In October 1949 Withiel WI held its first meeting in the church room and has met once a month ever since, making us 75 years old, quite an achievement considering that a number of local WIs have closed due to lack of support or being unable to get women to take on the officers’ roles.
To celebrate the occasion an afternoon tea party was held in the village hall and open to everyone living in the parish, as well as other local WI groups and groups that use the hall. We were all delighted to welcome so many people and children.
The spread of food was amazing and worthy of a display at Royal Cornwall Show! The WI ladies had been busy baking and we had generous donations from Malcolm Barnecutt, Trewithen Dairy and Morrisons. The beautiful birthday cake was made locally and decorated with an image of our banner and in WI colours. Special thanks to David Harris and Stephen Horrocks who did sterling work behind the scenes in the kitchen and I mustn’t forget to mention Brenda and Joyce who kept the cups of tea coming all afternoon. Thanks also to Withiel Parish Council who managed to secure funding from the solar farm to support important community projects.
We had a magician who came along to entertain us with some dazzling card tricks that left me speechless. He moved between the tables and sat with people really interacting with everyone, apparently his tricks involving small balls were even better than the cards according to some but I never got to see them.
It was a memorable and most enjoyable afternoon, thank you to everyone who came along.
We have our regular meeting again on Friday 1st November at 7.15pm in the village hall, when we will be making Christmas tree decorations from old jewellery.
Erica