W.I. Newsletter January 2018

Lots to talk about when we gathered back in the Village Hall this month: subscriptions, fete teas, resolution selection, coffee mornings, summer meetings and all the dates to be put on the calendar for the reading, walking, supper, lunch and breakfast clubs.

Helen Jankowski bade us a fond farewell as she embarks on a new chapter in her life – she is off to live in Dorset with her daughters.  We will miss her. Our guest speaker, Phil Ray, kindly took a photograph of us all with her iPad so there is no chance of her forgetting us.

Phil is the Chairman of Andover Film Club and he took us through the history of the various cinemas that had existed in Andover since 1911.  The first to be built was The Electric Picture Hall, which latterly became known as The Rex and was situated in West Street.  This area was re-developed in the 1960s to make way for the Chantry Centre.   It had a chequered life and finally closed in 1959.

Competition came in the form of The Palace in Junction Road which opened in 1926.  That too changed hands over the years and later became The Odeon before finally becoming a Bingo Hall.   The Savoy Cinema opened its doors in 1938 and apparently at one time it was estimated that between the three Cinemas 33,000 tickets were sold in a week.  This is an amazing figure even for those times.

Circumstances and habits change, and the last Cinema standing was The Savoy in London Street, before that too closed – morphing into a night club.  For a few years the town didn’t have one at all, until the Reel Cinema came into being above ASDA. Even this has changed and now we are back to attending the Odeon to watch the latest blockbuster.

Andover Film Club meets on the second Monday of the month at The Odeon and more information about them can be found on their website.

This month our speaker is Heather Wylde and her topic is “Keep it in the Family” and as usual we can be found in the Village Hall on 22nd February at 7.30 p.m.   We do welcome non-members if you would like to come and meet us.

 

Diary Dates:

03 February      –           Breakfast Club

08 February      –           Supper Club

10 February      –           Walking Group

13 February      –           Reading Group

22 February      –           Monthly Meeting 7.30 p.m. in the Village Hall

24 February      –           Lunch Club