There’s a lot going on a Grasmere WI !
Grasmere WI Meetings 2024
Our next meeting is Thursday 9th May in the Village Hall
Our Speaker will be Mark Hatton, who is talking on the fascinating topic of “German Miners in Elizabethan Grasmere ” . It sounds as if we are going to learn some new things about our village’s past !
Grasmere WI Officers and Committee 2024
President- Louise Sykes; Vice President -Sue Dixon
Treasurer -Melanie Miles; Secretary Diane Adams
Grasmere WI Committee members; Myra McCraith (Programme Secretary), Mary Bass, Jane Caven, Jacky Godfrey, Ann Jackman, Jennifer Hardisty, Jill Morrison, Angela Oldfield, Nicky Oliver, Pat Taylor.
Committee member Jacky Godfrey with Secretary Diane Adams, Treasurer Mel Miles and President Louise Sykes
Past President of Grasmere WI Jennifer Hardisty with President Louise Sykes.
A good committee is at the heart of every well run WI and Grasmere WI has a great committee. Each member brings her own talents and experience to the committee, which is elected at the AGM every March.
Subs for the year from 1 April 2024 are now due.
This year’s annual sub is £48. 00.
£23.60 of this comes to Grasmere WI, with the rest going to our Cumbria Westmorland Federation and the NFWI. Please pay your subs by bank transfer as usual, making sure your name is used as reference. Alternatively you can pay by cash or cheque at the next meeting.
We are now singed up for Gift Aid. If you are a tax payer please fill in the Gift Aid Form available from Louise or Mel. This allows us to claim tax back to use as part of our Grasmere WI funds.
Here’s our Grasmere WI Monthly 2024 meeting Programme. We usually meet at 2pm on the 2nd Thursday of the month at Grasmere Village Hall.
We have a brilliant programme of talks arranged.
We’re on an App!
Grasmere WI worked with Dr Jo Taylor of Manchester University and the Wordsworth Grasmere on this new free app. It’s an interactive walking app. Take Dorothy Wordsworth with you on your walks round Rydal and Grasmere, and receive alerts as you pass a place of interest where read Dorothy’s observations and you can listen to the voices of our members reading her words .
Just go to your App Store or Google play, search Dorthy Wordsworth Walking app and off you go.
Here’s the link to the page on Wordsworth Grasmere’s website which tells you about the app.
In addition to our monthly meetings –
Our Rambles will continue every 4th Thursday. We meet 2pm outside Sam Read’s. A short walk followed by tea and cakes in a cafe. Join us for the walk or just meeting up at the cafe!
Our GWI book group meets every month on a Tuesday evening at Allan Bank . Check our news page for the link to the books we’re reading and the dates of the meetings .
Our GWI Art appreciation Group also meets regularly.
Please click on the “latest news” link on the top of this page to go to our blog where you will find news and photos of our latest meeting, challenges, and events. The most recent post appears first. Scroll down for later posts.
We arrange lots of trips and visits for members to join in. We’ve had recent visits to Wensleydale Creamery and a Pamper Day at Kendal College. Future plans include a visit to Fellini’s Ambleside and a behind the scenes visit to Theatre by the Lake, Keswick.
Non members and visitors are welcome to attend our meetings, £5 charge including tea and cakes. A maximum of 3 meetings per year can be attended as a guest .
Come along for a free taster meeting -we’re a very friendly bunch ! We currently have over 70 members! There’s so much going on at GWI !
To see some of the many things we’ve been up to in the last few months take a look at our photos by clicking here.
Fundraising for St Mary’s Hospice
We started fundraising for St Mary’s Hospice Ulverston in February 2021 with our February stepping challenge during lockdown. Since then we have done two more stepping challenges, a squatting challenge, Louise and Jacky climbed Scafell Pike by night, clothes swaps, plant and preserves sales, and other social events. Our recent Burlesque Evening raised £1,200. In total we have raised £30,000 since February 2021.
Below- Sue D hands over the cash (over £200) from the plant and preserves swap and sale to Ali Alger from St Mary’s. Collected in the time honoured way in an old ice cream tub!
Below is a photo from our fun fundraising Burlesque evening, starring Miss Cherry Bombe Lindsey Barrell, who is an amazing speaker and also a WI President in Essex Federation. Here she is with our programme organiser Myra McCraith who planned the whole brilliant event.
Here are some of our recent activities.
In Grasmere Village we took part in the Traditional Grasmere Rushbearing In July. In August we donated and arranged a wonderful display of flowers in St. Oswald’s Church, in memory of our much loved past members.
We also saw Poet Laureate Simon Armitage at event hosted by Wordsworth Grasmere at the Daffodil Hotel.
Please click on this link to “A Busy Summer at GWI” to see lots of lovely photos
In September we went BIG at the Westmorland County Show. We entered 100 items in a wide range of categories in the CWFWI Comptetion. Well! We won BIG!
- 5 Trophies
- 41 Golds
- 19 Reds
- 37 Silvers
We are all absolutely delighted! Please click this link to read “GWI wins at the Westmorland Show ” and see lots of photos of prize winning entries
We’ve been on trips to Southport Flower Show, Salt’s Mill and Theatre By The Lake, Keswick
Our Challenges. We love a challenge!
Our Current challenge is our Lakes and Tarn Challenge
The challenge is to dip our toes in every lake and as many tarns as possible in the wonderful Lake District. Take a photo and share it to our WhatsApp group. The challenge is logged and kept up to date on a super spreadsheet. We’re over halfway through ! Open to all members.
Just for fun, no fundraising involved, we are trying to dip our toes in all 16 Lakes and 200 of the Lake District Information about the challenge plus the spreadsheet which records everything can be found by clicking here.
Grasmere WI Wainwright Challenge
We set ourselves the challenge of walking all the 214 Wainwrights between us. We started in August 2021.
We finished our challenge on 1 September 2022 with a group walk up Helm Crag followed by a superb treat- tea, cakes and Prosecco in Ann Jackman’s garden.
What an amazingly active group we are! We love a challenge! We did this for fun, to stretch ourselves, to encourage each other and to enjoy our amazing local area. We are so fortunate to be in the centre of the Lake District National Park.
Click here to go to our Wainwright Challenge Facebook page.
CWFWI
Grasmere WI is a member of the Cumbria Westmorland federation of WIs. Here’s our Federation website There are 70 WIs in our federation spread over a wide geographical area.
Join the WI
Membership runs from April 2024 to April 2025. This year’s subscription is £48
Grasmere W.I. 