‘Herstory’ walk: a 90-minute tour telling Norwich’s amazing female stories |
If you look down at the ground in St Gregory’s Green in Norwich city centre, you’ll see a series of names engraved on the pavement. Ranging from Will Kemp to Laurel and Hardy, it’s a commemoration of some of the people who have been associated with and made contributions to the city over the centuries.
One day, when leading a group walking tour, it struck Siv Sears, of Norwich Story Walks, that the list comprised mostly men.
The only women to get a mention were Jenny Lind, the ‘Swedish Nightingale’ whose concerts in the city raised money to found a children’s hospital, Sarah Glover, who invented the Norwich Sol-Fa system of music notation (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So La, and Ti) and prison reformer Elizabeth Fry.
It inspired him to create a ‘Herstory’ walk, a 90-minute tour of the city telling Norwich’s amazing female stories.
He launched it on March 8 ‒ International Women’s Day ‒ last year and it ran on the same date this month, plus on Mother’s Day on March 15, when mums go free.
It’s a fascinating tour, which starts at Norwich City Hall. With its fantastic view of Norwich Castle its fitting that there he tells the story of Emma de Gauder, who, aged just 16, defended it during the revolt of 1075.
The tour also includes Opie Street, where a statue of writer and abolitionist Amelia Opie looks down from the rooftops and Norwich Cathedral, where he tells the stories of nurse Edith Cavell and mystic Julian of Norwich.
He really enjoyed researching the walk.
‘I’d lived in Norwich for 10 years, and had put down roots in the city, and like so many people who live here I’d heard these names and I’d half heard the stories, but I really wanted to fill in the gaps,’ he says.
‘So I’d heard of Elizabeth Fry and I think I had the notion that she was on the £5 note and maybe that she was a prison reformer, but I didn’t know too much about her.
‘Then from the Norfolk and Norwich Festival I’d heard of the Martineau Lecture and I’d seen Martineau Lane was a place in Norwich, but I didn’t really know who Harriet Martineau was or what she had done.
‘And then we’ve got Opie Street and again, at some point I became aware of the statue of Amelia Opie on the roof, but didn’t know who she was. It was the same with Edith Cavell and Julian of Norwich ‒ all these names that I’d heard, but I didn’t know the full story.’
He starts the tour by reading out the list of........