Friday Photo: Julia Varley’s House

Today’s Friday photo is the former home of Suffragette and trade unionist, Julia Varley. A Birmingham Civic Society blue plaque was erected on the house in Hay Green Lane, Bournville in her honour. In 1909 she established a branch of the National Federation of Women Workers at the Cadbury’s factory. Over her lifetime she campaigned to achieve better working conditions and a living wage for women and also men that were employed in low-paid occupations, notably the Cradley Heath women chainmakers’ strike of 1910 and the Black Country strike of 1913. She sat on the General Council of the Trade Union Congress and was awarded an OBE in 1931