We are delighted to report that the application has been agreed, very appropriately on 26 February just before International Women’s Day on 8th March. There was a great deal of public interest in the application and many letters of support and we are so grateful for that. See the comments at https://planningapps.brighton-hove.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=T6QV3XDM0K500

In particular we have been very thankful for the support of local business people who are eager to be part of this historic road’s regeneration. Also for the support of councillors, local members of parliament and numerous council officers who have worked with great professionalism to help. We thank them for their understanding.

This is an accessible site close to the historic buildings where so many suffrage meetings were held and in sight of the Royal Pavilion, which hosted many suffragette meetings including Mary’s own memorial meeting after her death. We chose the site following advice from Brighton & Hove

City Council Heritage Planners and Highways Engineers and discussion with Cllr Jacob Taylor, as well as further consultation with key local trusts and businesses. We are very grateful to them all.

We recognise that there were two or three objections to our application, mostly focussed on road safety and fear of vandalism. We understand these concerns. We are well aware there have been problems of anti-social behaviour in this road and also unsafe movement of traffic – often through the area designated for street furniture, where this statue would be sited. However, we are confident there are effective ways to address these challenges. 

We are committed to continuing to work with the City Council and local businesses to find solutions to any problems. In commons with the many individuals and institutions that supported us, we firmly believe that the statue will play a crucial role in ongoing plans to both regenerate the road and make it safe. 

In her comments on the application, local Ward Councillor Ellen McLeay, stressed the links between commemorating Mary – who was a survivor of domestic abuse as well as a victim of state violence – and Council policy. Ellen McLeay wrote:

“The ethos behind this statue aligns with commitments

already made by Brighton & Hove City Council to support women and girls. This includes the ambition to become the UK capital of women and girls’ sport and BHCC’s work to reduce Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) by 50% over the next decade. At a time when women’s rights are being undermined in many parts of the world, commemorating the struggle that secured women the vote in the UK feels especially important.”

“With a female-led council, including both the Leader and the Chief Executive, this statue reflects the democratic principles at the heart of our city. It represents the 50% whose voices went unheard for far too long.”

The Appeal still needs to raise a further £35,000, but we can write about that another day. 

For now all we want to do is to say thank you to everyone. Thank you so much.

Jean Calder, Chair of Trustees

Our initial proposal was to erect the statue in the Pavilion Gardens near the entrance to the Museum, where most visitors and crucially all school parties would have seen it. Though there was widespread community support, this was opposed by the Royal Pavilion and Museum’s Trust (RPMT). As a consequence, and following advice from Brighton & Hove City Council Heritage Planners and Highways Engineers, we proposed a new site on New Road opposite the Theatre Royal. This is an accessible site close to the historic buildings where so many suffrage meetings were held and in sight of the Royal Pavilion within which Mary’s memorial meeting was held.

Following several months of quiet consultation with local councillors, planners, highways engineers, community associations and conservationists – and crucially neighbours and businesses within New Road – our planning application BH2025/02949 has now been submitted. Public comments will be accepted up until the 16th of February. We hope that interested local people will comment in support of this application using the following link: https://planningapps.brighton-hove.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=T6QV3XDM0K500. Even a few sentences will have great impact.

Our application has focussed on the statue’s educational and cultural  value, raising issues of women’s rights,

equality and democracy. Also Mary’s and the suffragettes’ historic connection with New Road, The Dome and the Royal Pavilion. We have stressed our conviction that the statue  will increase footfall, attracting many visitors and tourists. In particular, we believe the statue could play a key role in the overall regeneration of New Road. We have stressed this point in our planning application, referring to a need to promote public safety, calm traffic and ‘design out’ the anti-social behaviour which has troubled this area.

For more information please look at “The Hidden History of Mary Clarke – Revised and Updated” which can be found on this website under the heading of  “History” . This is an account of Mary’s life, along with a description of the design and the new proposed site. Printed copies are also available.

Please contact us with any comments or ideas via jeancalder.mcsa@gmail.com.

walked around the city and almost everywhere I have gone I’ve remembered Valerie there.

Valerie was a community activist of extraordinary commitment and belonged to a huge number of local groups. In Brighton & Hove it’s hard to meet anyone who did not know her. 

