The Women’s Institute meets in the Village Hall at 7.45pm every second Wednesday of the month.

Our village WI was started in 1947 with a membership of 24. Over the intervening years this number has changed little.

In 2007 we had a big birthday party to celebrate our 60th. Currently we meet monthly enjoying a wide variety of speakers, from discovering the origins of tsunamis to flower arranging. We have a successful skittle team who play against local WI teams. We take part in county events, e.g. scrabble competitions and we host our local group Golf Croquet event which is played in the village.

All women are welcome to our meetings and once a year there is an open meeting when everyone is welcome.

History

The WI movement began at Stoney Creek in Canada on February 19, 1897 when Adelaide Hoodless addressed a meeting for the wives of members of the Farmers' Institute.

During World War One John Nugent Harris, the secretary of the Agricultural Organisations Society was looking for a way of involving more women in the production of food. He found the answer in Madge Watt, a Canadian living in England, and her enthusiastic descriptions of the Canadian Women's Institute. Madge Watt was appointed by the AOS to set up Women's Institutes in the UK. The first was formed at Llanfair PG, Anglesey on September 11 1915. The organisation soon blossomed, with 40 Women's Institutes in England and Wales by 1916.

Rapid growth led to the formation of a Women's Institute Committee. Gertrude, Lady Denman was appointed chair, beginning her long-standing association with the Institute. She would become Chairwoman of the National Executive Committee of the National Federation of Women's Institutes in 1917, a move marking the Institute's new self-governing status.

The WI celebrated it’s 90th anniversary in 2005 and today plays a unique role in enabling women to gain new skills, take part in wide-ranging activities and campaign on issues that matter to them and their communities. The WI is a diverse organisation open to all women, and there are now WIs in towns and cities as well as villages.