STORRIDGE WI

WITH Catherine Best away on her spring holiday, Jean Davies welcomed members to their April meeting.

An invitation has been received to join Alfrick WI at their annual summer garden meeting. More details will be available next month.

Members were asked to give thought to how they would like to celebrate the centenary of the WI in September. Ideas that the committee had were shared with members but, this is only the starting point so let’s all start thinking of how we would like to celebrate in Storridge.

With next month being the AGM, members were asked to consider if they would like to join the committee, or put their name forward to take over the position of one of the officers.

The speakers for the evening were Mr and Mrs Betts who shared their lovely and rare photographs of Witley Court, some of them as it is currently, others as it was when it was the venue for Royal House Parties before the fire of 1934. The Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, was a regular visitor to the Court and photographs of him were included in the slide show. The beautiful fountains which were once fed by gravity from reservoirs at Martley, still operate every hour when Witley Court is open to visitors and the wide gravel paths are still there for visitors to walk on (although they are no longer raked twice each day by an army of servants).

The 90 feet long golden gates that once opened to allow the carriages in are now sited in a theme park in Arizona, close to the old London Bridge! The slides showing the garden as it is currently, illustrate just how much effort English Heritage have put in to the Court. Well worth a visit to such a treasure that is on our doorstep.

Our next meeting will take place on May 14 and is the Resolutions and Annual General Meeting.