Remembering Horsham poet on International Women’s Day

As it’s International Women’s Day (March 8) we are celebrating one of Horsham’s most influential former residents – the author and poet Eliza Cook.

Eliza, born Christmas Eve 1818, was one of 11 children and when she was around nine years old her father retired from his business in London and moved to a farm at St Leonards Forest, on the outskirts of Horsham.

Although mostly self-educated, Eliza was encouraged by her mother to enjoy creative writing. She took up poetry and had some of her own work published in a magazine and newspaper while she still a teenager.

Indeed, her first collection of poems, Lays of a Wild Harp, was published when she was 17.

From 1849 to 1854 she wrote, edited and even published Eliza Cook’s Journal, a weekly periodical which contained several articles, generally serious, a story and some poetry.

Horsham Museum has the complete works currently on show in the Library.

Eliza had strong Chartist views, looking for better social and industrial conditions for the working classes and used her poetry to put her message across.

She was also keen on pushing for political and sexual freedom for women and, wearing her hair shorter than the fashion of the time and dressing ‘in a mannish appearance’, brought several comments (mostly from men).

Eliza and her close friend, the American actress Charlotte Cushman, often wore matching dresses that showed their friendship.

By the 1870s she was living in Wimbledon and, after several years of ill health, died in 1890.

However, her work lives on and she is one of a number of women with links to Horsham who have made their mark in history.