Eagle House, the Blathwayts’ family home in Batheaston, just outside Bath, gave wings to the suffragette movement. Below, we’ll meet the people who inhabited this space and created a vibrant meeting place to discuss women’s rights. It was a useful base for organising campaigns throughout the South West as well as a sanctuary for suffragettes who’d suffered in prison.
The suffragettes began a tradition where women who’d been to jail for their suffrage actions were invited to plant trees at Eagle House. The three-acre area earmarked for this purpose became known as Suffragettes’ Wood or – because Annie Kenney was the first to plant a tree there – Annie’s Arboretum. Between April 1909 and March 1912, more than sixty women each planted a tree there and every tree had a plaque stating who had planted it and what species it was. They were symbols of hope, courage and resilience. The militant women who’d been to prison planted conifers, whereas the non-militant women planted holly trees.
For the planting ceremony, each woman put on her Sunday best and often wore flowers and suffrage jewellery, such as a brooch to mark a prison sentence. The tree would have a specially made lead plaque in front of it which stated the species of tree, the suffragette’s name and the date.
The wood was carefully laid out not only with beautiful flowers 🌻 and winding paths but also reflected the hierarchy of the militant suffrage organisation called the WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union). For instance, Emmeline Pankhurst's tree was right in the centre and the trees closest to hers were planted by women who were close to her in the organisation. Between 1910 and 1911, a pond was created in the grounds of Eagle House and named Pankhurst Pond in her honour.
In short, Eagle House and its extensive grounds were a beacon for change, a rallying point for the brave women who shaped history. We will be bringing you these women’s stories, so stay tuned!
Mary Blathwayt’s death in 1961 marked the end of an era. The Eagle House property was divided up and the arboretum was bulldozed for building work in 1965, only a few years after Helen Kirkpatrick Watts gave her interview there. As far as is known, nobody protested against this ruthless destruction of nature and history for the sake of money. The only remnants are one tree and the name of the housing estate: Eagle Park.
Among those who rescued parts of this remarkable history were the Hawkers, who saved as many plaques as possible before the bulldozers arrived and saved Eagle House from demolition. Within the house, this family found hundreds of photos of the suffragettes in Annie's Arboretum as well as diaries by the Blathwayts.
In the early 2000s, Dan Brown digitalised the photos. They can be viewed at Bath in Time suffragettes page.
In 2009, the historian Cynthia Hammond [embedded video] discovered that Rose Lamartine Yates' Austrian pine tree had survived. Around International Women's Day in 2011, three Austrian pines were planted across Bath in honour of the city's suffragette community.
The plaques saved from the bulldozers back in 1965 are cared for by the Roman Baths Museum, but as far as I can tell, none are currently on display.
© Helen Pugh 2025, author of On This Day in Somerset.
Unearthing the Suffragette Spirit Project
Suffragettes in Bath: Activism in an Edwardian Arboretum by Cynthia Hammond with Dan Brown; bathintime.co.uk.
A Nest of Suffragettes in Somerset by BM Willmott Dobbie; suffragettestories.omeka.net.
