It was a cold, frosty night for the first meeting of 2025 but Elaine, President gave everyone, including our speaker, a very warm welcome. She thanked the Committee for all their hard work in the preparations for the Christmas party and announced that Gillian had already booked the caterer, Ann Tennant, for the 2025 Christmas dinner. Picture below

Thanks were given to all the volunteers who help each month with the teas and confirmed that a £3 refund will be given to the providers of the refreshments.

Elaine said she hoped that everyone had read the details about the four proposed Resolutions in the November/December issue of the WI Life magazine, but she gave a resume of all of them so that voting could take place.

1. Let’s talk about incontinence;

2. Bystanders can be lifesavers;

3. Join the repair revolution;

4. Eliminate landfill of medication packaging.

Comments were invited and Christine spoke about number 4. Voting commenced with 13 voting for number 2 and 7 voting for number 4.

The Village Hall Management Committee had sent a letter inviting our Institute to provide teas again at the Village Fete on 10 May 2025, which was agreed to.

The next Board Games afternoon will be at 2pm on 21st January at Janet Bangay’s home.

Mary Rose gave details of this year’s Investigation & Discovery Day, which is being held from 10am-4pm on 13 March at the Holy Trinity Church, Aylesbury. Jayne had kindly offered to apply for tickets and a board was sent round for people to sign up for it if they wished to attend. The cost of £22 should be transferred to Jayne.

Those standing for the Elections for the National Board of Trustees were discussed by the Committee and the proposal to vote for the two nominations from Buckinghamshire was agreed to by the members.

Our speaker, Mike Payne, returned to talk about “Downton Abbey & the Locations used in Bucks, Berks & Oxon”. He had previously talked about the background of Pinewood Studios.

Mike and his late wife enjoyed the TV series so much that they had watched all 52 episodes 36 times and had visited most of the areas used in the series taking photos on their visits!

We were taken on a tour of all the lovely houses and places that had been used for the filming. It was not only very interesting but intriguing to be given some of the background as to how the various properties were dovetailed together, when the outside of one manor house was filmed but the inside was from an entirely different building and even county, so it was not just the beautiful Highclere Castle and grounds which was used for the filming

The next meeting will be held in the Village Hall at 7.30pm on 13 February when Cally Foster will talk about “A Funny Thing happened on the Way to Retirement”

President, Elaine, warmly welcome everyone including speaker, Cally Foster, on another cold evening.

An invitation from the Village Hall Committee had been received to do the teas again at the Village Fete on 10 May and a form had been put out for volunteers to sign to provide cakes and helping on the day.

The Beechwood Group meeting will be hosted by Wendover in St Anne’s Hall at 7 for 7.30pm on 16 April, cost £5 each with light refreshments. The speaker will be Christine Green talking about “A Life in Stitches”.

The next Board Games Group will now meet at Irene’s home at 2pm on 18 February.

Mary Rose gave details of the correspondence including the available Bursaries.

The BFWI Inter County Quiz being held at Prestwood Village Hall at 7.30 for 8pm on 27 March. An application has been made for a team of 3 people and volunteers should let Mary know if they are interested.

The BFWI Annual Council Meeting will be at 10am–4pm on10 April at Aylesbury Grammar School. A free ticket is available for one delegate and Observer tickets cost £7.

NFWI Weekly Federation weekly emails are available to read on the table. Note that there is a WI Exhibition at Beamish Museum, Co Durham from 8-16 March. Tickets cost £7.25 for members. (There was an article in the February WI Life Magazine about this to celebrate the 110th anniversary of the UK birthplace of the WI on Anglesey.}

The NFWI has set the annual subscription for the year 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 at £51 but Avril proposed that Hyde Heath Evening Institute would subsidise that amount by £4 to £47 to be paid in our Institute. Members accepted the proposal. The subscription is apportioned with HHEWI receiving £21.10, BFWI share £12.05 and NFWI share £13.85.

Elaine then introduced Cally Foster whose talk was intriguingly called “A Funny thing happened on the way to Retirement”. Her interest in dance and drama started at school when she performed in various plays.

Competitions of recitations followed eventually leading to her moving to London to train, subsequently acting with well-known actors in theatres.

Cally took a teacher qualification and set up her own drama workshops, became a LAMDA examiner and adjudicator for the British & International Federation of Festivals, travelling around the world. We were entertained by recitations from plays by Shakespeare, poems by Pam Ayres and the moving finale set to music of William Wordsworth’s The Solitary Reaper.

 Altogether an amusing and entertaining evening with a difference!

The next meeting will be in the Village Hall at 7.30pm on 13 March when Colin Oakes will talk about “Victorian Food & Drink”.

