IT WAS time to get out their best hats. Members of the Women’s Institute were heading to Buckingham Palace for a garden party.

Five hundred members from all over England had been invited by the Queen to mark the organisation’s golden jubilee in 1965.

This picture shows the contingent from villages in North Oxfordshire before they set off by coach from Banbury for their big day in London.

This year is another landmark in Women’s Institute history, with celebrations marking the centenary of the organisation in Britain. The first WI was formed in Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada, in 1897 as a branch of the Farmers’ Institute.


Memory Lane this week

Inspired by a talk given by Adelaide Hoodless at a Farmers’ Institute meeting, local farmers Erland and Janet Lee were instrumental in setting up the new organisation.

The Ontario government supported them, appointing Laura Rose to be the first organiser in 1899.

The movement brought women from isolated communities together and offered training in home economics and child care as well as farm work traditionally done by women, such as poultry keeping and animal husbandry.

The WI arrived in Britain in 1915, with countrywomen encouraged to get involved in growing and preserving food to avoid families starving during the First World War.

The first British branch was formed at Llanfair on Anglesey on September 16, 1915. The first in England followed at Singleton in Sussex.

The first WI in Oxfordshire was formed at Kelmscott, near Witney, in 1916 (it closed in 1992). The oldest WIs still flourishing in Oxfordshire, all formed in 1918, are at Steeple Aston, Clanfield, Wolvercote, Milton-under-Wychwood, Cassington and Burford & Fulbrook.

The Oxfordshire Federation of Women’s Institutes was formed in 1919. Today, it is the umbrella group for nearly 150 branches in the county.

Oxfordshire also hosts Denman College, in Marcham, near Abingdon, which is the national WI college, named after Lady Denman, the first chairman of the National Federation.

The Georgian building was bought in 1947 and officially opened in 1948. It offers a wide range of courses, including art, craft, health and fitness, drama, food, gardening, IT and photography, to WI members from all over the country.

As part of the centenary celebrations, a baton is making its way across the UK. It began its journey in Anglesey, where the movement began in 1915, on January 1 last year and will visit every federation on its 18-month tour. It is due in Oxfordshire between April 14 and 21.


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