Today for #TakeBackPride we’re celebrating the Ladies of Llangollen. Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby were an Irish lesbian couple who ran away to Wales together in 1780 to escape the wrath of their disapproving families.
They set up home in the idyllic Plas Newydd and became famous among the artistic and aristocratic classes of early 19th century Britain. They received visits from Wordsworth, Shelley, Lord Byron, and their fellow lesbian Anne Lister, among many others.
Despite them living happily together for 50 years, historians have disputed whether they were really in a romantic relationship. Lesbian erasure is a major theme in historical accounts of lesbians and it is still an ongoing battle to be visible as a lesbian today.
