Lavena Saltonstall

Lavena Saltonstall (1881 – September 1957) was an English suffragette, working class campaigner and writer.

Early life Saltonstall was born in 1881 in Rawholme, just outside Hebden Bridge to Mary and John Saltonstall, a fustian dyer. When she was around 10 years old, she left school to work half-time in the local clothing factories.

Career In 1907, Saltonstall led a weavers' strike in Hebden Bridge and addressed the striking workers from the steps of Bridge Mill, before the women workers marched to the houses of their employers. During 1907 and 1908, she invited the founder of the WSPU, Emmeline Pankhurst to give speeches locally in support of the strike and about votes for women.

When Saltonstall was around 23 years old, she moved to Halifax after finding the small-town of Hebden Bridge restricting.

In March 1907, Saltonstall travelled to Westminster to campaign for enfranchisement and was arrested and imprisoned for 14 days. shot back at criticisms of the initiative from the press and denounced the housing conditions that were available to the servants who worked maintaining the university.

Through the WEA, Saltonstall also raised awareness of how working in the day and doing housework in the evenings prevented many working class women from participating in political activity, explaining how: "in my native place the women, as a general rule, wash every Monday, iron on Tuesdays, court on Wednesdays, bake on Thursdays, clean on Fridays go to market or go courting again on Saturdays and go to Church on Sundays."

She became a talented and prolific letter writer to various local newspapers,

Later life In 1917, Saltonstall married a soldier, George Baker, at the Unitarian Chapel, Halifax. She moved with him to Bradford, where she died in September 1957.