THE chairman of Andover Homemakers’ Club was pleased to see a good attendance at their March meeting and hoped everyone had enjoyed February’s social afternoon.

The total raised at the sales tables was, despite some lovely items, unfortunately down on previous years, but numbers were also down which cannot have helped. In any case, thanks were due to all concerned for both contributions and purchases.

Names were taken this month for the 16 May cream tea, and in April names would be taken for the June outing to Weymouth. April birthday cards were passed to Hazel Hutchings and Mary Hazard, then, following the raffle Jacky Hutchins was pleased to welcome Tony Raper, author and local historian, to talk to the club about the Weyhill Fair.

Tony has already published one book on this subject, and is in the process of completing another to update the records. His slides showed a series of curious old photographs and maps, illustrating the history of the fair, the ownership of the land, and the people who would have attended it. His fee was kindly donated to charity. Mo Welton gave the vote of thanks on behalf of the club..

With the competition being for a sheep in any form, there were some interesting entries, with the winner being Jan Appleton. The meeting finished with tea and biscuits.

The next meeting is on 18 April when Fiona Burchall will be ‘storytelling’, and the competition is for a favourite children’s book. Shirley Ferguson from MIND will also attend informally to answer questions on dementia.