Wasn't sure where to put this so I dumped it in general to wind dubs up...
www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/201...5/manchester-salfordSalford was one of the first towns in England to have a birth control clinic, opened in 1926 by Mary Stocks and Charis Frankenburg. Michael Herbert will lead a history walk in their honour this Saturday
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Marie Stopes, birth control pioneer
Marie Stopes. Her pioneering work was taken up by Manchester and Salford, and faithfully covered by the Manchester Guardian. Photograph: Popperfoto/Getty
Birth control was a highly controversial subject whose advocates had braved public abuse and even prosecution. In 1877, for instance Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant were convicted of publishing "an obscene libel" for discussing birth control in their book The Fruits of Philosophy and sentenced to six months in prison. The sentence was quashed at the Court of Appeal. Annie then continued to write and lecture about birth control.
In 1918 Marie Stopes wrote a book called Married Love, which included a chapter on birth control . It was a publishing sensation and made her a national figure. She followed this with another book, Wise Parenthood, and opened the first birth control clinic in the country in Holloway, London in March 1921, run by midwives. In 1924 the Society for the Provision of Birth Control Clinics was founded to campaign for municipal clinics.
Charis Frankenburg was doing social work in Salford. She later recalled in her autobiography Not Old, Madam, Vintage
Having read the books of Dr Marie Stopes and profited by her expertise – we had four children spaced exactly as intended – I wrote in the autumn of 1925 to ask her to tell me of someone near Manchester who might be interested in helping me to set up a Birth Control Clinic. She suggested Mrs John Stocks. I recognised her as Mary Brinton whom I had known at St Paul's …On October 23rd, we collected a few friends and formed a committee.
Mary was born in 1899 and attended St Paul's school and then the London School of Economics. She married the philosopher, John Stocks, and taught at the LSE and Kings College for Women during the war. They then moved to Oxford where she taught at Somerville and Lady Margaret Hall. In the early 1920s Mary Stocks was joint editor of a feminist publication The Woman's Leader with Eve Hubback.
At the end of 1924 her husband was offered a professorship in philosophy at the University of Manchester and the couple moved to the city, taking a house at 22 Wilbraham Road. They were soon drawn into the middle-class cultural life of the city, which revolved around the University, the Manchester Guardian and the University Settlement at the Round House, 20 Every Street, Ancoats, where Mary directed plays, including five she had written herself.
Mary became Chair of the Committee, whilst Charis was secretary. After visiting the clinics already established, they enlisted a doctor, Dr Olive Gimson, and two midwives, Sister Pulford and Sister Lloyd. They managed to raise £190 and used this to rent two rooms over a baker's shop at 161 Greengate.
CP Scott, former editor of the Manchester Guardian C.P.Scott, the editor of the Manchester Guardian, esnured coverage. Photograph: The Guardian
In February 1926 welfare campaigners held a conference on Maternal Mortality in Manchester at which the dangers to women's health of excessive pregnancies were highlighted by a number of speakers. It attracted considerable comment in the press and Charis used the opportunity to write a letter to the Manchester Guardian, published on 13 February, outlining the problems over mortality during child birth. Despite this, the Ministry of Health would not allow doctors at infant welfare centres to give advice on contraception and therefore, she announced, a clinic would soon be opening in Salford which would see married women who had had at least one child – except at the discretion of the doctor. The charge would normally be a shilling.
Even before the clinic opened there were protests, particularly by the Catholic church. In February an article in the local Catholic newspaper the Catholic Federationist attacked the proposed clinic. Noting that the birth rate was the lowest on record the writer commented that:
one would imagine that these figures would give pause to the artificial birth controllers, but nothing would stop them in their headlong course. Anyhow, these figures may bring other people to their senses and may teach them that, apart from morality, people who encourage birth control are a threat to the nation.
The Manchester, Salford and District Mothers' Clinic for Birth Control opened on 1 March 1926 with clinics twice-weekly, Monday 3-5 and Tuesday 8-9.30. On the first day 19 women attended. The Manchester Guardian reported that:
yesterday afternoon a number of poor mothers of varying ages, having generally children with them, were climbing the stairs to the two rooms.
On 13 April a protest meeting against the clinic was held in Salford town hall, which was so full that an overflow meeting had to be held outside. The meeting was chaired by Mrs Mary Welch who said that whilst those who advocated birth control might have the very best objects in contemplation, they said poor women should have the same facilities as rich women. But would birth control give them the same facilities and privileges? She was not going to be let it said that children were the cause of poverty.
The birth control pioneers held their own public meeting in May at Pendleton town hall, which attracted an audience of 250 and was chaired by Eleanor Rathbone. The speakers were Lord Balfour of Burleigh, Dr Norman Haire Professor Carr-Saunders and Mary Stocks. Only four people voted against the resolution supporting the clinic and £4 was collected in coppers for its work.
Following the meeting Charis wote a letter to the Manchester Guardian on 15 June. She said that, after the report in the newspaper of the meeting in Pendleton, there had been considerable public interest in the work of the clinic, 180 women had already received advice and it was significant that friends of former patients form a large part of the new attendance. She outlined the support that the clinic had received and made an appeal for further donations which could be sent to their treasurer, Mrs Burrows.
Reflecting back on their experiences in article published on The Guardian women's page in 1962 , Mary Stocks wrote:
Mrs Frankenburg and I were singled out for special obloquy. We were "the kind of women who visited matinees and sat with cigarettes between their painted lips". The image was in one respect comforting, for we had envisaged ourselves as rather dowdy social workers. And our clinic was described as being reached through "a stinking entry". This was a little hard for the stink was in fact merely the smell of good hot meat pies. But the location of the clinic through the shop made attendance easy for shy mothers – and they came , the shy and the not so shy
In its first annual report the clinic revealed that it had given advice to 423 women and that there had been 319 repeat visits. They had refused to give advice to a number of women deemed unsuitable. (The report does not explain why). Ironically many women had first heard about the clinic because of the protest meeting. Many came expecting to be given abortions and had to be advised that this was illegal and then given appointments for the ante-natal clinic. Whilst most of the women attending the clinic had come from Salford or Manchester, others had come from further afield, even from as far way as Scotland:
An increasing number in the past few months has been referred to the clinic by the medical officers of welfare centres. A great majority are the wives of men earning between £2 and £3 a week. A distressingly large proportion are in a very poor state of health…The great majority… in their desire for family limitation appear to be actuated by economic motives. A profound sense of parental responsibility and the well-being of the existing children actuates their desire to incur no further pregnancies because of inadequate housing and wages. The proved value to health of mother and child is also coming to be generally recognised.
Michael Herbert is a Trustee of the Working Class Movement Library and leads walks exploring Manchester's radical history for Red Flag Walks. He will leading a walk exploring Salford's radical history on Saturday 8 September, meeting at the Black Lion public house, Chapel Street, at 11am.
