Letter to Chainmakers' Association referring to planned park
Page 2 of letter to the Chainmakers' Association
In addition to a number of Holiday Homes for Working Women, an Education Trust and a Garden were established in Mary Macarthur’s memory.
It was in the 1950s that Rowley Regis Council decided to develop the land adjoining the Institute to create a park with children’s slides, swings and tennis courts. It was named the “Mary Macarthur Memorial Gardens” in recognition of her dedication and work on behalf of the women chainmakers of Cradley Heath. Locally, however, it became known as Lomie Town Park.
The existence of a public space next to the Workers’ Institute in Cradley Heath has been commemorated at the Museum with the development of a 1930s municipal park, adjacent to the Institute’s new home.
Throughout her life Mary was committed to improving the lives of working women, and so it seems quite fitting that the Mary Macarthur Educational Trust was set up in her memory. The Trust, which still operates today, makes grants available to non-graduate women over the age of twenty who have shown their desire and aptitude for further education by attendance, since the age of 16, at educational courses or establishments, including trade unions, co-operative societies or political courses. Priority is given to women whose early education has been limited. Women who are accepted for one year scholarship courses at specific adult residential colleges, such as Ruskin in London, are granted approximately £900 to help with books, childcare and travel. A few smaller awards are made for shorter courses, summer schools or community courses.
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| Updated: | Thu 26 Jun 2008 - 0 |
| Interpretation written by | Barbara Harris |
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