Issued by City of York Council
City of York Council’s Libraries and Archives will be launching Parliament Week 2013, which runs from 15 to 21 November. The week opens with a mini-exhibition at York Explore Library and Learning Centre looking at York’s first female Lord Mayor, Edna Crichton.
Cllr Sonja Crisp, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Culture and Tourism said: “This promises to be a great event to start Parliament Week in which our Libraries and Archives service will be hosting a variety of events, which this year will focus on women in democracy.
“The week beings with an mini-exhibition on Edna Crichton, York’s first female mayor, which looks at the wider context of women in democracy: although more women were elected to the council after the Second World War, few rose to positions of influence.”
Amongst many other of her life’s stories, the mini-exhibition will place a spotlight on Edna’s first year as Mayor, which was one of the most traumatic in York’s recent history.
On the night of 29 April 1942 the city was hit by one of the Baedeker Raids, when 69 bombs rained down on the city with little warning.
The raid resulted in St Martin’s Church on Coney Street being destroyed and the Guildhall suffered a direct hit – with Edna home at the Mansion House at the time.
The Edna Crichton mini-exhibition will be followed by a week of events including talks from Hugh Bayley MP, three human rights experts from the University of York, council leader Cllr James Alexander and Cllr Sonja Crisp.
The programme of events for Parliament Week, which looks to engage residents with Parliamentary Democracy can be picked up from any City of York Council Library or viewed online. All the events are free, except for the Richard III lecture, and booking is not necessary.
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