Her Salisbury Story has been an amazing journey for Salisbury Soroptimists and on Thursday 13th April we witnessed another milestone, the unveiling of a Blue Plaque celebrating Frances Hale on New Street. This is only the 5th plaque to celebrate a women in Salisbury out of over 25. Our president, Jenny Hair, who also managed the project, spoke to the gathered crowd before the Mayor Tom Corbin and Jane Howells jointly pulled the scarf to reveal the plaque. This was a joint ceremony with Salisbury Civic Society who sourced the plaque and arranged for installation.
The invited guests walked to Salisbury Museum to see the Her Salisbury Story exhibition, which sadly had now closed due to renovations to the museum. If you missed it, see how it looked below. You can see the inspiration board on which visitors left their messages about women who have inspired them – many are their mothers!!
The concluding event was tea in the lecture space at Arundell’s. Guests were able to mingle before listening to two talks. Jane Howells talked about women in the history of Salisbury. She described how the idea of a woman as homemaker was not true for many who worked alongside their husbands in many trades. Hence many took on those businesses if widowed.
This was followed by a talk by Brian Evans on Frances Hale, who he had researched for HSS. He described how she was an astute businesswoman using the press to advertise her business both through paid advertisements and reports about the summer outings she arranged for her workforce. Find out more here.
