Update: 18th October - we are almost half way! Please donate.

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Gorne Wood in Lewisham, SE London is a remaining fragment of what was once Brockley Green Farm, part of the Great North Wood. This site was home to the Colgates, a family of reformers in the mid- nineteenth century. Three of the Colgate sisters Ellen, Jane and Elizabeth were active in the Anti-Slavery movement.

Elihu Burritt, a famous abolitionist from America took women seriously at a time when other male peace leaders relegated women activists solely to educating children in private. Through Burritt’s Olive Leaf Circle movement women were able to organise themselves for the first time. As well as establishing the first Fair Trade movement they also raised thousands to support international peace initiatives. It is this Pacifist Feminist movement that led the way in the long movement for women’s right to vote on equal terms with men.

Jane Colgate and Elizabeth Colgate held prominent positions in the establishment of the Olive Leaf Circles in the UK and in researching the heritage of Gorne Wood one of the charity co-founders Anna-Maria Cahalane connected with the Great Granddaughter of Jane Colgate, Liz Butler. Liz gave Anna-Maria a treasure trove of original letters that Jane Colgate had kept from her time as a campaigner.

Most of the letters are from Elihu Burritt but two very important letters to Jane are from William Wells Brown, the first published African-American author, playwright and abolitionist who had escaped enslavement. It is clear there was a close friendship between them and that he visited Brockley Green Farm.

This funding will help create a short film about this activism by Road Works Media - a creative mentoring and intervention programme for young people.

The funding will also help with creating a leaflet to accompany the film.

We will use the results of this project to help in seeking further funding for an on-line archive, information talks, school education pack and more.