Monthly Meetings 2025
These meetings take place on the first Wednesday of the month at Kelsall Methodist Church Hall, 7.30 pm. Visitors very welcome.
These meetings take place on the first Wednesday of the month at Kelsall Methodist Church Hall, 7.30 pm. Visitors very welcome.
Wednesday 5th November.
Tonight it was our Annual Meeting at which the members are presented with the opportunity to vote for a new Committee and Officers, as well as hearing Reports from the Secretary and Treasurer. A Committee of 9 was voted in, largely unchanged but with three retirements and one new member, and the three Officers remain the same. Once the business of the evening was completed, there was plenty of time for brousing the Christmas Sales Table and voting on the Competition, which had the theme of Autumn. Two prizes were awarded: Margaret's beautiful watercolour of autumn foliage and Liz's autumnal embroidered cushion. After that we enjoyed tea, cake and chat. The sales table was very successful and made £130!
Tonight it was our Annual Meeting at which the members are presented with the opportunity to vote for a new Committee and Officers, as well as hearing Reports from the Secretary and Treasurer. A Committee of 9 was voted in, largely unchanged but with three retirements and one new member, and the three Officers remain the same. Once the business of the evening was completed, there was plenty of time for brousing the Christmas Sales Table and voting on the Competition, which had the theme of Autumn. Two prizes were awarded: Margaret's beautiful watercolour of autumn foliage and Liz's autumnal embroidered cushion. After that we enjoyed tea, cake and chat. The sales table was very successful and made £130!
Wednesday 1st October.
Tonight we welcomed two lady visitors to our meeting: Claire Langston is head of fundraising at St. Luke's Hospice based in Winsford and she was with us tonight to receive a donation from Kelsall WI. She told us a little about when the Hospice began in 1988 and how it has expanded in the intervening years; their growth is amazing when you consider that 85% of their funding comes from donations and our Treasurer was very happy to hand over our cheque. We have asked Claire if she will come again and give us a talk.
Our other visitor was Tina Saunders of Needles and Sparkles who was our Speaker for the evening. Her fascination with embroidery began as a child and she formalised that interest with a three year apprenticeship at the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace. The work she brought along to illustrate her time there was truly amazing in its detail and beauty. She then worked for Jimmy Choo and the Jim Henson company and had a long list of famous clients as well as working on some theatre productions.
Her most illustrious employer was the late Queen! Tina worked at Buckingham Palace for nearly 5 years as a dresser and embroiderer and was responsible for many of the late Queen's fabulous gowns. Tina now lives in the Wirral with her family and continues her love of stitching by creating bespoke items as well as alterations from home.She was an enthusiastic speaker with a burning love for her art and craft; Mary gave our vote of thanks after which we had our usual tea and cakes.
Fiona
Tonight we welcomed two lady visitors to our meeting: Claire Langston is head of fundraising at St. Luke's Hospice based in Winsford and she was with us tonight to receive a donation from Kelsall WI. She told us a little about when the Hospice began in 1988 and how it has expanded in the intervening years; their growth is amazing when you consider that 85% of their funding comes from donations and our Treasurer was very happy to hand over our cheque. We have asked Claire if she will come again and give us a talk.
Our other visitor was Tina Saunders of Needles and Sparkles who was our Speaker for the evening. Her fascination with embroidery began as a child and she formalised that interest with a three year apprenticeship at the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace. The work she brought along to illustrate her time there was truly amazing in its detail and beauty. She then worked for Jimmy Choo and the Jim Henson company and had a long list of famous clients as well as working on some theatre productions.
Her most illustrious employer was the late Queen! Tina worked at Buckingham Palace for nearly 5 years as a dresser and embroiderer and was responsible for many of the late Queen's fabulous gowns. Tina now lives in the Wirral with her family and continues her love of stitching by creating bespoke items as well as alterations from home.She was an enthusiastic speaker with a burning love for her art and craft; Mary gave our vote of thanks after which we had our usual tea and cakes.
Fiona
Wednesday 3rd September.
