KNUTSFORD’S extraordinary and remarkable women are being highlighted as part of the Heritage Centre’s contribution to the nationwide Heritage Open Days festival of history and culture.

There will be a special history walking tour around Knutsford, led by the centre’s tour leader Caroline Sherwin, where visitors can hear the stories of some of the town’s remarkable women.

Among them are writers, an aristocrat, an educational pioneer, and another who offended Indian sensibilities in Calcutta, rich and poor – all have a story worth telling.

Extending the theme of extraordinary women, East Cheshire-based author and poet Margaret Holbrook will talk about some of the extraordinary women featured in her poetry collection Not Exactly Life, and will also read the associated poems.

Included are Elizabeth Gaskell, Elizabeth I, Lucretia Borgia, Emmeline Pankhurst, Edith Sitwell, St Margaret, and women we all perhaps will have known - mothers, aunts, school teachers.

Heritage centre manager Val Bryant said: “We are delighted to be able to feature the lives of some of Knutsford’s extraordinary women, some familiar and some less so.

“Caroline’s excellent research has produced a tour that will take our visitors on a memorable journey through the town, while Margaret’s thoughtful poetry will amuse us with poems and anecdotes about extraordinary women in a wider context, within Cheshire and beyond.”

The centre’s Heritage Open Days walking tours are on Friday, September 7 and Friday, September 14, starting at 2pm from the Heritage Centre shop.

The poetry readings by Margaret Holbrook are on Saturday, September 8 and Saturday, September 15.

There will be two talks each Saturday, starting at 2pm and 3pm in the Tapestry Gallery.

Event and programme details are in a leaflet available at the Heritage Centre on King Street and on the centre’s website, knutsfordheritage.co.uk