Coordinates: 53°42′N 1°22′W / 53.70°N 1.37°W / 53.70; -1.37

Featherstone
Station Lane
Featherstone  Featherstone shown within West Yorkshire
Population	14,175 (2001)
Civil parish	Featherstone
Metropolitan borough	Wakefield
Metropolitan county	West Yorkshire
Region	Yorkshire and the Humber
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	PONTEFRACT
Postcode district	WF7
Dialling code	01977
Police	West Yorkshire
Fire	West Yorkshire
Ambulance	Yorkshire
EU Parliament	Yorkshire and the Humber
UK Parliament	Hemsworth
List of places: UK • England • Yorkshire

Featherstone is a town and civil parish in the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. It lies less than two miles south-west of Pontefract and in 2001 had a population of 14,175,^[1] although after recent housing development the population is thought to be closer to 20-25,000.

Featherstone railway station is on the Pontefract Line.

History[link]

In 1848, the opening of the Wakefield, Pontefract and Goole railway line through Featherstone, provided the basis for large scale coal mining in Featherstone, by opening up new markets in the South of England and Europe. Coal had been mined at Featherstone since the 13th century and remains of bell pits can still be seen to the north of Park Lane at North Featherstone.

Like many surrounding areas, Featherstone grew around coal mining, and was the site of a miners' strike in 1893.^[2] During the strike the town came to national attention when soldiers fired on striking miners, killing two. A distinctive sculpture marking the centenary of the Featherstone Massacre stands in the shopping precinct and a large mural depicting the town's heritage can be seen at the town's main crossroads. Ackton Hall Colliery was the first pit to close following the end of the miners' strike and this could not be contested as geological difficulties had made it impossible for the pit to continue production.

Despite most population growth taking place around the Industrial Revolution, Featherstone traces its history back much further than this. It is thought that a local public house, the Traveller's Rest, can trace its origins to the 17th century whilst the Jubilee Hotel is a listed building which once provided a resting place for wealthy Victorians and their horses.

Featherstone is undergoing continual change and as part of this a new, state-of-the-art £2.5-million community centre has been built in Station Lane. The "Pit Houses", the houses constituting a council estate which formerly belonged to the National Coal Board, have been demolished to make room for further developments.

Opened in the 1950s, Purston Park takes up a large area of space and offers a lake and a children's play area. There was also previously a bowling green, until being changed to a rose garden in 2004. It has been made out of the grounds of what was originally a private residence and a country estate, with the stately home formerly acting as the town hall. This building was sold to developers in 2007 and has since been converted into luxury flats.

Toponymy[link]

Like many place-names in the area, 'Featherstone' derives from Old English. The name is formed of two elements: feother, meaning 'four', and stān, meaning 'stone'. Therefore the names means "(place at) the four stones". These 'four stones' are likely to have been some waymarker or monument by a road or other well-used route through the town. The settlement was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Fredestan.^[3]

Politics[link]

Featherstone is currently a Labour stronghold. It is part of the Hemsworth constituency, and is represented by Labour MP Jon Trickett in the House of Commons and by 3 Labour Councillors on Wakefield Council: Dick Taylor, Graham Isherwood and Kay Binnersley.^[4] Featherstone Town Council is also controlled by Labour.

Fighting decline[link]

Starting in the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, the area went into an era of sharp decline in the residents' quality of life. Historians and social scientists have put forward many factors. The gradual loss of the coal industry coupled with poor housing and education. This has begun to improve in recent years with new housing developments, better schools and plans to breathe life back into the local business community via various climate friendly projects.

Transport[link]

Featherstone railway station

Featherstone has a railway station on the Pontefract line. There are also bus services operated by Arriva Yorkshire. The M62 lies close by.

Education[link]

The town has two secondary schools: Featherstone Technology College* and St Wilfrid's Catholic High School and Language College. Formerly known as Featherstone High School, the college* was awarded specialist technology status after recognition of the departments high attainment. A complete internal re-build of the main building gave the school the best facilities in technology and science in the area. A new £3 million sports centre was built after the old one was destroyed in a fire. Featherstone Technology College has recently benefited from new vocational courses which include construction, motor vehicle maintenance, beauty and hairdressing along with state-of-the-art facilities in which to teach these new subjects. The new principal has been appointed, Mr W. Parkes.

