STORRIDGE WI members were warmly welcomed by Catherine Best to their November meeting. Alfrick WI have extended a welcome to members to join them at their Christmas party on December 10.

As there is no meeting scheduled at Storridge in January, it was agreed that members would go out for dinner on January 8. The venue has yet to be agreed but do keep this date free, all details will be available at our next meeting.

Our speaker for the evening was David Hill who presented his slide show “Living in the past – Folk and Industrial Museums”. Not only were we able to learn about British museums, we were also able to see museums from many countries throughout the world.

It was surprising to learn that several buildings from Herefordshire have been rebuilt at Avoncroft Museum, including a Chapel which was originally sited on Bringsty Common. We saw the tram cars in action at the wonderful award winning museum at Beamish, how a visit to the Black Country Museum could take in a trip on the canal and at Ironbridge we saw much to be proud of in our industrial past.

From abroad we saw the different architectural and cultural styles – from the turf roofed cottages and farm buildings of Iceland and Norway, the onion domed churches of Russia to a Maori canoe in New Zealand and much more. The slide show gave us a rare and truly fascinating “step back in time”.

The next meeting will be held on December 11 when Tony Breedon will present a musical evening of “Popular Christmas Songs & Traditional Carols”. The competition will be a Christmas table decoration. Visitors will be most welcome.

JEAN DAVIES