Her Salisbury Story

The aim is to ‘write in’ women’s experiences of Salisbury, ensuring women’s contributions are seen and valued as intrinsic to the city and its development. The project was started in 2020 by the Soroptimist International of Salisbury – an organisation that aims to transform the lives of women through education, empowerment and enabling opportunities.

The criteria for inclusion in the project is that each of the women will have been born or lived in Salisbury and its environs and/or have made a significant contribution to Salisbury or the wider community. These contributions include social, political, cultural, and economic.

The exhibition explores a selection of the women’s stories, some of which can be found on the Her Salisbury Story website. These include the fascinating stories of Anne Bodenham, tried and executed for being a witch in 1653; journalist Dorothy Lawrence, the only women to go to the Western Front in the First World War, disguised as a man; Elihonor Sadler, a ‘trulie virtuous and religious’ philanthropist who’s devout and charitable life is marked by a memorial in Salisbury Cathedral; Lady Jo Benson, voted in The Salisbury Journal as the woman who has contributed most to life in the city; society hostess and Mayor of Wilton, Edith Olivier; fashion designer Georgina von Etzdorf; stonemason Robyn Golden-Hann; Tracy Daszkiewicz, whose courage and professionalism prevented the tragic Novichok incidents of 2018 from becoming a much greater disaster; an inn-keeper, cutler, painters, nurses, business women and more.

See Her Salisbury Story website for more details here