Primary and infant schools include, St. Thomas' Junior School, Girnhill Infants' School, Purston Infants' School, North Featherstone Junior and Infants' School and All Saints Junior and Infants' School.

Religion[link]

Featherstone has a number of churches: St Thomas' Church (Anglican) – built from traditional Yorkshire sandstone, St Thomas' Church and the adjacent vicarage were built in the 1870s. Due to a lack of funding the church has no bell tower, and instead the bell hangs outside on the church’s south wall. The vicarage is now a private residence. All Saints' Church (Anglican), the Methodist church, and the South Featherstone Gospel Hall are also still active churches.

A former Methodist chapel on Wakefield Road has since been turned into an antiques salesroom and the North Featherstone Gospel Hall has been converted into a private dwelling. St Gerard's Roman Catholic Church was closed in the summer of 2008 – meaning Catholics would have to travel to Pontefract to attend services.^[5]

Sport (rugby league)[link]

Featherstone Rovers[link]

Post Office Road

The town's sport scene is dominated by local rugby league club, Featherstone Rovers, who have won the Challenge Cup on three occasions most recently on 7 May 1983 and won the League Championship in 1976-77. Originally made up of local miners, the club was formed in the Railway Hotel in 1902, then re-formed in 1906.^[6] They are currently in the Championship, after being promoted in 2007, beating Oldham in the Play-Offs final. In the 2010 season, Rovers finished first in the league table with a 100% away record and claimed the League Leader's Shield. They reached the Championship Grand Final by beating Halifax 46-16 in the Semi-Final, only to be defeated by Halifax in the final on a golden point (22–23).^[7] They went one better in 2012 beating Sheffield Eagles 44-4 in the Grand Final to become Champions.

The Featherstone Rovers stadium (traditionally known as Post Office Road) was renamed in January 2010 to "The Bigfellas Stadium", following the completion of a sponsorship deal with Pontefract night club Bigfellas.^[8]

Featherstone Lions[link]

The amateur side Featherstone Lions also hails from the town and currently play in the National Conference League.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Featherstone Online: Local information about services and events in and around Featherstone.

Michelle Featherstone is a British American singer-songwriter. Born in Chester, England, and raised in Cambridge, England, Featherstone now resides in Hollywood, California. She began studying piano and composing original music at the age of nine. She has received awards from the Royal Academy of Music for piano and violin and the Bishops Award for voice.

Career[link]

Beginning[link]

Featherstone didn't initially intend to pursue a career in music. As an Art History major and Anthropology minor at West Chester University of Pennsylvania in West Chester, Pennsylvania, she found herself managing the Walt Disney-Tishman Collection of African Art after graduation^[1] in a somewhat frustrating role:

After about 18 months at Disney's Imagineering arm, Featherstone decided that "corporate America" wasn't for her and made the decision to reconnect with her musical roots while working as a waitress in Southern California. Indeed, it was during one of her waitress jobs that she just happened to play a few songs on the piano while the scheduled performers were on a break, that the audience's reaction was so overwhelmingly positive that she realized that music was something that she needed to seriously pursue.

Success[link]

Her songs have garnered attention in both film and television over the past few years. "Stay" has been featured on ABC's Alias, FOX's Wonderfalls and the CW's One Tree Hill as well as in several independent film projects with Group 101. Another song, "Over You", was featured on Smallville for the WB network and the newly recorded "I'm There Too" played on the premiere episode of Aaron Spelling drama Summerland. Summerland also used "I Will Be Fine" later in the season and "All That I Want" featured in the premiere episode of NBC's Las Vegas. Her song "Careful" was used on the How I Met Your Mother episode "As Fast As She Can". A recent showcase of the Sundance Film Festival introduced Featherstone to several independent filmmakers, some of whom are using her music for upcoming projects. This past year, Featherstone has been working on various music projects in LA and the UK. "Project PI" by Al West features Featherstone singing her song "Please". The album will be released in Europe by the end of this year.

