CAMPAIGNERS will be taking part in a six day walk across Lancashire and Cumbria to celebrate the 1913 Great Pilgrimage march for votes for women.

Northwest walkers will be walking from Grasmere to Preston to mark the occasion.

The modern-day ‘Equal Votes Walk’, taking place 6-11 June, will follow the northwest route of the 1913 Great Pilgrimage, with street stalls in Grasmere, Bowness, Kendal, Arnside, Lancaster, Garstang and Preston.

The event has been organised by local voting reform campaign group Make Votes Matter (MVM) North Lancashire.

The original Great Pilgrimage was organised by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), the non-militant organisation that campaigned for votes for women. Over six weeks, women and men marched peacefully from all corners of the UK to converge in London for a demonstration attended by 50,000 people.

The 2022 ‘Equal Votes Walk’ aims to celebrate the achievements of the NUWSS march and call for further voting reform.

MVM North Lancashire campaign across all political parties to change the UK’s voting system to one of proportional representation (PR), where each party’s share of seats in Parliament matches the share of votes it wins.

Councillors and MPs from across the political spectrum will join them along the way to lend support.

The walk will end in Winckley Square, Preston on Saturday 11 June, with a street stall, speeches, costumes and banners and a local choir.

The Preston rally is part of the national MVM 'Get Moving for PR' Action Day involving coordinated events around the country.

Anne Margaret Smith, one of the walk organisers, said: ‘Looking back, it’s amazing that anyone thought it was OK to deny women the vote.

In the future, our children will look back and wonder why we’ve put up with the lack of representation our current system leads to.

“No government since 1935 has won a majority of votes, which means most of our voices are unheard.

“We’re actually one of the few developed democracies around the world that still hasn’t adopted PR. It’s time we caught up – countries with PR have greater income equality, better standards of living and better environmental policies – those are things we absolutely need in 2022.

“Changing our voting system would be the biggest improvement to our democracy since women won the vote a century ago.”

All are welcome to join the walk or come to one of the street stalls. 

Contact the group organisers at mvmnorthlancashire@outlook.com for more information.