It was very exciting to be wrong. I was fairly sure that Alice Ames was Sr Alice Faith; Alice Ames was definitely a member of the Third...

Charles Freestone’s wife confused me. In the 1881 Census, he is married to Eliza, and they have three children: William, Ellen and Maria....

The King’s palace was full of splendour and majesty: lined in the purest marble, with a throne of gold, he wore a crown was heavy with...

It is 1952: at Ditchingham the Community is led by Mother Flora, who was Reverend Mother for over thirty years; there are many Novices,...

US It stuck out like a sore thumb – that single word ‘Lavinia’. Not the name as such – those of you who know our history will realise...

Stubbornness has its good qualities – especially when trying to find information about the past. Phyllis Green is a case in point: in...

Zealous The new Jesus movement was controversial; going against the practices that the religious authorities considered essential for the...

Rejoice! Anyperson was imprisoned, kept chained by bars of iron that they carried around without even noticing. Bars created by shaming:...

Caroline Smith confuses me: she was obviously a member of our Third Order, but equally I knew no member was called Caroline. We have very...

Holy Saturday: a day for stillness and reflection, for Jesus has died, and has not yet risen; for the disciples, back then when it was...

It is the 24th October 1858. Captain William McCarthy Murray of the 2nd West India Regiment is –I’m not sure where, to be honest, but...

Rules are made to be broken; yet, we kept them. Because the government had asked us to? because we didn’t want to be disapproved of?...

Have you ever studied chimneys? Not the mechanics of how they work, or how they are cleaned, but how they look. Given that they spend the...

It always intrigues me when I come across a Sister who has left the Community, of whom there have been several since our foundation. When...

He was rich; he owned much land and money, had a luxurious house, and many servants. He wasn’t going to sell it all and follow Jesus....

Sam was a privileged young man. He had a good education, trained for his station in life, his parents being among the elite in his...

I find myself torn this week: do I talk about Lent, or do I talk about the war in Ukraine? Both are important, yet in both cases I...

I have found Thomas Lawson! You probably didn’t know he was missing … his name came up when I was investigating the past of one of our...

Anyperson enjoyed singing hymns, and recently a line from one of their favourites kept coming back: ‘take from our souls the strain and...

One discovers a myriad of interesting of interesting facts while researching Community history. For example, I knew that the Norwich...