WOMEN were transported back in time on Saturday after a group of suffragettes took to the streets of a County Durham market town to encourage them to vote.

The group, led by businesswoman Emma Rowell, 'protested' with a flash mob outside the Co-op in Barnard Castle and at one point chained themselves to the railings of The Witham in the hope of making their voices heard.

Mrs Rowell, who is also a member of The Labour Party, said the group decided to raise awareness of the lack of women who were registered to vote after carrying out some research which revealed more than 500 households in the town were not registered.

She said: "A lot of people don't register to vote because they don't think it has anything to do with them and say they are very disengaged with voting.

"So we just thought with it being the centenary of the Suffragettes, that rather than focus on something party political, that we would focus on women."

Mrs Rowell said the event was "great fun" and more than 300 people stopped to learn more.