New Time for Monthly Meeting

All monthly meetings from January 2024 onwards will be on the 2nd Thursday of the month at 2pm, at Poringland Community Centre.

Latest News

May 9th speaker - Sue Sursham - Antarctica

Friday 10 November 2017

Novembers AGM 2017

           
     

Our meeting in November was our AGM, There was also an exhibition of Arts and Crafts which members had made in the last 3 years.
After the business had been completed we finished the evening with a beetle Drive.  Much laughter and frustration was expressed when the right numbers were not forthcoming. It always amazes me how different the interpretations of the beetles being drawn are.
I am constantly surprised how clever some of us are. Why not pay us a visit and you may get an idea for a future hobby for yourself.


Visitors are always welcome to our meetings.


Photos of Arts and Crafts displayed.




























Friday 13 October 2017

October 11th WI Meeting.

Our October meeting was Mr Jim Marriage giving us a talk with slides on the Rosary Cemetery.


He explained the Rosary Cemetery is the oldest nondenominal Christian cemetery in Britain. It was laid out in 1819, and opened between 1819 and 1821, but was mainly used by Dissenters, due to it being unconsecrated. It was promoted by Rev Thomas Drummond, but not recognized by the Bishop until 1821.

The Cemetery was extended in 1924 by Captain Sandys-Winsch, and again 1932. Some land to the east was sold off in 1964. There are a number of prestigious monuments, including the 1878 mausoleum of Emanuel Cooper, a celebrated eye surgeon, and the 1849 cast iron sarcophagus of Jeremiah Cozens. It is recorded that crowds visiting the cemetery in the summer led to the employment of a policeman in 1880.

Ada Nemesis Cooper, the adopted daughter of the eye surgeon Emanuel Cooper (who has a grand mausoleum on the cemetery) married the novelist John Galsworthy and their family life together inspired.
Cooper Mausoleum
Emanuel Cooper Mausoleum


Wednesday 20 September 2017

WI Subscription 2018







The subscription for 2018 is £41.00
  •   The WI subscription year runs from January to December
  •   New members joining the WI for the first time, i.e. who have not previously been a member of any WI in the past 10 years, will pay a pro-rata subscription
depending on the quarter in which they join. The rate per quarter is shown in the following table
Date of joining
Total subscription due
1 Jan-31 Mar
£41.00
1 Apr-30 Jun
page1image14816
£30.75
1 Jul-30 Sep
page1image17360
£20.50
1 Oct-31 Dec
page1image20936
£10.25
  •   WI members can belong to more than one WI, by paying the full membership fee to the first WI, and a further £20 to any additional WIs at any time of the year. There is no pro-rata rate for dual membership
  •   WI subscription and dual fees are paid directly to the WI/s you wish to join. 

Saturday 8 July 2017

Humble yard English wine Mulbarton.


Thank you to all the members and husbands that braved the most rain that we have had in ages to go to Mulbarton  on Tuesday July 27th, although we could not complete the tour as described further down I think everyone enjoyed it, there were 9 different wines to taste and one sprit and the amount in each glass was very generous. 
                    
The walk amongst the vines could not be taken, a shame as Oliver described how the evening should have been instead of listening to a talk and testing the wines in the farm shop. Firstly we would have walked around a few vines then there would have been the chance to taste the result of the grapes from them under a lovely Oak tree, the walk would have continued stoping every so often under a tree to taste the result of last years grapes we had seen with a warm summer breeze blowing and a lovely sunset behind us, nibbles would have been provided at each stage to enjoy with the wine'




Grapes getting ripe.

 







Friday 16 June 2017

The National at Liverpool June 2017

If you haven't been I recommend it highly, very well organised especially from Norfolk.

There were over eighty from Norfolk on two comfortable coaches. Quite a long journey to Liverpool but with a couple of comfort and coffee breaks we arrived just before 5pm at the Adelphi Hotel in the centre of Liverpool, within walking distance of the Echo Arena on the waterfront where the meeting was held.

