Join Susan Doe from Hackney Society for a women's history tour of Abney Park for UK Disability Awareness Month, focusing on Harriet Delph, a pioneering visually impaired woman who is buried here. Delph qualified as a teacher and from 1892 she taught in Hackney, at the LCC Morning Lane School for the Blind, becoming its head until she retired in 1927. She is buried alongside her sighted colleague and life long friend Frances Garlick, who commissioned the sculptural monument for their grave. Also included in the tour is Catherine Booth, co-founder of the Salvation Army and social campaigner, who lived with curvature of the spine.
Abney is home to educators such as Delph, Garlick and Mary Hannah Page, the first headmistress of Skinners School. Sat 18 November 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the repeal of Section 28 and the tour will also consider the impact of this anti-LGBTQ+ legislation on British education, such as the erasure of LGBTQ+ histories. Although we can only speculate as to past identities, the tour will touch on another grave where unmarried women share a tombstone, Mary McCarthy and her beloved friend Martha Taylor.
Susan Doe is Hackney born and bred with ancestry in the area going back a few centuries. She has been guiding since 2008 after qualifying in the City of London. She is co-author of Women from Hackney’s History (2021) and is currently leading the project for volume two. She was a writer and crew member for the film Women of Abney and is currently a member of the Committee for both the Hackney Society and Hackney History/Friends of Hackney Archives. Recently semi-retired from a long career in knowledge and compliance in the legal profession, she leads walks mainly in Hackney, the City and Islington. Abney Park has been close to her heart since she worked in Church Street in the 1980s. She discovers things every time she visits.
Please enter at the Church Street entrance and follow the path on the left side. The meeting point is at the William Booth Memorial, opposite the entry path. (The High Street entrance will be closed during this time.)
Please note:
We may need to cancel at short notice if the weather is inclement - please check your emails on the morning of the walk that you have booked.
Please wear sturdy shoes.
There are no toilet facilities available.