A Fresh Start: Women's Education and Training
Episode 9
A Fresh Start… women’s education and training
In the 60’s and 70’s many people moved to Washington New Town with few friends or family to support them when they started a family. Adult education programmes provided by organizations such as the Workers Educational Association -the WEA - and more recently celebrated by Never Stop Learning were very important in the lives of local residents and many benefited from the childcare that these courses provided. The 1919 report on adult education emphasized the importance of universal and lifelong access to adult education, viewing it as a necessity for building a democratic and tolerant society. It recognized the importance of lifelong learning – not just looking at vocational needs but also intellectual ,aesthetic and spiritual needs of communities. For some, adult education was a liberation from boredom of daily domestic taks. For others it was literally a lifeline – finding support and resources for escaping a violent relationship.
The Bridge women’s Education and training project was set up in 1985 by a group of Washington women led by Sheila Davidson. Funded by regional and European grants it ran until 2012 providing jobs for hundreds and opportunities for thousands of women from using power tools to courses in forensic sciences. Many women went onto college and University from Bridge and gained an enormous amount of support from others whilst their children were looked after in purpose built creches and nurseries. On International Women’s Day 2000 The Bridge became a radio station broadcasting to Washington and staffed entirely by women.
A Fresh Start
(song by Lydia and Leighton)
New wooden floors in an empty house
Stack us in, don’t kick us out
Three-storey house with a bath inside
On a different path to a quiet life
Hit seventy-four at the start of the year
Left everything that I thought was dear
It doesn’t matter now, I’m starting my new life
I can call this my fresh start
To my quiet life
Whimsical and new
Where to begin?
Log cabin house in a little park
Leave the bairns to play in the neighbour’s yard
Walk through the underpass down to the village hall
Problem families started moving in
Joining the districts that we live in
Trying to make a life, we’re neighbours of the year
I can call this my fresh start
To my quiet life
Whimsical and new
Where to begin?
I can call this my fresh start
To my quiet life
Whimsical and new
Where to begin?
More about educational organisations past and present can be found on the following sites:
Never Stop Learning and ‘The Time of Our Lives -Women’s Education in Washington New Town’ report Never Stop Learning -Platform 60
University of the 3rd Age (u3a)
Working Lass Project featuring Bridge Women’s Training Project and its founder Sheila Davidson
Thanks to Joan Molloy, Gloria Finnigan, Karen Sukora, Caroline
Mitchell, Maureen Marsden, Sheila
Davidson, Rosemary Muncaster, Marylyn
Charlton, Anne Staines, Linda Williams, Keith Hodgson and members of the Pink Collar Gallery, Working Lass Project
A Fresh Start was composed and performed by Lydia Harvey and Leighton Hepburn.
About the Project
This episode was developed in collaboration with:
- Washington Heritage Partnership
- Sunderland City Council’s Washington Area Committee
- Sunderland Culture at The Arts Centre Washington
- Baseline Shift
- We Make Culture
Supported by:
- The University of Sunderland
- The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to The National Lottery Heritage Fund and National Lottery players for making this project possible.