The theme tonight was Harvest Festival. After we had sung Jerusalem and Jane had gone through some announcements, Fiona had the happy task of telling our members that one of our deceased friends who had been a member for many years had very kindly left us a legacy in her Will. The Committee would like the members to contribute their thoughts for ways in which this legacy can be used for the benefit of the maximum number of our members so we hope to receive lots of good ideas!
After the business was concluded we passed round some Elderflower or Lime mocktails before Dorothy handed out the puzzle for tonight - how many words can you make from "harvest supper" and what is the longest word? While some poems were read and the teams cudgelled their brains, the Committee brought round the harvest supper of cheeses, pickle, salads and baguettes, followed by apple and blackberry pies with Clotton clotted cream.
There were many correct answers to the puzzle so the two boxes of Roses chocolates had to go round a lot of people! We also had a sales table groaning with home grown food and preserves which was very busy and made a profit of over £23. And our members had also brought along lots of items for the food bank in the foyer. Everyone had a lovely evening and all the hard work by the Committee was appreciated.
Fiona
The theme tonight was Harvest Festival. After we had sung Jerusalem and Jane had gone through some announcements, Fiona had the happy task of telling our members that one of our deceased friends who had been a member for many years had very kindly left us a legacy in her Will. The Committee would like the members to contribute their thoughts for ways in which this legacy can be used for the benefit of the maximum number of our members so we hope to receive lots of good ideas!
After the business was concluded we passed round some Elderflower or Lime mocktails before Dorothy handed out the puzzle for tonight - how many words can you make from "harvest supper" and what is the longest word? While some poems were read and the teams cudgelled their brains, the Committee brought round the harvest supper of cheeses, pickle, salads and baguettes, followed by apple and blackberry pies with Clotton clotted cream.
There were many correct answers to the puzzle so the two boxes of Roses chocolates had to go round a lot of people! We also had a sales table groaning with home grown food and preserves which was very busy and made a profit of over £23. And our members had also brought along lots of items for the food bank in the foyer. Everyone had a lovely evening and all the hard work by the Committee was appreciated.
Fiona
Wednesday 2nd July
We were on our best behaviour tonight as our guest speakers were part of the criminal justice system! Criminal defence solicitor Mark Ellis and his colleague CPS prosecutor Jane Stacey had come to give us a talk on the Justice system and how it works in our courts. They are usually far too busy doing their vital jobs to give talks like this but had agreed to come to us tonight as a special favour to one of our members. So after we sang Jerusalem they gave us a brief outline of their backgrounds and current roles before engaging us in some case studies - and trying to see if we had any idea what the right legal result should have been! In the CPS women make up more than 60% of the workforce, who are all civil servants, and the department works 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. During the questions section they both admitted that the justice system is on its knees from lack of investment in several areas, and they saw little hope of improvement in the near future. It was a stimulating evening and covered ground we were unfamiliar with - thank goodness! Jane Holmes gave the vote of thanks and we had a final chat with them before they left us to our usual administration; we also welcomed a new member tonight before we had our tea and cake so it was quite an evening!
Fiona
We were on our best behaviour tonight as our guest speakers were part of the criminal justice system! Criminal defence solicitor Mark Ellis and his colleague CPS prosecutor Jane Stacey had come to give us a talk on the Justice system and how it works in our courts. They are usually far too busy doing their vital jobs to give talks like this but had agreed to come to us tonight as a special favour to one of our members. So after we sang Jerusalem they gave us a brief outline of their backgrounds and current roles before engaging us in some case studies - and trying to see if we had any idea what the right legal result should have been! In the CPS women make up more than 60% of the workforce, who are all civil servants, and the department works 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. During the questions section they both admitted that the justice system is on its knees from lack of investment in several areas, and they saw little hope of improvement in the near future. It was a stimulating evening and covered ground we were unfamiliar with - thank goodness! Jane Holmes gave the vote of thanks and we had a final chat with them before they left us to our usual administration; we also welcomed a new member tonight before we had our tea and cake so it was quite an evening!
Fiona
Wednesday 4th June.