Featherstone is an active participant in the singer-songwriter community of Southern California, and has performed at clubs as diverse as the Whisky a Go Go, the Hotel Café, Ghengis Cohen, the Joint and the Temple Bar, to name a few.

She recently recorded a select few songs with producer Evan Biegel of Seasound Studios in North Hollywood and is collaborating on an electronica album, due out early next year. New acoustic recordings are an on-going project and a compilation of some of them will be released over the next few months. Her newest single "Rest of My Life" has been featured on ABC's Grey's Anatomy and a Michelle Featherstone favorite, One Tree Hill in its past season.

She recorded the video "I'm There Too" as part of the soundtrack to the movie Peaceful Warrior.

[edit] Use in other Media

How I Met Your Mother featured Featherstone's God Bless the Child in the 18th episode of season 1, Nothing Good Happens After 2 A.M. and her song Careful was in the 23rd episode of season 4, As Fast As She Can.

One Tree Hill (The CW) has used Michelle Featherstone's music in a number of their episodes.

• "Stay"

Season 1, Episode 21

• "Looking For Love"

Season 2, Episode 15

• "Back of the Church"

Season 2, Episode 17

• "Sunday"

Season 3, Episode 2

• "Go On My Child"

Season 3, Episode 14

• "God Bless the Child"

Season 3, Episode 16

• "Coffee & Cigarettes"

Season 3, Episode 21

• "We Are Man and Wife" (performed by Featherstone in the episode)

Season 3, Episode 22

• "Looking for Love"

Season 5, Episode 6

• "Running Down"

Season 6, Episode 5

Smallville used "Perfect" in the 7th season finale "Artic".

Canon used "We are Man and Wife" in a 2007 television commercial.

Alias used "Stay" in season two, episode four--'Dead Drop'.

The Hills Featured 'Stay' in Season 2 of the hit MTV Series.

External links[link]

• Official Site
• Michelle Featherstone on Myspace

Lynne Featherstone
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Equalities
Incumbent
Assumed office 13 May 2010
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Maria Eagle (Minister of State)
Spokesman for Youth and Equality Issues
In office 2 July 2007 – 13 May 2010
Leader	Nick Clegg
Preceded by	Susan Kramer
Member of Parliament for Hornsey and Wood Green
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 May 2005
Preceded by	Barbara Roche
Majority	7,875 (12.5%)
Member of the London Assembly for the Liberal Democrats (London-wide)
In office 4 May 2000 – 6 June 2005
Preceded by	New constituency
Succeeded by	Geoff Pope
Personal details
Born	(1951-12-20) 20 December 1951 (age 60) Highgate, Middlesex, England
Nationality	British
Political party	Liberal Democrats
Spouse(s)	Stephen Featherstone 1982-96 (divorced)
Children	2 daughters
Residence	Highgate
Alma mater	Oxford Polytechnic
Profession	Politician
Religion	Judaism[1]

Lynne Choona Featherstone (born Lynne Choona Ryness, 20 December 1951^[2]), is a British Liberal Democrat politician, and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hornsey and Wood Green.

Under the Conservative – Liberal Democrat coalition in 2010 she was appointed as a junior Home Office minister with responsibility for equality.^[3] Previously she was Liberal Democrat spokesman for Youth and Equality issues, and chair of the Liberal Democrats technology board.^[4] Mrs Featherstone launched the consultation by the UK government on introducing same-sex marriage and was the first politician to take part in the Out4Marriage campaign.^[5]

Early life[link]

Featherstone was born and brought up in North London to a British Jewish family,^[6] and educated at the Highgate Primary School, the independent South Hampstead High School (then a direct grant grammar school) and gained a Diploma in Communication and Design at Oxford Polytechnic.^[7][8] Her family's wealth is generated from a family business started by her parents - the Ryness chain of hardware and electrical shops in London.

Councillor of London Borough of Haringey 1998-2006[link]

She was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Haringey in 1998 for Muswell Hill ward. She and her two colleagues (June Andersen and Julia Glenn) were the first three Liberal Democrat councillors to be elected in the borough. She was leader of Liberal Democrat Group (and thereby Leader of the Opposition) on the council 1998-2002.

