In the final Friday afternoon talk of our winter programme, on March 7th 2025, 23 members enjoyed Sheila Woolf's talk.

This covered the stories of two sisters of the Leigh family in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and revealed much about the position of women at that time. 

A turbulent and fascinating time in British history, Sheila's talk crystallised the story of 17th century Catholics and Protestants and the Gunpowder Plot.

Two Warwickshire sisters married men at the heart of the struggle: Robert Catesby and Robert Dudley (the younger). 

At the heart of the Warwickshire gentry, what became of them all, and what do their stories tell us about those times?