WI NEWS

IN the middle of January, on a bright and sunny afternoon the Anton / Danebury Group welcomed the National Federation of Women’s Instritutes’ (NFWI) Centenary Baton to the Andover area.

The members of Goodworth Clatford WI had prepared the village club with tables and chairs for an afternoon tea party. Most of the WIs in the group had provided what looked like mountains of cake for the event, and the members of Goodworth Clatford WI were busy all the afternoon serving tea and the cakes.

The baton is being taken all around England and Wales to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the NFWI in 1915. Its journey started in Wales at Llanfair PG where the very first WI meeting was held in 1915 and will end at the NFWI’s annual meeting in June at the Royal Albert Hall. The plan is for it to visit all the county federations, and it is well on its way. The WIs’ groups were asked to organise events to celebrate the coming of the baton to their area and their group. Hampshire’s time to have the baton on its travels around the county was the middle of January. It started in the county at Havant, being handed over from Sussex, and after being taken all around the county will go on to the Isle of Wight from the Lymington area.

The theme of the event is ‘Travel’ and many different forms of transport are being used. It was passed to the Anton / Danebury Group from the North Downs Group, after a lunch, and was passed on to the Romsey / Test Valley Group after the tea and cake. The Mayor of Test Valley, Cllr Jan Lovell, was present for most of the afternoon at the village club, where the baton was taken on a Harley Davidson, a fire truck and a model railway.

The speaker at the December meeting of Upper Clatford WI was Tim Pearce. His subject was a very appropriate one for that time of year; ‘Wines to accompany Christmas Lunch’.

His talk was very interesting and he introduced the members to several very varied wines. They enjoyed the tasting both before and after nibbles of cheese and various snacks. They also heard of the different vineyards from all over the world where some of these wines had come from. At the end they all tasted some chocolate wine which many had not tried before. The general opinion was that one either loved or hated it. Those who loved it are likely to have imbibed more over Christmas.

The Christmas lunch at Esseborne Manor had been a great success and will probably be repeated in 2015.

Members were very pleased that the mince pie and coffee morning had raised a good amount, and that the WI had also received two donations. All this will go to the ‘Defibrillator Fund’ — the WI’s main fund-raising objective for 2015. There are plans to hold a jumble sale on 28 February at the village hall in aid of this fund.

At the very festive Christmas meeting of Goodworth Clatford WI the members were transported back in time by Jane Glennie who arrived looking very much the part, dressed as a middle class lady from the early 20th century.

In her character role she welcomed everyone to a meeting of the local community to discuss the suffragette movement and invited them all to play along as members of the community, eager to find out as much as they could about this topic, which was headline news at the time. They joined in with a rousing edition of the suffragettes’ song to the tune of ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’. Playing the part of Dorothy Catchcold, Jane gave an insight into the extreme activities of the new suffragette movement where women often resorted to violent activities to further their cause and were frequently imprisoned.

Thanks to their determination and dedication by 1928 they had won the right to vote for all women over the age of 21. These days everyone takes this right to vote for granted and it is quite sad that despite their ancestors fighting so hard for their equality, sometimes the turnout at the polls is as low as 28 per cent of all those eligible to vote. Having been entertained and enlightened, the WI members indulged themselves with Christmas mince pies and mulled wine. They brought the evening to a close with a few of their favourite carols.

John Sherborne and his small electric organ provided the entertainment for the members of Andover Afternoon WI at their December meeting.

He held a quiz which related to some of the Christmas music of the more recent past and which was well-known to most members who had heard the various recordings of the music. They were asked to identify the singer or the year in which the songs were in the Christmas hit parade or other questions, which made the quiz more of a challenge. Most members could remember parts of most of the questions but often not all. The quiz provided an amusing introduction to Christmas. This was followed by Christmas cake, mince pies and shortbread together with a cup of tea.

Some of the members enjoyed a Christmas lunch at the Star and Garter just before Christmas and in January more of the members very much enjoyed a games and picture quizzes afternoon with a delicious and very ample shared tea.

At the November meeting of Abbotts Ann WI Trisha Lewis took members down memory lane with the aid of music, illustrations and memorabilia as she reminded them of Christmases past.

She sang, encouraging her audience to join in with the familiar tunes. She showed various objects she had collected along the years. The members were transported back to their childhoods as they recognised items they had made — courtesy of Blue Peter Annuals, Sindy doll outfits (some members still have them!) that they had saved up for so carefully, and Cussons gift packs. They laughed as they heard a re-enactment of a favourite Joyce Grenfell sketch. This was followed by a seasonal buffet and everyone enjoyed catching up with each other's plans for the festive season. It was a most delightful evening.

The supper club had also enjoyed a festive get-together at The Boot in Houghton with delicious food, good wine and great company ensuring a delightful evening.

The proceeds of the WI’s coffee mornings throughout the year will be sent to the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance — the chosen charity of 2014, along with the collection taken in lieu of sending Christmas cards to each other. There is a small fine for members not entering the monthly competitions and these are totalled at the end of the year and sent to the Countess of Brecknock Hospice.

A busy and festive evening in December for Charlton WI began with a welcome and Christmas greetings from their president followed by ‘Jerusalem’.

An extra ‘member’ at the meeting was ‘Charlotte’ a doll created by members of the craft group. This stylish lady came with a complete change of clothes and will be entered for the craft competition in 2015.

The Christmas outing to Bath was a great success with members shopping as well as sightseeing in the footsteps of Jane Austen.

The WI Centenary Rose purchased by Charlton has been delivered and has been planted in the Garden of Remembrance at St Thomas’ Church.

Peter Middleton and his quartet entertained members with a wide selection of Christmas music. It proved so popular that many members joined in and sang along with the quartet.

A ‘politically correct’ version of ‘The Night Before Christmas’ was read out which made for very amusing listening but would have been no fun for poor Santa! Photos from Charlton’s 30th birthday party held in May were passed around. A member had crafted a splendid miniature Christmas tree from gold fabric, which was used as a table decoration.

A bigger than usual raffle took place after a good selection of drinks and nibbles. A jolly evening rounded off in true TV-advert ambassadorial style as each member was presented with a gold-wrapped nutty chocolate!

Simon Williams was the speaker of the month in January and the usual post-Christmas blues were certainly not present during this sparkling presentation on ‘Ways to Improve Your Memory.’ Simon informed the members that everyone has a good memory — the key to unlocking those memories is by associating them with certain events that were happening at that time. There was very lively audience participation as members gave Simon the names of 26 kitchen gadgets for him to remember which, to everyone’s amazement, were all were instantly recalled by him in the order they had been given. He then explained how he associated each item with a letter of the alphabet and gave each item a mental picture. Simon gave several other examples — for instance how to memorise that elusive shopping list by associating items with various buildings, streets or trees. The very busy question and answer session afterwards was evidence of a most interesting presentation.