In January, heavy snow in the Cotswolds melted into seasonal springs in Coates and Kemble. On 7 January the thaw culminated in the disastrous Thames flood that made 4000 Londoners homeless, and killed 14 people, some drowning in their basement homes in Hammersmith and Fulham. February was full of rain and bluster and occasional midnight frost. By mid-March the land forgot its season and winter returned to England.
July brought sunshine with a long period of heat and drought. On 2 July 1928 the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act was passed which granted suffrage to women over 21 on equal terms with men, enabling millions of women to vote for the first time.
Did women run into the warm streets cheering and dancing, relieved after 60 years of campaigning? Was it a victory? Or was the campaign for suffrage – and most importantly – the solidarity it fostered between women something that was lost when the vote was finally won on equal terms?