Hudfam: The Huddersfield Origins of the Fair Trade and Sustainability Movement

Join us for a public talk by Professor Bertrand Taithe on the history of Hudfam and its remarkable founder Elisabeth Wilson.

This is the story of how Huddersfield came to have one of the first charity shops in the country selling second-hand clothes and fair-trade products. Originally called the Huddersfield Famine Relief Committee, Hudfam was founded in 1943 to campaign for relief during the Indian and Greek famines in the Second World War. In the 1960s it organised a sale of items made by Chinese refugees in Hong Kong. This was the start of Hudfam’s pioneering sale of fairly-traded handicrafts made in development projects around the world– an idea which became the bedrock of Oxfam’s global development and sustainability goals.

Elisabeth Wilson was a ground-breaking woman: entrepreneur, fundraiser, development campaigner, Quaker, Buddhist and peace activist. Her fascinating story will be told through her memoirs, photographs and fair-trade objects.

This is a free event, but donations are very welcome.

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BSL interpretation will be available at this event.