'Force of nature': Suffragist remembered at Bodnant Garden

Laura McLaren inherited Bodnant Garden from her father in 1895

She designed one of the country's most famous gardens - but now the forgotten story of how Laura McLaren shaped women's rights is to be told.

Lady McLaren's legacy as a celebrated horticulturist has lived on at Bodnant Garden, Conwy county.

However her political impact as one of the leading suffragettes has only recently come to light.

Fittingly the garden she created will celebrate her role in women winning the right to vote 100 years ago.

A sculpture of a woman with doves on her arm has been created in Bodnant Garden

Described as a "force of nature", Lady McLaren helped her father Henry David Pochin develop Bodnant Garden when they purchased the estate in 1874 and was awarded the Victoria Medal of Honour by the Royal Horticultural Society.

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As well as designing the famous flower-filled terraces, she was so determined to create a lake that she diverted the stream that flows through the garden.

She showed the same fortitude in her support for women's suffrage though the full extent of her influence has only emerged following archive work at the garden.

Lady McLaren's mother Agnes was celebrated at Trafalgar Square in the centenary of women winning the right to vote

From a young age, she followed in the footsteps of her mother Agnes Heap, a pioneering suffragist, and mother-in-law Priscilla Bright-McLaren, also a leading early campaigner against slavery and women's rights.

Lady McLaren founded the Liberal Women's Suffrage Union and wrote countless letters and pamphlets, including the seminal Women's Charter of Rights and Liberties.

She also regularly delivered public speeches and attended rallies all over the country during her 50-year fight.

Lady McLaren was against the suffragette’s radicalism

Lady McLaren was described as a "women of the future" by the Daily Chronicle in 1910

Becky Hitchens, visitor experience manager at Bodnant Garden, said: "The extent of Laura's role in the suffrage movement has faded over time and has only recently come to light.

"Unsurprisingly, we have always focused on telling the history of our beautiful garden, but when working in the archives we uncovered boxes and boxes of pamphlets, letters and newspaper articles from Laura, and we just had to tell her story.

"A lot of her work was behind the scenes or 'spade work' as she called it. She was forward-thinking on a number of issues that are still relevant today: equal pay, slavery and child custody rights."

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As part of its Women and Power programming, the National Trust has opened a new trail at Bodnant Garden called 'Unbind the Wing'.

The open-air exhibition features an 18ft (5.5m) statue of a woman with three doves carved from willow by renowned sculptor Trevor Leat.

Lady McLaren was awarded the Victoria Medal of Honour by the Royal Horticultural Society

Michael McLaren, Lady McLaren's great grandson, admits the family were unaware of her contribution to the suffrage movement a century ago.

"Having recently given the National Trust full access to the family's archives, this step has rapidly paid off with the revelation of the importance of Laura's contribution to women's rights," he said.

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"I am delighted that we are now celebrating the political legacy of a great lady, who also made a large contribution to Bodnant Garden.

"Her example serves to remind us that there are as many unfashionable causes now worth fighting for as there were then."

Trevor Leat carved the sculpture from willow