Every year the History Society organises a summer trip. In August 2024, an English Civil War themed coach trip to Ely was arranged, for 26 people to have a guided tour of the Cathedral and to visit Oliver Cromwell’s house. In Walkern, we have a major Civil War story in the village which is usually only told in reference to the men, especially the battles between Walkern’s Puritan landowner Thomas Humberstone and the village’s royalist rector Revd John Gorsuch (whose living was eventually sequestered by Act of Parliment). As part of the Women of Walkern project we wanted to explore the stories of their wives, Elizabeth Humberstone and Anne Gorsuch, who with four other families had to flee abroad because of persecution. This trip to Ely helped put the story of these women in context.
