The fight for the right 

Brontë Mitchell talks to Bridget foreman about her role in bringing the 20^th  York females into the 21^st spotlight

Writing plays about empowering suffragette females, lecturing at York University and scouring through the York archives are just a few things Bridget Foreman, playwright, has balanced in between her busy life as both a wife and mother. Personally, I wonder how she does it all!

Freelance playwright, Bridget Foreman, has always had a keen eye for theatre whether it be acting, script writing or directing. With power and a sprinkle of intelligence she has climbed her way into the theatre world. From being an active member of the National Youth Theatre during her time at Oxford University to now having a role as associate director for the Riding Lights Theatre Company in York she really has made a massive jump.

Like a bullet, her power and acceleration to write has constantly been fuelled by activism and politics from the 20^th century to today. She even uses Twitter to constantly reveal her opinions on today’s news. And even in true feminine fashion her decision to keep her maiden name expands her willingness to fight for what she believes is female and perhaps in our distorted world this type of attitude is what we need.  

Bridget has been living in York since before 1992 and has created a life in the city for both her family and for her career. However, in 2017 York began to appeal more to her and became more than just the city she lives in as she wrote her most recent play titled ‘Everything is Possible’. The city became the backbone to her inspiration for writing a play on the untold stories of the York suffragettes. 

The scripture followed activist, Anne Seymour played by well-known British actress Barbara Marten, and her journey to get female votes politically. It celebrated the successes and sufferings of these females in York between 1912 and 1918.

Performed both in the York Theatre Royal and on the raised pavement outside The York Minster’s entrance she embedded the literal architecture of York into the acting. With 12 main actors and 150 volunteers from York she worked a scene of protest and disorder into the beginning of the play that contrasted to the normal calm streets of York we would see today. Women held signs capitalised with ‘Votes for Women’ and ‘Deeds not Words’ on the front and wore sashes stitched with the purple, white and green colours of the Suffragettes. 

For keen feminist Bridget, writing a play set entirely on the basis of female power was top of her list of accomplishments, “a lot of history is told by the men and women tend to be around the edges of the story, so as a female writer having a story that absolutely had women at the centre of it was fantastic.”  

Bridget spoke of this play with emotion and dignity as what made this play different to any other she’d done before was the connection she felt to the women of her city, “I really did feel the weight of responsibility as well as pride in what had been won by women who had been living on the same street as me one hundred years ago.”

Bridget and her husband, Mark Payton, adopted her twin daughters from Ethiopia in 2009 at just seven months old. To have been through such a wonderful and sentimental adoption further puts into perspective Bridget’s perseverance and strength to bring females into the light and echo the message of feminism through drama. Her title ‘Everything is Possible’ doesn’t just echo the women but Bridget herself, and she should feel immensely proud about that. 

One could say she embedded some her of experiences as a mother into the play in the reflected portrayal of Anne Seymour’s family; “It was kind of a key thing of feminism that the domestic is political that actual everything that happens in our domestic lives has political aspects to it and what I really wanted to do was to take a family who’s entire life was domestic but actually there are all kinds of politics issues that this women is engaging in on a daily basis to do with class, employment and education.”

The scripture and performance received four out of five stars by ‘The Guardian’ but raised a few eyebrows as the public watched York through a different light. Bridget explained herself that, “There was that local connection that absolutely rooted the story in York and then there were lots of things to do with where meetings where held and outdoor speeches being made we know that St Helens Square was used, we know where offices of the ‘Women’s Social and Political Union’ meetings were in Coney Street, we know that there was a little bomb place outside the offices of the Yorkshire evening press” 

Emotional and poignant, the play was written during the run up to the 2017 UK election. Whilst writing in a time when political change was happening in the 21st century she was writing about political upheaval in the 20th century and for Bridget this was very exciting. “It really did focus my mind all the time that I was writing about women who didn’t have a vote and I was aware that my vote then was being thought through by all the political parties who were engaged in the election. I was someone of political value and I was writing about women who had no political value at all.” 

It truly is extraordinary how one city can host a variety of destruction and degradation and to have this come to life visually on stage in the heart of the city is captivating. Although ‘Everything is Possible’ was written and performed in 2017 this play is likely to be spoken about for a long time coming and I’m not the only one that’s hoped Bridget has kept a copy of this spell-binding script, so it can hopefully be performed again soon.    

The Power of the Flower:

 Thousands of poppies crocheted to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War

On the 11th November the Reverend Rachel Benson, High Steward of Selby Abbey, joined hundreds of Selby locals as Selby Abbey opened its doors to veterans, cadets, scouts, fire officers, members of St Johns Ambulance as well as representatives from Selby Town Council and the Abbey. 

Since March of last year locals in Selby have been taking part in the poppy knit-a-thon with over 58,000 made by the event. Regular sessions were held at Selby Library from 9:30am and donations of red wool were constantly being given. 

These poppies were attached to cargo netting and then displayed as part of a 5m waterfall that ran down the side of the Abbey’s architecture and lead up to the Squadron Memorial in the Abbey grounds. 

Reverend Benson presented the address on behalf of the Bishop of Selby and themed it around the knitted poppies. She said: “The war cost nine million dead and 6 million injured and fear gripped the nation with guilt among the survivors, the poppy however emerged fragile but living from the abundant soul of conflict.” 

The Abbey was a scene of beauty from the start of the service at 10:00am when the Choir and Clergy entered to the two-minute silence held at 11:00am. 

