Welcome to all Members and Visitors
Find us on Facebook
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Drene Baker our WI President who sadly lost her life to cancer on Friday 20th August 2021, at home with her family. Her funeral was held at Holy Trinity Church, Belbroughton on 9th September 2021 at 2pm followed by cremation at Redditch.
Her time as President included our Centenary which was interrupted by Covid and she will be sadly missed.
Chaddesley Corbett WI is a thriving group of around 70 members who are friendly and enthusiastic. We meet together each month to enjoy demonstrations and talks on a variety of subjects given by experienced speakers. Other activities include our craft group for the creative, a book club for those who enjoy reading, skittles and rambling for the energetic and the lunch club for all who enjoy eating and talking!
For the more adventurous, Worcestershire Federation provide groups to cater for art, public affairs, sport, science, drama, home economics, regular outings to places of interest and holidays in the UK and abroad. There is sure to be something to interest you.
Do pay us a visit and find out more. A warm welcome awaits you at Chaddesley Corbett WI.
Have a look through our website to see more about the sort of things we get up to. To contact us and get directions to our meeting place please go to our Contact Us page.
2022
meetings & events
to look forward to
Any get togethers are subject to any Covid regulations at the time! In light of the current high incidence of Omicron cases, we may decide to switch some meetings to Zoom. Members will be informed via email.
January Craft Group
Wednesday 26th January 2022
Chaddesley Corbett Village Hall at 7.30pm
Planning meeting and UFO’s (bring your unfinished items to the Village Hall).
February Monthly Meeting
Wednesday 2nd February 2022
Chaddesley Corbett Village Hall at 7.30pm
The 4 Invasions of the Wyre Forest. Geoff describes his talk as a 'fun' evening, more jitterbug than military!
February Book Club
Monday 14th February 2022
Jill's House at 7.30pm
We will be discussing 'The Italian Villa' by Daniela Sacerdoti
Flower Festival Weekend
It has been decided that the Flower Festival Weekend which was due to be held on 26th/27th September 2020 will now be held in 2022.
Don't forget to look at our Programme, Activities and Centenary pages to see what else is happening during the year.
what DID we GET
up to in 2020?
Some of our members enjoyed a socially distanced ramble in September.
Community Litter Pick - thanks to all those who turned up in the pouring rain, we got really wet but we collected in just 1 hour 11 bags of rubbish! We worked in two’s so we were able to socially distance. It was certainly a good effort and something we’ll do again, hopefully not in the rain!
October Monthly Meeting
Wednesday 7th at 7.00 pm via Zoom
27 members and 5 husbands enjoyed hearing Sylvia Beardshaw’s entertaining talk about Chaddesley Corbett from 1900 -1950. Sylvia showed us some wonderful photos of the period which really brought it all to life and we look forward to seeing her finished book when it is published. Thank you very much Sylvia.
October Commemorative Tree Planting
Wednesday 28th at 11.00 am
CCWI held the one and only event to commemorate its Centenary Year by planting a Rowan Tree on the Green opposite the Church and entrance to the village. Our President, Drene, brought her own spade along to top up the hole with soil but, because of Covid restrictions, only just a few of us could be present. However, an invited guest was Councillor Will Mack, Chairman of the Parish Council and also present was Rosabelle Needham, our longest serving member whose mother was a member in 1920 when Chaddesley WI came into being. Following the ‘Ceremony’ the few of us that were present appropriately sang Jerusalem before going our separate ways.
Thanks to Sylvia Beardshaw who organised the purchase from Woodrow Nursery and also the guys who dug the hole and then put the stakes in and erected the barrier. We can’t help feeling some regret as this could have been a really fantastic get together but at least we have managed to carry out one event this year, the tree is now planted and we trust it will thrive and give pleasure to generations to come.
October Craft Group
Wednesday 28th at 7.30pm via Zoom
Sixteen members enjoyed our first Zoom Craft Group meeting where Wendy King demonstrated how to make a fabric floral wreath. It was a very successful evening and members sewed along with Wendy and produced some lovely flowers.
November Monthly Meeting
Wednesday 4th November at 7.00 pm via Zoom
This was another Zoom Meeting with our speaker Julian Hunt presenting his talk on “The Blue Bird Toffee Factory”. In 1927 Harry Vincent brought his toffee factory from Birmingham to the wide open spaces of Hunnington (near Halesowen). He built a model village for his key workers and provided work for over 300 locals, many of whom were women. Julian gave members a really interesting, illustrated talk about the factory and the people who worked there and several members shared their own personal memories too.
