As the Brighton Fringe enters its final fortnight I’ve scheduled some extra Fearless and Fabulous Walks. Join me for an hour and three quarters of gentle ambling as we explore the streets and alleyways trodden by some of the city’s most incredible women from the past. Like cross-dressing music hall star and performer (as well as some time Hove resident) Vesta Tilley (below)
Meet at the Garden Cafe in St Ann’s Well Gardens, Hove BN3 1PL on Saturday 24th (waiting list only), Saturday 31st and Thursday 29th at 10am. Strong tip – arrive with plenty of time to grab yourself a coffee at the fantastic café itself. No finer place to sit on a fine morning in Hove.
Fearless and Fabulous Women of Brighton
Meet outside St Nicholas Church in the Churchyard itself. Sunday May 25th at 10am (waiting list only) AND 1.30pm on the same day. Sunday 1st June at 10am AND 1.30pm. Tuesday 27th May at 6pm (waiting list only)
Fearless and Fabulous Women of Kemptown.
I’ve promised several people the Kemptown version in June or early July. Watch this space!
Fabulous tales (and possibly a bit of rain, but we don’t mind that, do we?) await!
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy, peaceful 2025!
Just a reminder – my book about the wonderful women who have played key roles in Brighton & Hove’s history is still available. Last minute gift idea? Treat yourself?
‘The first British woman to swim the Channel, a Ladies World Speed record breaker, an African princess, a Soviet spy-cum-antiques dealer, a woman who started a rogue all-women police force, the first celebrity chef, a woman who ran a suffragette guest-house, the queen who ‘wasn’t amused’ by Brighton, and the brilliant doctor whose story is so shocking the British Army tried to repress it for 100 years.
The streets of Brighton are packed with links to women who made great strides in Law, fashion, sport, politics, education and more. Bringing together these stories, this book guides you around the streets of the city, showing you the hidden corners where history was made by a cast of fearless and fabulous woman who, in their own ways, did things that changed the world.’
the Kemptown Bookshop (https://www.kemptownbookshop.co.uk/), – Brighton’s oldest book shop with a great range of events. Also a great place for a coffee.
and local cafe in the Ditchling Road/Fiveways area, The Green Room (https://www.thegreenroombrighton.co.uk/) Ever-changing brilliant menu and I don’t think they ever intended to make the best cup of tea in Brighton but they always do.
Cost – £14.99
I also have copies that I can send out by mail order. Apologies it’s not available online but if you send me an email to historywomenbrighton@outlook.com I will get right back to you with costs and payment options.
Thank you to everyone who joined me in Brighton Fringe this year to walk, talk, chat and explore our city’s brilliant women’s history!
Here I am on a busy walk in Hove, joined by about 28 of you on a beautiful day, finding out about the former New Sussex Hospital for Women and Children on Windlesham Road.
(Photo: Ian Godley) I was really excited to get an email from Brighton Fringe on 31st May – so a couple of days before the end of the festival – advising me that I’d been nominated for an Audience Choice Award: Best Brighton Fringe Event Supported by Chichester Festival Theatre based on the number of five star reviews my walks received. I was very flattered as this is the only award nominated and chosen by the ticket buying public rather than arts industry professionals. Hooray! Here I am at the Awards ceremony on the 2nd June at the Vault, looking triumphant (and relieved. You never really know how much people are enjoying it a hundred per cent), even though I didn’t win.
(Photo: Nimrod Peskett)
Ah well. I’ll have to keep my Oscar acceptance speech for another day 😊
(But if I had given my Oscar acceptance speech I would have totally given it over to Dr Louisa Martindale, Dr Helen Boyle, Margaret Powell, Clara Butt, the Hilton Twins, Martha Gunn, Phoebe Hessel, Sophia Duleep Singh, Princess Omoba Aina and all the other wonderful women whose stories I tell.)
