Around the Women’s Institutes

BENSON

IN December, Benson WI was pleased to participate once again in the St Helen’s Church Christmas Tree Festival.

The theme for our tree was “Christmas Puddings” and included some lovely hand-knitted pudding and mince pie decorations.

The results of our seasonal wreath-making from our November meeting was on show along with other WI-related items to adorn our tree.

For our main meeting,
14 members enjoyed a lovely afternoon tea at the Springs Hotel and Golf Resort, just outside Wallingford. Our thanks to Dale and his staff for looking after our members once again.

It was a lovely opportunity to step away from our usual meeting venue to enjoy a social get-together and reflect on the past year and the year to come as we enter the centenary year for Benson WI.

For the first meeting of the new year, members will meet in Benson House, Churchfield Lane, Benson (not the usual parish hall).

The theme of the meeting will be CPR and the use of defibrillators facilitated by Clare Smart. This is in line with the current WI campaign resolution, “Bystanders can be Lifesavers”. Our thanks to George King (customer relations manager) at Benson House for inviting us again — we held our meeting there in January 2025.

Visitors (small charge) and potential new members are welcome but please email the secretary first at bensonwi@
oxfordshirewi.co.uk

Sue Brown

CAVERSHAM

OUR December meeting was a very happy affair. We were celebrating our 63rd birthday and Christmas at the same time. We had invited visitors from Chazey WI and Sonning Glebe WI and Claire Elliott, our former president.

We started proceedings with our speaker, Jean Hill, who writes her own poetry and showed a very good sense of humour through it.

She had chosen various pieces to start with and then a number of Christmas-themed poems. Everybody enjoyed her work and had the opportunity to buy some of her books of poetry on different themes.

We then had our birthday/Christmas party with an interesting selection of food to eat, finishing with a slice of cake, which was delicious.

We had an enjoyable social time together. When our meeting closed everyone was able to take a “Secret Santa” gift on their way out.

Ann Knee-Robinson

CLEEVE

STORTON Lodge looked suitably festive as 30 members of Goring Chamber Choir wearing Christmas jumpers entertained us with carols and seasonal songs.

This was followed by our usual bring and share buffet supper and a glass or two to help the conversation along!

New committee member Julie organised a special raffle, and everyone was given a free ticket for the draw.

Committee member Carol was given a special mention and a garden centre voucher for her sterling work on recruitment this year.

President Katrina wished us all a Merry Christmas, and we look forward to another interesting year of WI in 2026.

A happy new year to you all.

Chris Cox

COCKPOLE GREEN

IN December, members Carole Ellis and Ruth-Mary Vaughan delivered toiletries and other donated items to the Cowshed, our charity of the year. It is based in Wokingham and supports families and individuals in need.

Our Christmas party lunch was held at Phyllis Court Club in Henley and a very merry time was had by all.

Our next meeting is on January 21, when Peter Delaney of the Wargrave Local History Society will speak. Visitors and new members always welcome.

Sheila Brockelbank

HARPSDEN-GREYS

MEMBERS have enjoyed two convivial meetings. In November, we met for our annual lunch at Harpsden Golf Club and, in December, we had our Christmas meeting when the committee provided savouries and cakes for the members’ tea.

The tea followed a talk given by Barbara Carr on the traditions of Christmas in the home about 50 years ago with which many of us were familiar and we enjoyed the reminiscences about making the Christmas pudding, decorating the house with homemade paper chains and the excitement of hanging up stockings or pillowcases and waking early on Christmas morning.

She also read excerpts from two favourites from long ago, Alison Uttley’s Little Grey Rabbit and one of Joyce Grenfell’s monologues on the Christmas Nativity being performed by young children.

In recent years, we have collected toiletries to be donated to the Nomad youth and community project, for those who find themselves in difficult circumstances and this year the members were very generous with their contributions.

We had a coffee morning on January 7 and our book club will meet on January 20 to discuss Alan Bennett’s A Life like other People’s.

Our next meeting is on January 14 at 2.30pm in Harpsden Hall and we welcome visitors and future members.

Gwen Wilding

HOT (HENLEY-ON-THAMES)

WE have had fun getting involved in all the town’s Christmas festivities.

A tree at St Mary’s Church for the tree festival, a festive topper for the post boxes and our Christmas dinner out at Swiss Farm.

A delicious spread for our December meeting was followed by a fiendishly good quiz and a “Secret Santa”.

We also had a table filled with gifts for our local women’s refuge.

We held our regular Twixmas lights walk around the town to view the lights.

We hope you had a good Christmas and wish you all a happy new year, with no great list of resolutions but just try and do the best you can at the things you do.

Nicola Taylor

PEPPARD

WE were greeted with mulled wine at our Christmas party, followed by a first-class entertainment by the Timeless Barbershop Quartet, which had us all humming along and dreaming of a white Christmas.

We were split into groups to sing, The 12 Days of Christmas, singing our parts with gusto! This was followed by a delicious tea to which everyone had contributed finger food, the raffle provided by our Buddy Groups, a Christmas quiz and a “Secret Santa” gift which members provided.

