The WI: Inspiring Women

BENSON

OUR first meeting of 2024 started off with a bit of bubbly and a toast to wish everyone a Happy New Year and welcome back.

We welcomed a couple of prospective new members and the committee provided a few nibbles to add to the party atmosphere.

Our WI business included a discussion on the campaign resolutions for 2024 and, with a view to planning activities for the coming year, members were asked to complete a survey for ideas.

Following the business, we were very pleased to welcome local businessman and part-time actor Marcus Harris to talk to us about his time as mayor of Wallingford.

He had just stepped down from the role but is still an active member of Wallingford Town Council.

Marcus is a familiar figure to some of our members so his very informal chat made it a lovely sociable afternoon for us all.

We ended with our usual pot of tea and a raffle for a lovely box of biscuits.

For our next meeting, on February 28, our speaker will be Hayley Scott, a former scenes of crime officer with the Met Police.

Her “Forensic experience” talk should give us an insight into how forensic units take control of murder and burglary investigations to preserve vital evidence.

Hayley auditioned last year at the WI speakers’ selection day in Benson and has since spoken to a number of WI groups.

Anyone wishing to join us would be very welcome. For more information, please call the president/secretary on (01491) 837885 or email bensonwi@oxfordshirewi.
co.uk

Sue Brown

CHAZEY

IN December our Christmas lunch at the Packhorse in Mapledurham was very enjoyable.

Our meeting on December 1 was very lively. Amanda Shora entertained us by singing folk songs.

Mulled wine, Christmas cake, mince pies and crackers to pull followed.

The business came next, the birthdays were announced and the raffle was drawn.

In January we visited the Mill at Sonning to see High Society. Visiting the Mill is always popular with our members.

Our meeting on January 5 was very interesting with Ian Burn giving a talk on the history of Reading University.

After tea the business of the month was given to members, followed by dates for the diary for coffee, lunch, knitting, art and book club.

Birthdays were read out and the raffle followed.

We meet at the St Andrew’s Church hall in Albert Road, Caversham Heights, on the first Friday of the month, starting at 2.30pm.

Carol Briscoe

CLEEVE-BY-GORING

THE new year started sadly for us, when a much-loved member and committee member, Doreen Godley, was killed at Crays Pond on January 2.

Her car collided with a fallen tree across the road.

Members will be assisting at her funeral refreshments in February. Our meeting was on the theme of January blues, with members wearing blue as they enjoyed a quiz and drawing charades.

Blue iced cakes were served and there was a competition for a favourite blue object, so we didn’t feel very blue at all by the end.

Our ladies that lunch group had its first outing at the Packhorse at Mapledurham.

As reported in the Henley Standard, our lovely Christmassy post box topper was stolen from High Street, Goring, and did not find its way home as we had hoped it might after the publicity.

Our February meeting is on St Valentine’s Day and will feature a talk by Andrew Batawrous on “Third world eye health”.

Visitors are welcome at Storton Lodge where the meeting starts at 7.30pm.

Chris Cox

COCKPOLE GREEN

OUR latest meeting was held on January 17 at Crazies Hill village hall.

Joint presidents Judi Rowlands and Helen Perry welcomed members and went through the agenda and business of the meeting. They then introduced our speaker, Jenny Knight, from the Museum of English Rural Life in Reading.

The museum was established in 1951 to capture and record the rapidly changing countryside following the Second World War.

The museum is based in Redlands Road, with purpose-built galleries. Part of the original building was designed by Sir Alfred Waterhouse in 1880 for local businessman Alfred Palmer, of biscuit makers Huntley & Palmers.

The museum is owned and managed by the University of Reading. It uses its diverse collection to explore how the skills and experiences of farmers and craftspeople, past and present, can help shape our lives now and into the future.

Jenny’s talk was about some extraordinary local women who appear in the museum and University of Reading’s special collections.

Lady Evelyn (Eve) Balfour OBE, pioneer of organic farming, 1898-1990.

Eve was the niece of the Conservative prime minister Lord Balfour.

She decided at the age of 12 that she wanted to be a farmer and subsequently became one of the first women to take a degree in agriculture at Reading.

At 21 she bought New Bells Farm in Suffolk with her sister Mary.

To help fund her project, she played saxophone in a jazz band and co-authored a successful series of crime thrillers.

She championed land rights for farmers campaigning against tithes, a form of tax levied on farmers to support the Church and local clergy.

In 1938/39 Eve began the Haughley Experiment, a long-term comparison of organic versus chemically treated farming methods.

This led to the publication of her book, The Living Soil, in 1943, which set out her arguments in favour of organic farming.

In 1946 she co-founded the Soil Association and became its first president.