She was well known as a welfare rights adviser, a student organiser,  a peace campaigner and a health activist. In my mind’s eye I can see her now: teaching English in the Jubilee Library; setting the world to rights with friends in the Italian cafe; leafleting with peace campaigners on the Old Steine; demonstrating for the NHS in front of the County Hospital; running a stall in Brunswick Square; attending a meeting at the Unemployed Centre; jumping up to ask awkward questions in the Friends Centre; or pitching up at the Regency Town House for a meeting of the Women’s History Group with purple hair and a huge mischievous grin. I remember her as I saw her last, on a

sunny September Saturday, helping us petition for the Mary Clarke Statue in the Pavilion Gardens. Nothing could stop her, until cancer did.

She was a founder member of the Brighton & Hove Women’s History Group and one of its most avid campaigners for suffragette plaques.

She was there at the Brighton Centre on 18th November 2018 when we launched the campaign to get a statue for Mary Clarke. She was one of the Appeal’s most committed supporters. 

I knew her best as a campaigner for women’s rights and I suspect this is what mattered most to her. She was passionate about the need to commemorate women and celebrate their achievements. Like Mary Clarke, Valerie was a ‘late developer’, attending university as a mature student with huge success. Like her great friend, the local historian Val Brown, she was horrified by the loss of women’s history. That was why she campaigned so hard for blue plaques for women, especially for local suffragettes.

I remember once complaining to her that so many

obituaries are written for men and so few by and for women. She agreed and we joked that we should set up a group so we could all write our own.

We never did, but there’s no need for dear Valerie. We will not forget her. 

Jean Calder (19/10/2025)

Please also see an article about Valerie written with her input on 1st May 2024 for the Argus by Andy Winter, who is one of our Trustees.

Valerie Mainstone: a campaigner who remains a true colossus

11th October at the Brighton Centre, attended by 2,400 women.  As a direct result we raised over £1250 in individual donations. We are so grateful to FiLiA for the platform it gave us.

Our Chair Jean Calder was invite to speak for 10 minutes in the opening session, just after Katy Bourne, Sussex

Police and Crime Commissioner, who opened the conference, followed by Jenny Stroud and Sue Delafons of the wonderful Brighton & Hove Women’s History Group.

Jean Calder said: “It was nerve-wracking speaking to such a huge audience, but it seemed to go well. There was a great deal of interest at our stall from women from all over the country – and the world. We spoke to women from from Devon to Corby and the north of Scotland, and from Australia to Canada and the DR Congo. Mary’s story fascinated them. Several said they were moved to tears by her courage and the fact she’d been forgotten. We believe the statue will be a huge draw to international visitors. Several promised they would come back to see it.”

FiLiA is a charity operating across many countries which campaigns, it says, “for a world free from patriarchy where all women and girls are liberated.” The people attending the conference heard from 250 speakers from around the world. In a series of talks and workshops, there was discussion of a range of topics affecting women – from maternity rights and birth defects due to industrial pollution, through to rape in war and all forms of sexual and domestic violence (or as some speakers called it ‘state-torture’ and ‘non-state torture’). The primary focus was on how to combat violence against women and girls.

In that regard, it was disappointing to witness each morning aggressive noisy protesters hurling abuse at the women going in to the Centre. They did not succeed in disrupting the conference and thanks are due for this to FiLiA personnel, Brighton Centre staff and officers of Sussex Police.

We are very grateful to FiLiA. Its remarkable work largely relies on the work of volunteers.  We know how difficult that can be, especially in such challenging times.

Our Green Patron, Caroline Lucas has recently stood down from her service as a member of Parliament. We thank her for her devoted service to our city and wish her a very happy retirement.

We know our Patrons will defend the rights of women and girls, inspired in part by Mary Clarke and the long struggle of the suffragist movement – as well as similar movements for democracy and civil rights. We hope all candidates will do the same.

Note that the Mary Clarke Statue Appeal has cross party support and no party-political affiliation.

Valerie is a committed campaigner for memorials for women and has supported the Mary Clarke Statue Appeal since it was set up in 2018. She is often to be seen dressed as a suffragist or sporting suffrage colours.

