A new history booklet is set to be launched in Bungay as part of a series of street plaques providing residents and visitors with information about the town's history, heritage and buildings.
The 16 plaques, which are dotted around the town centre, cover subjects such as the ancient Druid Stone, the Great Fire of 1688, the Staithe river trade and the Fisher Theatre, with lively line illustrations by local artist Alan Irvine and research and texts by museum curator Christopher Reeve.
The Walk Round Bungay history tour booklet has been published with a map to help visitors and residents follow the trail to find all sixteen plaques along the circular route. The plaques are made of weather-proof metal and coloured sepia to look like the paper broadsheets which were nailed to walls and hung in taverns in the Georgian and Victorian periods.
The 'Bungay Broadsheets' are the brainwave of Deirdre Shepherd, who has organised a number of innovative projects for the town including the successful Pumpkin Nights for Halloween. Deirdre and her family also created the gardens at the Staithe to commemorate recent war heroes.
She said: 'In the 18th century before newspapers they had broadsheets and it occurred to me that it would be fun to use that to create some history boards.
'They tell the stories of the unusual people of Bungay of which we have rather a lot.
'We realised that people like to have a little booklet they can carry around a put in their bags, so we decided to make a history tour. It's all done in simple language for adults and children to understand and it makes a nice souvenir.'
The booklet contains a complete mini-history of the town, and is illustrated with drawings by Alan Irvine and photos by the Bungay town recorder Andrew Atterwill, and David Brooke. It was funded by the Bungay Chamber of Trade, Bungay Museum and the Shepherd family's Feasts and Festivals Fund and will be launched at St Mary's Church in Bungay on Thursday from 10am to 4pm at £2.50.
•Have you got a Bungay story? Email amy.smith@archant.co.uk
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