Elizabeth Waterhouse, artist, 1834-1918.

From Yattendon Court, Elizabeth started a weekly night school for local men and boys, which was affiliated to the Home Arts and Industries Association, an arts and crafts movement.

Elizabeth’s designs, worked in repoussé copper and brass, established their reputation with more than 5,000 objects produced and sold in the village shop and at Liberty’s in London.

She is described as an artist, writer and thinker who was fascinated by science and astronomy, loved wildflowers and birds, a businesswoman and a lady of the manor and genuine friend to her tenants and servants.

Lavinia Smith, teacher and collector, 1870-1944.

Lavinia was born in Portsmouth, Ohio. She taught at several church schools, before sailing to England in 1905 where she taught at the School of St Helen and St Katharine, Abingdon.

She collected domestic and agricultural tools and implements and displayed them in her home, Downside in East Hendred.

She approached wheelwrights, blacksmiths, carpenters, builders and others. Each donor and the purpose of the object was itemised. She bequeathed all her possessions and house to her friend Dorothy Rippon.

Dorothy offered the collection to the Berkshire Education Authority, which in turn presented Lavinia’s valuable and significant legacy of more than 400 documented artefacts to the newly established Museum of English Rural Life in 1951.

Nancy Witcher Langhorne Aston, politcian, 1879-1964.

American-born Nancy Astor made history in 1919 when she became the first woman to be elected and take her seat as a Member of Parliament.

She stood in the Plymouth Sutton by-election after her husband, Waldorf Astor, stood down on succeeding his father as a peer and moving to the House of Lords.

Nancy was glamorous, clever and an accomplished hostess at Cliveden, entertaining royalty, the aristocracy, celebrities and the elite in society, literary and political circles.

She espoused a variety of issues, including Christian Science, the perils of drinking, lowering the voting age to 21 for women, opposition to the Divorce Reform Bill, social reform, equal pay and opportunities for women and the appointment of women to public boards and prison inspectors.

She strongly opposed another war and re-armament, controversially promoting German appeasement in the lead-up to the Second World War.

She was a fierce advocate for Plymouth, lobbying many prominent friends for assistance after bombing devastated the city.

In 1959 Nancy was honoured with the Freedom of the City in recognition of all she had achieved for her constituency and its inhabitants.

Nora Doreen Thorpe, Land Army girl.

Doreen joined the Land Army in September 1939.

She recorded all the farms that she worked on and kept details of the rates of pay for the Land Army girls. She studied extensively, taking courses in dairy farming, the farm horse, grassland and numerous other subjects.

Doreen became a valued educator for the Land Army, travelling all over the county, demonstrating plough setting and fuel economy and giving practical instructions on National Institute of Agricultural Engineering courses and for Leeds students’ courses.

Jill Betts, educator and researcher, 1936-2016.

Jill studied botany, zoology and geography at the University of Reading and taught around the world before returning to Reading.

She joined the Museum of English Rural Life and discovered in a storeroom a set of huge wall hangings by the artist Michael O’Connell that had been displayed in the Agricultural Pavilion at the Festival of Britain in 1951. She became an authority on O’Connell and the wall hangings. In 1997 she wrote a detailed article which was published in the journal, Folk Life.

Her research has left a lasting legacy for the museum, where one of O’Connell’s wall hangings can be seen.

We will be hosting an open coffee and cake morning at Crazies Hill village hall on April 17 from 9am to 11.30am. All are welcome.

Our next meeting is lunch at the Bottle and Glass in Binfield Heath on February 21. New members are very welcome.

Sheila Brockelbank

HARPSDEN-GREYS

ON January 10, a bitterly cold afternoon, our stalwart members gathered in Harpsden village hall for the January meeting.

President Suzanna Rose was away and Gwen Wilding took her place with aplomb.

Our speaker was Michaela Clarke, of the Henley Herald.

After this, we enjoyed the usual delicious tea and chat, much loved by members.

We all filled in a questionnaire about future topics for meetings and then we departed, leaving the warmth of an enjoyable meeting to face a freezing night.

Our next meeting will be in Harpsden village hall on February 14, starting at 2.30pm. The speaker will be Aldon Ferguson and his subject, “British GI brides”. Sounds good.

Merryl Roberts

HOT (HENLEY-ON-THAMES)

WE started the year with a tai chi taster at our January meeting with Alan Baker, who gives lessons at Henley YMCA.

We all enjoyed a relaxing time creating various poses and many of our group are considering attending further sessions locally as they found this very relaxing.

After a quick tea break and delicious cakes, including a Galettes des Rois baked by Anne Sandars, we continued with the WI resolutions shortlist for this year:

1 Dental health matters

2 Impacts of poor housing

3 Say “no” to gambling advertising

4 Improving outcomes for women in the criminal justice system

The president explained the shortlist details with a mini quiz to help demonstrate the importance of each resolution.