Valerie was with us on 14th December 2023 when the Mayor of Brighton & Hove councillor Jackie O’Quinn posthumously  awarded Mary Clarke the Freedom of the City.  On that occasion Valerie posed with the Mayor and our model of Mary’s inspirational Lamp.

Mary Clarke is to be honoured by the posthumous award of the Freedom of the City, a wonderful tribute. The award is to be made at a special  meeting of Brighton & Hove City Council at 3.30pm on Thursday 14 December at Hove Town Hall.

Mary Clarke Statue Appeal Trustee Briony Goulden, and her two daughters Sophie and Lena, will receive the award on behalf of Mary. They are several times great nieces of Mary Clarke, who was born Mary Goulden.  We hope supporters will come along to cheer them all on.

The meeting will take place at 3.30pm following an invitation-only reception for the Appeal at 2.30 hosted by the Mayor, Cllr Jackie O’Quinn. Councillors will make short speeches and Briony will respond. Child Ambassadors, including Sophie and Lena  and River Isaac, will be there. 

River Isaac will be accompanied by at least one other member of the Mary’s Lamp girls’ group, which she set up at Balfour School. River will be carrying Mary’s lamp, recalling Isabella McJKeown’s comment after Mary’s death that her friends and followers should “not mourn in silence” but “take up the torch and light the darkness”. We hope Isaac Abatan (21), our first Student Ambassador, will also be present to support the others. The Appeal Trustees will be there and our Patrons and Adult Ambassadors have been invited.

There will be photo opportunities in front of the large cut-out of the proposed statue. In addition to the lamp, we will also bring the resin maquette (the bronze one is too heavy to carry).  Provided we have someone to carry it, we will also bring our beautiful embroidered banner.

Though the reception is by invitation only, we hope other supporters will be there for the presentation. If you would like to attend, or know people who might like to do so, please let them know. Please be there for 3.15 pm, in good time for the start of the Council meeting at 3.30. You will have to sit in the gallery, but there is a good view and you can make some noise in appreciation! With luck, we may be able to meet for a hot drink in the downstairs  cafe after the event.

Black Friday is an Americanised term for a day of cheap bargains in the shops. It is a means of selling. The fact that this celebration of consumerism happens in November, the month of remembrance, is particularly galling for anyone wishing to remember the sacrifices made by suffragists and suffragettes and the terrible events of 18th November 1910, also called ‘Black Friday’. Three women died as a result of these events, of whom Mary Clarke was the first.

It was on 18th November that Mary, along with 300 other suffragettes, assembled peacefully to petition Parliament. Over several hours, the women were systematically physically and sexually attacked by London police officers who had been given instructions not to arrest the women, but had clearly been given licence to abuse them. Some police told the women they had been told they could do anything they liked “today”. The women were often subjected to violent attack, but the assaults of Black Friday seem to have been particularly vicious and sustained.

There are several heart-rending accounts of the terrible way women were treated and injured. We don’t know exactly what happened to Mary, just that afterwards she was bed-ridden for three days. She was advised not to get up even then, but she insisted on going back to London to protest about the police’s treatment of the women. There she was arrested and imprisoned for one month, during which time she was forcibly fed. She died of a brain haemorrhage two days after her release from prison. 

Mary’s sister Emmeline Pankhurst, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence and other leaders of the WSPU all blamed the events of Black Friday for Mary’s death.

Each year we try to commemorate Black Friday by arranging a display in foyer of the Jubilee Library. This year the display includes the bronze maquette of Mary Clarke along with information about the targeted violence of Black Friday. We do not forget that Mary also experienced domestic abuse as well as state violence. 

We are conscious that the 25th November is the U.N. Designated Day of Action against Violence Against Women and that it begins the U.N. 16 Days of Action against Violence against Women. This year our display is being held in the Jubilee Library from 13th to the 26th November. 

The Chair of Trustees of the Mary Clarke Statue Appeal Jean Calder said: “This wonderful news. It is unusual for such an award to be considered for someone who is no longer alive, but it is an honour for Mary that we gratefully support.”

“We are thankful to Cllr Bella Sankey and her colleagues for this recognition of Mary’s courage and of her contribution to the struggle for women’s rights and universal suffrage.”

Women’s suffrage founder to be awarded freedom of the city