Mary Higgs

Mary Ann Higgs OBE, born Mary Ann Kingsland (1854–1937) was a British writer and social reformer who was associated with Oldham and homeless women. She is creditted with inspiring Oldham's Garden Suburb and the Twentieth Century New Testament.

Life
Higgs was born in Wiltshire in the town of Devizes. She was the first child born to Caroline (born Paddon) and William Kingsland. Her father was a minister in the Congregational church, and in 1862, his work took the family north to Bradford. Higgs had two younger siblings. Her father was the minister at the College Congregational Chapel, and it was soon expanded and refurbished. Higgs's education was completed when she was chosen to be one of the pupils at the College for Women in Hitchin in 1871. In two years, the college moved to Cambridge to become Girton College. She was a founding student of Girton and the first woman to sit the university's natural science tripos. She was not awarded her Cambridge degree (because she was a woman), but she was employed as an assistant lecturer at Girton.

Higgs was the founder of the Beautiful Oldham Society, and she is creditted with inspiring the creation of Oldham's Garden Suburb, which was to be an area not of terraced houses but of homes with affordable rents set in green and winding streets.

She was one of the two people who inspired the work that resulted in the modern translation of the Twentieth Century New Testament.

Higgs's campaigning came to notice when she decided to investigate the lives of women who were homeless. She dressed herself as a homeless person and went to find out what options were available. The resulting book "Where Shall She Live?" which was co-written with Edward Heyward, was published in 1910. She had co-founded the "National Association of Women's Lodging Houses" and her book and pamphlets highlighted the limited housing options open to women.

Private life
She married a Congregational church minister, the Reverend Thomas Kilpin Higgs and his work took them to Staffordshire and then to Manchester. In time, they had four children. They moved to Oldham after her husband resigned in Manchester. He died in 1876 after leading Oldham's Greenacres Congregational Church for sixteen years.

Death and legacy
She died in 1937, the same year that she was given an OBE. In 2009, the community celebrated 100 years of the Garden Suburb. In 2011, the pupil support centre in Oldham was renamed Kirksland School to honour her contribution to the town.