## **Botley WI Secretary’s Annual Report March 2023** 

At Botley WI this last year we have enjoyed a full and diverse programme with an average attendance at monthly meetings of 35 members and all our subgroups being active. 

In May we had an afternoon tea party to celebrate the official opening of the Centennary Hall Extension. The enormous amount of work put in by Liz Manson to manage the project is much appreciated and we now enjoy committee meetings in a cosy warm space that is the entrance hall!  The project includes a ramp for disabled access through double doors and a disabled toilet as well as a store room.  We were lucky to have Lady Helen Baker Deputy Lieutenant for Oxfordshire attend the event to cut the ribbon across the entrance on a lovely sunny afternoon and true to the WI we enjoyed tea and homemade cakes!  Following this the hall has been further spruced up as the floor was sanded and sealed and the curtains cleaned duiring the August break. 

Our speakers this year have covered topics as diverse as Nordic Model Now - prostitution and domestic violence; Lucie Toller RRC MM a Nurse during the first world war; Sustainable Tea covering the working conditions of the lady tea pickers; Tales from an Elizabethan Underworld; Wildlife photography, the Thames Valley Wildflower Meadow Restoration Project; Women of Oxford and an Origami demonstration. We have also enjoyed an Oxford City Quiz and a Beetle Drive at our monthly meetings. Competitions are also held each month with a theme to match the evenings speaker topic or activity. 

We celebrated Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee in June with Red, white and blue themed flowers on the top table and a picture competition which was won by Bess Harris with her ‘postage stamp’.  Very sadly in September the Queen died at the age of 96 and the country mourned for 14 days before her state funeral with quarter of a million people queing to see her lying in State in Westminster Hall.  We look forward to King Charles III’s official coronation celebrations in May this year. 

Of the Botley WI subgroups, the Walking group have enjoyed regular visits to Blenheim Palace as well as trips to Witney, Wytham Woods, Standlake, Pinkhill Lock, Eynsham Abbey and University Parks, to name a few. 

The Craft, Cuppa and Chat sessions have included demonstrations on Quilling and Crochet as well as organising the decorated letters for our new ’Welcome to Botley WI’ sign. 



The Book Group have read titles as diverse as ‘Three Men in a Boat’, ‘Little Black Lies’, ‘The Vanishing Hearth’, ‘The Bookshop that floated’ and ‘The Remains of the Day’ – I understand that some have been easier reads than others! 

The Greenish Fingers ladies have enjoyed trips to Burford Garden Centre, Harcourt Arboretum, Open Gardens at Osney Island and Cumnor, Waterperry Gardens and the Botanical Gardens in Oxford. 

The Music Group have been to concerts including The Magic Flute, Folk Bands, Cutting Edge Big Band, Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Monteverdi Vespers, Out of the Blue Capella and Three Idle Women; a selection to suit all tastes.  WI members have also enjoyed theatre trips to see ‘Calendar Girls’, ‘Beautiful’ – the Carole King musical and ‘Evita’. 

İn addition to the Theatre Trips, other activities this last year have included two fascinating guided tours of the Ashmolean Museum; Afternoon Tea in August, an Audience with Anne Bolyne, and a talk on Japaniese Kimonos as well as a trip to Enysham Cricket Club to watch an outdoor staging of the play Raising Agent and a Burns Night Quiz in January. 

Members have had the opportunity to participate in Workshops for ‘Willow Work’ and ‘Polymer Clay’. Alison Jenner took a course in ‘Portable Applicance Testing’ and we have held training for the ‘Defibrilator’ at the hall. 

We provided the usual tea and biscuits following the annual Remembrance Service held in the Commonwealth Wargrave Cemetary, at which Alison laid the WI wreath. 

Our fundraisers have held craft stalls at the Seacourt pub on several occasions and the West Oxford Community Centre Fun Day in July. 

All in all I am delighted to report on an eventful, active, interesting and fun year. 

Deb Fairclough 

Botley WI Secretary 



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