The Womens Institute
From Lacey Green History
click W I Committee Members for officials
also Windmills WI
Hallmark November 2011. Loosley Row & Lacey Green WI. 89 years old but will not live to be 90! reported by Jean Gabbit
Sadly at our AGM in November the representative from HQ will instruct us to close owing to our failure to attract sufficient committee officers to serve.
It is ironic as this year we have had the largest committee ever but most are ready to stand down. However, several of our members also attend the evening WI - “Windmill WI” which is still flourishing and which has agreed to take over the organisation of the Village Quiz.
This year has been exceptionally busy with not only the usual selection of speakers at monthly meetings, but provision of tea for the Windmill Supporters 20th and lunches and teas for the History Group Exhibition. But without new people to take over the organization we must close.
The following will continue:- The Sewing Group, The Thursday weekly coffee to support the Post Office, The monthly Tuesday Pub Lunch at the Black Horse. Finally a new “T at 3” will begin in Jan on the 2nd Wednesday of each month. All welcome (including men) to tea and cakes.
The History of the Loosley Row & Lacey Green WI follows -
The Loosley Row and Lacey Green was formed in 1924 by Mrs Tighe of Loosley House and Mrs.
The 50th Anniversary was celebrated in Lacey Green Village Hall in 1974
In the photo on the right are :-
Front l-r. Lily Williams. Mrs Alice Gomme. Min Adams. Mrs Biggs. Mrs Clara Rixon.
Back row. l-r. . . . Minnie Hawes . Mrs Sharland. Mrs Cleaver.
Middle l-r.. . . Mary Adams. . Frances Rutland . . . Dolly Thompson . . . Phyllis Dell . . Mrs Stein. Mrs ? . May Probert.
For the life stories of these women click as follows :-
For Minnie Hawes click Harry & Minnie Hawes For Mrs Sharland click RAF Local Residents.
For Mrs Cleaver click Bill & Madeline Cleaver. For Mrs Mary Adams click Jack & Mary Adams,
For Frances Rutland click ??? For Dolly Thompson (nee Adams ) click Box Cottage
For Phyllis Dell click Bill & Phyllis Dell For Mrs Stein click Walter and ? Stein. The un-named is thought to possibly be Mrs W Oakford.
For May Probert click ???? For Mrs Lily Williams click Arthur & Lilian Williams. For Mrs Alice Gomm click Rupert & Alice Gomme.
For Mrs Min Adams click Min & Fred Adams. For Mrs Biggs click Ralph and ? Biggs. For Mrs Clara Rixon click Fred & Clara Rixon
-
The W.I. Annual Pancake Race.
Hallmark April 1985. report by Mrs L E Lennard.
"February 19th: Pancake Dy once again and the weather has improved. With the children being on holiday the turnout was excellent. Brigadier Spurry from Horses' Home started the race which was run in three sections. Adults, teenagers and under 12s, the latter running from Kiln Lane only, all others from Stocken Farm. The winners were: Adult - Mrs Atkinson, High Wycombe. Teenager - Pamela Reed. Under 12 - Mathew Peers.
The Brigadier presented the prizes and Mrs Atkinson will hold the frying pan for one year. All the children were given a lollypop in the Village Hall and the coffee and pancakes did an excellent business. Our thanks to the police for keeping the road open.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
From Hallmark April 1988. "Just Jam, Jerusalem and Jumble Sales" by Kathleen Turner.
The WI
Question: Which women's group has a membership of 350,000; has the ear of both local and national government; has some of the best training courses in the country; runs its own Adult Education College; and is the best organised social group in England and Wales ?
Answer: The Women's Institute
Since we now have two WI's in the village, I thought you might like to know a little about our organisation. The Women's Institute started in Stoney Creek, Ontario on February 19th 1897. Adelaide Hoodless, a local farmer's wife was angered by her own and other women's ignorance of childcare and nutrition. Her fourth child had died aged eighteen months and she felt that her lack of knowledge had contributed to that death. So she decided that women should have the chance to learn how to take better care of their families. And ever Since, the principle role of the WI has been as an educational movement.