November Craft Group
Wednesday 25th at 7.30pm via Zoom
Twelve members had a fun evening making Paper Angel Christmas Decorations, thank you Ruth is for doing the demonstration. We finished the evening with a Christmas themed music quiz to get us all in a festive mood.
December Monthly Meeting
Wednesday 2nd December at 7.00 pm via Zoom
Joyce Valentine gave a brilliant flower arranging demonstration via zoom for 31 of our members. She showed members how to make three different arrangements, including a wreath for the front door and a lovely centrepiece for the dining table. They all looked beautiful and hopefully people were inspired to have a go themselves. Thank you very much Joyce.
2021
WHAT HAVE WE DONE THIS YEAR
We finally held our Centenary Lunch at Brockencote in November 2021, just a year after we were originally due to celebrate our 100 years. The event was a huge success, well worth waiting for, with over 50 members enjoying a delicious meal.
CCWI celebrated their 101st Birthday with a visit from The Worcester Ukelele Band who were supposed to join us last year to celebrate our Centenary but of course Covid put paid to that. The band provided a fun and entertaining evening playing and singing their way through 100 years of toe tapping songs. Members enjoyed a glass of fizz and a slice of Birthday Cake which was cut by Drene’s daughter and sister Rosemary.
Our charity for the Centenary year, chosen by Drene, was Nightstop, which is based in Kidderminster and Lisa came along to accept all the bags of toiletries that members had kindly donated.
At our October Craft Group meeting members had a go at quilling and created a simple candle holder. You can see how they turned out below. Thank you to Ann for a very enjoyable evening.
Members at September's Craft Group learnt how to sew Australian Cross Stitch and how to make lavender bags using their designs.
Centenary plus one Garden Party
In August 2021 we held a lovely delayed Centenary Garden Party. The weather stayed dry and 30 members enjoyed home made savouries, scones and cakes at tables decorated with flowers arranged by Rosabelle. There was a presentation for our Chairman's Challenge Community award from the Worcestershire federation of WIs (see above for more details about our entry). Members also brought donations of toiletries for the Night stop Charity helping homeless young people.
We all enjoyed meeting up after so long and for some it was a first social gathering since lock down.
Thanks to the Committee for a very successful event delayed a year.
Please click on the picture below to see some photos of members enjoying themselves.
Some of our members recently enjoyed a guided tour of Morton Hall Gardens followed by a lunch in the sunshine.
Book Club members were able to enjoy their June meeting in the garden. It was wonderful to get together in person at last!
We had tea towels printed as part of our Centenary Year celebrations in 2020. Our talented member, Jackie, has made some of them into aprons as you can see in the photo below.
Here's a beautiful lemon cake that our member Kate Williams baked using a recipe from the April edition of the County Newsletter.
At our Zoom Craft Meeting on March 24th Ruth showed us how to embroider on a paper napkin. The results were very effective and we were able to create some very pretty greetings cards. Thank you Ruth for an enjoyable evening.
For our Zoom May Craft Meeting members had dug out all their old buttons in preparation for creating pictures and cards. Wendy gave us ideas and a short demonstration before everyone had a go themselves. The finished results were very effective.
HAVE YOU GOT TIME ON YOUR HANDS?
Then why not join us at Chaddesley Corbett WI
Walk with us on one of our Monthly Rambles.
Start reading our latest Book Club book.
Try a new craft at our Craft Group.
Have a chat over Lunch at a local pub
or restaurant.
Support our Skittles team, or even have a go!
Come along with us on one of our Outings.
Join our Virtual Travel Club Zoom meetings.
Check out the Activities pages for more information.
Get in touch via our Contact Us page.
MEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTION
EXTENSION
The NFWI has been very concerned about the disruption this lockdown period has had on WI meetings and activities and your membership experience this year. They recently held consultations with all federations to discuss ways in which they can acknowledge this in the membership subscription this year.
The NFWI are delighted to share with you that as a result they are offering a three month extension to this year’s membership subscription. The next renewal date for membership subscriptions will therefore be 1st April 2021 and the cost will be £44. In addition, from this point onwards, membership renewals will always be in April.
Pro-rata subscription for new members in their first year:
New members joining the WI from April 2021 for the first time, or 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.
Date of joining 2021 Total subscription
1 April-30 June £44.00
1 July-30 Sept £33.00
1 Oct-31 Dec £22.00
1 Jan-31 March £11.00
They have added full FAQs to My WI to help you understand a bit more about the process and how this will impact WIs. The FAQs can be found here.
