Glenn
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3810399/Grave-Victorian-author-buried-alongside-female-partner-given-listed-status.html
Grave of Victorian author who was buried alongside her female partner is given listed status in new campaign to recognise gay history
- Adventurer Amelia Edwards was a prominent women's rights campaigner
- She wrote eight novels while travelling with her partner Ellen Braysher
- The adventurous pair threw Victorian convention aside and went abroad
- Four other landmarks have been upgraded to record their LGBTQ histories
Adventurer and campaigner Amelia Edwards was a campaigner for women's rights decades before the issue was more widely recognised
The grave of a Victorian writer who was buried alongside her female partner has been given listed status by Historic England as part of a campaign to recognise LGBTQ history.
Adventurer and campaigner Amelia Edwards was a campaigner for women's rights decades before the issue was more widely recognised.
She wrote eight novels while travelling the world with her long-term-partner Ellen Braysher and they were buried at St Mary the Virgin Churchyard in Bristol.
Her grave has now been given Grade-II listing, while four other place listings have been updated or upgraded to record their LGBTQ histories.
They include the London home of Oscar Wilde and the house of Anne Lister, described as the 'first modern lesbian'.
The listings are a result of Historic England's research project Pride of Place, led by historians at Leeds Beckett University's Centre for Culture and the Arts.
Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of Historic England said: 'Historic buildings and places are witnesses to events that have shaped our society.
'They hold real and tangible evidence of the way our nation has evolved.
'Too often, the influence of men and women who helped build our nation has been ignored, underestimated or is simply unknown, because they belonged to minority groups.
Her grave has now been given Grade-II listing, while four other place listings have been updated or upgraded to record their LGBTQ histories
'Our Pride of Place project is one step on the road to better understanding just what a diverse nation we are, and have been for many centuries.
'At a time when historic LGBTQ venues are under particular threat, this is an important step.
'The impact of the historic environment on England's culture must not be underestimated, and we must recognise all important influences.'
Edwards was born in 1831 and despite having no formal education she became an accomplished musician, artist and wrote her first novel by the time she was 20.
She lived with her widowed friend and long-tern partner Ellen Braysher and the adventurous pair threw Victorian convention aside and travelled abroad as a couple.
She developed a passion for Egypt and hired a boat to travel 1,000 miles up the Nile, and ran a campaign to save Egyptian antiquities.
Among the listings updated to record their LGBTQ histories is 34 Tite Street in London, where Oscar Wilde lived with his wife until his trial for 'gross indecency' in 1895.
Red House, in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, where the composer Benjamin Britten lived with his partner, the tenor Peter Pears was also updated.
The listing for the 1930s home of stockbroker Gerald Schlesinger and landscape architect Christopher Tunnard was included in the new list.
It was designed so the couple's bedroom could be split into two meaning they could keep their relationship a secret at a time when homosexuality was a criminal offence.
The listing for West Yorkshire's Shibden Hall, the former home of Anne Lister, described as the 'first modern lesbian' was also updated.
The Burdett-Coutts memorial at St Pancras Gardens, Camden, which commemorates the 18th-century French transgender spy Chevalier d'Eon was upgraded to II*.
OTHER LGBTQ LANDMARKS TO GET UPGRADED LISTINGS
St Ann's Court in Surrey was home to stockbroker Gerald Schlesinger and celebrated landscape architect Christopher Tunnard
- St Ann's Court in Surrey (pictured) was once home to the stockbroker Gerald Schlesinger and celebrated landscape architect Christopher Tunnard. The property was masterfully designed so that the couple's bedroom could be split into two separate rooms - enabling them to keep their relationship a secret.
- The Burdett-Coutts Memorial, dedicated French transgender spy Chevalier d'Eon. He dressed as a man for the first 49 years, but successfully infiltrated Empress Elizabeth of Russia by dressing a woman. In his remaining 33 years, he identified as a woman.
- Tite Street in Chelsea has been home to a number of famous celebrities throughout the years. Among them was author Oscar Wilde, who lived at number 34 with his wife Constance Lloyd until his arrest in 1895 for sodomy and gross indecency.
- Now a popular tourist attraction, The Red House was the home of Benjamin Britten during the last 20 years of his life. Some of the works he produced there, while living with Peter Pears, include the Third String Quartet and Phadera.
- Shibden Hall was home to Anne Lister - the 'first modern lesbian.' She met her first love at boarding school and went on to have several same-sex relationships, notably with Marianna Lawton and wealthy heiress Ann Walker. She died aged just 49 in Georgia.
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