The WI came to Great Britain in 1915 with the active encouragement of the government who saw that an organisation of countrywomen could provide a valuable addition to the food supply in wartime. The first WI in this country started in Anglesey, at Llanfair PG, closely followed by Singleton and East Dean in West Sussex and by 1917 there were more than 100 WI's in England and Wales.
At this time the basic structure of the WI was set - village WI's belong to County Federations and both are affiliated to the National Federation of Women's Institutes. Each Institute elects its own officers and committee by secret ballot; each Institute also votes for its County Federation Committee and the National Executive Committee, so every WI member has a direct effect on how her organisation is run.
The Women's Institute was founded before women had the vote, so this system of democracy in action must have been heady stuff in those class-conscious days. One President reported that the election for the committee had gone off very well. "We have five ladies, five women and one school teacher". The WI monthly meeting gave (and gives) the members an unprejudiced meeting place, free of any political, religious or class connections. In the early days this was a blessed relief for many women, one of whom said, "This is the first Organisation I've been able to join in my village. Everything else is got. up by the Church or the Conservatives and I am a Catholic and a Liberal".
The WI was truly democracy in action - women who had led lives isolated by class barriers came together to run an organisation of mutual benefit. They learned how to run their own meetings, how to vote for officers, how to speak in front of others, how to make collective decisions, how to put those decisions into effect, how to relate the problems of their own lives to wider problems outside the village, how to listen to what local and national government were saying and doing and how to comment on their actions or stir them out of inaction. WI members today still learn how to do all this and more. Every year in June each WI sends a delegate to the AGM in the Albert Hall where they discuss and vote upon resolutions which have been sent in by Institutes all over the country. If passed, these resolutions are acted upon by the whole movement from our National office which lobbies the government to the local WI writing letters to the Council. In recent years resolutions have been passed on subjects as diverse as the licensing of air weapons, psycho-geriatric hospital care, solvent abuse, artificially produced embryos, acid rain and planning and conservation. As you can see, the Women's Institute cares about people and the environment.
All this sounds very solemn when most people join the WI to enjoy themselves, and don't they just! Loosley Row and Lacey Green Institute is 64 years old in March and in its time it has had choirs, drama groups, folk dance teams, craft groups, countless outings and, of course, hundreds of coffee mornings and tea parties. They canned fruit, knitted socks and ran a National Savings group during the war and ran the local library in the village hall after it. They have learnt to cook, to sew, to make jam, to ice cakes, to knit and crochet, to sing, dance, act and now they run the Annual Village Quiz. Our new Institute, The Windmill WI is only a few months old - but growing rapidly - and has all these pleasures yet to come.
I wonder if they will make a banner for their WI? You have probably seen in the foyer of the Village Hall the original banner of Loosley Row and Lacey Green WI. This was professionally made in 1924, probably on the instructions of Mrs. Tighe, the first President who lived in Loosley House. It is an enlarged photograph of the Windmill which has been printed onto white silk and was made up into a traditional banner with a silk cord edging and tassels. Over the years the chemicals used in the photographic process attacked the silk which started to disintegrate. In 1974 the members decided to make a new banner. The design represents our two villages; on it in applique work are the windmill for Lacey Green and an anvil for the Forge in Loosley Row. The principal colours are green and gold; below the windmill is a curve of beautiful Bucks lace - handmade by dear Minnie Adams to her own design - which represents the hedges of the village in blossom. Every member of the Institute put in at least one stitch. We had working parties every Tuesday afternoon for a year at Jessie Boorman's house (the interfacing between front and back is my children's old cot blanket!) and it was unveiled at our Golden Jubilee in March 1975.
June Weale and Margaret West took charge of the old banner. They very carefully took it to pieces, supported the damaged fabric with stiffening and had it framed. Both banners are on display in Aylesbury at the County Museum at the time of writing. They are part of an exhibition called ‘Standards High' of banners from all over the county.
I hope this article has shown you that the Women's Institute is not just jam, Jerusalem and jumble sales and if you would like to know more, please come as a visitor to any of our meetings. Who knows? You might find it so interesting you will be like Connie Roe - next May she will have been a WI member for 45 years. Loosley Row and Lacey Green WI meet on the second Thursday in the month at 2pm and the Windmill meet on the first Wednesday in the month at 8 pm. Both in the Village Hall. Come and join us!