I look forward to visiting the Alternative Letchworth exhibition (Letchworth celebrates its smocks-and-sandals past, 5 December) but feel saddened that the curators feel that the early inhabitants of my home town were “cranks”. At the beginning of the last century they included pioneers of universal suffrage, gender equality, LGBT rights, pacifism, environmentalism and socialism. They were progressive people; people who thought it was possible to build a better society and were brave enough to try to live a life true to their ideas. We should judge them by the quality of those ideas and not by their footwear of choice.
Chris Seviour (Letchworth Garden City Labour party and Jeremy Corbyn supporter – so a modern-day “crank”)
Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters
