No. 14, Ivy Lane, once housed a forge for the shoeing of cattle, driven along the drovers track that passed through the village from Wales to London, but from 1912 until 1914 it became the country hideaway for those stalwarts of the Suffragette movement Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, and her daughter, Sylvia. Following Mrs. Pankhurst’s disappearance from London her whereabouts had seemed a national mystery, but quite simply she had retreated to the cosy confines of a brick built cottage in Stewkley! In 1803 another lady of principle had been Sally Sear, who, regarding the local opposition to the ‘Enclosure’ of the common acres, had, by hiding the document under her skirts, thwarted a defiant vigil of the church and, by having bypassed the protestors, thereby enabled the official notice to be posted on the church door, as required by law. Yet even so the Enclosure Act would not be passed until May 14th, 1811. As for liberated ladies of a more dubious passion, in 1711 William Chantrell was charged with keeping ill government at the Bell, and permitting whores to harbour there.