Events

In 2017 we had some excellent speakers and attended many interesting events. The talk by Jenny Noakes for the Bath Street Pastors in April led to us collecting suitable items for her to use and raised awareness of this important work.

In May Shaun McCormac told us about The Queen's Bodyguard of the Yeoman of the Guard. He had been a 'Beefeater' since 2000 and told us some of the history and traditions of the order as well as showing us his uniform and other items. We marvelled at the weight of the Stroud cloth coat embroidered with gold.

Our Annual Summer Outing in August was to the Old Theatre Royal in Bath. It is now a Freemasons' Hall having been a Catholic Church before that. We had a guided tour of the building and saw the Crush Hall where theatre goers would have adjusted their makeup and hair before going into the theatre itself. The auditorium had many original features including the stage and behind was the dressing room, now a chapel for the Knights' Templar.

In September we welcomed Emma Britton from Radio Bristol. She told us how she became a radio presenter and amused us with stories about her work. Highlights in for her include blowing up a tunnel in Wookey Hole, falling off a police horse and interviewing Sir David Attenborough.

Jenny Lester and her friend Myra Taylor wowed us in October with their presenattion of quilts. Each one had a story starting with hand sewn hexagons and a 25 year old quilt through to their machine pieced and quilted items. Some members were lucky enough to wear some of the beautiful pieced and quilted jackets and coats.

In August our WI hosted an historical walk around the village with a posh ploughmans' lunch to follow. There was a good turnout on a warm and humid day. We visited the Standing Stones, Byemills and then the coal and glass working sites at Stanton Wick.