Heritage Open Day Event: Worthy Women
Worthy Women
Saturday 19 September
10am to 3pm
Location: Bungay Town Hall, 1A Broad Street, Bungay, Suffolk, NR35 1EE
The exhibition includes access to the Council Chambers.
Contact on day: John Adams, 07900240169
Pre-booking not required
Throughout Bungay’s history, women have played a vital role in shaping the town and its surrounding communities while making an enduring contribution to the welfare and lives of its people.
The exhibition celebrates just five of the women from the last millennium who made a particularly interesting contribution:
Gundred de Beaumont (Gundred, Countess of Norfolk) was an Anglo-Norman noblewoman and the founder of Bungay Priory.
Lavinia Crosse (Mother Lavinia) was an English Anglican nun and foundress. She founded the Anglican Community of All Hallows near Ditchingham.
Lilias Rider Haggard MBE was awarded the MBE in 1920 for her work as a Voluntary Aid Detachment auxiliary nurse during the First World War. She wrote a number of books inhcluding ‘Norfolk Life’ based on the columns she wrote for the Eastern Daily Press.
Elizabeth Bonhote was born in Bungay in April 1744. She founded almshouses for elderly women and the widows of poor traders in Bungay. Elizabeth penned the Gothic romance novel ‘Bungay Castle’ after her husband had bought the ruins of Bungay Castle.
Nurse Marjorie Britain arrived in Bungay around 1920 to work as a nurse and midwife. She supervised the birth of hundreds of babies. She started ‘Bungay Baby’ week as part of a national campaign to improve knowledge of the feeding and rearing of infants. She also served on a national committee for infant welfare.
- Wheelchair accessible on the ground floor but not on upper floors