THE NEXT meeting of Fairfield WI takes place at 7.30pm on Wednesday, November 8.
The guest speaker at Fairfield Village Hall will be John Dixon who will talk about ‘How did you get your first pair of nylons’
The competition is ‘A pretty Garter’. Everyone is welcome.
The October meeting was opened by Carol who returned after illness.
The group is trying to organise an afternoon tea in December, just before Christmas and that will be discussed at the November meeting.
The idea of a trip to Worcester Christmas Market has also been mooted and will be discussed at Wednesday’s meeting.
WFWI Centenary wine is now ready and it will be launched at the Annual Council Meeting at a cost of £9 a bottle.
There is going to be a photography competition titled ‘A Year in our WI’.
Carol suggested as many photographs as possible, of outings and other activities, are taken, so they can be put together in a year’s time.
The Mamillan Coffee Morning organised by Sheila was a great success with a lot of money raised. Sheila thanked everyone who supported this.
The speaker for October’s meeting was Alan Thornton on ‘The Cadbury Story’.
A spokesperson for the group said: “I think you can hear this story many times and never tire of it. You also learn something new every time.”
The story started in 1824 with John Cadbury opening a grocers shop and also making and selling drinking chocolate and cocoa.
When John was elderly the company was taken over by his sons George and Richard.
In 1879 a lot of people lived in the back to back houses. Their life expectancy was between 40-50 years and living conditions were very poor. George decided to do something about this and set about building houses in Bournville for the Cadbury workers.
Being devout Quakers the brothers thought of everyone as being equal and they improved the working conditions at the factory. They also built leisure facilities and planted colourful gardens .
The brothers themselves lived quite frugally.
There were a lot of guided tours around the works but in 1951 it was decided to have less tours and instead commissioned a film to be made and shown in the community. Alan brought this film with him for us to see. It showed the process of the different chocolates made by Cadburys and also the workers and their families at leisure.
It was fascinating and we all enjoyed the talk very much. Quite a few members had questions to ask John at the end.
Maggie gave the vote of thanks.
The competition of Home-made Chocolate Truffles was won by Beverly Cotterill 2nd Sheila Morris 3rd Meriel Scurrell.
