Proprietress Food Reform guesthouse

49

Single

'Snowdon' now 56 London Road, Cheltenham.

WFL

Resists

Charlotte was born in Lancashire on the 3 June 1861, the daughter of a fairly successful corn miller and flour merchant. Until the census of 1901, she appeared to have lived at home, with no recorded occupation, but in 1901 she was resident at Anstey College as a cookery teacher. It is likely that in this 'hotbed' of feminism she imbibed her radical ideas. Her next appearance in the records is as the proprietress of a small Food Reform guesthouse in Cheltenham at 'Snowdon' in London Road. In the period before World War I, she belonged to the NUWSS and WFL in Cheltenham and strengthened the already strong vegetarian movement in the town. She hosted meetings at Snowdon and appeared in the December 1910 election campaign under the WFL banner. Miss Bardsley has been classed a census resister because she remained at her guesthouse where she sheltered local evaders (see) Dr. and Mrs Wilkins on census night - as recorded by the enumerator. However, it is possible Charlotte meant to evade but her details, and that of her guests, were given by 'helpful' neighbours as happened on occasion. For a short while, she seems to have had Mrs Norah Turbervill, another WFL supporter, as joint proprietor although the latter was not noted by the enumerator. Advertisements for Snowdon disappear after 1916 and Miss Bardsley reappears instead in Redhill, Surrey in the early 1920s and as a proprietress of another small Vegetarian guest-house. She was elected President of the new Vegetarian Society as well as being involved in theosophy, another movement strong among women's suffrage supporters in Cheltenham. Charlotte died in Reigate in 1940 where she was living with her sister Ruth. Researched and contributed by Sue Jones author of 'Votes for Women: Cheltenham and the Cotswolds' (The History Press, 2018).