This is the Great Big Green Week and our theme for tonight's meeting was Sustainable Fashion and we had two sales tables with this in mind: our vintage Handbags and Gladrags table was groaning with scarves, handbags, jewellery and clothing in mint condition, all awaiting new homes as recycling was our aim. Our Crafts table was also looking to rehome wool, material, patterns and other useful articles which our crafters could turn into projects of their own. The stalls were busy before the meeting even began! And once we had covered a few administrative items we welcomed our speaker for the evening, Debi Piper, who had been recommended to us by CFWI; she is a personal stylist who will help people find their style, match their colours, and do wardrobe edits. She is also very aware of the enormous footprint the fashion industry has globally and told us that a simple T shirt takes 2,700 litres of fresh water to manufacture; this is enough to provide one person's drinking water for 2.5 years!
Garment manufacture invariably takes place in water-poor countries with badly paid workers, so from that point of view it's easy to see how damaging our fast fashion trends are. And that doesn't take account of the 30-40% of all items produced not being sold at all, nor the mass dumping which goes on all over the world.
Debi's point was that we almost certainly already have in our wardrobes the clothes we need, it's just a matter of looking at them anew and trying out fresh combinations. Couple that with careful buying of sustainable fashion and we can all play our part in decreasing a huge global footprint that we are all part of.
Fiona
Wednesday 7th May.
The WI not only provides education and social engagement for women but aims to influence Government on matters its membership feels strongly about. This year the Resolution concerned is "Bystanders can be Lifesavers" and it is now understood that the medical response to women having heart attacks is different and inferior to that which men receive, resulting in many more deaths than are necessary. Once we had sung Jerusalem and we had dealt with the administration and notices, we gathered in groups to discuss what this means to us, how we felt we could have an impact, and how we could change the situation as it stands today. A vote resulted almost unanimously in Kelsall WI being in favour of the motion.
Tonight we welcomed as our guest speaker our local vet Fiona Wall. She regaled us with tales from her university days and the early days of her veterinary practise. She had always had an interest in animals, having tadpoles and stick insects as pets as a child, and during her veterinary degree she obtained a horse's leg to aid her anatomy studies; she buried it in her parents garden when she went back to university after the holidays, thinking to use it again next vacation but unfortunately the family dogs dug it up! She first worked in Yorkshire when she finished her veterinary degree and as it was a farming area, she was involved with large animals, mainly cattle. This work sometimes entailed very physical procedures like performing a caesarean section on a cow during a difficult labour but she was undeterred and carried on building up her experience, including during the very difficult time of foot and mouth disease. After some time she came back to this area and is now involved with pets but that doesn't mean some of them can't give you a nasty nip! She loves her job and her enthusiastic talk was greatly enjoyed. Fiona was kind enough to judge our competition once she had finished her talk; three lucky ladies won prizes for their animal models and after all that excitement, tea and cakes were provided as always by our members.
The WI not only provides education and social engagement for women but aims to influence Government on matters its membership feels strongly about. This year the Resolution concerned is "Bystanders can be Lifesavers" and it is now understood that the medical response to women having heart attacks is different and inferior to that which men receive, resulting in many more deaths than are necessary. Once we had sung Jerusalem and we had dealt with the administration and notices, we gathered in groups to discuss what this means to us, how we felt we could have an impact, and how we could change the situation as it stands today. A vote resulted almost unanimously in Kelsall WI being in favour of the motion.
Tonight we welcomed as our guest speaker our local vet Fiona Wall. She regaled us with tales from her university days and the early days of her veterinary practise. She had always had an interest in animals, having tadpoles and stick insects as pets as a child, and during her veterinary degree she obtained a horse's leg to aid her anatomy studies; she buried it in her parents garden when she went back to university after the holidays, thinking to use it again next vacation but unfortunately the family dogs dug it up! She first worked in Yorkshire when she finished her veterinary degree and as it was a farming area, she was involved with large animals, mainly cattle. This work sometimes entailed very physical procedures like performing a caesarean section on a cow during a difficult labour but she was undeterred and carried on building up her experience, including during the very difficult time of foot and mouth disease. After some time she came back to this area and is now involved with pets but that doesn't mean some of them can't give you a nasty nip! She loves her job and her enthusiastic talk was greatly enjoyed. Fiona was kind enough to judge our competition once she had finished her talk; three lucky ladies won prizes for their animal models and after all that excitement, tea and cakes were provided as always by our members.
