Sarah Reddish: An Amazing Lancashire Woman 1849 - 1928

Sarah Reddish was born in Leigh, her mother was a silk weaver and her father worked for the local Co-operative Society as their librarian. The family moved to Bolton and Sarah started work in the mills at an early age.

Sarah soon became involved in the Co-operative movement and founded the Bolton branch of the Co-operative Women's Guild. She became national president of the Guild. She was actively involved in the women's suffrage movement and the Independent Labour Party, and was elected to the Bolton Education Board in 1899 as the first female member. She was the first women to stand for Bolton Council in 1907, though she was unsuccessful. Later that same year, she went to Ghent and Brussels to study child care initiatives being launched in Belgium and, upon her return, established the School for Mothers in Bolton supporting working class women.