Mary Neal (born Clara Sophia Neal; 5 June 1860–22 June 1944) was an English social worker, suffragette, and collector of English folk dances.Neal was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, and her father,David Neal, was a button manufacturer.In 1888, she began voluntary social work with the West London Methodist Mission, helping the poor various areas in London,taking the name "Sister Mary". Neal set up and ran a "Club for Working Girls" at the mission's Cleveland Hall, and also wrote for the Mission Magazine.According to Emmeline Pethick, who worked with her in the Girls' Club, Neal had "a strong sense of humour and a profound aversion from unreality; she had also a sharp tongue".
Whilst the club was successful, in 1895, Neal and Pethick left the mission to set up their own Espérance Club, as they wanted to escape from the mission's institutional constraints.They also started the Maison Espérance tailoring establishment to provide employment.In 1905, Neal met Cecil Sharp at the Hampstead Conservatoire. She and Sharp began to collaborate during a revival of English folk music, particularly Morris Dancing.The girls of the Espérance Club became in demand as teachers of folk music in London and further afield, and they also put on several public performances.An initially happy and fruitful collaboration between Neal and Sharp ended with a blizzard of hostile letters and articles in national newspapers. Sharp accused Neal's girls of "hoydenish dancing"; Neal complained of Sharp's "pedantry." When she sailed to the US on a lecture tour,a friend of Sharp's wrote to her hosts saying she
had been "thrown over" by the education authorities. The quarrel concerned class and gender divisions, questions of national identity,tradition,modernity,"accuracy," and "spirit."
Neal joined the Women's Social and Political Union, and later, the United Suffragists.Neal was a leading member of the Kibbo Kift youth organisation.She was a JP in West Sussex in 1934, dealing with child delinquency, and was also a member of the Howard League for Penal Reform.Her services to the English folk song and dance movement led to her being appointed CBE in 1937.

In this unknown history of the women’s suffrage movement in early twentieth century Great Britain, Kathryn Atherton introduces her readers to Mary Neal and her suffragette comrades who, through local grassroots organization, education, and activism preserved the Morris country dances. Seemingly unrelated subjects, British militant suffrage and Morris dancing, Atherton argues, are intrinsically linked because of Neal and Emmeline Pethick’s roles in both organizations and their commitments to socio-political reforms. Ultimately, both women’s suffrage and the Morris dancing preservation movements succeeded in part because of Neal and Pethick’s leadership, organizational skills, and activism. A fascinatingly unique take on women’s history and suffrage movements, Atherton brings several names into this book to give readers a greater understanding of this aspect of cultural preservation and women’s history. Atherton’s use of historical documentation, quotes, and case studies makes this larger history feel smaller and more personal to readers, yet she also includes some fascinating lines of historical inquiry and analysis for more experienced historians. This latest women’s history book with an emphasis on suffrage is a great example of the intersectionality and multiple agendas of women’s organizations, particularly in this early twentieth century period, and readers are sure to enjoy Atherton’s work.

Mary Neal and the Suffragettes Who Saved Morris Dancing
by Kathryn Atherton
Pub Date 30 Jan 2024
Pen & Sword,Pen & Sword History
Biographies & Memoirs| History| Nonfiction \(Adult\)


Through Pen & Sword and Netgalley, I'm reviewing Mary Neal and the Suffragettes Who Saved Morris Dancing:


Morris dancing was all but extinct in much of England at the turn of the 20th century. Suffragettes and slum girls kicked off a revival that brought forgotten country dances back to towns and villages. Due to their dedication to preserving and passing on the dances, the Morris survived and is still performed today. The women's aspiration to change society for the better inspired them to take militant action and go to jail.


Morris revival and militant suffrage were inextricably linked. Mary Neal, the leader of the dance revival, was a lifelong feminist and child rights activist. In one of London's most deprived areas, she ran the Esperance Girls' Club with Emmeline Pethick. As members of Mrs Pankhurst's militant Women's Social and Political Union, the most notorious of the women's rights groups, she and Emmeline sat on the national committee.