When I started to do these women’s history tours, first in Brighton, then Kemptown, then Hove, I counted myself lucky if more than five people turned up. I would get phone calls ‘is it OK if my husband comes with me? I mean, are men allowed?’. The tours lasted just over an hour and people would say afterwards ‘wow, I’d never heard of any of those women!’ Fast forward 12 years and my tours are almost 2 hours long – and still I only feel as if I’m presenting the tip of the mighty iceberg. Many more women now have blue plaques thanks to the efforts of the Brighton and Hove Women’s History Group among others. Many women I talk about on my walks have become local household names – or, at least, better known. One of them (Mercedes Gleitze, first British woman to swim the Channel) is now the subject of a fantastic, well-regarded feature film! I find that, rather than introducing many of the women to people for the first time, we’re now exploring different angles, talking about what their legacy is, how they changed things generally, their journey towards getting a blue plaque.
There are still a huge amount of women who aren’t as well known as they should be and I’d also like to research the stories of local working women in the past to add to my walks. I have a few ideas about this, so watch this space!
In the meantime, please remember that my three walks are available to book. I’m not scheduling in any walks for the foreseeable future (this may change, watch this space again) but if you have a group – even a very small group of friends/family, etc. – and you fancy your own private walk, please contact me and I’ll see if I can fit you in. I’ve done private walks in the past for a couple of hen nights, birthday parties, work away-days, and groups such as W.I.s and U3As. In a couple of weeks I’m looking forward to doing my third walk for the fabulous people at Connected Brighton. I can offer you weekends, some week days, mornings, afternoons, and evenings. I can customise content, start in a different place, shorten, lengthen and generally tailor to your requirements.
For seated talks I offer ‘Fearless and Fabulous Women of Brighton and Hove,’ ‘Fearless and Fabulous Women of East Sussex’, ‘Fearless and Fabulous Women of West Sussex’, ‘Entertaining Women’, ‘Cooking Women’, ‘Women Warriors’, ‘The Pioneering Women Doctors of Brighton and Hove’, ‘The Story of Brighton Suffragettes’ and ‘Actress, Singer, Suffragette: the Fantastic Story of the Actresses Franchise League’.
Here I am at The Dome in November 2023 with some of my array of Entertaining Women. How many can you spot?
(Photo: Julia Winckler)
Also, a reminder! If you want to take yourself on a walk or just dip in to some of the stories of our local women, my book ‘The Fearless and The Fabulous, a Journey Through Brighton and Hove’s Women’s History’ is still available at the Royal Pavilion shop, Brighton Museum shop htpps://shop.brightonmuseums.org.uk, Kemptown Bookshop http://www.kemptownbookshop.co.uk, City Books Hove http://www.city-books.co.uk and the Green Room Cafe on Ditchling Road. Or just email me to enquire about postage/delivery on historywomenbrighton@outlook.com
Hope to hear from some of you soon.
In the meantime, I want to say a huge thank you if you voted for me, came on a walk this year, came on a walk any other year, booked me for anything, or are just reading this blog. It’s the best job ever (even if it’s not really a ‘job’ and I can only do it between day job requirements) finding out the stories of our fantastic local women and talking to you about them. Hopefully more will follow Yet again – and you know what I’m going to say here – WATCH THIS SPACE!
This week I was invited onto Brighton and Hove community radio station Radio Reverb to chat to Melita Dennett on the Tuesday Live in Brighton with Melita Dennett show.
It was a great opportunity to spread the word about my Fearless and Fabulous Women Fringe walks and we ended up talking about where I found the stories of the women I talk about (mainly from flaneuring around the shelves of The Keep Local History Centre and allowing my eye to be caught wantonly by bits and pieces. Which is, incidentally, how I came up with this gem of women’s history:
I mean, a seaweed florist, what’s not to love?) Also, people tell me things. Just the other day, someone asked me if I’d heard of Gertrude Leverkus who used to live in Wilbury Villas. To my shame I hadn’t.
Very, very briefly (hopefully more to follow in a future post) Gertrude (1898 – 1989) was a pioneering German-British architect who was involved in converting properties into flats for women in the 1920s for the Women’s Pioneer Housing Limited. In 1931 she was elected a Fellow of RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) and was only the second woman allowed to put the initials ‘FRIBA’ after her name. She later worked on the new towns of Crawley and Harlow. I love how links are sometimes thrown up between the women I talk about and I see that Gertrude was involved in the Women’s Provisional Club – a kind of support network for professional women – alongside Brighton’s first female GP and one of my absolute heroes, Dr Louisa Martindale.
