I was thrilled to be part of two events for #IWD2024, both organised by the New Macclesfield School of Art, based at the Silk Museum. The first, on 25 February 2024, was ‘Women’s Town’, a walk-and-draw history tour of the town. We stopped at various points to hear the stories of women who have had impact on the town through the centuries, from Chartists to Egyptologists. At each stop was a woman in appropriate costume as a drawing model. I was proud to wear Edwardian scrubs to represent Miss Annabella ‘Murdoch’ Clarke who came down to Macclesfield from Glasgow to become the town’s first female surgeon.

On Saturday 9 March 2024 I was one of the leaders for a Banner- and Cloak-Making Workshop — I was assigned to help women find the words they wanted to include. What a fantastic day we had making printing sewing chatting laughing.

The two projects came together in an exhibition at the Silk Museum of all the drawings, banners and cloaks. The opening event was packed with folks of all ages, including the Mayor! I wrote a short piece about my experience of dressing as Dr Murdoch Clarke:

‘In preparation for being Dr Clarke I’d been busy: doing some research about her background and study in Glasgow; finding images of Edwardian surgical wear for women; sewing (with help from the wonderful Rachel Beswick of the Fent Shop) the gown and headscarf which made up her ‘scrubs’. I was looking forward to dressing up as someone whose profession was so far from mine! I didn’t however expect to find the experience of standing in for her so moving. As I stood as still as possible, I listened to Daisy talk about what Clarke had gone through in order to be accepted as a surgeon. It made me very proud to represent her and be part of the ongoing project to put women back into history, to make sure the female contribution to the human experience is fully recognised and remembered.’