She stood down from Haringey Council at the May 2006 elections. She played a substantial role in the May 2006 election campaign in Haringey where Labour's majority was cut from 25 to 3, with 30 Labour councillors elected to 27 Liberal Democrats.

Member of the London Assembly 2000-2005[link]

From 2000 until 2005, when she stood down, Featherstone was a member of the London Assembly. She was replaced as a member of the London Assembly by Geoff Pope. In 2005, a speech she made pointing out that local councillors receive an allowance which they could use to free up time to do council work by hiring domestic cleaners and babysitters was used against her by opponents.^[9] A transcript of this speech was reported in the Evening Standard newspaper.^[10]

Featherstone was promoted by some as a potential Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London in the 2008 election. In response to a poll on the Liberal Democrat Voice website,^[11] she ruled herself out, stating that, of the other people in the poll, she would back Brian Paddick.^[12]

Member of Parliament[link]

Lynne Featherstone first contested the Hornsey and Wood Green seat at the 1997 general election where she finished in third place some 25,998 votes behind the winner Barbara Roche. She again fought Hornsey and Wood Green at the 2001 general election, moving into second place and reducing Roche's majority to 10,614. In one of the largest swings at the 2005 general election, Featherstone defeated Roche with a majority of 2,395 votes.

She made her maiden speech in Parliament on 24 May 2005.^[13] She was appointed as a junior home affairs spokesperson by Charles Kennedy in 2005, and to the environment audit select committee. She was co-chair of Chris Huhne's unsuccessful campaign to be leader of the Liberal Democrats following the resignation of Kennedy in January 2006. In March, following the election of Menzies Campbell as party leader, she was promoted to number two in the Liberal Democrat home affairs team and made London spokesperson. In December 2006, she succeeded Susan Kramer as the Liberal Democrat Shadow International Development Secretary, and two months later was succeeded by Tom Brake as London spokesperson.

In 2007, following the resignation of Menzies Campbell, she again chaired Chris Huhne's leadership election campaign. On 20 December 2007 the new Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who defeated Chris Huhne, made her Youth and Equalities spokesperson.

Aftermath of death of Peter Connelly[link]

Following Peter Connelly's death, Haringey Council initiated an internal audit Serious Case Review (SCR).^[14] Although the actual report was completed months earlier, the Executive Summary of the report was released immediately after the resulting court case had completed. The full details of the report have been kept confidential. Featherstone had been particularly critical of Haringey Council, writing "I personally met with George Meehan and Ita O'Donovan — Haringey Council's leader and chief executive — to raise with them three different cases, where the pattern was in each case Haringey seeming to want to blame anyone who complained rather than to look at the complaint seriously. I was promised action — but despite repeated subsequent requests for news on progress — I was just stonewalled."^[15]

In November 2008, at Prime Minister's Questions, Featherstone asked the Prime Minister to order an inquiry into the Connelly case.^[16] She was leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition on Haringey Council at the time of the murder of Victoria Climbié.

Media attention[link]

In April 2006 one of Featherstone's researchers received a hoax email warning about an apparent date rape drug called Progesterex.^[17] Featherstone submitted a question to a government minister inquiring "what assessment he has made of the use of progesterex in cases of date rape". Paul Goggins replied in the House of Commons that Progesterex did not exist: "It has been the subject of a hoax e-mail".^[18][19] The hoax first originated in 1999.^[20] Featherstone criticised the minister's response, stating "they need to do more to discover the unearthly monster who sends them out" and that "their cavalier attitude will not do".,^[21][22] However, critics such as fellow Liberal Democrat James Graham castigated Featherstone's conduct in "criticising the Home Office for not having a response to made up drugs and made up crimes", stating "trivialising rape in this way without bothering to do basic research first doesn’t help anybody".^[23]

