MRS HIGGS OF OLDHAM

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 August 1940, Page 8

MRS HIGGS OF OLDHAM

A PIONEER IN BEAUTIFYING WORK..

She was always known as Mrs Higgs of Oldham, though she was born at Devises in Wiltshire in 1854. A daughI ter of the Rev W. Kingsland, she won lan exhibition to Girton College, and | was the first woman to take a Natural Science Tripos. In 1879 she married the Rev Thomas Kilpin Higgs, and with him she lived at Hanley, Manchester and Oldham. It was in 1890 that Mrs Higgs startled everyone by 7 her letter in an Oldham newspaper. Its heading was "Beautiful Oldham. Why not?" Till then everyone had imag'ined that Oldham could never be anything else than grimy and ugly but Mrs Higgs made the audicious suggestion that the citizens could make their town much more beautiful than it was. She wrote and spoke with such conviction that the Beautiful Oldham Society 7 was formed, and from that day' to this it has never ceased working for the destruction of slums, the preservation of whatever natural beauty Oldham possesses, the planting of trees and making of gardens, the abatement of the smoke nuisance, and the growing of flowers in windowboxes. It may be true that this workaday Lancashire town will never be a rival for Leamington Spa, but there is no doubt that Mrs Higgs did much to make it a happier spot in which to live.

She passed on at 87 in 1937. She in remembered as pioneer of beauty at Oldham, but her fame has spread far beyond, for it was she who began a great work for poor women all over the country. She not only' wrote books on social problems, but went into poor lodgings. and ran a municipal lodging house. a workhouse tramp ward, and a women’s shelter. She found how difficult it was for a very' poor woman to keep herself respectable, and she stirred all social workers by her account of five days and nights as a tramp with tramps. This story of her own experiences, together with her book; "Where Shall She Live"" roused public opinion last century, and many big cities were careful to make better provision for extremely poor women. Now this friend of all poor women, thus great worker for the workless, has passed on. leaving a fragrant memory.