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Calls for statue to honour suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst's Manx mother

Culture Vannin Sophia Goulden courtesy Culture VanninCulture Vannin
Laxey-born Sophia Goulden had nine children including Emmeline Pankhurst

Proposals to build a statue at the birthplace of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst's Manx mother are to be considered by Tynwald.

The plans, which will be heard next week, were prompted by a petition handed in on Tynwald Day 2016.

Sophia Craine, herself a campaigner for women's rights, was born in the eastern Manx village of Laxey in 1833.

She married Robert Goulden at Braddan Church and the pair moved to Manchester where Emmeline was born in 1858.

A group called Friends of Sophia Goulden said she was an "incredibly influential woman who brought her own daughters up to fight for women's rights - a statue would be an ideal memorial".

Spokeswoman Lynn Owens added: "Sophia was at the forefront of liberal thinking at a time when women had little or no rights at all and was instrumental in taking her daughters Emmeline and Mary to their first meetings of the movement of Votes for Women."

Any statue for Sophia Goulden would likely be funded by private donations.