A SOUP kitchen is to be set up tomorrow to mark a gallant but little-known fight by the North East women’s suffrage movement.

Staff from Beamish Museum, County Durham – along with students from Thomas Hepburn Community School in Gateshead and Then & Now community group – will run the kitchen at the House on the Hill, Sunderland Road in Felling, to recreate ‘the Feeding of the Bairns of Gateshead’, with drama, speeches, rosette making and, naturally, soup.

The recreation is part of a series of celebrations of the suffrage movement leading up to the centenary of the death of Emily Davison later this year.

In the campaign for women’s right to vote, Davison died after running out in front of King George V’s horse Anmer during the 1913 Epsom Derby.

She suffered a fractured skull and internal injuries and died in hospital four days later. She is buried in a family plot at St Mary’s Church in Morpeth.

While the exploits of Davison and fellow suffragettes like Emmeline Pankhurst have been well documented, the feeding of starving children in Gateshead by the women’s movement could have been lost, were it not for Beamish researchers.

David Smith, community engagement officer at Beamish, said: “Research into the suffragette movement in the North East uncovered this little-known episode in Gateshead.

“The Suffragette movement is thought of as somewhat middle-class but women volunteers decided to take action when the local council refused to feed the starving children of Gateshead in 1910.

“Women’s suffrage groups were aiming to change the attitudes of society about provision for the poor, to ensure that children were provided for, irrespective of their social grounding and that they should have access to nourishing food to keep their bodies and minds healthy. “

By 1910, the Gateshead suffrage movement was galvanised into action. Calling a ‘Great Women’s Meeting’, they called upon the town council to feed the children and stop relying on charity.

Rebuffed by the council, they took matters into their own hands and carried out the Feeding of the Bairns of Gateshead to fill the void and to shame the council into action.

The soup kitchen was held at the Jackson Street Co-op in Gateshead, close to where tomorrow’s re-creation will take place.

In January 1911, the council began to provide meals in winter for the worst cases.

David added: “Everyone is welcome to join ‘the Feeding of the Bairns’ at 10am and 1pm on Friday.

“It’s a great opportunity to learn more about the fight of the suffrage movement in Gateshead, there are activities to have a go at and, of course, soup for everyone.”

The Feeding of the Bairns’ project is part of Beamish’s ‘Celebrating Community Heritage’ project and is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.