PLACARD-waving women brought traffic temporarily to a halt in Coney Street this morning.

'Deeds not words' was the slogan on one of the posters being waved.

But for once this was nothing to do with Brexit.

These women were celebrating the efforts of York's suffragettes 100 years ago in the campaign for women to get the vote.

After a rousing rendition of 'Everything is Possible' from the play of the same name put on by Pilot Theatre and York Theatre Royal in 2017, they then unveiled a new plaque at 36 Coney Street - the former headquarters of the Women's Social and Political Union.

It was from this office that York's suffragettes - among them WSPU organiser Violet Key Jones and Annie Seymour Pearson, who was sentenced to two weeks in Holloway Prison for taking part in a protest at the House of Commons - organised their campaign.

The York suffragettes wrote letters, spoke at political rallies, disrupted meetings, sold copies of The Suffragette newspaper, chalked messages on pavements - and even set fire to post boxes.

Ultimately, the suffragette campaign was successful: women over 30 were granted the vote for the first time in 1918, and in 1928 the vote was extended to all women aged over 21 - the same as men.

Among the women taking part in this morning's unveiling were Sheriff of York Verna Campbell, Juliet Forster, who co-directed the play Everything is Possible two years ago - and York playwright Bridget Foreman, who wrote it.

"I wonder what these amazing women would have thought if they had known, all those years ago, that one day there would be a plaque here telling everybody about what they had done?" the Sheriff said.

The plaque was put up by York Civic Trust working in partnership with Pilot Theatre and the Theatre Royal.

Civic Trust chief executive David Fraser said: "One hundred years ago the first women in England succeeded in their struggle to gain the vote. We are all proud that the women of York were active in the suffragette movement and now every Coney Street shopper will know that the York Branch of the Women’s Political and Social Union met regularly there."