WI News September 2015
BURGHILL & TILLINGTON
Our August meeting was held on August 18th when Carole Dowding gave a scintillating talk about her achievement, when as a young woman, she trained to be a helicopter pilot. She started her talk by introducing us to her early life as a national equestrian show jumper, followed by her experiences working for Christian Dior selling perfume and make up and more recently her great interest in developing her garden which she now opens to the public under the National Gardens Scheme. This talented lady trained as a helicopter pilot after her father decided to buy a helicopter when Carole was in her twenties. She was only the seventh woman to gain a helicopter pilot's licence after intensive training and some fairly challenging moments. Finally despite her father's disapproval she married one of her instructors and "lived happily ever after"!
HOLMER
Holmer listened to Judy Stevenson's captivating talk on the History of the Gaols in Hereford during the 18th and 19th Centuries.
STOKE PRIOR & DISTRICT
Stoke Prior and District WI made a fabulous visit to the Hereford Costume Museum in Friar Street. Members were entralled by the stunning items held there. These ranged from babies bonnets, clothes and shoes right up to wedding dresses and gentlemen's embroidered coats. They hold thousands of items including fans, umbrellas, toys and militaria., many hundreds of years old. This incredible collection may have to close due to council cuts, so everyone is urged to visit them before happens to try and save this facility. On the way home they met at Wharton Dairy Cafe for their meeting and to enjoy coffee and cakes!
SALTMARSHE & DISTRICT
There's always plenty to get through at our meetings and September was no exception. We heard about visiting our twin W.I. in Ledbury for their Summer meeting - and admired the photos they'd sent us. We enjoyed being reminded of our Trip To Stratford and the delicious lunch whilst we sailed along on "The Countess of Evesham " - again approving of the pictures we took.
John said he'd been researching and collecting such tales for about thirty years. His interest had been triggered by reading Iona and Peter Opie's book "The Treasures of Childhood ". At that time, he was teaching in Worcestershire and saw that there was only one entry for the county with none at all for Herefordshire.
The game of "Bulldog " - a territory crossing game - sounds interesting, involving, as it does, various levels of violence; or how about "Please Mr. Crocodile may we cross your golden river ? " "Only if you're wearing something blue ( or whatever ) "
Next month, on October 14th we shall be taking pleasure in listening to Irene Huddleston as she shows us her collection of decorated eggs;to complement this, our competition will be an unusual egg cup. It all takes place at Saltmarshe Village Hall at 7.30pm.
THE SPARKLING WYE
Sparkling Wye WI's September meeting was entitled Puddings and Programme; the committee provided delicious puddings, cheese and biscuits, there was tea and coffee and the bar was open for those who wanted something stronger!
It was a very sociable affair, once president Chris had gone through the business including the many upcoming social events, and members had voted for what they might like to see on the programme next year, people were able to chat whilst enjoying the refreshments. Social events coming soon include the Ross Group Supper, a theatre visit and the Christmas Party.
HUNTINGTON HEREFORD
Huntington-Hereford held a Centenary Tea party at their September Meeting, with invited guests. June Stephens W.I Adviser, members from Tupsley, Wye Women and friends from W.I Huntington-Kington. Tupsley's President Barbara Glasspoole brought along 'Magna the Bull' who is enjoying his tour around the county.
The Speaker this month was Colette Gray and her subject was 'Items on a Ladies Dressing Table - Victorian to 1950's'. She had so many fascinating items she has collected with lots of stories on how she came across them at shops, car boots and auctions. One of her prize items she had found in an old box of gardening items at a garden sale was a hand mirror which cost her the great sum of 50p. Having cleaned it up she discovered it was silver and was very surprised after having it valued that it was worth a great deal more and dated around 1908. Many people she told members grew damson trees, not only for food value but sold on to merchants who used them to make dye. The ladies were fascinated at all the bits and pieces she has collected and that perhaps our parents and grandparents had used some of them to keep looking beautiful in a time of no electric and beauty aids like we have today.
Brenda Philipps had won 3rd prize for her crochet matinee coat at the County Picnic, which she will be passing on to her new great granddaughter who is due very soon.
The Autumn Fashion Show: members were told it is full steam ahead and to sell tickets please to family and friends for W.I funds to keep us going for another year, with a donation to Breast Cancer Haven on Monday October 5th in St Johns Methodist Church at 7.30pm. Advance Tickets £5 or £6 on the door. Available from Wyevale outlet stores - Cotton Traders and Edinburgh Woollen Mill who are showing their Autumn collections or texts only to W.I President on 07719817309 leaving your name and a contact number and amount of tickets required, which will be left on the door. Several W.I ladies will be acting as models along with a few men, so all welcome.
LEDBURY
The President Margaret Coulson opened the September meeting by welcoming the members, visitors and guests. Our speaker for the evening was Canon Christopher Pullen from Hereford Cathedral who was about to engross us all with the history of the Magna Carta. The Canon began his Presentation by showing pictures of other valuable documents they also hold in Hereford Cathedral these are even older than the Magna Carta. He went on to explain the Magna Carta is one of the most famous and important documents in English history, the original was drawn up in 1215 between King John and the 25 Barons of which there are four copies, but Hereford has the only surviving King's writ issued by King John in 1215. The Magna Carta was revised in 1217 by Henry 111 when he became of age and Hereford Cathedral has one of the four copies which survive, it became enshrined in English Law in 1297. The Canon informed us that it had inspired a number of other documents, including the US Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We were also told of the world tour to celebrate its 800th anniversary where the Magna Carta artefacts is insured for £24million. If we wanted to see the exhibition we needed to go to the Cathedral before the end of September. The President thanked Canon Christopher Pullen for a very informative and interesting talk and invited him and our guests to join us for refreshments before departing.
