WILMINGTON WOMEN'S INSTITUTE

At our August meeting in the Memorial Hall, we were delighted to welcome Peter Clark to talk to us about the History of Shopping. He was a most entertaining raconteur and won us all over at the outset by joining us in a lusty rendition of Jerusalem', apparently a favourite of his.

His talk, interspersed with amusing anecdotes, took us from the first shops in the City of London right up to the advent of the large West End stores that we know today.

On the way we learned all kinds of fascinating snippets. For instance, before the majority of the population could read, it was pointless to put a name above a shop so ever larger hanging signs were used which were not always kept in good repair. Then in 1774 an enormous sign depicting a pig, advertising leather goods, became dislodged in a particularly high wind and fell killing four passers by and injuring others. Not something we would expect to encounter in Bluewater!

Another interesting story concerned hatters who were commissioned to design a hat for a gamekeeper who had been badly beaten about the head by poachers. His master, wishing to protect him consulted Lockes who came up with a hat, which we would all recognise today, and named it after the gamekeeper - Bowler. Altogether an excellent evening. Our next meet-ing is on September 11 when Paul Busbridge will advise us how to prepare the garden for Winter.