Every member has the opportunity to cast their individual selection for the resolution they support the most, which is forwarded to the Oxfordshire Federation.

Our walking group had a chilly but sunny walk across Badgemore Golf Club and into Lambridge Wood, finishing off with a hot drink and a chat in the Coppa Club.

Our crocheters and knitters have been busy creating further surprises so look out for them around town.

The next meeting will be on February 16 when we will be learning the art of book folding — hopefully not using our book club choice, which has more than 500 pages.

Nicola Taylor

REMENHAM

IT was after a busy committee meeting that the rains came in earnest and unfortunately we had to cancel our meeting as roads around Henley were impassable.

Members were looking forward to trying out various pieces of furniture while listening to hints on good posture from representatives from HSL.

It is now hoped that this talk can be fitted into the calendar at a later stage in the year.

The book club did meet to discuss The Secret Shore by Liz Fenwick.

The necessary map making of the rugged coasts of Cornwall and Normandy during the Second World War opened a new chapter for many in this less well known part of war preparations. The book was well received.

The book for this month is The People on Platform 5 by Claire Pooley. If you are a regular traveller on trains, this may be just the book for you.

We will meet again on February 12 for our annual meeting.

Daphne Austen

SHIPLAKE

PRESIDENT Sue Lines opened the meeting and welcomed three visitors.

She gave the results of the resolutions, which was “Say no to gambling advertising” and this was forwarded to Tackley.

Following our Christmas meeting, which was our tea party, the raffle raised £122 and this has been donated to a Parkinson’s charity at the Christ Church Centre in Henley.

Due to the success of our Christmas post box topper, Joan Jolley has offered to organise an Easter topper and it was suggested that a knit and natter group should be formed.

Heather Turner spoke to us about her work as an ordained priest with the Anna Chaplaincy, explaining the services she can offer.

Future outings organised by Sue Lines include pottery painting and visits to Henley Gin, the Houses of Parliament, Mrs Doubtfire at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London and White Christmas at The Mill at Sonning. Once all business had been dealt with our speaker, Peter Hague, gave a talk on famous jewels and their history. This included jewels that had belonged to various English and Scottish monarchs.

Peter had visited us on previous occasions and his talks are always full of interest with a little amusement thrown in.

The vote of thanks was given by Banba Dawson and a very nice tea followed.

Our next meeting will be at Shiplake Memorial Hall on February 21 at 2.30pm. Visitors are welcome.

Jean Buckett

SONNING COMMON

PRESIDENT Sue Frayling-Cork welcomed all members and visitors to the first meeting of 2024.

The speaker for the evening was Terry Dixon who started his walks in 2016 following retirement to show his home town and raise money for local charities.

With more than 18 themed routes to choose from, his walks have so far raised more than £17,000 for charities, which change annually.

He received a Pride of Reading award in 2023 for his charitable fundraising and support of Reading Women’s Aid.

Terry walks on a few days most weeks depending on the weather and all his walks can be found on
Whatsonreading.com

Aided by his wife Jackie managing the computer screen, Terry took us time-travelling through Reading’s history via all the historical landmarks that have influenced the development of the town.

As a crossing point of the Thames and Kennet, the town’s very name is ancient, probably dating from the 8th century, when it came to be known as Readingum.

In Old English the name Reada is thought to literally mean “The Red One”.

The earliest visible remains are of the abbey, a large ruin in the centre of the town and once the most important abbey in the country.

The building beside St Laurence’s Churchyard was once the dormitory of Reading Abbey’s Hospitium of St John the Baptist and a guest house.

Pilgrims and other visitors to Reading could stay here free for two nights as long as they went to services at the abbey church.

Today the St James’s Way is a long-distance walk of 68 miles, running from Reading Abbey south to Southampton, and part of the Camino Inglés/English Way.

The famous “3 Bs” — Beer, Bulbs and Biscuits — were explored as well as many myths and the origins of familiar place names.

Terry expanded on the role of Quaker families in the fortunes of the town and the influence of the railway to its wealth and importance.

He certainly had a wealth of knowledge about his home town and demonstrated a passion for sharing it, interspersed with humour and stories.

Members were entertained and astounded by facts they’d not known and felt Terry should be commended for turning his enthusiasm into such a successful and enjoyable means of raising funds for local charities.

Craft club member Sue Hedges was presented with a gift to thank her for all the coffee morning table decorations she has provided over many years.

The sale of these has contributed significantly to the funds raised at these meetings for local charities.

