Selina & Lawrence Kay-Shuttleworth | A Love Story In Letters With Isobel Staton

Welcome to another episode of Past Loves - the history podcast that explores affection, infatuation and attachment across time.

This week I am joined by University of York doctoral student Isobel Staton to discuss the love story between Selina and Lawrence Kay-Shuttleworth.

Love letters provide us with the perfect way into the relationships of couples in the past. But it takes endless hours of archival research to piece together these stories. In this episode, we're given incredible access to the recent research Isobel has undertaken in the archive of Gawthorpe Hall into Selina Bridgeman and, therefore, her husband Lawrence Kay-Shuttleworth, Gawthorpe's heir. Selina and Lawrence reflect each other's personalities in many ways - both passionate, eloquent and driven. They expected to be able to build a life together.

Selina's archive of letters offers us a proximity to her love story with Lawrence - a love story that in many ways echoes the experience of many women at the beginning of the First World War as she experiences love and loss in the intensity of wartime. Selina's story in particular shows that, in the end, the desire to love and be loved is perennial.


Where To Find Us

Find out about Gawthorpe Hall: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/gawthorpe-hall

Discover more about Gawthorpe Hall's exhibition 'Gawthorpe's Remarkable Women': https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/events/55385889-6c7d-43f0-9e5b-ef45f78b59a2/pages/details

Follow Past Loves on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pastlovespodcast/

If Past Loves has become your current love, you can email me at pastlovespodcast@gmail.com