The Adelphi is an old hotel full of marble, mirrors and chandeliers, and is where first class passengers would stay while waiting for ships to America (including the Titanic).

We had time to freshen up before a  reception and dinner.  We had a beautiful dining room and all the tables had been named for Norfolk.  Hilary and I sat at Crabbie Cromer table, Lesley and Joan on Cobblers. Others were named Canaries, The Broads, NFN, Madder Market, Hot Stuff, Sunny Hunny and Thas’ Bootiful. A very good meal and very good company.

The coach picked us up after breakfast to take us to the Echo Arena, observers in one door and delegates and officials in the door on the Mersey side. The arena soon filled with the 3,500 members of WIs , and guests, from all over England and Wales. There was a very big screen at the front so that everyone could see the speaker.

The meeting was opened by the Chair Janice Langley, and we were welcomed to Liverpool by the Mayor, Joe Anderson.

Following the agenda there was the appointment of the tellers and then the adoption of the standing orders.

Janice reviewed the years since she had become Chair in 2013 and they had included the centenary year celebrations. She spoke of the increase in membership and of new WIs, and also the launch of the new WI website which was on June 12th 2017.

The website will be user-friendly and include help; projects; textile archive; food and garden; skills; cups and challenges; and courses. It will be for use on computer, tablet and smartphone.
Over the year £36,000 has been raised for Denman and next year 2018 a book will be published, ’70 years of Denman’.


Next to speak was Julia Roberts, Treasurer. She stated that the income from WI membership, Denman, and WI Enterprises was £7.18 million and the expenditure on upkeep and running was £7.01 million. There was growth from increased membership and from Denman bookings, and small growth from WI Enterprises owing to new product costs.

Julia said that according to a survey carried out that 88% of members thought the membership fee was value for money.

Resolution – Alleviating Loneliness
There followed a lively discussion after the proposal and the expert opinions. Points from the delegates included taking in to account that it is not just the elderly who suffer but also children, young adults,  and new mums as well; that it was perhaps not a cause for legislation but more a coming alongside in the community.
 
     For – 4334
Against – 1919

The speaker for the morning was Jo Fairley of Green & Black’s chocolate.
Jo was not particularly ambitious at school just enjoyed school.  At careers day while friends were keen to be lawyers and doctors, she said she would like to be a secretary.  Her teacher said she would eat her hat if she even achieved that.

This spurred Jo on and she worked hard and became a journalist and the youngest editor of Womans World. By then she had married and her husband’s business was Wholefoods. She was keen on chocolate and he encouraged her to build up, market and finance the product. She was inspired and mentored by Anita Roddick (Body Shop), one of her mottoes being ‘Doing good is good for business’.

She called the chocolate Green & Blacks – green for organic, black for the darkest chocolate with the & which sounded as though it had been established in the 1800s.

She gave out a press release to old colleagues from her 
journalist days which stated ‘Guilt-free chocolate….well almost’ along with samples. This was the first Fairtrade chocolate and became £100m per annum turnover business.

The story of the source of the chocolate, the improvement of the lives of the villagers and workers is told on the inside of the wrappers.  This resulted in better education for the children, better housing and healthier foods for them all.

She told us that for success, you must work hard, have fun, and have good teamwork.

Presentations
The Lady Denman Cup was won by Carol Walden
The Huxley Cup by Ann Willetts
The Elizabeth Bell Challenge by Jenny Shaw.
During the lunch break of one and a half hours, there was time to eat, converse and visit the exhibition stands. A few members even had time to visit the Beatles Museum next door!

Next on the agenda were two constitutional (Ordinary) resolutions – Federations to become Incorporated and Federations to become Charitable Incorporated Organisations.  Both were passed.

Resolution – Plastic Soup 
Expert speaker Dr Natalie Welden of the Open University Research Department spoke most passionately about the damage and quantity of plastic in the oceans.
The way forward is to educate and encourage individuals, manufacturing companies, water plants and government to act.
Research, water plant filtration, washing machine filters and less use of man-made fibre clothing materials were some suggestions.
For – 6132
Against – 157

The guest speaker for the afternoon was Susie Dent of Countdown fame amongst other things.
Susie told us that she learnt to read at an early age and would read anything from shampoo bottles to cereal packets, and on car journeys would take a dictionary to read and learn 
new words. She has degrees in English and German and was encouraged to learn that many schools are teaching etymology.  

