Leeds nostalgia: Leeds Women's Circle around the world

ITS members visited Washington DC, Hong Kong and the Kremlin, strolled the boulevards of Paris and Majorca and rubbed shoulders with stars of the time such as Roy Orbison, Val Doonican and Danny La Rue.
By The Newsroom
Published 4th Apr 2016, 09:24 BST
Updated 4th Apr 2016, 09:26 BST
New York, September 1972 Women's Circle visit to the U. S. A. Giving her regards to Broadway - Mrs. Marian Tallant, of Cross Flatts Parade, Beeston, Leeds.New York, September 1972 Women's Circle visit to the U. S. A. Giving her regards to Broadway - Mrs. Marian Tallant, of Cross Flatts Parade, Beeston, Leeds.
New York, September 1972 Women's Circle visit to the U. S. A. Giving her regards to Broadway - Mrs. Marian Tallant, of Cross Flatts Parade, Beeston, Leeds.

There was no corner of the globe the YEP Women’s Circle was not familiar with. It was ‘girl power’ 30 years before its time. The organisation, the brainchild of former Yorkshire Post Newspapers promotions and publicity manager Allen Rowley, began in the late 1960s and was still going strong in the early 1990s.

It drew its members from the readership of the YEP, but within a few months of inception its ranks had swollen to include hundreds of women, all of whom briefly left their husbands and families to enjoy well-deserved breaks with their friends. We trawled our archives to bring you these two pictures, the first of which was taken in Swillington on April 20, 1976. It shows members of the EP Women’s Circle members and their children at Swillington House Farm, near Leeds. Driving the tractor is James Bulloack, whose father owned the farm. The second picture was taken in September 1972 in New York and shows members sauntering down Broadway, with Mrs Marian Tallant, of Cross Flatts Parade, Beeston, putting her best foot forward.

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The destinations included the Taj Mahal in India, the Kremlin in Moscow and Capitol Hill in Washington DC.

Swillington, 20th April 1976 Used YEP letters page EP Women's Circle members and their children had fun down on the farm when they visited Swillington House Farm, near Leeds. Driving the tractor is James Bulloack, whose father owns the farm.Swillington, 20th April 1976 Used YEP letters page EP Women's Circle members and their children had fun down on the farm when they visited Swillington House Farm, near Leeds. Driving the tractor is James Bulloack, whose father owns the farm.
Swillington, 20th April 1976 Used YEP letters page EP Women's Circle members and their children had fun down on the farm when they visited Swillington House Farm, near Leeds. Driving the tractor is James Bulloack, whose father owns the farm.

So popular was the Women’s Circle that by November 1972 it had signed up its 50,000th member, one Patricia Edwards, of Cookridge, Leeds, who won a week’s holiday in Marrakesh, Morocco, to go along with the honour.

Men were admitted in the 1980s to boost membership and it eventually changed to become Choices and then Reader Holidays.

Related topics:LeedsHong KongParis