Octavia Hill commemoration weekend is a success at her birthplace in Wisbech

A string of events has been staged in Wisbech to mark the birth of a celebrated social reformer whose life story began in the town.

The keynote address during a commemoration day at Octavia Hill’s Birthplace House at 7 South Brink was given by James Strang, former president of the Chartered Institute of Housing and current chief executive of Parkhead Housing Association in Glasgow, who gave a report from the front line in the museum’s Long Room on ‘Housing in history: learning from Octavia Hill’.

A plaque to Nevil Folkard, a defender of heritage who saved the house on the South Brink where Octavia Hill, a co-founder of the National Trust was born, was unveiled in Heroes’ Arcade in the museum’s garden by Wisbech mayor Councillor Michael Hill.

In a commemoration of the life and work of Octavia Hill in words and music staged at the town’s St Peter’s Church, the theme was volunteerism and the event was led by licensed lay minister Keith Aplin and Peter Clayton, chairman of the Octavia Hill Birthplace Museum Trust.

Members of the Wisbech detachment of the Cambridgeshire Army Cadet Force, part of a national organization founded by the town’s most famous daughter, demonstrated the transformative power of a little discipline in the life of a young person.

The Clarkson Singers, who hold their weekly rehearsals at the Birthplace House, performed songs by Handel and E MacDowell and the Clarkson Voices sang ‘Blue bird’, by CV Stanford, at the occasion, which was centred on Charles Kingsley’s stirring message: “Do noble things, not dream them all day long.”

Mr Clayton said: “Once again we have celebrated Octavia’s vital contribution. This year in particular we have focused on the role of volunteerism exemplified by the community work done nationwide by the 40,000 army cadets around the country, who by now will all know about Octavia Hill and the part she played in their foundation.”