At the coffee morning on February 7 cheques for £400 each were presented to four local good causes, Sonning Common Youth Club and Lunch Club, Wyfold Riding for the Disabled and the Ways and Means Trust in Peppard.

Sonning Common WI hosts a monthly coffee morning open to all members of the local community and beyond, which includes sales of plants and produce from the Greenshoots nursery in Peppard.

Our next meeting will be on February 15 when Richard Anderson will talk on “Wallis Simpson and her King”.

For more information about Sonning Common WI, please email Carol at sonningcommonwi@
oxfordshirewi.co.uk

Lesley Davis

STOKE ROW

FOR our January meeting it was a cold, icy night but nevertheless we had a good turnout to hear our speaker Colin Edwards talk about the work of the Royal British Legion.

This was a change to our programme as Colin was unable to come to us in November. It was interesting to hear how much the Legion supports military personnel and their families, both serving and ex-service, with not just rehabilitation after trauma and injury during active service but also financial support and help with housing and employment.

We heard about the beautiful National Memorial Arboretum, which was planted by the Legion to promote remembrance and recommended as a place to visit by one of our members who had been there.

We thanked Colin and were happy to make a donation on behalf of our WI to the Legion to help with its very worthwhile work.

Our meeting in February will be our birthday meeting with celebratory fizz and an accessories sale.

There will also be meetings of the craft, book and games groups as well as swimming, coffee and chat sessions on Zoom, walking, dining and a trip to the theatre.

Why don’t you come along and try one of our meetings? You would be most welcome to visit us. You can email our secretary at stokerowwi@
oxfordshirewi.co.uk

Denise Stanworth

WATLINGTON

UNFORTUNATELY, our speaker, Jane Abbott, was unable to come owing to family illness.

We look forward to her talk on “Alpacas and their fabulous fluff” at a later date.

Sue Markham, our programme/events person, managed to get, at short notice, Peter Hague to speak on “Famous jewels and their history”. He took us back in time to when the Crown Jewels first appeared and then what happened to them in the Civil War.

After Cromwell came Charles II, who began remaking the Crown Jewels and over the years many more monarchs added to them. Peter also showed us some fabulous jewels bought over the years by the rich and famous all over the world.

This was an entertaining and informative talk. Thank you, Peter, for coming at such short notice and to Sue for arranging this interesting talk for us. At our February meeting we will have Anny Sharman speaking on “Peoples of the Arctic”.

Further information will be given on 2024 events when I have it.

The art and craft group meets at Eleanor Holden’s house each Wednesday at 2pm. For more information, please call Eleanor on (01491) 613885. If you have any questions or would like to come and meet us, our afternoon meetings are held in the West Room at 2.30pm.

For more information, please call Dawn Matthews on (01491) 612023.

Dawn Matthews

WHITCHURCH HILL

AS March and our annual meeting approach, we come to the end of our calendar year of programmed speakers and events.

We have had highs and lows. The significant lows have been the loss of members — Theresa Elsome in the summer and, more recently, Doreen Godley. We are a family of friends and feel their absences.

On a high we have had an excellent year of events. In the community we have run a couple of Saturday coffee mornings at the Art Café, run the tea tent for our village fete and decorated the well for the coronation.

Within our group we’ve enjoyed lunch outings and a good selection of speakers.

The knit and natter group is proving popular with some of the resulting craft items being donated to our local hospital.

Our Christmas donation this last year was to Wallingford food bank.

As I write, we are looking forward to one more meeting and speaker on “The pleasure of singing” by Amanda Shora.

The programme for 2024/25 will be published in the next couple of months.

If you are interested to learn more, please call Frances on 0118 984 2162. We meet on the third Tuesday of the month at 10am in our parish hall.

Sally Bergmann

WOODCOTE

SALLY Lambert welcomed members to the January meeting and wished them a Happy New Year.

Celebrating their birthdays this month were Louise Heathcote, Joan Soanes and Carole Shelley-Allen. We hope they enjoyed their birthdays.

We have skittles and lunch booked at the Hithercroft sports centre for March. This is always good fun, especially the knockout rounds.

Our speaker was John Paine, who spoke on the maharajahs of India and showed us the beautiful palaces, sumptuous hotels and railway stations.

John then showed us the beautiful tigers, birds and animals that he photographed in the national park in East Rajasthan.

We had a wonderful tea. Thank you to Gillian Seymour and helpers.

The competition for a photograph of a wild animal was won by Kathy Brewer with a giraffe and her baby. Second was Gillian Seymour with a photograph of tigers and third was Carole Shelley-Allen whose photograph was of a lion family.

Bloom of the month was won by Shirley Bryant with a bergenia.

We meet on the third Wednesday of the month in the village hall at 2.30pm, so come and join us.

Judy Williams