The English spellings are a minefield but actually the spelling helps tell the history of the word. For example ghost and ghastly had no ‘h’ until Caxton employed Flemish printers

Connections between words are not always obvious until you look further – true, betroth, trust and truce are from the same root but so is tree.  Steadfast, upright, solid, real.  You can see why.

Tweets and texts by (mostly) young people are not always bad because often you have to know the rules of grammar and spelling to be able to manipulate them.

Some words from other languages cannot be directly translated but need a sentence or two.  Hugge is a recent Scandinavian word.  Another new one is ‘lagom’ which means – not too much, not too little, but just right.

Susie was very pleased to have picked up a new word from a WI member who said while discussing hobbies that she enjoyed knitting, crochet, sewing and was ‘bi-stitchual’!

The new board was elected and the meeting ended with retiring Chair Janice Langley’s remarks including that the WI makes life better for women, therefore for their families, learning new skills, experiencing new things, education and opportunity.  The new website will help further this even more.

To close we had some great 60s music from ‘The Retro’s’ which had many dancing in the aisles.

We sang Jerusalem, Land of My Fathers (in Welsh with phonetics), and the National Anthem.

The drivers for the Norfolk coaches picked us up and then took us on a tour of Liverpool to see many of the sights – a 
lovely bonus.

We travelled home the next day, stopping at Boundary Mills retail outlet and arrived home in Norwich about 5.30pm, tired but happy.



At the Echo Arena


3 of our members with Wendy Adams




Inside the Adelphi Hotel.


4 of our members in the garden of WI house after arriving home

Wednesday 14 June 2017

Village Fete - Saturday 8th July 12pm - 5pm.


The Great Poringland Bake-off.


 "Great Poringland Bake Off" poster which is a charity initiative we are doing in aid of The Nook Appeal.  For any keen bakers, all you need to do is bake a cake that fits with the theme "10th Birthday" and you could win £50 Zaks voucher if the judging public vote you "Star Baker". 


Tuesday 4 April 2017

March meeting.


Poringland WI

At our meeting in March, the speaker was Daphne Howlett with her talk on Conchology.  She and her husband have collected shells from all over the world.  Starting small by bringing shells back from holidays and visits to our Norfolk beaches, they eventually joined the world wide collectors exchange network.  Their collection is housed in a caravan, and Daphne was only able to bring a small but varied selection to display.  Her talk gave a fascinating insight into the world of shells. The competition for an article made from Shell was won by Sue Cranmer with a shell decorated mirror.
As it is our Birthday in May, we shall all be going out to dinner at the Feathers, so there will be no meeting in the Community Centre.  At the beginning of June, 4 of our members will be attending the National AGM in Liverpool.  As well as the formal business, these meetings attract high profile speakers to inform and entertain us.  The 2 resolutions up for discussion this year will be how we can help people suffering from loneliness and concerns over microplastic soup from manmade fibres in our clothing, which is contaminating our oceans.  Worryingly, these minute particles get ingested by fish and can eventually end up in our diet.
Our next regular meeting will be on Wednesday 14 June, when Judith Sykes will be updating us on the Nook appeal.
We always make visitors very welcome at our meetings which take place on the second Wednesday evening each month except August in the Community Centre.  Details are to be found on our Blog page and in the foyer of the Centre.  If you would like to know more, or if you need a lift to the meetingcall Lesley on 01508 492155 or Pam on 01508 491674
Lesley Sanders

Monday 3 April 2017

Congratulations to one of our Poringland Wi members on their Golden wedding anniversary, March 2017.

Congratulations to David and Mary on their 50th Wedding Anniversary. 

Wednesday 22 March 2017





WI Group Meeting. 

