The Castle Rising Sisters [Date Unknown]
Photograph by Unknown (England)
This photograph is commonly titled "Welsh Witches' Tea Party" — but the subjects are not witches, and they are not Welsh. They are residents of Trinity Hospital in Castle Rising, Norfolk: an almshouse charity founded circa 1600 for unmarried or widowed women over 56 years of age.
The original admission criteria read: "They must be of honest life and conversation, religious, grave and discreet, able to read, if such a one be had, a single woman, her place to be void on marriage, to be of 56 years at least, no common beggar, harlot, scold, drunkard, regular of taverns, inns and alehouses."
Today the criteria are considerably more relaxed — single women from the parishes of Castle Rising, North Wootton, and Roydon in reduced financial circumstances. The dress code is gone too, yet residents still take great pride in wearing the historic "uniform" provided by Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, on special occasions like Founder's Day.
A photograph misread as witchcraft, hiding a far stranger and more enduring story.
Rectangle Canvas Wrap
Gallery-quality canvas with fade-resistant inks and a 1.25" deep pine frame sourced from renewable forests. Arrives wrapped and ready to hang.
- Materials: cotton and polyester composite canvas, pine wood frame
- Inner frame: radiata pine from renewable forests
- Leveling bumpers included for wall protection
- Ready to hang — mounting hardware pre-attached
Care: Dust gently with a clean, damp cloth as needed.