Reports
Unfortunately lockdown happened so no face-to-face meetings from March
- instead we held Zoom sessions
15th December
24th November 27th October 22nd September 8th September 25th August 11th August 28th July 14th July 30th June 16th June 2nd June 19th May 5th May |
Christmas Meeting
November - Annual Meeting October Meeting Quiz Session 7 - Bingo Session 4 - Quiz Session 6 - Bingo Session 3 - Quiz Session 5 - Bingo Session 2 - Quiz Session 4 - Bingo Session 1 - Quiz Session 3 - Quiz Session 2 - Quiz Session 1 - |
In this meeting we all had Christmas hats or Jumpers on to get us into the spirit. After the business of the day was finished we had a little Christmas Quiz. We then ran through the Puzzles that had been sent out and revealed the answers. Also we answered the 40 'Mostly Chocolate' Quiz given out in our goody bags last month. The winner was Sue Blantern, with Barbara Foster second and Karen and her boys third, with Lynda Searle fourth. Well done ladies (and boys).
This was our Annual Meeting where we agreed the Accounts and agreed our Committee. We voted in our President of last year who agreed to stand again. We also played 'The Price is Right' which was won by Beryl Hurst with Sue Blantern and Sue Whitaker coming second. Once the meeting was closed 12 members decided to stay on and play bingo. This was again won by Beryl Hurst who had two lines and two houses. The other winners were Celia Steel and Deirdre Thompson. Well done Beryl a lucky night all round. This Zoom meeting was slightly different, we still had a very easy quiz followed by Animal, Vegetable or Mineral using the letter A. Quite a few weird and wonderful answers, but loads of laughs. Overall winners were Sue Blantern and Andrea Petty Won by Sue Blantern, 2nd Sue Whitaker and 3rd Valerie Quinn 8 games were played with the following winning either a line or a full house. Karen Elsby won (ably assisted by her two sons) 4 of them, well done young sirs. The other winners were Barbara Foster, Irene Allerton, Valerie Quinn, Sue Blantern and Anne Hibbert won by Lynda Searle, with Sue Whitaker coming 2nd and Sue Blantern 3rd 6 games were played, on a very hot evening, with Karen Elsby, Celia Steel, Valerie Quinn, Lynda Searle, Irene Allerton winning either a line or house Won by Sue Blantern, Irene Allerton 2nd with Lynda Searle and Sue Whitaker sharing third place 8 games were played this time with the following winning either a line or a full house - Valerie McArdle, Deirdre Thompson, Valerie Quinn, Sue Whitaker and Irene Allerton Won by Sue Blantern with Sue Whitaker second 5 games were played with the following winning either a line or a full house - Lynda Searle, Sue Blantern, Liz Osborne, Judith Whalley, Andrea Petty and Deirdre Thompson Won by Sue Blantern with Lynda Searle second Won by Sue Blantern with Andrea Petty second Won by Karen Elsby with Lynda Searle second |
25th February 2020
Speaker: George Eccleston - ‘Mrs Pankhurst & the Suffragettes’
Competition: Suffragette Memorabilia
Our second meeting of the year was held on Tuesday 25th February where 21 members and 11 visitors listened to George Eccleston’s talk about ‘Mrs Pankhurst & The Suffragettes’.
Emmeline Pankhurst was a leader of the suffragette movement and a political activist. She has been described as one of the most influential people of the 20th century. The suffragettes were focused on securing women’s rights, especially the right to vote. As well as campaigning, they often broke the law or chained themselves to railings to protest. In 1886 Pankhurst was involved with the strike of girls working in the Bryant and May match factory, the girls worked 14 hours a day and were fined for dropping matches on the floor. She was also concerned with the conditions in workhouses in Manchester. She began organising meetings in the local park, which were soon declared to be illegal.
Emmeline was arrested on many occasions although often released because of poor health. She sometimes refused to eat and was force fed and was presented with The Suffragette Prisoner's Silver Hunger Strike Medal to commemorate one of her many periods of imprisonment with hunger strike. The medal, engraved with the date March 1st, 1912, refers to a two-month prison sentence Emmeline received for throwing a stone at a window of 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister’s residence. Whilst in Holloway Emmeline was also charged with ‘conspiring to incite certain persons to commit malicious damage to property’ and sentenced to a further nine months’ imprisonment. She started wearing a disguise to avoid arrest.
During World War 1, Emmeline was very aware of the threat posed by Germany and formed the Women’s Party which called for serious food rationing and the closing down of non-essential industries to beat Germany. She moved to Canada in 1922, saying the country had more equality for women than England but after a few years she grew tired of the cold winters and ran out of money.