Young children wearing poppies on their bobble hats coincided with veterans supporting varieties of medals on their chests top respect the fallen. The most poignant moment was at the wreath laying where a young girl around the age of six broke from the crowd and knelt down and stroked the carpet of poppies in respect. 

During the hymns and readings, the acoustics of the church emphasised the amount of emotion and admiration the Selebians had to give as well as in the money collected for The British Legion and local veterans. 

To conclude the ceremony The Last Post echoed around the church as poppies were dropped from the bell tower onto the altar, and the Union flag was raised as a beacon of remembrance. 

Dr John Thompson, 59, The Bishop of Selby, left a message to be read in this he said that the poppy was “The flower of hope, the flower of peace the flower of fragility, as we reflect on this war our challenge is to embrace the power of the flower, fragility was the outcome of the first world war and the poppy symbolises this.”

‘British Made Excellence’

The Development & Growth of Fashion Business: Holland Cooper

So, you’ve left a secure university, ditched a prosperous course and abandoned any chance of gaining a degree. According to Jade Holland Cooper all you need is thirty tweed miniskirts and a whole lot of hard work and stamina. 

Holland Cooper the garments, the brand, the woman. Jade Holland Cooper, 31, founder and owner of luxury tweed and country clothing store ‘Holland Cooper’ has become a drop out sensation. After starting up a single country stall at Badminton Horse Trials, selling only thirty unique tweed miniskirts, she now owns a £10 million fashion business with consumers buying all over the world. 

After pulling out from her international equine and agricultural management course at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, she noticed a gap in the market for country clothing and tweed wear and therefore launched herself into the fashion void. Naming the brand after herself in 2008 Holland Cooper Ltd was born and let’s just say she now exercises control in the tweed market sector. 

Jade’s roots are embedded within the countryside and this was certainly evident from the beginning in the declination of her offers from both leading UK fashion universities; London College of Fashion and Central Saint Martins. As an only child it’s apparent that Jade’s support for her parents reflect in the label. Her mother, Miranda Cooper, is a designer who made clothes for the likes of Elton John and her father, Oliver Cooper, is an arable farmer in Suffolk. Jade has created a style that combines fashion and farming and yet it still excites city customers. 

Her continuous love for the outdoors was showcased in the miniskirts and continues to be displayed throughout her designs even now. She gave the countryside a style up; suiting up men in full shooting sets and tailoring women in jackets fit to be flaunted in the fields. 

Lets look at her journey…

It’s been ten years since the brand was formed, ten years since the media caught on to this luxurious brand and ten years since tweed was made the new 21^st century fashion craze and here’s the low down. In 2012, the brand started to open up to city consumers as it’s attendance at principal Polo events expanded its market. Just two years succeeding, Holland Cooper had over seven UK mills sourcing out fabrics and two factory stores open, one being Harrods to which it was placed opposite the likes of Ralph Lauren and Canada Goose. 

Now Holland Cooper has custom built headquarters, a Capsule Luxury ‘sports line’, five factories, an all-new website, five stores and nine stockists, hundreds of employees, royalty wearing the brand and an amazing founder who continues to thrive. 

Continuing its long list of achievements, HC was nominated for ‘Premium Brand of the Year’ and ‘Best Store Design’ at the ’Drapers’ Magazine Awards 2018, and has had many a feature article written about them in the likes of Cotswold Life, Living Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph and Grazia. 

Her growth in business is one of the most recognised as she built and developed the business in such a short amount of time. She once squeezed her small stand into Badminton now shows such as ‘The Game Fair’ and ‘Cheltenham Race Meetings’ are requesting her brand for a stall. She represents female business power. 

Amy Neville, 25, international model and blogger, has been modelling for 8 years now with four of those years being with Holland Cooper. Her email sent to me about her work with HC voiced just how much she admires the brand. Full of exclamation marks and capital letters she had nothing but positivity to tell me about HC and its backbone business founder Jade. “I feel super happy to be part of such an amazing brand and to have seen the growth too, I always feel when you model in products you love, it shows”

Amy’s collaborations with Holland Cooper include shoots, video promotions as well as endorsing the brand through her own social media platforms and fashion businesses. ‘I think there are no brands out there with the same style and quality as Holland Cooper. It is so unique, and I think that is one of the reasons it is so popular’. Her recent promotion is the ‘Holland Cooper Haul’ that features on her fashion and lifestyle YouTube channel. 

Her relationship with Jade has blossomed from just business workers to close friends and Amy just continued to praise Jade and her endurance, ‘I did one of her campaigns at the beginning four years ago, one of my good friend’s Tory Smith was the photographer on the first campaign I did for them and she actually recommended me to Jade and we have been working together ever since.”  

If you look at the clothing, but careful I did once and now I’m addicted, the designs symbolise Great Britain. From the stitching on the fabric to the silk label embedded in the article their range truly lives up to its slogan as ‘British Made Excellence’. The tweed patterns are unique to the label and epitomise what it means to be from the country. Emma Dixon, member of ‘Yorkshire Ladies Shooting’ and frequent consumer of the brand, described Holland Cooper as her favourite brand, ‘I feel it brings class, elegance and comfort to my wardrobe and to my shoots. Their statement pieces are well made and certainly get heads turning. 

For all those new to Holland Cooper or just for anyone indecisive about what to buy Amy gave me the low-down of her best-loved HC items, “previously it was the amazing capes she did they were my ultimate fave, the black collars were amazing… now I would say my puffa with faux fur hood is the best! It’s super easy to wear on a day to day basis whatever outfit your wearing underneath”. 

So next time you’re around Edinburgh, Oxford see what the brand has to offer and emerge yourself into Holland Cooper.