Following her own studies as a mature student, Edna Woodhead taught miners on day-release courses at the University of Sheffield and supported women to return to education.
Obituary: Edna Woodhead
My mother, Edna Woodhead, who has died aged 91 of cancer, was an adult education teacher, and a lifelong socialist and activist: as a school governor successfully campaigning to end corporal punishment in Doncaster schools; holding hands with women around the perimeter of Greenham Common; working tirelessly for Doncaster Labour party; supporting a range of humanitarian organisations and, during the miners’ strike, standing in solidarity with Women Against Pit Closures.
An only child, she was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, to Albert Partington, an accountant, and Lilly (nee Yellowley), a housewife. In 1940, to avoid the German bombing of the city, the family relocated to Workington on the edge of the Lake District. At the age of nine Edna was sent to a convent school in Berwick-upon-Tweed, where she lived in fear of the nuns; she had a traumatic memory of her golden plaits being cut off, to prevent the sin of vanity.
Following the death of her mother, she was moved aged 11 to a state boarding school in Keswick where, despite her loss, Edna had happy school years, and this period marked the beginning of her long love affair with the Lake District.
After leaving school at 15, she found it stifling working as a shorthand typist in the small town of Workington, and took a train to London in search of a different life. She quickly found a position at the BBC where, among other roles, she worked as a PA for the arts broadcaster Humphrey Burton. During this time, Edna’s talent as a writer started to emerge, and she was published twice in the Guardian’s Country diary.
In 1959, back in Cumberland she met John Woodhead, a teacher. They married a year later, living briefly in Lowestoft, Suffolk, where I was born, and then in Doncaster, where they had their second child, James.
Whilst bringing up her children, Edna undertook adult access courses and eventually studied for a BA in politics and philosophy as a mature student at the University of Bradford, gaining a first-class honours degree in 1980. Her qualification led her to help others to access higher education, as she had. From 1984 to 1989 she taught at the University of Sheffield on the Yorkshire National Union of Mineworkers’ day-release course for miners, and later worked as an adult education adviser in Doncaster, supporting women to return to learning.
She enjoyed an active retirement in Sheffield with John: politically engaged, informed on current affairs (she read the Guardian for 69 years), walking the Peak District moors with close friends, enjoying films at the Showroom cinema and spending time with her four grandchildren. John died in 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Ever resilient, Edna continued to live independently, socialise and walk the hills.
She is survived by James and me, and her four grandchildren, Molly, Billy, Roshan and Jay.
