We welcomed 82 members and 3 guests to the meeting.

We enjoyed a slide show of the recent visit by the Wine Club to the Rioja region of Spain. It looked as though a good time was had by all on the food and the wine front. During the evening, we also heard about the Surrey London WIs Centenary celebrations in Hyde Park, the results of a very successful Plant Sale and our preparations for our stall at Wimbledon Village Fair.

Our main event was a highly interesting and enjoyable talk from Sheila Willis, a former member of the Surrey Police. She gave us an insight into some of the early policewomen, including Edith Smith the first woman on the beat and first to be paid. Sheila also told us about her own experiences in the police force with a bike for transport on her rounds and the need to use public phone boxes to communicate with her station.

18 May 2015

Joanna Cardwell (our President) welcomed 86 members, two guests and two new members to the meeting.

Our main event was Ardella Jones from Chalk the Sun who spoke to us about creative writing. She gave us top tips on starting our own novel and examples of motivation from other writers.

Amongst the other things at the meeting we held a successful fundraising Plant Sale, heard about the forthcoming Centenary Celebrations for Surrey’s London WIs in Hyde Park and the arrangements for our fundraising stall at the Wimbledon Village Fair on 27^th June where we would be selling cakes, preserves etc made by our members. In addition, we voted on matters for the NFWI Centenary Annual Meeting in the Royal Albert Hall on 4^th June.

MEETING – 20^th April 2015

Joanna Cardwell (our President) welcomed 91 members and 4 guests to the meeting.

Our main event was a highly interesting and enjoyable talk from Tom Hart Dyke, plant hunter and renowned gardener from Lullingstone Castle, near Sevenoaks. Tom first shot to international prominence in 2000, when on a plant hunting expedition in the Colombian jungle that went dangerously wrong. Tom and his travelling companion, Paul Winder, were kidnapped while trekking through ‘The Darien Gap’ and held for nine months. During their time in captivity, they were subjected to numerous threats, including death. Faced with the latter, Tom spent what he thought would be his last day on earth designing plans for his dream garden containing plants he’d collected from across the globe, planted out in their respective countries of origin. Luckily for Tom, Paul and their families, the boys were not executed, but were released in time for Christmas 2000. Tom’s idea for a World Garden has now been translated into reality at his Lullingstone home. We were enthralled by his tremendous enthusiasm and the beautiful pictures of rare plants (including the most gorgeous orchids) he found on his expeditions, as well as ones from the World Garden he has created at Lullingstone.

We welcomed 89 members, 4 new members (1 dual) and 1 guest.

Our main event was a talk by Sarah Warren on the history of gin entitled “Drunk for 1 penny, Dead drunk for tuppence. Straw for nothing!!” – a familiar sign above gin shops and on the streets of London at the time. The “Gin Craze” saw it available to buy in ordinary shops, gin shops, from street sellers and people’s houses. In 1743, 2.2 gallons of gin were consumed per person annually. Those keen to see gin drinking curbed presented images of women being dragged down by gin (Mother’s Ruin) – their children neglected or murdered, gin given to babies to quieten them. Hogarth’s famous print, Gin Lane, reflected the evils of gin consumption, including poverty, infanticide, starvation, madness, decay and suicide. Concerns about the upsurge in gin drinking, particularly amongst the poorer classes, led to various Gin Acts being introduced during 1729-1751. Henry Fielding (author of Tom Jones) also campaigned against the “perpetual drunkenness of the Londoners”. Sarah’s talk ended with an interesting comment that life has not changed much in terms of portraying women being brought down by drink. In 2008 some media binge drinking stories were illustrated with photos of drunken young women in the street.

MEETING 16th FEBRUARY 2015

We welcomed members and guests to our main event of practising some Latin American steps under Claudio’s expert guidance. Those who braved the wet evening certainly seemed to learn quickly and left with a decided spring in their step.

Amongst our other business during the evening, we heard the Centenary Celebrations for Surrey’s London WIs is to be a picnic type event in Hyde Park on Saturday 23rd May.

Members present also completed a questionnaire to help improve our WI. Members agreed to some changes to our Charity fundraising for our two Charities this year, as well as to three donations from our WI funds in recognition of the WI Centenary. Signup sheets were available for various events and trips.

We were delighted to welcome over 100 people for this first meeting of the New Year when our main event was a talk on breast health awareness. In addition, our WI subscriptions were due.

We also heard presentations from both our 2015 Charities of the Year about their fundraising appeals:

• Linden Lodge Charitable Trust’s Family Centre Appeal to raise funds for a state of the art Family Centre. The Sensory Support Service provides education, care and support to almost 1,000 deaf, visually impaired and deaf blind children and their families from birth to 19 years. Families of children with sensory impairment are often isolated and in need of expert guidance. Through this Family Centre, specialist staff will provide information, support and advice to the families, and
• Macmillan Cancer Support (Merton) Appeal to raise money to fund two local Macmillan Nurses specializing in gastro-intestinal and gynaecological cancers based at the Royal Marsden. The fundraising work of Macmillan Merton is unusual in the Macmillan family in that all the funds they raise/receive are used for local projects at local hospitals.

We also held our annual Bring & Buy to raise funds for the 2 charities we are supporting this year. Thanks to the generosity of donors and those who purchased, so far we have raised over £200 to be split between our two Chosen Charities.

During our normal WI business, we heard about recent meetings on the future of adult education in Merton, which some members had attended. Members continued to express their great concern about this matter.

We had the opportunity to select the resolution we supported the most for possible consideration at the NFWI Annual Meeting 2015.

Our main event was a social with mulled wine and mince pies, with a very entertaining magical touch provided by Collin from Street Magic.

We admired the wonderful exhibits produced at the Pottery workshop and the Christmas tree decorations from the Christmas Craft making day.