Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans, if any, they have (1) to list, (2) to preserve, and (3) to restore, buildings of significance in the fight for women’s suffrage so that these places are not lost for future generations; and what assessment they made of the challenges faced by those seeking to save Dorset Hall, the former home of suffragette Rose Lamartine Yates.

The Department is working through its Arm’s-Length Bodies, Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, to list, preserve, and restore historic buildings of significance to the suffrage movement.

As 2018 marked the centenary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act, Historic England sought, with help from researchers and the public, to commemorate the centenary by highlighting and listing places that played a part in the struggle for suffrage and subsequent gender equality through its ‘HerStories’ campaign. These can be found on Historic England’s website.

Historic England have been engaging with the Local Authority, to help secure the necessary repairs to the historic building of Dorset Hall. Historic England established what essential works were required and provided specialist support and advice to ensure that these identified works were satisfactorily completed by Spring 2022.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has also supported a range of projects related to the suffragette movement. These include a partnership project led by the East End Women’s Museum to tell the story of the suffragettes in London’s East End; the Rebellious Sounds Archive’s creation of the first oral archive of women’s activism stories in the South West and Rooms of Our Own, an ongoing project being delivered to uncover the history of the Pankhurst Centre, the former home of Emmeline Pankhurst and the place from where the suffragette movement was born.