The Amazing Mary Higgs: Student, pioneer, wife and mother, undercover tramp, social reformer

An extraordinary story of an ordinary women, Mary Higgs, born in 1854 told mainly through he eyes of Annie, the friend who joined her on many undercover investigations.A pioneer in women's higher education, being the first woman to take natural sciences at Cambridge, Mary championed the cause of equality for women in all aspects of life.A minster's wife and mother of four who was responsible for translating the New Testaments into plain English. An environmentalist who initiated a scheme to create a more beautiful environment, including slum clearance and the building of a garden suburb in her adopted town.An investigator who went undercover to get first-hand experience of the conditions available to women in the tramp wards of workhouses and common lodging houses.A reformer who instigated the setting up of hostels for homeless women and who advised councils and government on the improvement of conditions for the needy.This passionate and inspiring woman dedicated her life to improving the lives of unemployed and homeless men and women everywhere, but especially in Oldham. Age did not curb her quest to improve conditions and she was still working in her eighties, receiving an OBE for her services just before her death at 83 in 1937.It would seem remarkable in the twenty first century for any one women to achieve so much, but the fact that she was a product of the Victorian era with its moral and social constrictions, makes her life's work all the more remarkable.