A series of street plaques providing historic information about Bungay have been put up around the town as part of a new project to help residents and visitors learn more about Bungay’s history, heritage and buildings.

The 16 plaques, which are dotted around buildings in the town centre, cover subjects such as the ancient Druid Stone, the Great Fire of 1688, smuggling, the Staithe river trade and the Fisher Theatre, with lively line illustrations by local artist Alan Irvine and research and texts by museum curator Christopher Reeve.

A new Walk Round Bungay history tour booklet has also been published with a map, to help visitors and residents follow the trail to find all sixteen plaques along the circular route.

The plaques are made of weather-proof metal and coloured sepia to look like the paper broadsheets which were nailed to walls and hung in taverns in the Georgian and Victorian periods.

The ‘Bungay Broadsheets’ are the brainwave of Deirdre Shepherd, who has organised a number of innovative projects for the town including the successful Pumpkin Nights for Halloween which brought hundreds of families into the town to enjoy fun, food and spooky entertainment.

Deirdre and her family also created the gardens at the Staithe to commemorate recent War Heroes, planted with trees, spring bulbs and poppies.

The booklet contains a complete mini-history of the town, and is illustrated with drawings by Alan Irvine and photos by the Bungay town recorder Andrew Atterwill, and David Brooke.

It was funded by the Bungay Chamber of Trade, Bungay Museum and the Shepherd family’s Feasts and Festivals Fund.

The booklet will be launched at St Mary’s Church in Bungay on Thursday from 10am to 4pm at a price of £2.50.

For further information contact Deirdre Shepherd on 01986 893638.