Another woman I learnt about in this very same conversation was Elizabeth M Kennedy (1873 – 1957) who became president of the Women’s Engineering Society in 1932 after a distinguished career in the world of machinery manufacturing. In later life she lived in Marine Parade, Brighton.
Melita asked me whether it was easier to find out the stories of women from well-to-do backgrounds. Sadly, this is usually the case. Someone has to write history and the history we have and know is always a collection of stories collated, curated and told by someone or a group of someones, often with an agenda. Until relatively recently, these someones are usually straight, white, moneyed men.
Also, don’t people need time, leisure and connections to make their voices heard?
I did mention that here in Brighton, however, we do have the well-known Martha Gunn.
Martha Gunn,Brighton bather. Oil painting, British School, c1790
I absolutely love this picture, today hanging just outside the Local History Gallery in Brighton Museum.
Martha (1726 – 1815) was very much not born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Yet, by her efforts, good ideas and business acumen, she became ‘Queen of the Dippers’, a bathing assistant who dipped women into the sea for their sea-water cure, so successful and coveted she became a sort of emblem of the burgeoning town of Brighton, attracting visitors from far and wide and putting Brighton on the map. Rightfully known today as one of the architects of modern Brighton.
We also have:
Phoebe Hessel (1713 – 1821 – yes, I know, that made her 108). Famously, Phoebe had a long military career, disguised as a man, fighting with the 5th Regiment of Foot, until an unfortunate bayonet wound picked up at the Battle of Fontenoy, led to her being discovered (I’ve written a longer post about Phoebe. Scroll down if you’re interested).
I went on to chat to Melita about how, when you hear the story of a successful man, it’s always worth snooping around to find out who their mother/wife/sister was as there are often some interesting stories there, with women’s contribution/help/good ideas being overshadowed or written out of the official version of events. For example, a woman I talk about in my Hove walk right at the start in St Ann’s Well Gardens is Laura Bayley:
Laura (1862 – 1938) who used to live near Seven Dials, was an accomplished actress, usually working in burlesques and pantomimes. She married Hove film pioneer, George Albert Smith, a huge name in early film, who experimented with techniques such as close-ups and, from the studio he converted from the old pump room in St Ann’s Well Gardens, made landmark early short films. As his wife, Laura played roles in many of them. It’s now believed she also co-produced several. After watching her performances in films such as ‘The Kiss in the Tunnel’ and ‘Mary Jane’s Mishap’ (available on YouTube) it’s clear, however, that her contribution as a comedy actress, her expertise in holding an audience’s attention, and her great charisma are key to the success of the films. Would George Albert Smith now be the great name in early film he is today without Laura’s incredible work? It’s now understood that Laura, so long in the shadow of her husband, directed and wrote films, too. I recommend you take a look at her work. You’ll be spellbound. Laura is also featured in Hove Museum’s cinema gallery.
My interview with Melita is available on line here:
BTW, the non-profit station Radio Reverb is well worth a listen. They have some great shows, speech, music and both, that bring in the whole community – football, Refugee Radio, Brighton Book Club, and more. One I’m really looking forward to listening to later is ‘Currently Off Air’ ‘a mixtape of overlooked, under appreciated, and rediscovered sounds – on the first Sunday of the month at 11pm – midnight. Lots of great music shows too.
So… finally getting to the point of this post at last… My Fearless and Fabulous Women walks for the Brighton Fringe start on Saturday 4th May, beginning with a fully accessible and mainly level stroll around Hove, starting at 10am outside the brilliant Garden Cafe (come early and enjoy one of their brilliant coffees and a cake) in St Ann’s Well Gardens, Hove, BN3 1PR
If full please contact me on historywomenbrighton@outlook.com
See some of you there!
I’d like to say thanks to Melita Dennett and also to Ceryl Evans of the Royal Pavilion and Museums, Brighton for the chat about Gertrude Leverkus and Elizabeth M Kennedy
This year I’m re-entering the Brighton Fringe fray with two women’s history walks – The Fearless and Fabulous Women of Brighton and The Fearless and Fabulous Women of Hove.
“From some of Brighton’s first women doctors to suffragettes, entrepreneurs to entertainers, artists, music-hall stars, and campaigners, Brighton & Hove has always attracted women who dare do things differently. Join Louise Peskett, author of The Fearless and the Fabulous, a Journey through Brighton and Hove’s Women’s History on these easy walks to discover the amazing stories of some of the intriguing, adventurous, fantastic, outrageous and scandalously lttle-known female characters of the city’s past.
