On a balmy July evening 15 members met at the Bargate for a tour which took them back in time.. a time when Southampton was the town inhabited by some notorious and well known women. Dr Sandra Lochhead and.....recounted stories and pointed out landmarks whilst walking the very streets these women once worked and lived in. Did you know :

• In 1675 the site of Poundland at the corner of Bargate lived Elizabeth Fawkes who was the first known women cow-herder.

• That the Castle Hall-Vaults and Garderobe were built around the time of Eleanor of Aquitaine 1122 - 1204, Mary Tudor 1553 and Eleanor of Povence 1223 - 1272

• The Stella Memorial was erected at the Western Esplanade in 1901 in memory of Mary Anne Rogers. She was a senior stewardess who selflessly gave her life in the sinking of the passenger steamship “Stella” on Maundy Thursday, 30th March 1899.

• The Verne sisters, famous pianists lived in Portland street during 1866 and 1892

• Jane Austen had her 18th birthday party at the Dolphin hotel

• That Elizabeth Biggs a destitute who died of starvation in 1849, brought attention to the plight of the inhabitants of Southampton and the abject poverty in the town.

 Another interesting by the by piece of history..

• That Shakespeare was brought to Southampton as a mentor to the Duke of Southampton and that they frequently walked the gardens by the ramparts where the titanic memorial now stands. A little flight of steps they used to access the gardens remains to this day.