Frances M Worsley
Frances M Worsley was born in the Lancashire town of Bury during WW2. She attended a small, rural primary school and then went on to Bury Grammar School for Girls. After school, she spent 6 months working in France before going up to London University to read philosophy. She left after just a year. Later, whilst raising a family, Frances trained as a teacher and then re-trained as a social worker. Twenty years after dropping out of university Frances returned part time to complete a BA Hons in History and Philosophy. Thirty years in social work, ending as a supervisor for students on practice placement, had entailed driving round all areas of Manchester and some of the older, poorer areas in particular. There, Frances had noticed some neglected and abandoned municipal buildings, soon to be demolished. These turned out to be the old Corporation baths and washhouses. A developing interest in social history eventually led to a Masters Degree in the History of the Manchester Region. During the course Frances noted how much history is written by and about men. The ordinary lives of ordinary women rarely seemed to get a mention. These were the women who used the washhouses, and who became the focus of the MA dissertation in 2000.
