{"id":4132,"date":"2024-02-19T09:30:03","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T09:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/?p=4132"},"modified":"2024-02-14T16:14:50","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T16:14:50","slug":"six-men-one-dog-a-queen-and-a-horse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2024\/02\/19\/six-men-one-dog-a-queen-and-a-horse\/","title":{"rendered":"Six men, one dog, a Queen, and a horse!"},"content":{"rendered":"

We bet you think the next line would be \u2018walks into a bar\u2019, but this is actually the current landscape of statues displayed across Dorchester. Looking at the Southwest, including Cornwall, Devon and Dorset, there are only three full-size statues celebrating named women in a whopping 13,000 square kilometres of the UK. In addition, over 85% of statues in the UK are men, and only 3% are statues of women, with more statues of men called John than of all non-royal named women put together.<\/p>\n

Seeing the importance of representation of statues in our landscapes to visualise our shared history, Dorchester Sheroes <\/strong>are on a quest to erect Dorchester’s first non-royal female statue<\/strong> and celebrate an overlooked shero from our past. Statues represent people we agree are significant, worthy and should be remembered, which is why making women an equal part of that experience is essential and demonstrates the values and beliefs celebrated with a publicly displayed piece of art reflect what the people of that town are choosing to remember and honour.\u00a0This project aims to be a collaborative, community-led campaign that involves local schools and engages the public.<\/p>\n

To do this, we need your help! We value your input on potential candidates for the statue, and once we have a shortlist, we want the community to have the opportunity to vote for their chosen shero to be immortalised in bronze. The Dorchester Joint Heritage Committee<\/a> supports us in this process, <\/strong>and funding for this project will rely on the power of the people, with fundraising events and grant schemes playing a pivotal role.<\/p>\n

Some key criteria for our Dorchester Shero are candidates that are real women, not fictional characters, who have lived predominantly in and around Dorchester within a preferred approximate 20-mile radius. We want a focus on celebrating uplifting and positive female role models, women with diverse backgrounds, with compelling Herstories, trailblazers that paved the way for others, and contributed to an impact on the county town.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Some of the amazing women we have on our list so far include the Dorset button makers (their combined efforts influenced the lives of hundreds of women across the whole of Dorset for more than 200 years), Sarah Eldridge (she created and ran a thriving brewery in Dorchester with her husband which on his death she, unusually for the time, continued to run the business independently), Marina Russell (a renowned Dorset singer of folk music from Upwey. Today recognised as one of England’s most important source singers and contributing to upwards of 350 songs), and Kate Godbehear (a local Suffragette and Mill Street Mission worker who worked for over 50 years within the community of Fordington and helped educate hundreds of underserved children in the area.)<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Dorset History Centre is pleased to support this new initiative within Dorchester. If you have any further queries about the project please contact the team at DorchesterSheroes@gmail.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Find the whole list of criteria and Dorchester Sheroes, and follow us on their Facebook page @DorchesterSheroes<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We bet you think the next line would be \u2018walks into a bar\u2019, but this is actually the current landscape of statues displayed across Dorchester. Looking at the Southwest, including Cornwall, Devon and Dorset, there are only three full-size statues celebrating named women in a whopping 13,000 square kilometres of the UK. In addition, over… Read more Six men, one dog, a Queen, and a horse!<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1892,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58,11],"tags":[82,17,109,596,597,39],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1892"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4134,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4132\/revisions\/4134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}