'Unbind the Wing' at Bodnant Garden

Celebrating our trail-blazing women of Bodnant Garden and their long struggle for suffrage.

Campaigners for female suffrage: Agnes Pochin, Laura McLaren and Priscilla Bright-McLaren from Bodnant Garden, Wales

Article on Laura McLaren and women of the suffrage movement from the Daily Chronicle, July 7 1910 — Article on women of the suffrage movement from the Daily Chronicle, July 7 1910

Cartoon of suffragists attacking a policeman — Typical anti-suffrage propoganda

Lady Laura McLaren (seated right) and son Francis McLaren MP (standing left) at a speech by Millicent Fawcett

Cartoon from Punch, October 14 1871 — "I say Joe dear, if you can't enjoy your supper now you have lost your grumble about nine hours, grumble for me as I've done 14 and aint finished yet" Punch, October 14 1871

Women of Bodnant

In this 2018 centenary of Votes for Women - the National Trust's year of #WomenAndPower - we're shining a light on our own women of Bodnant Garden who were at the forefront of the suffrage cause.

Meet Laura McLaren

Laura McLaren was not only a great horticulturalist but a tireless campaigner for the peaceful suffragist cause whose 'spade-work' over decades helped win women the vote.

The McLarens at Bodnant Hall circa 1905: Francis, Florence, Charles, Anges Pochin (seated), Laura, in-laws Edward Johnson-Ferguson and Henry Norman, Henry and Elsie (seated)

A family united by suffrage

From the drawing rooms and town halls of the nation to the Houses of Parliament, the men and women of this campaigning family fought together to secure the franchise for women.

" No one has done more for the advancement of the feminine sex during recent years than Lady McLaren...What with her witty speeches, her indomitable zeal, and the ready manner in which she subscribes to every cause that is likely to benefit her sisters, she may be said to occupy a unique place"

Laura McLaren, of Bodnant Garden, who wrote the Women's Charter

Laura McLaren campaigned not just for her own right to vote but on behalf of women everywhere. A champion of the servant girl and the housewife as much as the lady of property, she argued passionately about issues from health and housing to work and wages.

In her own words...

Our centenary year at Bodnant Garden

" A nation ruled by men alone is like a bird which tries to fly with one wing bound, it rises, flutters, and falls again to earth. Dare to unbind that wing and have patience till it gains strength, then men and women will rise together and lift humanity to heights before unknown. "