilly Fick, Laura Sheppard. Programme images Phill Griffith, Jonathan Constant, Kevin Malam Programme design Robert Sheppard Sound Mike Dean Light Howard Benbrook Prompt Sue Poole Furniture Hatchlands Park Transport Michael Burne The play is set during the academic year of 1896 - 1897 in and around Cambridge, and especially at Girton College. WITH THANKS TO NATIONAL TRUST HATCHLANDS PARK FOR THEIR ASSISTANCE IN THE STAGING OF THIS PRODUCTION
Fleepit Digital © 2021