Wednesday 2nd April.
It was time to renew our subscriptions so there was a certain amount of administration to do this evening but we had plenty of time to hear from our speaker, Yvonne Matthews, who had come from Liverpool to tell us all about bees and how they can make us healthier and more beautiful! She is a beekeeper and the inspiration behind VonnyBee, her company which works homeopathically with complimentary medicine, helping people back to health with remedies made by Mother Nature. When she was living in France she met an apiculturist who taught her about the life of the bee and how their products can make us healthier. She had brought along some of her products which were eagerly sought out by her audience at the end of the talk. She was a passionate and amusing speaker and Heather gave the vote of thanks.
Fiona
It was time to renew our subscriptions so there was a certain amount of administration to do this evening but we had plenty of time to hear from our speaker, Yvonne Matthews, who had come from Liverpool to tell us all about bees and how they can make us healthier and more beautiful! She is a beekeeper and the inspiration behind VonnyBee, her company which works homeopathically with complimentary medicine, helping people back to health with remedies made by Mother Nature. When she was living in France she met an apiculturist who taught her about the life of the bee and how their products can make us healthier. She had brought along some of her products which were eagerly sought out by her audience at the end of the talk. She was a passionate and amusing speaker and Heather gave the vote of thanks.
Fiona
Wednesday 5th March.
Tonight we had to say a fond farewell to one of our long time and hard working members who is moving away from the area very soon. Anne has been not only President and Treasurer of Kelsall WI but has been Treasurer for Forest Group too in her 20 or so years in Kelsall; she also makes the best coffee and walnut cake I have ever had! She was presented with a photo book full of memories of her years in WI to take with her to pastures new. Once the usual business was concluded we welcomed a Blue Badge Guide to talk to us about Chester; as we have our very own retired guides in our membership, he was on his toes! Stephen took us on a tour from the medieval Cathedral, into Abbey Green, taking in the Roman walls and ending at the Eastgate Clock. He was a humorous and engaging speaker and was happy to stay afterwards to chat with us and enjoy the usual tea and cake.
Fiona
Tonight we had to say a fond farewell to one of our long time and hard working members who is moving away from the area very soon. Anne has been not only President and Treasurer of Kelsall WI but has been Treasurer for Forest Group too in her 20 or so years in Kelsall; she also makes the best coffee and walnut cake I have ever had! She was presented with a photo book full of memories of her years in WI to take with her to pastures new. Once the usual business was concluded we welcomed a Blue Badge Guide to talk to us about Chester; as we have our very own retired guides in our membership, he was on his toes! Stephen took us on a tour from the medieval Cathedral, into Abbey Green, taking in the Roman walls and ending at the Eastgate Clock. He was a humorous and engaging speaker and was happy to stay afterwards to chat with us and enjoy the usual tea and cake.
Fiona
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Wednesday 5th February. For our first proper meeting of the year we had been expecting an artist's demonstration but unfortunately this had to be cancelled so we were very lucky to secure a visit from a Roman soldier! First though our new President Jane introduced the Committee to our audience, which included some visitors, and Fiona our Treasurer presented the Budget for 2025. Then it was time for our Roman soldier to introduce himself. For many years Roman Tours of Chester has been conducting visitors and school trips round the Roman centre of Chester, which was by far the largest Roman settlement in England, and home to the XXth Legion. He talked us through his costume which included leather items and metal work, which they source from Europe and India as those countries still have the metal skills required to fabricate them authentically. His costume weighed 25 kg, and his bag of chain mail was nearly unliftable! We thoroughly enjoyed his lively and interesting talk about life in the Roman army, it's many privations but benefits too, and Mary did a vote of thanks on our behalf. Tea and cakes beckoned with a chance to chat at the end of a really interesting evening. Fiona |