Christine Richfield-Andrews, Vice President, was standing in for Elaine, was pleased to say that her operation had been successful. She welcomed all members and speaker, Colin Oakes.

Three members had attended the Investigation & Discovery Day in Aylesbury earlier that day and Jayne gave a report on a very interesting and informative “Green” day on Climate Change and Renewable Energy; the valuable sequestration of carbon by Scottish Kelp forests and coral, Microplastics pollution; the value of Biological Bio-mimicry in modern designs which were inspired by nature; and Sue Smith (who appeared in an article in the current edition of WI Life, who is a Climate Ambassador and spoke about her subject.

We were also given an update by Jane Cutler of Cheddington WI on the Gambling Resolution including some frightening facts that about 64,000 young people amongst many other people had become caught up in the addiction of gambling on line.

One more person was still needed for the County Quiz team which is to be held at 8pm on 27 March at Prestwood Village Hall.

The Beechwood Group Spring meeting is being held at Wendover, 7 for 7.30pm on 16 April. Some members had already signed the board and paid £5 for a ticket. There was still time to sign if others were interested. The speaker will be Christine Green talking about “A Life in Stitches”.

A board was available to sign to help with providing cakes and producing and serving teas at the Village Fete on 10 May.

A delegate was required for the BFWI Annual Council Meeting on 10 April being held at Aylesbury Grammar School.

A copy of the results of the BFWI Resolutions voting showed that the most votes were for “Bystanders can also be Life Savers”, which will go forward to the online NFWI Annual Meeting 2025 on 4 June.

NFWI Raffle tickets will be available next month with a first prize of £10,000 plus six more. Tickets £1 each. The next Board Games meeting will be held at Sylvia’s home at 2pm on 26 March.

Colin Oakes returned to give a talk to members on “Victorian Food & Drink”. With barely any notes, he gave a lively and fascinating talk for about an hour on various foods for different classes of people in the Victorian era. He had a copy of Mrs Beeton’s recipe book, which not only covered food and drink, but also household management of large properties with servants.

He considered that it was the golden age for the variety of food and innovation for the people who had some money. He told us that there were several other notable, if not better, cooks whose recipe books were published. However, some of the ingredients and equipment such as food dyes and copper pans would have had a very detrimental effect on the health of the Victorians!

Next month’s meeting will be at 7.30pm on 10 April when R J Carter will talk about “The Four Georges”.

President, Elaine, welcomed everyone, including our speaker Jamie Carter, to the April meeting and was particularly pleased to see Di Coombes return to join us.

The BFWI Inter-County Quiz team of Avril, Jayne and Mary Rose did well and enjoyed taking part. Jayne reported on the BFWI Annual Meeting which she ad Elaine attended on 10 April at Aylesbury Grammar School. Jocelyn Coles welcomed a packed hall.

Awards of service of 100 years were given to three WI’s.

They were warned about scams targeted at 18-35 year olds. The speakers were most interesting and Countess Howe was present.

Members were reminded that the Village Fete was on 10 May and Elaine thanked everyone who had volunteered to help on the day and asked if they could all take tea towels and cake servers.

The St Andrew’s Flower Festival is held on the same day and a volunteer was requested to arrange a display.

The NFWI raffle tickets are now available with a magnificent first prize of £10,000 cash plus six other super prizes. 60% of sales go to the Federations.

The Beechwood Spring Group meeting is at St Annes Hall, Wendover on 16 April 7 for 7.30pm, when Christine Green will speak about “A Life in Stitches”. The cost of £5 includes light refreshments.

The Board Games afternoon will be at Elaine’s home at 2pm on 30 April.

Jamie Carter then gave an informative and fascinating talk about the four King Georges, all from the House of Hanover. He told us about their personalities and personal lives starting with the First King George who came from Germany speaking no English, his son, George II, born in Germany but spoke English with an accent and his son, George III who was born in England. George II was the last King to lead troupes into battle. Georgia in the USA was named after George II.

Jamie has worked for the Lighthouse organisation for the last 20 years and has raised money for them by giving his talks.

The Resolutions meeting will be at 7.30pm on 8 May in the village hall when there will also be a Fun Quiz.

Elaine, President gave a warm welcome to everyone, especially two visitors Jan and Caroline, and Mark Lawson and Giles Oakley, the two speakers for the evening. She thanked Christine and others who had stepped in to help with setting up and food preparation in Mary Rose’s absence on holiday.

Thanks were given to everyone for working so hard in various ways to make the Village Fete WI teas such an enjoyable and worthwhile event. Elaine read out a letter of profound thanks received from the Village Hall Committee in which it was confirmed that a record £845 was raised! A £3 refund per cake provided is available on request from the WI.

