W.I. Newsletter September 2026

We started this month concentrating on being ready to serve refreshments at the Village Fete on the first Saturday of the month.  As always, our members rose to the occasion and those that were able to assist on the day worked very hard.  We were also grateful to everyone who provided cakes for us to serve, whether you are a member or not.  We cannot do it without you.  We were delighted with the new layout and appreciated being back in the kitchen where it is much safer and easier for us to serve hot drinks.  Our efforts don’t stop at the end of the day, several members offered to launder cloths, tea towels and aprons.  Most of it is now back in the cupboard for another year!

Only three of us were able to walk this month and we did an old favourite around Amport with a few little tweaks to freshen it up, including a visit to the Church.   We met some delightful people along the way.

We were delighted to welcome three guests (possible new members?) at our meeting this month and we had invited Tony Cross who is a retired Museum Curator from Alton to give us his take on the history of Hampshire.  Inspired by Neil McGregor’s History of the World in 100 objects Tony has so far found 70 objects to depict Hampshire.  He did say that, fortunately for us, he was only going to talk about 10 of them. 

With the aid of slides these varied from chalk and fossils dating back 95 million years, through the Romans, Saxons and Normans.  He then spoke about the Crimea War and Florence Nightingale who lived in Hampshire and is buried in St. Margaret’s Church in East Wellow.  In addition to being a nurse she was a great statistician.  We then moved on to 1912 and the Titanic disaster.  The ship sailed from Southampton on its ill-fated maiden voyage.  Many of the crew lived in Southampton and Tony showed us a map of Southampton with numerous red dots indicating the residences of those who had died.   A history of the tragic ship is depicted in Southampton’s Sea Life Museum.

The Great War of 1914-1918 featured, with images of many war memorials around the County, but the mood was lightened when he revealed the next object – the iconic red telephone box, very few of which still exist.  Some have been sold off to Parish Councils and have been re-purposed.  The one in Abbotts Ann has a lot of information about the village and its organisations etc.  The first design had the code K1.  We were also shown how this had evolved over the years.  Last to be featured was the World War II plane, the Spitfire, designed by R.J. Mitchell and built originally in Southampton.  He mentioned that a National Spitfire Monument is planned for Southampton’s Mayflower Park.  Apparently a 40-metre (131-foot) stainless-steel sculpture is proposed honouring those who designed, built, and flew the aircraft.  Tony was thanked by Lynda our programme planner and then it was time for a stretch and refreshments.

Our next meeting is on October 29, and we have invited Nick Gilbert from a well-known nursery in Sherfield English specialising in dahlias to tell us about how they get such glorious blooms.  It will be interesting to hear how this year’s high temperatures and lack of rain have affected them.  Non-members are welcome to attend, we just ask for £5 entry free to include refreshments.    See below for other information.

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