Her mum Jody said her daughter, a pupil at St Joseph’s School in Salisbury, had been keen to join the WI since seeing the WI magazine lying around. "I took her to a meeting with me a few months ago - she had actually expressed an interest several times because she had seen the WI magazine. She enjoyed the speaker so much and was in fits of laughter, and then hassled me to let her join. It was "How to stay young and beautiful" – lots of beauty tips from the 1950s."

"Mum going to these meetings and they sounded interesting, so I asked if I could go along too," said Ashleigh. "I liked it, so I joined. I think the WI is nice because the people in it are really kind. My friend Emma, who is like a sister to me, says she is thinking of joining!"

Ashleigh loves cooking, reading and horse riding, but sadly her leg is still not well and she faces up to four further operations (to date she has now had 16) and is still unable to attend school full time.

"But she is hoping to be well in time to make bread for the summer fete," said Jody.

A spokesman for the NFWI said there is no official lower age limit for members to join, and the youngest member known of in the UK is currently aged 10.

Welcome to the WI, Ashleigh – we are proud to have you join us.

FARM DIVERSIFICATION IN ACTION - A VISIT BY KILMINGTON & MAIDEN BRADLEY WI

Member Sarah Twigger invited our WI to hold their Summer Picnic just “over the border” in Somerset , at her home - Monksham Farm, Marston Bigot, near Frome.  It was was, thankfully, a dry evening (after weeks of rain) and twenty ladies - all wearing very sensible footwear - made a fascinating farm tour before the serious business of eating and drinking took place!  Sarah’s son Patrick showed us the various enterprises he has embarked upon (in addition to farming, of course!).

We met initially in the superb computerised classroom created upstairs in an old barn.  Parties of school children and other groups paid for by DEFRA come here to learn about the innovative work done on the farm.  Down below this room we entered the area utilised as a crockery/glassware hire operation.  We saw industrial dishwashers and a cutlery polisher, all of which make short work of dirty crockery returned after a function.  Next door is a room with piles of plates and glasses of all sizes, awaiting their next outing, perhaps to a Wedding…….!

Our next stop was a large barn where we found big bales of Miscanthus giganteus (elephant grass).  This plant is grown as a bio-fuel crop on land that was previously “set-aside”.  Also in the barn were huge piles of firewood – a bi-product of the on farm coppicing also carried out here.  Timber is sawn into logs, mixed with hardwood such as ash, and sold.  Across the yard we were led to huge piles of green waste Patrick accepts for Mendip Council.  After sieving and processing this is turned into good compost that is spread on his farm land.
After a brief (rather smelly!) peek at pigs being finished in yet another barn, our group walked down the margin of a barley field to have a close look at huge swathes of the growing elephant grass.  Apparently its energy is stored in the thick stems and can be released by burning as industrial fuel.  All this activity had given us all an appetite, so we returned to the classroom to share our Picnic Supper and have a question and answer session with Patrick.  This had been a very informative evening – a real “eye-opener” for us all.

WESTBURY WOMENS INSTITUTE

In August Mary Kneen (President) Daphne Steel (Vice-President) and Marie Burrell (programme Sec), went to the RUH in Bath to present 92 toiletry bags, plus three bathroom bags. This was enough to cover three wards.  The whole afternoon proved to be quite a humbling experience. I wish I could have taken all our members with us. We were made so welcome and the staff on the wards were very pleased to see us. It was also a sad reminder of the time when we saw a notice on one of the ward doors that they needed toiletries.
                              
At our January meeting, Anne Scheidegger, one of our members, told us, that a member of her family, who is on the staff of the RUH mentioned that a lot of patients who come into the hospital as an emergency do not have any toiletries with them.

As our WI no longer runs local coffee mornings, it was suggested that we find another outlet as our way of help in the local community.

It has already proved a useful project.  One of our members fell badly in Westbury and had to be taken to the RUH.  She had broken her wrist and was unable to return home. As there was no way of getting into this ladies home, we were able to provide her with a bag of toiletries and with the help of several members; we were able to also supply her needs for her stay.

This was a good team effort in our WI and with some help from friends; we were able to obtain everything we needed from shops in Westbury and Trowbridge.  Some members got together to fill the toilet bags and we have also had some donations towards some more supplies from people outside of our WI.   (We did get our picture and the story in three local papers, so that helped).  We now just send a bag of things when we have them, to top up.

We hope that we may have inspired other people to do something similar.

Mary Kneen
President