The August meeting took the form of a garden party with games and Pimms and tea or coffee. Several teams battled(!) it out at boules, jenga and connect 4 and one team won everything and walked off with the prizes of a box of chocolates for each! We were lucky with the weather and everybody enjoyed themselves.

We also had available all the articles concerning Noel Smith and our WI, which appeared in The Lady magazine and the end of July Courier, all very nice publicity for us!

During the business part of the meeting it was unanimously decided to donate £50 of funds to the Lamberhurst British Legion towards their new standard.

Dawn also announced next years’ provisional programme which met with universal approval.

Next month, Thursday 2 September, the Rev Mandy Carr, our vicar is speaking and we are going to meet in St Marys church at the usual time of 7.45pm, please let a committee member know if you need a lift.

A note for your diaries is the WI Autumn Fair on Saturday October 30th in the village hall from 10am – 2pm. We will be holding a tabletop sale and booking forms for tabletops (at £10 a table) will be available towards the end of August. The WI stalls will include cakes, tombola, bric a brac, produce and refreshments and we hope to hold an apple pie competition! Anyone can enter and more information will follow.

We have also planned a pre Christmas shopping trip to Bluewater open to WI members and friends and partners, on Tuesday 9 November, tickets are £10 a head but if we can fill the coach the price may well go down. If you would like to come please drop a cheque made out to Lamberhurst WI and on the back Bluewater trip, or cash in a clearly marked envelope with your name and Blue water trip into, either Karen Collins Hill House, Old Town Hill or Liz Mercer at Eaton Brae, Old Town Hill. We will announce timings later but it is likely to be around 9.30am ish to 2.30/3pm ish. A number of people have already signed up so if you are keen to go, don’t delay!

Karen announced the WI tri, which includes all members participating in swimming, walking and cycling If each member does a little bit of either walking, swimming and cycling everyone taking part is photographed and we send it up to HQ and could win a prize. Dawn and I are happy to take people to the swimming pool if interested please let us know.

Also there is usually one meeting a year run by members, Karen asked members which month they would like so Dawn can include it in next years’ programme.

Heather, our deputy president, has taken on the role of welcoming and introducing our new members.

If you have any queries or would like to offer any suggestions please contact myself Karen Collins on 01892 890575, our secretary Liz Mercer on 01892 890778 or our programme secretary Dawn Silburn on 01892 890991.

Joining is easy! You come along to a meeting with the annual subscription charge of £29.50 and each meeting will feature a speaker, demonstration or activity with refreshment. We also hope to be able to offer subsidised trips, added to which, included in the subscription fee, is a magazine. Visitors are also always welcome for a nominal charge.

The meetings will be held on the first Thursday of the month in the small hall of the village hall from 7.45pm and they should be advertised in the Parish Magazine, local papers, on posters around the village and on this website.

If you have any queries or would like to offer suggestions for the programme of events please contact Karen Collins, on 01892 890575, our secretary Liz Mercer on 01892 890778 or our programme secretary Dawn Silburn on 01892 890991.

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The garden meeting in July which was to be held at Manor Down had to be held in the Memorial Hall owing to the weather. The minutes were read.......after this followed various amusing games, some of which were a musical egg and spoon race, threading the needle, lucky numbers were drawn instead of a treasure hunt etc. After tea .... Miss Henley and Miss Jose acted a most amusing sketch called ‘The Backward Child’.

Aug 1928

The monthly meeting which took the form of an American sale had, unfortunately, to be held in the Memorial Hall instead of in the garden of Murlingden owing to the weather....... An ankle competition, arranged by Mrs Simpson caused much fun and was won by Miss Scott ... and judged by Messrs Dods, Hoppen and Hoar!!!!
I’m not sure we could get away with any of these ‘fun’ activities these days!! And what is a musical egg and spoon race??!

February 1920

There were 9 entries in the fur article competition, 1st prize went to Mrs H Smith for a collar made from a whole white rabbit skin

During the committee meeting one topic was ‘How to keep babies and young children quiet at meetings’
…Their resolution for the district agenda was that they found it undesirable to keep strictly to rule 4 and would like to know the experience of other WIs. Then they decided to buy slab cake for the monthly tea and have bread and butter again.
I did wonder if anyone in the crafts might like to attempt something made from a rabbit skin!! What is or was rule 4, does anybody know? And could we try and achieve 112 members!

May 1920

As hop tying and several other farming operations were in full swing the members did not have time to make hats for the competition, so there were only 2 entries, unfortunate as Miss Letch and Miss Earl, milliners from Sibthorpes in Tunbridge Wells, had come to judge the exhibits.

June 1st 1920 Garden meeting

“39 old people gathered round the tea table on the lawn, many had not left their homes for years, but all seemed to enjoy their outing, especially the tea (carefully arranged with a view to their digestive ability). They afterwards watched …dancing round the Maypole and “No Sir” sung in costume by Miss Lavender and Miss Winnie Marshall.”
October 1920

And at the committee meeting .All entries for the Maidstone Exhibition had been accepted, bringing the number to 37 from Lamberhurst.And it was decided to hire a conveyance from autocar services Ltd price £8.50 and charge members 5 shillings, empty seats to be paid for by Institute funds.
30 Members went by Charabanc to the exhibition and awards were won: first prize for butter, 3rd and 5th for knitting and 2nd for furcraft.

And at the committee meeting the same month: “ There was some dissatisfaction at the programme being drawn up for the ensuing 6 months without being discussed first…They proposed that the WI should try to get a new gate for the churchyard… and that the first excursion to the seaside was arranged for July 4 and that Mrs Morland besides allowing us to picnic in the park had invited us to visit Court Lodge Gardens.”

March 1921

They celebrated Warriors Day and sent through £43 to Earl Haig’s Fund by raffling a pig , 3 live rabbits and a hen plus a picture ‘guessing’ competition and a cake weight guessing competition, also Mrs Gurr and Mrs Fulbrook provided a bran tub filled with many donated gifts

We were very impressed with the amount of money raised, but we are not considering raffling a pig just at the moment!

March 1925

‘As Miss Dunk was prevented from demonstrating on raffia work at the last minute due to illness, Miss Harvey and Mrs Champneys very kindly gave an interesting talk on angora and chinchilla rabbit keeping….it is hoped to form a rabbit club, besides being very interesting it should prove remunerative to members’

These days we might like to hear about raising poultry or bees, not so different…..!

July 1st 1925

By the Kind invitation of Canon and Mrs Champneys, the members met at The Grange where a delightful afternoon was spent.

Mrs Cran of Benenden gave an interesting address on “The Glories of the Garden” and encouraged us to take an interest in gardening and gave us some beautiful thoughts with regard to colours etc.

Then followed various games and competitions, the Canon and his son did their utmost to make them a success and many of the members heartily entered into the fun.

The meeting concluded with songs by our Institute choir.

From the July Committee meeting 1925

The secretary of Speldhurst WI had written asking if Mrs and Miss Miller were suitable to become members of their Institute, she understood that it was usual for members to pass from one Institute to another without having proposers and seconders providing they had a good reference, from the Institute they were leaving!!

(They did get a good reference from Lamberhurst!!)

July 4 1927
Mr & Mrs Halsey gave us a most delightful garden party at Mount House. Before tea we played the Ring Game, hunted treasure and fished corks out of the pond. Tea was then served on the lawn, followed by an exciting game of Musical Parcels and an impromptu concert. (Hopefully we will have as much fun in August!)
Oct 1927
After the singing of Jerusalem Mrs Mansfield gave an interesting talk on Digestion(!). Teas and musical chairs followed!

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