If fully booked or you’re booking last minute you can contact me on historywomenbrighton@outlook.com to find out whether there are any spaces for walk-ups.
Dates and times, when and where…
Fearless and Fabulous Women of Brighton
Meet St Nicholas Churchyard, central Brighton – Church Street, BN1 3LI
Sunday mornings at 10am on May 5th, May 12th, May 26th and June 2nd.
Thursday evenings at 6pm on May 9th and May 30th
Please note this isn’t a circular walk. It will finish either in the Lanes or on New Road/Pavilion Gardens. If it’s Sunday morning I recommend stopping for a coffee and a rest in the beautiful Pavilion Gardens cafe afterwards. Lots of other establishments close by.
Fearless and Fabulous Women of Hove
Meet at the Garden Cafe, St Ann’s Well Gardens, Somerhill Road, Hove BN3 1RP
Saturday morning at 10am on May 4th, May 11th, May 25th and June 1st
Tuesday evening at 6pm May 14th
Thursday evening at 6pm May 23rd.
Dogs welcome! Babies welcome! Pushchairs welcome! All welcome!
I recommend buying a coffee from the Garden Cafe beforehand if you come on Saturday morning. It’s a lovely place to sit. Or buy one to bring with you.
Please note this isn’t a circular tour. We will finish in Palmeira Square. Plenty of cafes or pubs around there for snacks and a rest.
Need any more information? Contact me on historyywomenbrighton@outlook.com
I’m really pleased that my book ‘Fearless and Fabulous Women of Brighton’ is now available to buy from great, new local cafe ‘The Green Room’ in Brighton.
The Green Room hasn’t been open long but it’s quickly establishing itself as a cosy neighbourhood corner cafe just opposite Downs Infant school on Ditchling Road. Handily, it pops up at exactly that point on Ditchling Road when the constant uphill trek is starting to lose its charm. Last week they presented me with an incredible half pint of strong tea. The week before, a beetroot and cheese toasted sandwich – a revelation. They also display a small amount of crafts and creations for sale by local people,including cards and jewellery. I’m so pleased they’re now stocking my book!
On the 46/26 bus route from central Brighton if the uphill trek of Ditchling Road has no charm at all.
‘The first British woman to swim the Channel, a Ladies World Speed record breaker, an African princess, A Soviet spy-cum-antiques dealer, a woman who started a rogue all-women police force, the first female celebrity chef, a woman who ran a suffragette guest-house, the queen who ‘wasn’t amused’ by Brighton and the brilliant doctor whose story is so shocking, the British Army tried to repress it for 100 years.The streets of Brighton are packed with links to women who made great strides in Law, fashion, sport, politics, education and more. Bringing together these stories, this book guides you around the streets of the city, showing you the hidden corners where history was made by a cast of fearless and fabulous women who, in their own ways, did things that changed the world.’
Also available in the Royal Pavilion shop, Brighton Museum shop, and the city’s iconic independent book shop City Books 23 Western Road, Hove.
Or email me directly historywomenbrighton@outlook.com
From some of Britain’s first women doctors to suffragettes, entrepreneurs to entertainers, artists, music-hall stars, and campaigners, Brighton and Hove has always attracted women who dare do things differently. Join Louise Peskett, author of The Fearless and the Fabulous, a Journey through Brighton and Hove’s Women’s History, on these easy walks to discover the amazing stories of some of the intriguing, adventurous, fantastic, outrageous, and scandalously little known female characters of the city’s past. All tours last approx 1 hour, 45 minutes.
May 2022 dates as part of the Brighton Fringe
Fearless and Fabulous Women Women of Brighton
Starts – outside St Nicholas Church, Dyke Road, Brighton, BN1 3LJ
Sunday mornings 8th, 22nd 29t May, and 5th June at 10.00am
Tuesday evenings 10th, 24th May at 6.00pm.
Fearless and Fabulous Women of Hove
Starts – The Garden Café, St Ann’s Well Gardens, Hove, BN3 1PL
Saturday mornings 7th, 21st, 28th May and 4th June at 10.00am
Thursday evening 19th May at 6.00pm
Tuesday evening 2nd June at 6.00pm
Fearless and Fabulous Women of Kemptown
Pop up tours to be confirmed. Please email or call for details.
