There’s a lot going on at Grasmere WI !
Grasmere WI Meetings 2025/6
Here is the full programme of our monthly meetings for the year April 2025- March 2026.
Our next meeting is Thursday 8 January 2026, 2pm, Grasmere Village Hall
Our member Joanne Favell has been researching the archives of Grasmere WI and she’s going to share her findings with us.
It will be fascinating to hear about our predecessors’ activities.
Tea and cakes as usual!
We don’t have a meeting in December, but about 60 of us will be having lunch and fun at Tweedies on Thursday 11 December.
We really look forward to our Christmas Party !
Grasmere WI Officers 2025/6
President- Louise Sykes
Treasurer -Melanie Miles; Secretary Jane Caven
Grasmere WI Committee members; Sue Dixon (Vice President), Myra McCraith , Jacky Godfrey, Ann Jackman, Jennifer Hardisty, Jill Morrison, Angela Oldfield, Nicky Oliver (Programme Secretary), Pat Taylor.
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.
Members of the Committee at March 2025 AGM in front of the famous Rushbearing Painting in the Village Hall. L to R- Jane Caven, Mary Bass, (recently retired from committee) Sue Dixon, Jennifer Hardisty, Louise Sykes, Jill Morrison, Pat Taylor, Jacky Godfrey.
This March we had a very sociable AGM with a get to know you “Speed Meet” (lightly based on speed dating!) as we’ve now got over 80 members. We were all wearing name badges – a big help!
L to R, Mel, Jill and Jane, with bell, timer, and questions for our “Speed Meet”
There were. also , of course, lots of cakes. There’s no such thing as a dull AGM at GWI.
Grasmere WI walk the Cumbrian Way ! Our new Challenge for 2025-26.
Grasmere WI members just love a physical challenge.
We’ve run our February Stepping Challenge for St Mary’s Hospice for 5 years!
We climbed all 214 Wainwrights between us in 2021-22 !
In 2023-24 we dipped our toes in all the Lakes and Tarns of Lakeland! 16 lakes and 235 tarns, some of which had previously been unmapped!
Our latest challenge is to walk all of the Cumbria Way from Carlisle to Ulverston. Many thanks to member Ali Ring who suggested this challenge, and to all who have helped organise it. A huge amount of work has gone into breaking the walk down into 13 sections of approximately 6 miles, making it possible for as many members as possible to complete all or part of the walk. The chart below shows the dates of the walks, one per month, the location, distance and ascent of each .
We have a new page dedicated to the Cumbrian Way Challenge. It’s a work in progress! The page and the Challenge. Click here to go to the Cumbrian Way Challenge Page.
Wednesday 16 April 2025- we’re off!
Getting together in Carlisle at the start of the first section of the walk.
We finished the walk at the Bridge End Pub Dalston– great hospitality, plus great scones. GWI are never far away from cake!
Members who weren’t able to join the group walk are making their own arrangements on other days. Some will do all the stages, other just a few. We hope as many members as possible (we’ve got around 80 members) will take some part. We aim to finish the walk in October 2026 at the lovely Orangery Cafe, St Mary’s Hospice Ulverston.
You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram for more photos and information . Facebook link here. For Instgram just search for GrasmereWI.
There’s lots going on at Grasmere WI
In addition to our main monthly meetings we have lots of subgroups.
Our Ramble is the fourth Thursday of the month. Meet at 2pm outside Sam Read’s for a walk and chat, followed by a cafe stop for tea and cakes. No booking needed. Just turn up.
Our Art Group meets regularly for practical sessions and visits to galleries,
Our Book/Culture Group meets monthly at Allan Bank to discuss the book of the month. We also go on visits to the Theatre, Cinema and Exhibitions. Here is the list of books we’re reading in 2025.
Please note a change to the schedule. September’s booked group has been moved to Tuesday 30 September.
Our Crochet Group had started with Sue Needham helping us to learn.
Our Craft Group is a new group. Some of us have already done a session glassmaking with Amanda Ashton, and doing ceramic flower work at Allan Bank.
Our Garden Group is another new group, started at the suggestion of Hayley Davidson who volunteers at Holehird and runs their social media. We’ve got garden visits planned, and we have a WhatsApp group to share photos and advice. Our first visit to Sizergh was a huge success.
GWI Strong meets on Tuesday afternoons at the Village Hall. Local Fitness instructor Libby Dixon puts us through our paces using kettleballs.
GWI Badminton is another new group , led by Jane McGregor, 2pm Wednesdays in the Village Hall.
An extract from our latest newsletter with dates for these events can be seen here.
Grasmere WI Schedule 2025
We have so much going on that President Louise decided to organise all our events onto a colour coded chart This is updated regularly and is a fabulous reference point .
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 80 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.
Grasmere WI went BIG at the Westmorland Show 2024 and we have big plans for 2025 too.
Our talented members entered over 160 items in a wide range of classes.
We won three trophies, and members won 56 individual Golds, 61 Silvers and 39 Reds. Absolutely outstanding!
Here is a selection of some of our winning entries.
Our 105th Birthday Party at Allan Bank
The first Grasmere WI meeting was held on 19 June 1919. We decided to have a big celebration! Our party took place at NT Allan Bank on Friday 21 June 2024. We had a wonderful day!
Five Presidents enjoyed the 105th Party
The 2024/5 Committee on the stairs. On left going up from front; Pat Taylor, Diane Adams, Louise Sykes, Sue Dixon, Angela Oldfield, Mel Miles, Nicky Oliver, Jennifer Hardisty. On Right coming down from top; Mary Bass, Ann Jackman, Jill Morrison, Myra McCraith, Jacky Godfrey, Jane Caven
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 three more stepping challenges and we’re now on our 5th! We’ve done a squatting challenge, Louise and Jacky climbed Scafell Pike by night, clothes swaps, plant and preserves sales, a Burlesque evening and other social events. In total we have raised over £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!
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Our Challenges. We love a challenge!
February Stepping Challenge for St Mary’s Hospice
Our 2025 Stepping Challenge is over! We’ve raised £2,390 plus £532.50 Gift Aid! Thanks to everyone who took part .We’ve been out and about in all weather stepping for St Mary’s Hospice Ulverston, our Grasmere WI Charity since 2021.
To support us by making a donation please click through here to our Just Giving page . The page is remaining open for a short time- further donations very welcome.
We have completed our Lakes and Tarn Challenge
The challenge was 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 was logged and kept up to date on a super spreadsheet.
We found and dipped in 235 tarns! We think we discovered several unmarked new tarns ! We ended our challenge with lake 16 – our very own Grasmere .
We celebrated with Prosecco and cakes ( of course) whilst our braver/ crazier members went for a full swim
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 2025 to April 2026. This year’s subscription is £51
Grasmere W.I. 