Our meetings are held in St Luke's Church Hall on the 4th Tuesday of each month at 7:30 pm except in December.
Details of our Meetings for 2013
22nd January
Speaker - Mark Gleave 'Original Ideas for Cakes' Mark is a young nutritionist working with schools etc. He gave us an insight on how to make healthier cakes - adding vegetables and using Sunflower Oil instead of butter. He came armed with plenty of samples, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. We were also guinea pigs for a new low sugar recipe for Lemon Drizzle Cake, unfortunately as it was in development stage he couldn't give us a recipe. Shame as it was delicious! 26th February Speaker - Mary Houseman 'History of Spinning & Weaving' Mary worked at Styal Mill for over 20 years and she gave us a brief history of the early cottage industry of spinning and weaving and the various materials used depending on the climate, eg Lancashire was predominately cotton because of the damp atmosphere. She showed us how to spin wool on a bobbin and wheel. She also had a small loom and explained the difference between the warp and weft, and how the looms changed over the years. Brought back some of my history lessons about Arkwright's Spinning Jenny. 26th March Birthday Party 23rd April Speaker - Collette Harrison ' Origami' Collette has been doing Origami for over 20 years and she brought along some of her creations, which she also sells. Also as a group we all got stuck in and created a heart and a box. Very fiddly for our mature fingers, but we did ourselves proud and enjoyed it immensely with a few giggles along the way. 28th May Resolutions Meeting and Members' Evening We had a fun quiz after our lively discussion and vote on the NFWI's resolution for this year. 25th June Speaker - Allan Hadfield 'The Origins of Everyday Sayings' Allan was very passionate about where sayings came from and it was his Grandson who got him started doing his homework. He had over 3,000 and most came from medieval times, it's surprising what we still use today. 23rd July Speaker - Val Miller 'Wedding Tails & Tiaras' Val's husband was a wedding photographer and she was his assistant, so over the years she has built up some interesting stories of what brides do and say. Also she had unusual and varied family weddings which brought a smile to our face. We could all remember some of our own funny incidents, it's strange not many weddings go completely to plan. 27th August Speaker - Brian Greene 'Disney and the Music' Brian is a very enthusiastic speaker and loves his topics. We chose 'Disney and the Music' to take us down memory lane, and that he did! We laughed at the early Mickey Mouse cartoons and sang along with the, now very recognisable, songs. We will definitely be asking him to return to give us a talk on one of his many other topics He doesn't ask for a fee for his talks but a donation to his charity www.theartsandsportstrust.org.uk which he set up with his wife. 24th September Speaker - Jean Paterson-Barclay 'Hats - to Modern Day' Jean was very entertaining with her stories, and she brought along some of the hats for us to try on. Do you know where the phrase 'Mad as a Hatter' comes from - in the early days hats were made from fur and what they had to do to clean them from ticks, lice etc was to dip them in a liquid made up of sulphuric acid, warm water, urine, and mercury. Of course the mercury is poisonous and affected the brain so the people dipping the fur ended up as mad as a hatter! 22nd October Speaker - Graham Dodd 'A Cameo of the Six Towns' Graham Dodd, the speaker at the October meeting, gave a fascinating illustrated talk explaining the origins of the Potteries and how inventions by great potters, talented designers and a highly skilled workforce made the English china industry world class. 26th November AGM and Members' Evening We had the usual AGM and voting for President and Committee Members. We also had feedback from some young girl guides we helped raise funds for their trip to India, which was fascinating. Also we had a short talk from Barbara Jackson about the historical project 'Holmes Chapel and It's Military Men in the Time of the First World War' and how the WI can help. 3rd December Christmas Party We had a lovely social time at our party. Beech Tree Farm catered again and it was a beautiful meal, well done to them. We had a very easy picture quiz, in fact as 4 out of the 7 tables got 20 out of 20, we decided that the one with the least right were the winners. Updated 4th December 2013 |