The meeting continued; the minutes of the previous meeting were placed on the table for members to read. Forthcoming events from the Federation Newsletter were mentioned and Sheila Ledbury was presented with the cup she won for her entry of a matinee jacket in a competition that took place at the County Picnic in August. Margaret mentioned four of us had an enjoyable day on the outing to Shrewsbury with the County. Birthday posies were handed out and there were four members who came first in this months competition.
The next meeting will be held on the 14th October at 7.30pm in the Parish Rooms, Catholic Church, New St; Ledbury, HR8 2EE.
Our speaker will be Les Rogers from the Brockhampton Estate.
MUCH BIRCH
In September Much Birch held an open meeting on the eve of the WI centenary. Members and visitors were entertained by the excellent Grace Notes choir. The harmonious programme was enjoyed by all.The Committee provided a sumptuous buffet ,with a piece of centenary cake made by Jennifer Hounsell decorated by Gillian Clouder and cut by Kathryn Bandfield followed by a glass of bubbly Members are now looking forward to the next 100 years of the WI.
BRAMPTON BRYAN
We welcomed three of our friends from Bucknell W.I. and a guest of one of our members to our meeting held at Brampton Bryan Village Hall on 10th September.
We have been celebrating the W.I's Centenary in style with many of our members going to the County's garden party. The weather was good and we were particularly proud of the W.I cake made by one of our members, Gill Harnett. We now look forward to our next celebratory event at Stockton Bury Gardens on 16th September.
Our speaker was Garry Jones whose talk was entitled Ceramics to make you Smile.
Garry specialises in animal ceramics, using puns for the title of his work. He is self taught and told us of his journey from sales at exhibitions, to facebook and internet sales, to commissions, to teaching and to recently opening a shop at Brampton Bryan. We were also treated to a demonstration on how he modelled one of his ceramics - a spaniel.
THE SUTTONS
For our September meeting we had a talk entitled ' The Life of a Honey Bee' by Alan Wells.
He told us about the life cycle of the Honey bee, and what really goes on in a hive, and how the different types of bee all have their own roles – with the female workers doing all the work! We also found out what happens when bees swarm, and how they find a new home.
Alan and his wife had a selection of honey, marmalade, hand creams, candlemaking kits and other goodies for sale, which were very popular.
For our October meeting we will be making autumn flower arrangements with Pat Crane.
BOSBURY
President, Rosemary Bayles, welcomed members and visitors to our September open meeting and introduced Mr. JohnTurrell, our speaker. Mr. Turrell started his talk by giving us guidelines for discovering our family history. He told us to start with living relatives and very importantly to write everything down. The next step is to start looking in Parish Registers, marriage and death certificates, and the Census which started in 1841. These days is is much easier to find information on the internet. Then he took us through his own searches for relatives and their interesting histories. He was thanked by Francis Jane.
The Ledbury Group meeting on 26th September, the day the WI started in Anglesey, will be attended by Maureen and Sue. Arrangements were made for the Harvest Supper on Saturday, 24th October when a beef and ale casserole will be served. Tickets are £10 per head.
The next meeting is the Craft and Produce Show on Thursday, 8th October at 7.30 pm in the Parish Hall. Competitions will be judged by Mathon WI. New members and visitors are always welcome. For further details phone 01531 640029.
BISHOPSWOOD
Bishopswood WI met on Friday 11th September at 6.30pm. The President, Mrs Ann Jones welcomed everyone to the meeting. 17 members were present and apologies were received from several others. Mrs Joy Gregory was congratulated on her recent 90th birthday and she shared her delicious birthday cake with everyone present.
This month the meeting took the form of an Open Meeting: localresidents, craft people and local traders were welcomed. We began with a very interesting short talk from local historian Mary Sinclair Powell who spoke about the history of Ross in relation to World War 1 and World War 2. We learned that many local men had gone to war but sadly, many of them died in action. They are commemorated on several local war memorials at Walford, Bishopswood and Howle Hill. Chelsea Pensioners were evacuated to Ross during WW2 and stayed until 1947/48. There are memorials for them in St. Mary's, Ross and at Bridstow Church. Some of them are buried in St. Mary's churchyard. Mary ended her talk by reading out the names of localmen who had died at war in September 1915.
The traders and craft people displayed their interesting wares on stalls around the room and had donated lovely raffle prizes. There was plenty of time to look at the stalls and do some shopping. Cups of tea and a selection of cakes baked by ladies from Bishopswood WI were on sale throughout the evening. Stall holders were Jen & Ian Dearlove from SWATpets, Heather Hurley author of local history books, Mary Sinclair Powell local historian & representing British Legion, Pat Chandler 'Bygones', Lara & Darrel with Fairtrade Products ( jewellery, bags etc, ), Gill Smith from Fairtrade Baking Quaker House ( supporting farmers in foreign regions),David Lloyd photographer, Christina Hollis romantic novelist, Penny at Lyme Cottage Industries old fashioned cosmetics, Beverley Durn dressmaker & soft furnishings, David & Sara Bruce from Pots & Pieces, an old fashioned tea shop in Ross.
Many thanks to Mrs Su Jackson ( Bishopswood WI) and Mary Sinclair Powell for coordinating the event,and to everyone who helped to make the evening a great success. Thank you also to the members of the
local community who came along and gave us their support.
The next meeting of Bishopswood WI takes place on Friday 9th October at 2.30 pm in Bishopswood Village Hall when the speaker will be Liz Dobbs Sandiwho will talk about 'Life on the Buses'.
KINGTON
In September Rosemary outlined our programme for 2016, which promises to be very interesting and varied.
We were pleased to see that Kington was in the Spotlight in September newsletter, but disappointed that it was not on the front cover.
Peter Rowland gave us very interesting interesting talk on the work of the Macmillan Cancer Support.