02/02/2024
This plaque is mounted on the Memorial Hall next to the War Memorial in Penygroes, Caernarfon next to our holidat cottages. It says in Welsh 'Yma y daeth 2,000 o ferched ar y 27 mai 1926 i gychwyn y Bererindod Heddwch dan y faner "HEDD NID CLEDD"' which translates as 'Here 2,000 women came on 27 May 1926 to start the Peace Pilgrimage under the banner "PEACE NOT SWORD"' in English.
Two thousand women from a number of villages in the hills around the local area gathered in the Market Square outside the Memorial Hall. They were led by peace activists Gwladys Thoday and Silyn Roberts and they set off on a 150 mile peace pilgrimage to Chester before 28 of them continued on to a national demonstration in Hyde Park, London where Mrs Thoday and Mrs Roberts addressed the crowd.
This was a turbulent period in history, two years before the suffragette movement had won the right for women to vote and the peace protesters were angry that they had no say in the running of the country or whether the nation went to war or not.
Many of the women carried the blue flag of peace. They would continue the Peacemakers Pilgrimage, some walking, others travelling by charabanc towards Chester.
It is incredible to think that a march which started outside the innocuous Conservative Club in the middle of the small village of Penygroes played a significant role in the suffragette movement’s struggle to win the vote for all women in this country.
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