Mary Neal
| Mary Neal | |
|---|---|
Mary Neal
|
|
| Born |
Clara Sophia Neal 5 June 1860 Edgbaston, Birmingham, England |
| Died | 22 June 1944 (aged 84) |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Social worker |
| Known for | Folk dance collection |
Mary Neal CBE (5 June 1860 – 22 June 1944), born Clara Sophia Neal, was an English social worker and collector of English folk dances.
Neal was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, to a prosperous family. Her father was David Neal, a button manufacturer. In 1888, she began voluntary social work with the West London Methodist Mission of Hugh Price Hughes, helping the poor of Soho, Fitzrovia, and Marylebone in London, taking the name "Sister Mary". She set up and ran a "Club for Working Girls" at the mission's Cleveland Hall, and also wrote for the Mission Magazine. According to Emmeline Pethick, who worked with her in the Girls' Club, she had "a strong sense of humour and a profound aversion from unreality; she had also a sharp tongue".
She said of the Girls' Club,
No words can express the passionate longing which I have to bring some of the beautiful things of life within easy reach of the girls who earn their living by the sweat of their brow... If these Clubs are up to the ideal which we have in view, they will be living schools for working women, who will be instrumental in the near future, in altering the conditions of the class they represent.
The Girls' Club was a great success, but in the autumn of 1895, Neal and Pethick left the mission to set up their own Espérance Club for girls in Cumberland Market. They wanted to escape from the mission's institutional constraints and to experiment with dance and drama. They also started the Maison Espérance tailoring establishment to provide employment.
In 1905, Neal met Cecil Sharp at the Hampstead Conservatoire. They began to collaborate during a revival of English folk music, in which Neal felt that the working girls of London would be able to reclaim their heritage. The girls of the Espérance Club became in demand as teachers of folk music in London and further afield and they also put on several public performances in London.
...
Wikipedia