STORRIDGE WI

In the absence of the president, Jean Davies welcomed members.

Members first thoughts were with the family of Jenny Wright who died on June 26 after a short illness. Jenny was a popular member of Storridge WI and a valued committee member who contributed much in the relatively short time that she had been part of our group. She will be sadly missed.

The summer outing has been planned for August 19 to go to Hereford Cathedral for a guided tour of the gardens.

A recording of the Annual Meeting held at the Royal Albert Hall in June is available for members to view. Details of the website are available from our secretary.

If any member wishes to submit a resolution for 2016, the forms and timetable are available from our secretary.

Members were pleased to welcome our speaker for the evening, Paul Betterton. The last time he visited, he talked about the SS Titanic but his subject for this visit was Needle making in Redditch.

His focus was on the humble sewing needle, although this was by no means the only type of needles made in and around Redditch.

Until the 1970’s, all of the UK and 50% of the rest of the world were supplied with needles made in the Redditch area. Whilst some of the processes took place in factories, much was done by outworkers in the needle makers cottages. Neighbours often had a hole in the wall (normally blanked off by a block of wood), through which they could pass the needles when they had completed their task, for the next process to be carried out.

Like many of these cottage industries, pay was poor and conditions were harsh. In fact the men that put the points on the needles, although top earners in the industry, had a life expectancy of just 35 years. Many died from what was called pointers rot, because of the particles of steel that entered their lungs as they carried out this process.

Although conditions did improve with the introduction of more sophisticated machinery and filtration equipment, the industry could not comply with the exacting standards required by the Health and Safety at Work Acts of the 1970’s and needle making was almost lost to the Redditch area. The talk was fascinating and it certainly opened members eyes to the amount of work that goes in to the making of a simple item that they buy cheaply and discard without thought!

The next meeting will be held on 1August 13 when Sheila Tremellen MBE will talk about PUPS – an organisation for re-homing unwanted puppies. Visitors are welcome.