Louisa Fennell Trail

A famous-but-forgotten female artist from Wakefield has been immortalised with a city centre walking trail. Boards have been installed across the city centre - including the start of the trial right here at Trinity Walk - displaying Louisa Fennell’s original paintings which act as portals into Wakefield’s past, showing what the buildings looked like more than 100 years ago.

Despite her trailing a blaze through the art world, which was male-dominated at the time, Louisa’s talent had been lost in time until Dream Time Creative launched a bid to bring her back into focus.

Thanks to support from Trinity Walk shopping centre, Wakefield Council and Wakefield Civic Society, Dream Time Creative were able to commission a major project to design and create the trail which they hope will encourage more visitors and schools to explore as part of Wakefield’s Year of Walking 2019 and in years to come.

A guide showing visitors a full map of the trail including locations of each board is now in display here, which acts as a starting point. Locations of all the paintings on the trail can be found here: https://forgottenwomenwake.com/louisatrail/

Louisa’s paintings of Wakefield were created between 1898 and 1904 and the boards have been located close to the spot which they depict, showing the changes between then and modern day Wakefield – and things which have remained the same.