Mary's commitment to social and political reform and her aspirations for equality led women to embrace traditional dance. Dance revival and militant suffragette campaign in London started almost at the same time. With a forlorn band of rebels at its core, the WSPU grew into a movement capable of inspiring loyalty and loathing. Morris revival started as an entertainment for impoverished girls but turned into a nationwide movement. Among Mary and Emmeline's dance revival associates were militant campaign workers and hunger-striking aristocrats' daughters.



Two radical movements flourished in the early 20th century thanks to the leadership and commitment of Mary and Emmeline, but both found themselves marginalised after policy disagreements - with Cecil Sharp and Mrs Pankhurst, respectively - led to devastating splits. Eventually, both were misrepresented and written out of histories of movements that might not have existed without them. Women have only started to reclaim their place in the Morris dance movement in the past few decades, a legacy of the militant vote campaign.



I give Mary Neal and the Suffragettes Who Saved Morris Dancing five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

Kathryn Atherton’s Mary Neal and the Suffragettes Who Saved Morris Dancing shows how two superficially completely unrelated subjects - militant suffragettes campaigning for women’s right to vote and folk dancing – were wound together like the two strands of DNA. Clara Sophia Neal (1860-1944) became Sister Mary when she left her Birmingham home to join the West London Mission in 1888. Mary became a social worker in London, trying to help poor women and girls. Although Mary was well-off, thanks to her father’s business, she found fulfilment in helping others. She reorganised the Mission’s girls’ club, bringing order to the chaotic evenings that saw dead cats thrown in through the windows. Mary was joined, three years later, by Emmeline Pethick. The two women realised that the poor needed material help more than they needed religion. They left the Mission and their new desire for political and economic change meant that their circle widened to include Keir Hardie, Ramsay MacDonald and other left-leaning politicians. Their interest in politics meant they were party to discussions about women’s right to vote.

Mary and Emmeline set up the Esperance Girls’ Club, giving the young women of the West End sweatshops opportunities to meet; play games; listen to talks; sing; and dance. They started taking the girls on trips into the country, renting cottages and eventually buying a seaside hostel. Emmeline married Fred Lawrence, who was so keen on Emmeline knowing that she was still an independent woman, he insisted they both take the surname Pethick-Lawrence (note: her surname first) and, for a first wedding anniversary gift, gave her the only keys to a flat for her sole use. Fred didn’t retain a key for himself. What a star!

Mary was introduced to Cecil Sharp, who collected folk songs; and asked if he knew any traditional dances for her girls. Sharp didn’t, but directed Mary to the Headington Quarrymen Morris dancers in Oxford. The girls fully embraced Morris dancing, becoming highly adept and giving demonstrations to large audiences. The interest in Morris spread and it’s fair to say that the revival of Morris dancing in the C20th was due to Mary.

Emmeline, in the meantime, was introduced to the Pankhursts and was talked into becoming the treasurer for the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), a newly-formed militant organisation, fighting for women’s right to vote. Emmeline and Fred launched a magazine, Votes For Women. The Pethick-Lawrences ensured the success of the WSPU by organising and ensuring funding. Without that firm footing, the WSPU would probably have collapsed, delaying women’s right to vote in the UK. Who knows – maybe without Emmeline and Fred, UK women might have had to wait until as long as Swiss women: only able to vote in federal elections from 1971?

The two best friends, Mary and Emmeline, each became heavily involved in their own main interest, while supporting their friend in the other. Having laid out the background as to why the revival of Morris dancing and the campaign for women’s suffrage were linked, the author then shows how the two women were ousted from their positions. I thought of Cecil Sharp as a hero, ensuring all those folk songs were written down before they were lost. This book shows that even heroes have feet of clay. And as for Mrs Pankhurst, praised for decades as the woman who enabled votes for women – well, read this book! It's a very well-researched book. Although it’s a dense mass of facts, it never gets too bogged down. There was no point where I felt reading it was becoming a chore. It does a great job of adjusting our perspective and reminding us of Jeremy Thorpe’s verdict upon Harold Macmillan’s brutal Cabinet reshuffle of 1962, “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his friends for his life.”

