A TEACHER who ran two schools in Downend in the 19th century is one of 250 significant women from Bristol’s history featured in a new book.
Elizabeth Rees’s nephew WG Grace has had appeared in print many times but it is her part in the story of Downend that is told in Volume Three of ‘The Women Who Built Bristol’, which is published on March 3 ahead of International Women’s Day five days later.
Author Jane Duffus said: “When I give talks about my work with ‘The Women Who Built Bristol’ project, I am guaranteed to be asked two questions.
“One is where I find the women about whom I write. The other is if I will ever run out of women to write about. The second question is easier to answer than the first.
So, where do I find the women I write about? In short: from everywhere.
“After ticking off the so-say ‘obvious’ women from Bristol’s past (eg Mary Carpenter, Hannah More and Annie Kenney), there comes the much more fun task of really digging around to unearth the forgotten gems.
“I have ended up finding extraordinarily interesting women to research from street signs, building names, plaques on church walls, newspaper archives, or when somebody emails to suggest somebody to me.
“A quicker question to answer is will I ever run out of women to write about. And the short answer is: no.
Volumes One, Two and Three of ‘The Women Who Built Bristol’ each contain 250 different women from Bristol’s past.
“But if you think that the books cover roughly a 1,000 year period, then that’s not even one woman a year. There are still thousands of women out there just waiting to have their stories shared.”
Elizabeth Rees (1801-1864)
Elizabeth Rees (nee Pocock) ran a school for young ladies called the Cleve Wood Establishment with her widowed mother.
However, this was before Elizabeth married an eminent surgeon called James Rees in August 1825 at St Michaels in Bristol.
James died in 1840 so, to support herself and their young son, Elizabeth returned to life as a teacher and established the Overn Lodge school in Downend.
In 1851, Elizabeth and her son William emigrated to Melbourne, where he became a minister. Cricket was always a strong feature in the Pocock/Rees household: Elizabeth’s sister Martha married Henry Grace, and their son WG Grace went on to become cricket’s first superstar and Downend’s most famous son.
William Rees also became a first-class cricketer in both Australia and New Zealand, where he later settled.
All books in ‘The Women Who Built Bristol’ series can be ordered at janeduffus.com