Around The WI

BENSON

AT our February meeting we welcomed Hayley Scott to give us the benefit of her years working as a scenes of crime officer.

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

She talked about techniques such as finger printing and finger marking and the use of DNA testing.

She also provided us with one or two anecdotes relating to cases she had worked on.

Hayley initially auditioned for the WI speakers’ selection day last year. The Oxfordshire Federation will be holding another day like this at Benson parish hall on April 11.

We discussed the 2024 campaign resolutions and votes were returned.

Most were in favour of supporting the campaign against the impacts of poor housing conditions.

We heard that a blue plaque had been awarded in memory of our former president Freydis Sharland, who was a member of the Air Transport Auxiliary, delivering many different types of aircraft, including Spitfires, during the Second World War. This will be installed in May.

Our annual meeting will take place on March 27 at 2.30pm when we will be looking back on our year, renewing our subscriptions and selecting a committee for the coming year. This will be our 98th year.

The theme of our meeting will be “The history of Benson WI”.

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

Sue Brown

CLEEVE-BY-GORING

JANUARY ended with one of our quarterly lunches out. A record 15 “ladies who lunch” enjoyed two courses at the Packhorse and requested another visit later in the year.

Doreen Godley, our dear friend and committee member, was laid to rest and a number of members attended her funeral.

Our WI-supplied flowers decorated tables at the Swan in Streatley in the W I colours of green, white and violet, of course.

February’s meeting was held on St Valentine’s Day and as it was Climate Change Awareness Month, we were wearing our green hearts.

Our speaker was Andrew Bastawrous, a distinguished eye specialist, who lives
locally.

He gave an inspiring talk on eye health in the developing world. We were amazed to hear how mobile phones are being used to make contact with those needing help and keeping them updated on treatment as more have access to mobile phones than clean water,

His charity, Peek, now operates in 12 countries. He was donating his speaker’s fee to the charity and members gave personal donations of £140.

Julia Green, our climate ambassador, updated us on various WI campaigns.

Sadly, our month ended with the unexpected death of another member, Betty Pegg, who had been with us for many years and was a very active member. She has left us a box of vases — is this a hint?

In March we will hold our annual meeting followed by a musical quiz.

Chris Cox

COCKPOLE GREEN

OUR meeting on February 21 was a very enjoyable lunch held at the Bottle and Glass pub in Binfield Heath.

Seventeen members and a potential new member gathered on a wet and windy day. We were warmly welcomed and greeted by Paul, our host for the day.

The set menu looked very good and varied. We all took our time deciding what to choose.

Paul looked after us very well and we all greatly enjoyed our lunch followed by tea and coffee.

The weather outside was cold but the atmosphere in the pub was warm and friendly as we caught up with friends in true WI style. We hope to visit again in the summer.

We will hold our annual meeting on March 20 at Cockpole Green village hall.

Our bridge afternoon will be held at Crazies Hill village hall on Thursday, March 21 from 2pm to 4.30pm. Men are welcome to play too.

The cost is £35 per table, which includes prizes, afternoon tea and a raffle.

Please bring your own bridge table, cloth, cards and scorer.

For more information, email cockpolegreenwi
@berkshirewi.co.uk

An open coffee morning will be held at Crazies Hill village hall on April 17 from 9am to 11.30pm. All are
welcome

Ruth-Mary Vaughan

HOT (HENLEY-ON-THAMES)

FEBRUARY’S meeting was a craft session, where we learnt a new creative technique of book folding.

This proved to be very popular as our tutor Mandy provided a selection of paperback books for us to use.

All our members enjoyed the evening as it gave us a chance to chatter, read excerpts from the novels, eat cake and drink tea and wine.

We were all surprised by how easy it was to create a
three-dimensional shape from a book, even though folding more than 300 pages in a specific manner was time consuming. It was time- spent with a great bunch of women having fun.

Our annual meeting will be on March 15 when we vote for a new committee, reveal our events calendar for the coming year and present a round-up of our previous year.

HOT Women’s Institute is all about women supporting women and making new friends.

If you would like to join us, new members are always welcome. Current membership costs £48 per year.

Nicola Taylor

PEPPARD

THE winter continued and we all rushed to the warmth and welcoming of our February gathering in Peppard War Memorial Hall.

Unfortunately, our meeting talk was cancelled and we did not hear about “Oxford’s penicillin” by Marie Louise Kerry.

Instead we talked about events for the future and caught up over a Valentine’s tea with a beautifully decorated and delicious homemade cake.

Our annual meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 13 at 2pm. Our April speaker will be Michael Macleod on “The history of food”, which we are all looking forward to.

