February meeting with 'Mrs Barnsley' - Mel Dyke

Jean introduced our guest speaker Mel Dyke - known as 'Mrs Barnsley' and we then really enjoyed her highly informative and engaging talk about the talented 'folk' of her home town of Barnsley.

Mel is an ex-teacher and author of several books who kept us spell-bound with her entertaining anecdotes of famous people she'd met from Arthur Scargill to Geoff Boycott, Mick McCarthy to Katherine Kenny, Dickie Bird to Philip Mosley (Barnsley's real Billy Elliott who inspired the film and stage production).  Her books "All for Barnsley" and "Bus to Barnsley Market" really help to dispel the myth of Barnsley as a downtrodden town - it really has produced a wide variety of incredibly talented people.  Her passion for her home town was obvious to all and her books are well worth a read.

Members enjoying a chat with Mel after her talk

Barnsley High School 'girls' enjoying a catch-up!  Where have the years gone!!

After Sue Delany's vote of thanks we then had the business part of the meeting.  It was lovely to see Secretary Jean back on the 'top' table after a few months absence - she'd been missed.  Our February birthday girls received their cards before we enjoyed refreshments and a chat.

Happy 90th birthday to Elsie from us all.

Happy New Year 2017

The Trinity Centre was packed with members as Mary welcomed us to a new year of meetings with a heartfelt 'Happy New Year'.

After a rousing rendition of Jerusalem we were giving a brief resume of what we've got to look forward to in the year ahead both in terms of meetings, trips and outings and other wider WI activities.

Shiloh Rotherham thanked us for our tremendous support with their Christmas shoebox appeal and Mary mentioned that we would be supporting Weston Park Cancer Hospital once again this year with our annual 'Time 4 Tea' morning in conjunction with Holy Trinity Church.

After our January babies had received their 'happy birthday wishes', we'd paid our subs and voted for our WI Resolutions Rachel Lewis from Rotherham Society of Artists spoke to us about her work.

Rachel displaying some of her work

Rachel explained that despite enjoying Art as a subject at Primary and Secondary school, she had followed a 'science' based career into Physiotherapy.  It was only after the birth of twin boys in her early 40's that she started to take her 'Art' more seriously and won local and then national acclaim in competitions.  This success allowed her to start a second career as an Artist and Art teacher.

Pam and Rita admiring Rachel's winning entry to Eric Twigg Foods 50th Anniversary Competition

Sue - our Rotherham United Chief supporter proudly displaying the New York Stadium made of pies!!

After a question and answer session Sue Dixon gave a vote of thanks to Rachel before we could admire her work in more detail as well as have the opportunity to buy some of her work in the form of greeting cards, bookmarks and present tags.

Whilst we enjoyed a coffee and chat after the presentation, Joan Corker (also a member  of Rotherham Society of Artists) explained to us the 'art' of Zentangle - a form of creative doodling.  Joan said that as long as we could hold a pencil we could  do it and we were soon relaxing and losing ourselves in patterns making bookmarks.

 

Sheila - engrossed in Zentangling!

A lovely relaxed evening and great way to start 2017.

Happy New Year to all members - not only Thorpe Hesley but all those in the Rockley group and wider Federation.

Christmas Cheer at Shiloh

All members were invited to support Shiloh (the Homeless shelter in Rotherham) give their guests a Christmas to remember.  Generous donations were made ........

........... present boxes were made up and decorated  .....

......... Sheila and Rev Lynn Broadhead presented the gifts to Shiloh to be given out by

Father Christmas at the guests Christmas Dinner.

.......... Sheila receiving a thank you hug from Shiloh Founder Sue Savage.

Shiloh would like to thank all our WI members for their incredible generosity and wish us all a Merry Christmas and Happy New year.

We wish the same for them as they move into new, larger premises to serve the disadvantaged and vulnerable people of Rotherham to rebuild their lives.

Christmas Party with the Thorpe Hesley Village Choir

The committee certainly worked hard to ensure we had a really good end to the WI year.  The tables in the Trinity Centre were decorated beautifully as we were greeted by a welcome drink and Christmas music.

Ready to enjoy a wonderful meal ......

Pat and Carolyn getting in a party mood!

Our outside caterers for the evening really served up a festive feast ....

.......... with sweets produced by our resident chef Pam. The only problem was we had too much choice!! (Why is life so difficult!)

Tea ladies Sheila and Ann served us well before we enjoyed a wonderful selection of Christmas carols and songs by our local village choir.

Cheers!  Our glamourous tea ladies

Sarah and the Village Choir

Arthur giving a wonderful solo

 Jingle bells - percussionists Jean, Ann and Alison

A really lovely evening finished with us all getting a Christmas present to take home and put under the Christmas tree.

What a wonderful year of WI meetings - thanks to all committee members for their hard work.

Wentworth WI Christmas Party

A large number of members, dressed in their Christmas Finery, enjoyed an evening of wonderful hospitality provided by Wentworth WI.

After a rousing 'Vaudeville' rendition of Jerusalem we were soon tucking in to a superb Christmas buffet - the sweets were amazing!!

Jerusalem

Our excellent musicians for the evening raising money for Weston Park Hospital -

one of our favourite charities

Sybil, Linda, Angela and Pam with members from Wath WI

Cheers!!

Joan and Ruth from Chapeltown WI getting in to the 'Christmas Spirit' with Ann and Sheila

Guess which table won the Quiz!!

After a really lovely evening we were all given a little gift to bring home.

Happy Christmas to Wentworth WI as well as others from the Rockley Group.

Christmas Tree Festival

Mary and Sylvia did a fantastic job decorating the tree with all the items made by members at the crafting session.  Holy Trinitys' Christmas Fayre and Tree Festival was once again a great success with over 800 visitors during the weekend.  Voters placed our tree 2nd behind the Mens Breakfast tree so we were very pleased with the result of voting.

Jayne, Jean, Sheila, Elsie, Pat and Ann inspect the tree.

Doesn't the church look wonderful!

Going to the Dogs! (Owlerton Stadium)

Even though it was cold and miserable outside, the restaurant at the Owlerton Stadium was warm and inviting as 27 members and friends/husbands took their seats for what proved to be a really enjoyable evening.

Sheila and table ready for the first race!

Sue, Joan, Dorothy and Guests

Pat, Jill and Anne ready for a 'winning' evening!

Cheers!!

The start of an excellent meal .....

Jean and Pat enjoyed the roast lamb and all the trimmings ....... and the puddings were delicious as well.

Sybil presents the winning raffle prize ......

........... whilst Jayne collects her winnings!!               

Well done Sybil on organising another great evening of WI friendship - we all had a great time.