Elaine expressed grateful thanks to Sylvia for her beautiful arrangement representing the WI at the St Andrew’s Church Flower Festival held on the weekend of the Fete. A photograph was available to see on the Information table. Gary Beynon had sent a “thank you” email to all contributors, which Elaine read out.

A reminder was given that NFWI raffle tickets were available to purchase on the Welcome table.

The Committee had suggested that in place of the August meeting we might enjoy a Fish & Chips lunchtime meal together at The Plough around midday on Thursday 14 August. There was a large show of hands in favour of a lunchtime meal instead of the usual evening meeting.

 A board will be passed round at the July meeting for members to sign if they wished to attend.

The NFWI Annual Meeting Link Delegate from Penn & Tyler’s Green had sent her two-page report of the Zoom meeting held in June.

 The Resolution “Bystanders can be Lifesavers” was passed. The Report was displayed on the Information table.

The next Monthly Board Games session will be held at 2pm on 25 June at Irene’s home.

Elaine read the correspondence in Mary’s absence. There was a reminder from the BFWI that the Bucks County Show will take place on 28 August and competition details were in the Newsletter.

Mary Rose had already emailed all members with details of the BFWI Lochs and Glens Holiday which is planned for March 2026. Those interested should send a deposit of £50 by 1 August.

Mark and Giles, The Two Spoons, then gave a very informative and entertaining talk on “The Story of Tea – from Bush to Cup”, enlightening members about the many varieties of tea and tea blends that exist and explained the importance of tasting and smelling tea to fully appreciate it. There is an enormous competition in the trade of tea, and they gave anecdotes of their own experiences in the tea industry.

Light refreshments and chat were then enjoyed by all.

The next meeting will be at 7.30pm on 10 July when Jo Laurie will speak about “Tales from the River Bank”.

Elaine, President, gave a very warm welcome on an extremely warm evening to all members plus the speaker and her husband to the July meeting. She thanked Gillian for the table decoration of flowers from her garden and Gillian and Margaret Ritter for providing refreshments.

Instead of an August meeting, the Committee had booked a Fish & Chip lunch at the village pub, The Plough, at 12.30 for 1pm on 14 August. A board was circulated with a menu for members to sign to confirm their choice. Those who wished to attend made a payment of £17 in cash.

A reminder was given that NFWI raffle tickets were available from the welcome desk.

The NFWI Annual Meeting Link Delegate from Penn & Tylers Green had forwarded her two-page Report of the Inaugural Zoom meeting held in June. The Resolution “Bystanders can be Lifesavers” was passed. Her Report was displayed on the information table.

Elaine had sent all members an email from Cholesbury cum St Leonard’s WI with an invitation to attend an open meeting at 7.30pm on 22 July at St Leonard’s Parish Hall when a renowned international wildlife photographer will talk and showcase his latest adventure “Tooth, Claw and Mane”. Entry is £1.

The Autumn Beechwood Group meeting will take place also at St Leonard’s Parish Hall on 16 October when the speaker will be the well-known and much-loved BBC Journalist and Broadcaster, Bill Hamilton.

In the absence of Mary Rose, Secretary, Elaine gave details of the correspondence.

· The new NFWI Constitution and Mandate was agreed at the June Annual Meeting.

· BFWI Annual Council Meeting will be held next year on 25 April 2026 at Aylesbury Grammar School.

· The Inner County Quiz Final was won by Wycombe Wenches.

· The suggestion was made that members visit care homes or similar establishments.

· The Mix & Mingle Event will take place at the Rowan Garden Centre, Chalfont St Giles at 10am on 20 August. Self-booking essential.

· An Indian Themed evening will be on 22 August at Pitstone, cost £40 per person with online booking

· A Literary Lunch on 23 September at The Bell, Winslow costing £35 with Morgen Bailey (pen name Rachel Cavanagh).

All details are in the July BFWI Newsletter.

Dental Health Matters: Crafted Toiletry Bags can be made and donated to food banks and Women’s refuges and shelters. WI Life Magazine has details.

Avril, Treasurer, reminded members that a £3 refund was available per cake made for the Village Fete.

The next Board Games meeting will be at 2pm at Janet Bangay’s home.

The speaker for the evening, Jo Laurie, ably assisted with the slides by her husband, Graham, regaled us with “Tales from the Riverbank” – her adventurous daily walks over a period of months with her friend, Judith, and their pet dogs along 184 miles of the Thames Path from its source at Lechlade, which was a mere puddle, to the Thames Barrier.

It was so interesting to hear about their discoveries of many interesting facts, buildings, scenery and people along the way.

The next meeting in the village hall will be at 7.30pm on 11 September when William Reid will speak on the topic “High Wycombe Unmasked”.

Volunteers were requested to arrange flowers and provide refreshments for this meeting.