WI members from several local WI groups attended the Group Meeting held at Broome Village Hall on Thursday March 16th.

The speaker was Mark Mitchels -Classic Children's Authors hosted by Ditchingham WI. 
Sue welcomed a very full hall of members who throughly enjoyed Marks excellent talk.  After tea the competition which was a member dressed as their favourite childrens book character was judged by Mark.
Poringland was very pleased to come first, Lesley was dressed as a Witch from the book Room on the Broom, well done Lesley.



The Leasley as the Witch on the Broomstick  came first, Bert from Mary Poppins second and the other 2 ladies joint 3rd, well done to each of them. 


Saturday 4 February 2017

2017 Subscription rates announced.

2017 subscription rates announced

  • The NFWI Board of Trustees has set the membership subscription for 2016 at £37.50
  • £19 of the subscription is kept by your WI, £8.80 will go to your federation and £11.20 will go to the NFWI
  • Subscriptions are due in January 2017. The WI subscription year runs from January to December
  • New members joining the WI for the first time, i.e. who have not previously been a member of any WI in the past 10 years, will pay a pro-rata subscription depending on the quarter in which they join The rate per quarter is shown in the following table
     
     
  • WI members can belong to more than one WI, by paying the full membership fee to the first WI, and a further £19 to any additional WIs at any time of the year. There is no pro-rata rate for dual membership
  • Each WI holds a minimum of eleven meetings each year and all members can contribute ideas to the annual programme of speakers, activities and events
  • WI Members will receive eight copies per year of the WI membership magazine, WI Life and be able to access resources and information on the website and the WI Moodle. WIs are also kept up to date with news by regular mailings from the NFWI
  • Federations also keep members informed about the wide variety of activities they offer to members regionally
We hope that you will enjoy your membership of the WI and all that it offers
This information can also be download as a PDF document here.
- See more at: https://www.thewi.org.uk/media-centre/news-and-events/current-news-and-events/2016-subscription-rates-announced#sthash.9tOU75Ob.dpuf

Monday 30 January 2017

Walking Netball.




Norfolk WI is hoping to become involved in organizing Walking Netball teams, any one interested, Lesley has played with a team and I scored, looks a great way to keep fit, enjoy yourself and 
Socialise.
Walking Netball has evolved from a growing demand for walking sports. Often, one of netball’s strengths is that people never forget playing the sport and the memories as well as the love for the game never leave.
Walking Netball is a slower version of the game; it is netball, but at a walking pace. The game has been designed so that anyone can play it regardless of age or fitness level.
From those who have dropped out of the sport they love due to serious injury, to those who believed they had hung up their netball trainers many years ago, it really is for everyone.
Women the length of the country have begun playing the game of Walking Netball for the fun, laughter and camaraderie the social session brings, as much as the health benefits on offer. It can give those who feel isolated an outlet, provide an activity for those who don’t deem themselves fit enough to run anymore and offer a stepping stone for those looking for a pathway back into netball.

Pam Cooper. 

Nofolk Blood Bikes.





Poringland WI

After the jollity of our December Christmas party, we had a sobering talk about the Norfolk Blood Bikes in January. We learnt that SERV Norfolk is a registered charity run by local volunteers and theytransport blood, plasma, platelet, samples, vaccines, factor VII, donor breast milk and any other urgently required medical items to hospitals.  They are on call at night, daytime weekends and bank holidays and the service is provided completely free of charge, allowing the NHS to divert funds where they are needed most.  The volunteers receive no financial compensation for their time or costs and rely on donations to cover the running costs of £3,000 per month needed to keep the motor bikes on the road.

At our meeting on 8 March, the speaker will be Daphne Howlett with a talk on Conchology.  Lots of shells will be on display, and the competition is for articles made from Shell.
We always make visitors very welcome at our meetings which take place on the second Wednesday evening each month in the Community Centre.  Details are to be found on our Blog page and in the foyer of the Centre, or phone if you would like to know more, or if you need a lift to the meeting.  Lesley 01508 492155 or Pam on 01508 491674
Lesley Sanders