Twenty Stories. One Norwich. The City of Stories.
Marking twenty years of championing the city, VisitNorwich presents an ambitious year-long cultural celebration: Twenty Stories. One City. The City of Stories. Written by local guest authors our stories range from medieval rebels and mystics to pioneering reformers, artists, entrepreneurs and unsung heroes, these are the people who shaped Norwich – and whose legacy can still be discovered across the city today.
Edith Cavell (1865 – 1915)
Edith Cavell’s WWI story captured the hearts of people from around the world being recognised as a true heroine for her work. A hugely talented French speaker and nurse, Edith showed immense bravery when she helped allied soldiers she had nursed back to health escape through a secret tunnel via neutral Holland. In 1915 she was discovered by the German authorities and tricked into a confession which resulted in a 2-day trial without the aid of an interpreter and where the Americans who were yet to enter the war couldn’t negotiate a successful outcome. At 6am on the 12th October she was executed by firing squad. She was 49 years old.
Step Into The Story- a city you don’t just read about, you experience
Visit Edith’s grave at Norwich Cathedral where each May there is a service to mark her re-burial and each October a service to mark her death. In 2015 as part of the 100th anniversary commemorations her headstone was replaced featuring the emblem her nursing school in Brussels, inspired by the standard design of the Imperial War Graves Commission.
Join a Her Story Walk with Norwich Story Walks (£10, private tours available) to hear about Edith and many other remarkable women with links to Norwich.
Take the seven-mile Edith Cavell Pilgrimage route on foot from her home village of Swardeston to Norwich Cathedral. There is also a circular cycling route of about 14 miles.
Did you know, after the war, Edith’s her body was returned to Britain in May 1919 where she had a funeral in Westminster Abbey before she was brought home to Norfolk and laid to rest next to Norwich Cathedral’s St Saviour’s Chapel?
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