WILMINGTON WOMEN'S INSTITUTE

This month we celebrated our birthday with a buffet supper and wine and were entertained royally by Anne Carter who spoke with wit and enthusiasm about the Great Exhibition of 1851 at the Crystal Palace. So many interesting facts emerged about this event, which was the brainchild of Prince Albert, that it would be difficult to enumerate them. however, this small sample may make you eager to investigate the Victorians and their innovations and inven-tions, for yourselves.

The first surprise was that from drawing board to completion took only ten months - our Millennium Dome took far longer! Also it made a huge profit of £186,000 which would equate to many millions of pounds by today's standards.

It was at the exhibition that public loos' were first provided and ladies had to pay a penny to use them hence the expression we use now - men, of course, went free!

Why not come and join us at our next meeting in the Memorial Hall at 7.30pm on August 14 when the talk by Paul Clark is entitled "History of Shopping".

July 17, 2002 16:30