December 2025 – Christmas Party

We welcomed 47 members to our Christmas Party. The committee had worked hard to decorate the room and tables, prepare a delicious buffet, and organise a variety of entertainment. Members were welcomed with wine or non-alcoholic punch and sat at tables of 7/8 – a popular size which made it easy to chat to our fellow members.

After a leisurely meal Susan, our retiring present, was given a gift of a planter as a thank you for all she has done during 2025. We then had a variety of activities.

  • A quiz – ‘How well do you know your committee?’ We all found out something new about them!
  • A ‘steal raffle’. Names were drawn and there were 12 prizes. After all the prizes had been allocated, later winners had to steal their prize from someone else!
  • A Pantomime – Committee members dressed appropriately as they took on their roles and read a ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ story, in several short acts.
  • Standing Bingo – each given a raffle ticket. All stood up at the start, then had to sit down if their number was drawn, until only 1 winner remained
  • Carols – To finish the entertainment each table given a carol which they sang to their audience

The table decorations, which included pretty pansy plants, were taken home by the members as their WI gift. A very enjoyable evening, we had a lot of positive feedback from those present.

November 2025 – Subgroup meetings

Book Club – Our book for November was ‘A Tidy Ending’ by Joanna Cannon, an unusual ‘black comedy’ story. Comments about the book were very varied, with one score of 10, but mostly in the 4-6 range. We did think it gave a good insight into the main character’s autistic tendency which led to an interesting discussion.

Craft Group

19 ladies, yes we have broken the record again for attending the afternoon of paper box making. everyone was thrilled to bits as they could make more than one box all tied with a curly ribbon in an afternoon and thanks to Jean, templates were ready and a choice of a super collection of paper was waiting to be cut and folded.




Jean also brought along her homemade wonderful advent calendar – showing how small patterns of cross stitch which was the craft afternoon in October can be used. Could this be next years long term project?

Baking Beauties – anything Christmassy

A small group of bakers met to discuss Christmas bakes. Stollen was the clear favourite. We also took the opportunity to discuss ideas for 2026. Our next meeting will be the 30th January. Jonty has given us a technical challenge ! Your recipe must include 4oz fat and 8oz flour (you can add other ingredients to this).

Art Group – Art




We had a theme of ‘Christmas’. Some of us painted a Christmas scene/card but others, led by Chris S, made Christmas Angels. Chris brought along a small olive tree from her garden, beautifully decorated with angels she had made. She showed us how to fold a piece of Chrismas paper (or a very plain loaf tin liner) to make our own angels. Very pretty – Chris will bring her decorated tree along to our Christmas Party to share with our members.

November 2025 – Main Meeting

We welcomed 45 members to our November meeting which included our Annual Meeting.

Our planned speaker was unable to join us, but Christine Gould kindly came along and shared her experience as a volunteer for the Fairtrade Stall in Warrington Market. She set up a mini-stall for our meeting.

We started the evening with the Annual Meeting. Pat shared the Financial Report demonstrating a healthy Bank Balance, while subsidising several events to ensure our members get good value for their subscription. Jean presented the annual report as a slideshow, reminding members about the very varied programmes for our main meetings, for our subgroups and for Group and County events. You can browse through this website to see how busy we have been. We now have 62 members.

Susan thanked the committee and members for their support during the year which has been a busy and successful one for our WI. She is standing down from the President role. Jean was elected as President for 2026, she thanked members very much. Sue R thanked Susan and her committee for all their work during the year.

The competition for ”A theatre or concert programme’ (linked to our original planned speaker) was won by Annette.

October 2025 – Subgroup meetings

Book club – our October book was ‘The Moonlight Garden ‘by Rosie Hannigan. Views on the book were mixed. Most found it an easy, fairly light read and some felt it was a bit ‘wishy washy’ with not a lot of depth to it. The average score was 6.9.

Walking Group – Several members from Whitley and Dutton WI joined the CFWI fund raising walk around Delamere on National Restart a Heart Day. After a very comprehensive demonstration on how to work the equipment we did a 2.6 mile walk on the paths in the forest. Through the trees we saw the water of The Blakemere Moss and the leaves were just changing into their autumn colours. Acorns and chestnuts were scattered all along the paths crunching under our feet with red fungi popping through the undergrowth. We finished with lunch in the Visitors Centre.

Craft Group – 9 ladies enjoyed an afternoon with Melanie learning how to make our own Cross stitch Christmas cards. We were all given a piece of 14 count Aida to mark the centre and from this worked our design outwards. We had to ensure that the finished design was centered and therefore would fit into our ready made three fold card. Although none of us actually finished our stitching, a new craft for many of us, we all took our pieces home to finish and promised to send us a photo of the finished cards.

Art Group – Last month Joan gave us a fascinating talk about Monet and the Impressionists, and this month we all had a go at copying some of their work, inspired by the wonderful book that Joan put together with her copies of their work. Some chose watercolours, some chose acrylics but we did enjoy the simplicity of this style of painting.

Baking Beauties – Halloween – We held an evening meeting so those who have other daytime commitments could join us. 20 members were there to sample a great selection of bakes with a little duplication. We did have 2 wonderful ‘ghost cakes’ – the same recipe but slightly different appearance – can you spot them in the photo? It was interesting to hear the trouble members had gone to preparing the pumpkins for their bakes – not the easiest task! A very enjoyable and tasty evening.

October 2025 – Main Meeting – Members Night

Thanks to our members night committee who ran the meeting and gave our Whitley Committee a night off. Deborah W was acting President, Mary L acting Secretary and they were joined by Mary H and Liz T. The committee was assisted by volunteers Caroline P and Vanessa D.

The excellent speaker was Joanne Goodwin, editor of Cheshire Life.

She talked to us about her early career in a daily Stoke newspaper, with the pressures of daily deadlines. This was in the days before the widespread use of technology, when women didn’t have any senior roles in journalism. She rose to the role of editor of Cheshire News, a monthly rather daily publication, just as COVID broke out.

She is committed to changing public perception of the magazine from that of ‘elitist’ for the wealthier Cheshire residents to one relevant to a much wider audience. In the Q&A session it became apparent that several of our members had made an appearance in Cheshire Life.

Our speaker had requested delicious WI cakes that all could enjoy . Our Baking Beauties provided a delicious assortment. The competition ‘What Cheshire Means to You’ was won by Mary H with a photo of her wedding many years ago in Cheshire Life.

November will be our Annual Meeting – Susan asked members to contact her if they were interested in joining our committee. We will be entertained by Ben Gage – ‘Collecting Careers’.