Gallery Title
Gallery Title
doll
Accession Number GRSRM : 1977.27.3
Description
Doll. A wooden Dutch doll with a painted face and dressed as an elderly female inmate of Walsingham Union Workhouse at Thursford Workhouse. She is wearing a brown wool dress, white apron, white bonnet and a knitted shawl of a later date. The doll was given to the donor as a Christmas present in 1900 by the inmates of the workhouse.
Read Moredoll
These wooden dolls were owned by Molly Butcher. It is likely that their clothes were made from scraps of workhouse uniform. These dolls are unique. We are lucky that Molly looked after her dolls so carefully before donating them to the museum in 1977. Older women in Walsingham Union Workhouse wore dresses, aprons and caps like this. The doll's knitted shawl was added later.