In April 2007, Featherstone was forced to return large quantities of stationery after her office ordered £22,000 worth in the previous month in an attempt to beat new rules on stationery allowances. Featherstone blamed a staff member for the incident, stating she "knew nothing". In a leaked email, Parliamentary official Cliff Harris reportedly stated "it's quite alarming when you see that Lynne Featherstone spent over £22,000 in one month, the equivalent to three years of the new capped rate".^[24] Featherstone subsequently said she would be putting in place better office procedures.^[25]

She came to the attention of the national media in 2008 when she was criticized by Conservative Member of the London Assembly Brian Coleman for calling 999 (the UK's emergency number) when her boiler began making noises and sparking. Coleman referred to her as a "dizzy airhead", Featherstone responded by calling his comments "sexist" and "political" in nature.^[26][27] A London Fire Brigade spokeswoman told the BBC: "If it's obvious that there has been an ongoing problem with the boiler, then you can call a plumber. But if your boiler suddenly starts making strange noises in the middle of the night, call the fire brigade."

In May 2009, she was listed by The Daily Telegraph as one of the "Saints" in the expenses scandal.^[28]

She has indicated she would attempt to ban topless models from appearing on The Sun newspaper's Page Three, stating "I would love to take on Page 3".^[29][30][31]

In government[link]

Under the Conservative – Liberal Democrat coalition in 2010 she was appointed as a junior minister at the Home Office as Parliamentary Under secretary for equalities.^[3] She announced her appointment herself ahead of the formal announcement and expected some compromise with the Tories on her previous aims; her senior minister Theresa May is noted as not voting favouring homosexual equality.^[32]

In December 2010 Featherstone introduced a move that would allow positive discrimination which is primarily aimed at addressing female under-representation in the workforce. It will also mean that a manager will be able lawfully to hire a black man over a white man, a homosexual man over a heterosexual man, if they have the same skill set. Featherstone, denied the plans were about “political correctness, or red tape, or quotas” and would help make the workplace fairer.^[33]

In September 2011 Featherstone caused controversy by claiming men make "terrible decisions" when they are in charge. Speaking at the Liberal Democrat conference Featherstone blamed men for the mess the world was in, and commentators drew parallels with similar comments by one of Featherstone's predecessors, Harriet Harman. Her comments attracted criticism from across the political spectrum and were considered particularly inappropriate given her role as a minister in charge of ending sexism. Conservative MP Priti Patel said: "These comments are really ill-thought out. As equalities minister she has got to be unbiased about the value that both men and women bring to decision-making."^[34][35] Elizabeth Day of The Observer newspaper was equally troubled by the remarks, writing "the notion that women are not as aggressive as men, that we would all just sit around a table eating red velvet cupcakes and talking out the world's problems rather than firing off phallic-shaped nuclear weapons is a complete fallacy".^[36]

Polls and awards[link]

In 2006, she was shortlisted in the "Rising Stars" category of the Channel 4 political awards, but did not win. She has also been nominated for the prestigious Dods "Woman Of The Year" award.

At the Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton in 2006, she was named by The Sun as one of four "Lib Dem lovelies",^[37] and in a February 2010 Sky News poll she was named the most fanciable MP in the UK.^[38]

Personal life[link]

She married Stephen Featherstone in Haringey in 1982, but divorced in 1996. They have two children.^[39] She is a millionaire and lives in Highgate, London.^[40][41]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lynne Featherstone

• Lynne Featherstone MP official constituency website
• Profile at the Liberal Democrats
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Current session contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Electoral history and profile at The Guardian
• Voting record at PublicWhip.org
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.com
• Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
• Profile at BBC News Democracy Live
• Articles authored at Journalisted
• Profile at Yoosk.com
• Lynne Featherstone MP at Open Rights Group

Video clips

• Featherstone's video diaries from the 2007 Liberal Democrats conference: Sun · Mon · Tues · Wed · Thurs

News articles

• Meet the MP: Lynne Featherstone, BBC News, 27 June 2005
• Liberal gets tough on pub hours, Justin Parkinson, BBC News, September 2005
• 'Dead cool', the knife culture in Britain, Lynne Featherstone, Liberal Review, June 2006
• Balancing life as a female MP, Jo Coburn, BBC News, 1 March 2007