See The Fearless and Fabulous: A Journey Through Brighton and Hove’s Women’s History by Louise Peskett. For sale at City Books and in the Royal Pavilion and Museum shops. Or contact Louise at the email address above.
This Autumn I will be doing six events for the Brighton Ageing Well Festival (previously known as the Brighton Older People’s Festival). The Festival, which is about to start on 30th September and runs until 13th October, describes itself on its website as ‘a two week extravaganza packed full of events for you to get to, highlighting the activities going on in our city all year round.’ Talks, walks and other activities aimed at ages 50+.
My events include three gentle 90 minute walks:
‘‘Notorious Women of Hove” on Wednesday 2nd October, starting at 11 from the Garden Café in St Ann’s Well Gardens, Hove.
“Notorious Women of Brighton” on Sunday 6th October, starting at 11 from St Nicholas Church, Dyke Road, Brighton.
And “Notorious Women of Kemptown” on Sunday 13th October, starting at 11 from St George’s Church, St George’s Road, Kemptown.
I’ll also be doing three 60 minute illustrated talks in the café-bar at the Duke of York’s Picturehouse Cinema, Preston Road, Brighton. All start at 3pm. These are:
Thursday 3rd October – “Entertaining Women” – a look at some of the brilliant women from our city who have found fame in the worlds of theatre, music-hall, cabaret, film, TV, soap opera, and music.
Tuesday 8th October, “Pioneering Women Doctors of Brighton and Hove” – a look at some of the early women doctors who came to practise in the city from the 1890s.
Thursday 10th October – “Women Warriors” – a look at Brighton’s Phoebe Hessel and some of the women, like her, who disguised themselves as men and managed to have a military career years before women were allowed to join the army.
Here I am braving the snow in London last weekend on the trail of Brighton heroine Phoebe Hessel. I was actually meant to be on the trail of the ‘Troxy’ where I was going to see Belle and Sebastian in a few short hours. But then I stumbled upon Hessel Street in the back streets of Whitechapel, bells rung, and my weekend turned into a women’s history pilgrimage.
Phoebe Hessel’s story is neatly encapsulated on her gravestone standing in Brighton’s St Nicholas Churchyard: ‘In Memory of Phoebe Hessel, who was born at Stepney in the Year 1713. She served for many Years as a private Soldier in the 5th Regt. of foot in different parts of Europe and in the Year 1745 fought under the command of tbe DUKE of CUMBERLAND at the Battle of Fontenoy where she received a Bayonet wound in the arm…
The gravestone goes on to recount that Phoebe’s life, ‘commenced in the time of Queen Anne’, extended to the reign of George IV. That means she saw the reigns of no less than five British monarchs, and lived to the age of 108.
If living to this age isn’t impressive enough the really flabbergasting words on that gravestone are ‘soldier’, ‘served for many years’, and ‘fought’.
According to the National Army Museum’s helpful ‘Timeline of Women in the Army’ https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/timeline-women-army ‘women have been a formal part of the army for 100 years’. But it’s only since 2016 that they’ve ‘been able to serve in ground combat roles alongside male colleagues’. This gives Phoebe, who served enough in ground combat roles to sustain a bayonet wound, and was understood to have embarked upon her military career aged 15, a full 288 year start! Of course Phoebe knew that, so simply got round the problem by disguising herself as a man – a ruse she was able to pull off for 17 years, until that unfortunate bayonet wound meant she was forced to reveal a little more of her body than usual, probably giving the army surgeon something of a shock. Another version of her story has her revealing her situation to the colonel’s wife. Yet another version (because the story of a woman soldier who fought amongst men was so incredible it’s picked up a lot of mythology along the centuries) has her committing an offence and needing to undress to be whipped, whereupon, her body finally bared, she cried ‘strike and be damned!’ However it happened, when it was revealed that, although playing a full combative role alongside the men in the various battles and skirmishes around Gibraltar and the Caribbean, Phoebe was a member of the ‘weaker sex’, there was no option but to discharge her. The fact that she was dismissed unpunished on full pay, though, sounds as if they were reluctant to see her go.