Do join us at Peppard hall on Wednesday, April 10 at 2pm, when we look forward to welcoming our speaker and visitors.

Elaine Douglas

REMENHAM

OUR February meeting incorporated the annual meeting.

Members met at 1pm to enjoy a delicious ploughman’s lunch provided by the committee.

As the meeting in January had had to be cancelled because of flooding, it was a good opportunity to catch up on all the news.

After coffee and mints, the business of the month began, which was followed by the annual meeting.

The financial statement was given by the treasurer and approved.

This was followed by the annual report from the secretary with a detailed résumé of the events of the past year.

The president then gave her address in which she thanked all the committee members for their hard work and support, noting again all the events which had been held and monies raised for various charities throughout the year.

Attention was drawn to the fact that although not a large branch, Remenham WI is certainly a very active one.

All the committee members were re-elected with Daphne Austen as president, Judy Palmer as vice-president, Irene Parker as secretary and Anne Francis as treasurer.

Pat Sly, Jen Terry and Rosemary Pratt were also re-elected to the committee.

Beautiful pot plants were presented to Anne Francis, Irene Parker and Daphne Austen.

Trophies for the year were presented with Frances Plowman winning the Art Cup, Judy Palmer the Handicraft Cup and Photograph Frame and Daphne Austen the Best Bloom Shield.

The cup for the most helpful member went to Caroline Leeming.

A week later, the book club met to discuss their latest read, The People on Platform 5 by Clare Pooley.

If you are a train traveller, this may be just the book for you. Do you talk to strangers on the train and, if so, what would happen? Do you make assumptions about your fellow travellers and give them nicknames?

This book proved to be a popular read with everyone.

The next book is Daughters of War by Dinah Jefferies. The story is set in the Dordogne in 1944 and follows the lives of three sisters, Helene, Elise and Florence, with tales of secrets and bravery in the darkness of war-torn France.

If you would like more information about Remenham WI, please call Daphne on 07919 358979.

Daphne Austen

SHIPLAKE

OUR president Sue Lines welcomed everyone to the February meeting, including one visitor.

She went on to say that all those who attended the pottery painting morning had a very good time and produced some excellent artworks which were displayed at the meeting.

Many thanks to Susan Partridge for organising this event.

Our members were asked if they could be available to help organise tea, coffee and cake at Shiplake Memorial Hall for the Henley Arts Trail, which takes place from May 4 to 6.

Any profits will be passed on to the Alzheimer’s Society and the Bluebells day centre which meets at the Christ Church Centre in Henley.

Members have been busy knitting daffodils and rabbits for the Easter postbox topper and Joan Jolley has organised for three of our members to join her in assembling it.

Members are looking forward to the next outing, which is to the Henley Gin distillery in April followed by lunch at the Bottle and Glass in Binfield Heath.

Our speaker was Jane Fletcher, who gave a talk on “Memories — making the most of our stuff”.

She explained how to display memorabilia in art form instead of throwing things away.

She then showed us various examples, such as cushions and teddies which she had made from items of clothing, and also how to display sentimental jewellery items in box frames.

Jane was an excellent speaker and had everybody mesmerised. All went home planning to start clearing their “stuff”.

Jane has set up the Art of Giving, a community interest company which provides art for hospitals, surgeries and other public places.

While enjoying our tea Peter, the hall caretaker, showed us an extract from The Crown, part of which had been filmed at the memorial hall.

Our next meeting will be at the hall on March 20 2.30pm.

Judy Rolstone

SONNING COMMON

FIFTY-three members packed the village hall to listen to Richard Anderson give a talk on “Wallis Simpson and her King” at the February meeting.

Wallis had led an extraordinary life and married Edward in June 1937 in France.

Edward had abdicated in 1936, declaring that his love for Wallis was so strong that he wished to marry her.
Wallis was a twice divorced American woman who had had many lovers and the speaker divulged many intimate details of her life.

Wallis and Edward met in Melton Mowbray. Wallis took the place of Lady Furness, who was Edward’s mistress at that time.

He showered her with beautiful jewellery and money.

Edward and Wallis were great supporters of the Nazi party and Wallis was friendly with the German minister of foreign affairs, Joachim von Ribbentrop.

It has since been reported that Wallis had sight of documents from the red boxes and information was passed to the Germans.

Unearthed documents also suggest the Duke’s dealings with the Nazis during the Second World War were extensive and that his actions were covered up by the Government after the war.

After his abdication, Edward was made a general and the couple left the UK for France where he became a liaison officer.

After living in France, Portugal and the Bahamas, they finally settled in France when Edward retired.

