Historic England

HerStories

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of votes for women, HerStories was a textile project working with women in prison to reflect on freedom and the history of women’s rights in Britain.

Over several months, Historic England, London College of Fashion and artist Lucy Orta worked with women at HMP Downview to learn about suffrage whilst designing and making protest banners. The banners featured in Processions, a nationwide artwork. Prisoners in the UK are not eligible to vote, and the women at HMP Downview had previously been detained at HMP Holloway, the site where over 2,000 suffragettes were incarcerated for protesting.

The project was part of a wider campaign by Historic England to enrich their archives with more women’s history.