ACTRESS Maxine Peake will attend the unveiling of a statue of Oldham suffragette Annie Kenney next month, exactly 100 years since women voted for the first time.

Former Westhoughton High School pupil Maxine will be joined by Springhead-born Amy Gavin who played Annie - who also hailed from the village - in the BBC's How Women Won the Vote with Lucy Worsley, artist Stan Chow, who designed limited edition prints of the former millworker to help raise cash to fund the statue, and members of Annie's extended family.

The unveiling, at 2.15pm on December 14, will be the culmination of two years hard work and fundraising, overseen by Oldham West and Royton MP, Jim McMahon, who, as chairman of the Annie Kenney Memorial Fund has campaigned alongside supporters to realise the fitting tribute to Annie who was at the forefront of the suffragette movement.

The honour will be given to children from St Thomas’ School, in Lees, due to the work they have done telling Annie’s story throughout the year.

The statue commemorates Annie’s role in extending the rights of women in Britain and will be unveiled on the same day as a statue of Emmeline Pankhurst is revealed for the first time in St Peter's Square, Manchester.

The event is being organised by the director of Oldham Theatre Workshop in conjunction with Oldham’s Town Centre Management team.

A march has been organised to Parliament Square which will be headed by a brass band and will be represented by many organisations from Oldham including trade unions, local businesses, schools, community organisations, and local residents.

Maxine has frequently spoken out on behalf of women's rights.

In March she curated six new monologues at the Old Vic in London written by writers in response to the anniversary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act.