What’s On – Stories of Lynn

Temporary Exhibitions

Surviving the Railway: Memories of Far East Prisoners of War Exhibition

22^nd March – 21^st September 2025

part of a railway sleep or tie from Kinsok Burma Slam Railway scaled

With the 80^th anniversary of VJ Day falling on 15 August this year, find out about this oft-overlooked part of Second World War history that left an indelible mark locally. The ill-fated 18^th Infantry Division was a territorial formation of East Anglian battalions including the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th Royal Norfolks, along with Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Regiment battalions. Being Territorial battalions, they contained a high number of Norfolk men.

The display features an archival film exploring the grim realities of internment together with objects and accounts held by the Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum.

Aluminium box belonging to Captain R W Cole scaled Created for the exhibition are a new Roll of Honour, commemorating the 2,913 men, who served in the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th battalions of the Royal Norfolk Regiment in Singapore. A book of short biographies will be added to during the life of the exhibition as more information comes to light from the families of those who served.

The men captured in Singapore would go on to suffer three and a half years of brutal treatment at the hands of the Japanese, with many being sent up country to build the Thai-Burma railway, otherwise known as the ‘Railway of Death’. Around a quarter of these men would die from starvation, brutality and disease, but their stories stand as testament to the enduring nature of the human spirit in the face of seemingly hopeless circumstances.

Objects on display include a tiny but resonant fragment of a railway sleeper brought back home by Corporal F. G. Backham of King’s Lynn and a small aluminium box decorated and personalised from a Dutch chlorine tablet tin by POW Captain R.W. Cole, an officer in the 6^th Battalion.

Making the Rounds: Stories of Workhouse Nurses Told in Textiles

26 September 2025 – 29 March 2026

This textile art exhibition explores the lives and living conditions of workhouse nurses at the former Mitford and Launditch Union Workhouse (Gressenhall, Norfolk). It is based on a collaboration between Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse, museum volunteers and artist Connie Flynn.

Between 1777 and 1948, Mitford and Launditch Union Workhouse – now Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse – was home to some of the most vulnerable people in rural Norfolk. Its purpose was to provide accommodation, food and work for ‘paupers’ who did not have enough money provide for themselves. The NHS had not yet been created, and many people turned to the workhouse because of illness, old age, disability, mental illness, or as a safe place to give birth. The day-to-day care of the sick and vulnerable inmates fell to just a handful of nurses. They were often overworked, undertrained, and isolated.

This exhibition is the result of a collaboration between Norfolk-based artist Connie Flynn and volunteer researchers at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse. Drawing on over 60 new nurse biographies and 150 years of welfare history, this captivating exhibition interweaves beautiful textile art pieces and the archival sources that inspired them.

Content warning: please be aware that parts of this exhibition mention death in childbirth and suicide.