Emmeline was born in Manchester in 1858. She attended school in Paris and married a barrister more than 20 years older than her, who was involved in securing rights for women. She died in 1928, soon after women were given equal voting rights as men. She was buried at Brompton Cemetery in London, one of the country’s oldest garden cemeteries.
In 1987 her Manchester home was opened as the Pankhurst Centre, a meeting place for women. The National Portrait Gallery added her portrait to their collection in 1929.
After light refreshments, George judged our competition, which was Suffragettes Memorabilia, and this was won by Pat Price with Liz Osborne second.
Emmeline Pankhurst was a leader of the suffragette movement and a political activist. She has been described as one of the most influential people of the 20th century. The suffragettes were focused on securing women’s rights, especially the right to vote. As well as campaigning, they often broke the law or chained themselves to railings to protest. In 1886 Pankhurst was involved with the strike of girls working in the Bryant and May match factory, the girls worked 14 hours a day and were fined for dropping matches on the floor. She was also concerned with the conditions in workhouses in Manchester. She began organising meetings in the local park, which were soon declared to be illegal.
Emmeline was arrested on many occasions although often released because of poor health. She sometimes refused to eat and was force fed and was presented with The Suffragette Prisoner's Silver Hunger Strike Medal to commemorate one of her many periods of imprisonment with hunger strike. The medal, engraved with the date March 1st, 1912, refers to a two-month prison sentence Emmeline received for throwing a stone at a window of 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister’s residence. Whilst in Holloway Emmeline was also charged with ‘conspiring to incite certain persons to commit malicious damage to property’ and sentenced to a further nine months’ imprisonment. She started wearing a disguise to avoid arrest.
During World War 1, Emmeline was very aware of the threat posed by Germany and formed the Women’s Party which called for serious food rationing and the closing down of non-essential industries to beat Germany. She moved to Canada in 1922, saying the country had more equality for women than England but after a few years she grew tired of the cold winters and ran out of money.
Emmeline was born in Manchester in 1858. She attended school in Paris and married a barrister more than 20 years older than her, who was involved in securing rights for women. She died in 1928, soon after women were given equal voting rights as men. She was buried at Brompton Cemetery in London, one of the country’s oldest garden cemeteries.
In 1987 her Manchester home was opened as the Pankhurst Centre, a meeting place for women. The National Portrait Gallery added her portrait to their collection in 1929.
After light refreshments, George judged our competition, which was Suffragettes Memorabilia, and this was won by Pat Price with Liz Osborne second.
28th January 2020
Speaker: John Clowes - ‘20 Years of Garden Design’
Competition: Favourite Flower Vase
Speaker: John Clowes - ‘20 Years of Garden Design’
Competition: Favourite Flower Vase
20 members attended our first meeting of the year, we also had one new member and two visitors. After quite a lot of business, our new President, Linda Taylor, introduced our Speaker for the evening who was John Clowes and his talk was about ’20 Years of Garden Design’.
John’s early career was as far apart from gardening as you could get – after studying Metallurgy at Birmingham University he worked for CEGB in Wythenshawe. He was always interested in gardening and read gardening books in bed where he learned the Latin names of plants, and their more common ones. This led to a new career after finishing work at 50 in 1994 and began to work from home as a garden designer and managed to turn a hobby into an interesting small business.
John gave us a few tips in garden design –
John judged our competition of a ‘Favourite Flower Vase’ and this was won by Thelma Dutton, Pat Price was 2nd and Valerie McCardle was 3rd. Our raffle was won by one of our visitors and 2nd was Lynda Searle.
John’s early career was as far apart from gardening as you could get – after studying Metallurgy at Birmingham University he worked for CEGB in Wythenshawe. He was always interested in gardening and read gardening books in bed where he learned the Latin names of plants, and their more common ones. This led to a new career after finishing work at 50 in 1994 and began to work from home as a garden designer and managed to turn a hobby into an interesting small business.
John gave us a few tips in garden design –
- the main one was never going to the garden centre first, it means you only have plants for that season – try and envisage it all year round and then buy plants accordingly.
- Always have a focal point – a statue, a large plant, a pond etc.
- Find the central shape you want and then the border can be made around it
John judged our competition of a ‘Favourite Flower Vase’ and this was won by Thelma Dutton, Pat Price was 2nd and Valerie McCardle was 3rd. Our raffle was won by one of our visitors and 2nd was Lynda Searle.
Updated: 3rd February 2020