Our president, Valerie, told us our collection of toothpaste and brushes in response to the National Federation’s 2024 resolution “Dental health matters” had been well received by Springwater Church for distribution through its food bank.

A few days later we held our Christmas lunch at the Packhorse, which was followed on Saturday, January 3 by the matinée performance of My Fair Lady at the Mill in Sonning.

We have raised £100 through our various activities, which will be presented to the Friends of Peppard School in the near future.

Our first meeting of the new year will be on January 14 when Elaine Douglas will talk about “Travelling with a tea chest”. Come and join us at 2pm in Peppard war memorial hall. You will be very welcome.

Jennifer Smith

REMENHAM

WE met in December ready to welcome Christmas. After the business of the day, tables were cleared to make ready for a painting session.

Armed with paints and brushes, members chose their Christmas figure from angels, trees, soldiers, baubles and stars and soon faces showed deep concentration while applying the right colour paint in all the right places!

There was still time for plenty of chatter while listening to some Christmas music with plenty of perennial favourites.

Eventually everything was cleared away in time for a traditional Christmas tea.

It was a few days later that the group met for the last time this year at Hennerton Golf Club. Here, everyone enjoyed a glass of prosecco on arrival before sitting down to a delicious Christmas lunch.

All the ladies were delighted with the gift of a WI tea towel while the gentlemen were equally delighted with a personally named bar of chocolate. Judy Palmer won the Christmas hamper and programmes were given out for 2026.

Daphne Austen

SHIPLAKE

OUR hall was beautifully decorated for our December meeting, which was our Christmas tea party. It was well attended.

The tables again had beautiful flower arrangements provided by Lynn Boros but this will be the last time she does this and we are looking for someone else to take on this task.

During the afternoon we were entertained by barbershop singers Timeless, we took part in a quiz organised by Wendy Channell and enjoyed a very nice tea. We know how to do festive tea!

The Christmas raffle then took place, prizes having been donated by members.

It has been a busy but fun month with lots of activities. At the end of November, we saw Just for One Day at the Shaftesbury Theatre. Everyone thought this was one of the best shows we have seen.

The next outings are My Fair Lady (January 16) and Kinky Boots (April 23).

On December 3 our Christmas lunch took place at the Baskerville in Shiplake and was a great success. Lovely food and really good service.

A craft morning, organised by Janet Matthews on December 4, was held at Audley Shiplake Meadows where members made decorations for their Christmas trees. Thank you Janet for another crafting event well organised. More gifts were donated for Toiletries for Charity, which will again be distributed by Nationwide.

Members brought “secret Santa” gifts and members took one as they left the meeting.

The meeting closed with the barbershop singers giving us a rendition of The Lion Sleeps Tonight. Beautiful!

Our next meeting is January 21 at Shiplake memorial hall, 2.30pm. All welcome.

Jean Buckett

SONNING COMMON

OUR Christmas meeting saw us greeted with a glass of something and a festive room of set tables with nibbles. We began with a great entertainment from the 32-strong Barbarettes.

A mix of songs was delivered with panache and humour, with us joining in with those we knew.

In an interval we served tea and Christmas cake and the girls were back on for more. A silly game followed with a prize for the winner on each table.

Our competition was for a festively dressed doll and produced some good inventions, holly and tinsel playing their part. Another prize was given.

Our president Jo wished everyone a happy season and we left in good spirits.

Penny Noble

STOKE ROW

OUR December meeting was Christmas party night which started with wine and crackers before we tucked into a delicious bring and share buffet supper.

We were then entertained by the Tonyxx, a ladies’ barbershop quartet, who were truly excellent. For one number they even got us all to join in with a three-part harmony. Even the ladies watching via Zoom joined in. It was such a fun night!

Our last event of the year was our mulled wine walk, a circular walk through the woods skirting Stoke Row and led by our president, Tilley Smith. The walk ended at Tilley’s house with mince pies and a glass (or two) of mulled wine. A lovely end to this year’s social events and it only leaves me to wish all our members and readers a Merry Christmas and a peaceful new year.

Our craft and book groups will be meeting in the first week of the new year but our next monthly meeting will be on January 20, when our speaker will be our very own Jenny West telling us “Tales from a magistrate”.

Our birthday meeting is February 17 when our drama group will be performing for us. As well as craft and our book club, there will also be regular meetings of our drama group, games, swimming, walking, theatre trips and coffee and chat sessions via Zoom. For more information, please contact our secretary via email stokerowwi@
oxfordshirewi.co.uk

Denise Stanworth

WOODCOTE

SALLY Lambert welcomed the members to our Christmas meeting. The tables looked festive with beautiful table decorations created by our talented Kerry Jones.

Celebrating her birthday was Sandra Dickson, we hope she had a lovely time.

We will be meeting in the function room on January 7 for our homes and gardens annual meeting to plan outings for the coming year. Thank you to Debbie Emmett for organising the meal at the Red Lion afterwards.

We have a change of speaker for our January meeting, we welcome back Al Sylvester, who will tell us about his “Adventures in the North Pole”.

We were entertained by Lyne Nash with a wonderful variety of songs which had us all joining in. This was followed by a tea by the committee. We then had a present from Secret Santa.

We wish everyone a happy and healthy new year.

Judy Williams