#MaryNealandtheSuffragettesWhoSavedMorrisDancing #NetGalley

This is a very well-researched and interesting history. I didn't know much about Mary Neal, so it was fascinating to read about how she was linked with other suffragettes that I did know about. It also dispelled my mistaken belief that morris dancing was only for men!

The Victorians, trying to keep their footing in an age of rapid technological growth, are an excellent analog for our current experiences. In Mary Neal and the Suffragettes Who Saved Morris Dancing, Kathryn Atherton paints a vivid picture of the challenges young Victorian women faced as they tried to reconcile preserving the traditions of the past with embracing forward looking social upheaval. Neal is a unique figure who intersected with interesting figures and movements throughout the era. The author does an excellent job of exploring these threads without distracting from the primary narrative. It's a cogent and easy to follow story that packs a lot of context in. Readers who aren't usually drawn to nonfiction but are interested in English Folk Traditions or Suffrage will enjoy Atherton's work. The absolutely beautiful cover itself will sell many on it.

Kathryn Atherton, Mary Neal and the Suffragettes Who Saved Morris Dancing, Pen & Sword, Pen & Sword History, January 2024.

Thank you, NetGalley and Pen & Sword History for providing me with this uncorrected proof review.
Reading Katheryn Atherton’s book has been an absolute delight. It is well written, with the usual Pen & Sword accessible language, format and lightness of touch, while providing a wealth of well researched information. Mary Neal and the Suffragettes Who Saved Morris Dancing includes information about women’s suffrage organisations and personnel, with marvellous vignettes of the most active, and details of the action in which the women participated; the background to Morris Dancing, highlighting the divergent views of how it should be understood, appreciated and developed; and the significant social history associated with Neal’s work and her commitment to changing the lives of women from a very different class from her own and her companions in the suffrage organisations involved in saving Morris Dancing.

The exploration of the suffragette contribution to restoring Morris Dancing to its former prominence after it had died out by the early 20th century begins with Mary Neal’s work with young working-class women in St Pancras. The role of her club, the Esperance, in the resurrection of this dance form, and as part of Neal’s commitment to women and girl’s rights makes a stirring story. So, too does the all too familiar falling out over the way in which Morris dancing should be executed - or was it just that a man wanted a prestigious role? This part of the book makes remarkably interesting reading from a feminist perspective as well as for anyone for whom dance and the manner in which it should be performed, observed and understood is an issue.
There are familiar names and organisations: the Pankhursts, Emmiline Pethick-Lawrence, Lady Constance Lytton, the WPSU, the Votes for Women magazine, the Cat and Mouse Act amongst others are all here. But so, too are less familiar names, organisations and written materials. Short biographies of some of the women are included, and Mary Neal becomes a vibrant personality under Katheryn Atherton’s perceptive and sympathetic hand together with solid research.

The photos of the Morris Dancers include a lovely sketch of the feet of one of the Esperance Dancers by Sylvia Pankhurst as well as groups of dancers from various exhibitions given by the group. Photos of some of the protagonists covered in the book are also included. There is a bibliography with archival material, including reference to Mary Neal’s papers to be found in the London School Library. Amongst the published material were two such familiar texts, Jill Liddington and Jill Norris’s One Hand Tied Behind Us: The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 2000 and Midge McKenzie’s Shoulder to Shoulder, 1975, alongside unfamiliar material about folk dancing, folk songs, Morris Dancing and material directly related to Mary Neal’s work.

Kathryn Atherton gives the militant suffragettes their place in the revival of Morris Dancing in a wholehearted, enthusiastic work. This enthusiasm for her material makes delightful reading as I noted in my introduction. At the same time, the research and thoroughness with which the material is approached gives this book and the women it represents the gravitas they deserve.

Really interesting read about a subject I had no idea about. Easy to read and feel like I've learnt a lot. Normally don't read Non Fiction, but surprised how quickly I read this one. Thank you Net Galley for the ARC