The Duke of Windsor spent 35 years in exile and never lived in Britain again. He died in 1972.

Wallis spent the final 10 years of her life in isolation and poor health. She died in 1986 and is buried alongside Edward at Frogmore.

These two figures spent many years drifting between France and New York.

Their lives were defined by each other, the past, decorating, shopping, holding formal dinner parties and being noticed by the newspapers.

They were both bitter towards the royal family and Wallis was frustrated that following the abdication she no longer held the interest of people at high levels of society, government or the arts.

Wallis was described as sharp of wit and mean while the Duke was primarily known for his devotion to her.

They wrote separate memoirs, ate next to nothing and drank a lot. A sad description of a couple immortalised in the moment of abdication.

Richard was happy to answer questions and was thanked for such a fascinating glimpse into the lives of this couple, with many members heard to say, “Well, I never knew that.”

Members were thanked for the generous response to a collection of donations for the Springwater Church food bank.

A total of 120 individual food items was delivered to the collection point at Christ the King Church hall following the meeting.

Sonning Common WI hosts a coffee morning which is open to the public and includes the sale of plants and produce from the Greenshoots nursery in Peppard.

Our annual meeting will be held on March 21 followed by a quiz.

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

Lesley Davis

STOKE ROW

FEBRUARY is our birthday month so our meeting was very much a celebration with a gaily decked hall, a glass of fizz for each member on arrival, a splendid birthday cake made by one of our members and so many of our members present to join in the fun.

Business was kept short and then it was on to the quiz, the answers to which were to be found in a series of scrapbooks recording the activities of our group over the years.

It was great fun flicking through the scrapbooks, seeing our younger selves dressed up or dressed down depending on the occasion from tea at Buckingham Palace to carnival and local fetes.

Several members joined the meeting via Zoom, including two from Derbyshire and North Yorkshire. They had a separate quiz with our member in Derbyshire acting as quizmaster.

One of the highlights of the evening was a comedy sketch by two of our members, Penny and Annette.

Who knew we had such acting talent among us? We look forward to more from them in the future.

We also had a bring and buy accessories sale at the meeting with a wonderful range of hats, scarves, bags and jewellery for sale. Business was brisk during our refreshment break.

A big thank-you goes to all those who helped to make the evening such a success.

Also this month some of our members (and some partners and friends) joined others from local WI groups for a visit to the New Theatre in Oxford to see the production of Oliver! by the Oxford Operatic Society.

What a superb evening. The production was first class and we were all captivated by the children playing Fagin’s pickpockets and especially by the 11-year-old boy who played Oliver.

In March we will hold the annual meeting when we vote in our officials and committee for the next year.

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

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

Denise Stanworth

WHITCHURCH HILL

THE current WI year is rapidly coming to a close. Our annual meeting is scheduled for March 19 when a new committee will be elected.

We may be a small group of ladies but have so far always managed to attract enough volunteers to take on the relevant responsibilities, none of which is excessively onerous.

As a group that likes to be both business-like and light-hearted, essential information sharing is managed efficiently, giving maximum time to enjoy the social and educational aspects associated with being a WI member.

By the time this hits the press some of us will have knit and nattered together as we craft, while others will have met for a pub lunch at the King William in Ipsden.

On March 16 we will be running the Art Café in Whitchurch, raising funds for Helen and Douglas House in memory of our dear friend Doreen Godley.

It will soon be April when we arrange a birthday lunch to remember the many years our branch has been in existence.

Our speaker programme for 2024-25 will soon be published, giving us many more events to look forward to and enjoy.

Anyone local who is interested to know more is encouraged to call our secretary Frances on 0118 984 2162.

Sally Bergmann

WOODCOTE

ANN Larden welcomed members and two visitors to our 80th anniversary celebrations.

The tables were decorated with spring flowers and we had some of our old scrapbooks to look at. Thank you to Margaret Carter.

Celebrating their birthdays this month were Debbie Emmett and Shirley Bryant. We hope they had a good time.

We welcomed back John Paine, at very short notice, who spoke on “The magic of Egypt”.

We had a wonderful trip down the Nile as John showed us photographs of the Karnack temples, the Valley of the Queens and Kings at Luxor and Lake Nasser.

This was followed by a birthday tea. Many thanks to Hazel Tagg, Wendy Muchamore, Debbie Emmett and Louise Heathcote for all the delicious food.

There was a raffle for the old WI bone china cups and saucers, which are no longer used.

The lunch club this month is going to the Swan at Compton and we will be visiting Waterperry Gardens in May.

We will hold our annual meeting, followed by a beetle drive, on Wednesday, March 20 at 2.30pm. Please come and join us.

Judy Williams