Loughborough – A Woman of Spirit – Map Monday

Submitted: 25th May 2026

Loughborough – Margaret Dickinson

Where are we going?

Loughborough – Margaret likes to choose smallish towns and places to set her novels to really look at the small communities there and how big events such as war and the growth of the suffragette movement would have affected the ordinary girl and woman.

Location map for Margaret Dickinson novels

boarding pass new

The setting:

The Town Hall and Charnwood Museum are two places most associated with the Suffragette movement in the town.

Loughborough is synonymous with bell making and is home to the last work bell foundry in the UK

Location map for Margaret Dickinson novels

Review

I do love a good saga – but feel the covers and blurb don’t always do them justice. This is a book and story that really captures the spirit of women getting on with their lot. These women who are growing up during the growth of the Suffragette movement. I found the story really got under these women’s skins and it immersed me into their lives and worries.

Margaret Dickinson has a knack for creating characters that you will think you know. I thought they seemed so real and warm. I cared for them and worried for them when they weren’t on the page. Now that is a good character author!

Location map for Margaret Dickinson novels

The history:

Emmeline Pankhurst, her daughters Christabel, Sylvia and Adela, and a group of other women based in Manchester founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903. They aimed to “wake up the nation” through “deeds not words”. This was the beginning of the Suffragette movement as we know it.