Wardman was the daughter of Michael and Mary Stead, whose family farmed at Kearby in Yorkshire for many generations.

[2] She married Charles Wardman, a local farmer, in 1893, and later ran a drapery business in Wetherby.

Her collection also encompassed ephemera such as matchboxes and Victorian valentines; armaments; and prehistoric human remains.

Wardman organised her collection into a private museum, displayed in two rooms above her drapery shop at Belper House, 21 Market Street, Wetherby,[5] now marked with a blue plaque.

[10] Some years later her son, M. Allan Wardman, generously donated the collection to Leeds Museums, where it made an important addition to the social history collections at Abbey House Museum under the curatorial direction of Violet Crowther.