Stories abound as to why Phoebe made the choice, aged 15, to pull on a pair of breeches and commit herself to the dangerous, brutal and perhaps short life of a soldier. Some sources say she fell in love with a soldier, Samuel Golding, and wanted to accompany him when he was called away to his regiment. A less romantic explanation has her being taken along by her soldier-father when her mother died and there was no one to look after her. Possibly, poverty played a role. After all, the options available to a woman born in 1713 without wealth weren’t extensive. With neither education, a career, nor a decent marriage being on the table, how long could many women hold out before having to face the choice between begging bowl or brothel?
(Above: St Dunstan’s Church, Stepney, where Phoebe was baptised ‘Phoebe Smith’ on 13th April, 1713, almost 305 years ago to the day).
After her discharge from the army Phoebe lived in Plymouth with her husband, one Samuel Golding. They had nine children, all of whom died. Moving to Brighton to marry a fisherman by the name of Thomas Hessel, Phoebe was widowed a second time. Now aged 80, scraping a living selling fish and trinkets around town, the shadow of the workhouse lurking, Phoebe must have looked back wistfully on her days in the army. The website eastlondonhistory.com has her ‘Clad in a brown serge dress, with a spotless white apron and a hooded black cloak, her only concession to her increasingly great age […] a stout oak walking stick‘. But after the life Phoebe had lived, the wars she’d – literally – fought, the loss of two husbands and nine children, I don’t imagine her as slipping easily into the role of timid old lady. Somehow, George, Prince of Wales (the later Prince Regent and George IV) in Brighton often to visit his Marine – and later ‘Royal’ Pavilion, got to know the story of the old woman pedlar who told tales of fooling the army and living the rough and tumble of military life. Always happy to be distracted with a good story, the Prince decided to pay the formidable Phoebe a pension of half a guinea a week from 1808, thus saving her from penury. (I wonder if he’d have made this decision if he’d known she was going to live to 108?)
Above: Pictures of Phoebe are hard to come by. I found this tiny one in Hove Museum, possibly from a book about old Brighton characters.)
In fact, Phoebe has a second reason for going down in Brighton folklore. One evening, the story goes, there she was in the Old Red Lion (a pub that still exists) in nearby Shoreham-by-Sea and overheard a conversation that revealed one of the participants to be none other than Samuel Rooke, a notorious highwayman who’d been terrorising the roads around Brighton for many years. Phoebe’s testimony lead to the capturing of Rooke and his accomplice and their subsequent hanging in Hangleton Bottom. A grisly end to Rooke but a relief to the people of Brighton and another reason for the town to hold this amazing woman to their hearts. No wonder, she was invited to attend the town’s celebrations of the coronation of King George IV in 1820 at the grand old age of 107.
Phoebe’s story is so fantastic that these days we could be forgiven for wondering exactly how much of it’s true. Were her tales of derring-do just the fabrications of a good saleswoman who wanted to lure more customers? Did she really live to the age of 108? How did she manage to have a military career for 17 years without anyone noticing she was a woman?
Well, the Northumberland Fusiliers, successors to the 5th Regiment of Foot, obviously saw enough truth in her story to restore her grave in St Nicholas Churchyard in the 1970s. As did London Borough of Tower Hamlets, who commemorated their famous daughter with not one but two streets in her honour.
(Above: Amazon Street at the end of Hessel Street in the Borough of Tower Hamlets, London. Phoebe Hessel was also known as ‘the Amazon of Stepney’).
Me, I think if only half of Phoebe’s story is true, then it’s incredible enough to make her a true Brighton heroine.
A great article to read about Phoebe Hessel is here: http://eastlondonhistory.com/2010/11/18/phoebe-hessel-amazon-of-stepney/
Phoebe was far from being alone in dressing as a man to have a military career. The lives of Hannah Snell (http://www.hannahsnell.com/) and Dr James Barry, who made a double pronged attack on professional bastions excluded to women by qualifying as a doctor as well as being a soldier. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Barry_%28surgeon%29)
I will be talking about Phoebe Hessel throughout May on my Notorious Women of Brighton walking tours that start near her grave in St Nicholas Churchyard, Brighton. See Talks/Walks section for details.
historywomenbrighton 