On 23 November, a small group of five walked section 2 of the London Loop, 7 miles from Bexley High Street to Petts Wood. We walked alongside the Cray River, through Stable Meadow sports ground, open parkland and Foots Cray Meadows, ending up at the Jubilee Country Park. The drizzle didn’t dampen our spirits, not even the muddy foot paths put us off.
Our November Meeting
At our November meeting on 12 November, Sheila Farmer, a theatre and TV costume maker, gave an interesting presentation about her life working in wardrobe. She gave us a very brief tour of women’s fashion through the ages and then talked about her career as a wardrobe mistress and the differences between creating costumes for theatre productions and television programmes.
London Loop Walk (Section 1)
On 10 November, on a stunning bright blue early winters morning, a small group met at Erith Station to walk section 1 of the London Loop Walk. Our walk to Bexley Station took us beside the River Thames, alongside the Cray River, past Hall Place, through Churchfield Wood, ending at Bexley Village.
Guided Art Walk: Sculpture in the City
On 2 November, Karen Lansdown led a group of us on a fascinating guided tour of the annual urban sculpture park set amidst the iconic architecture of the City’s insurance district.
Mary Quant Exhibition
On 11 October a group of members, friends and family visited the Mary Quant exhibition at the V&A. It was a fascinating exhibition telling the story of Mary Quant, her innovative, trend-setting style, her eye for colour and her iconic brand design, the daisy. She certainly changed the fashion industry.
Our October Meeting
At our monthly meeting on Tuesday 8 October we had a very interesting talk from Ann Talbot about gambling and her career spent working in the casino industry. A big thank you to Ann, who is a member of Corbett WI.
Guided Art Walk: Magic Roundabout
On 28 September, a group of us took an interesting and informative guided walk on street art with Blue Badge guide Karen Lansdown. We walked from Barbican tube station to Old Street and came across a variety of street art, including a ‘Banksy’.
10th Anniversary Quiz Night – book tickets now
This event is open to members, friends and family. It will be a fun evening of quizzing with a buffet provided. Form a team of up to 6 people or just come along and join in - we will find you a friendly team. Cost is £8 per person. Tickets from catfordwi@gmail.com or ask at one of our meetings.
Our September Meeting
On 10 September, members Hazel and Kay taught us to do some line dancing. They demonstrated two dances, then broke the moves down so we could learn and (eventually) perform them. A fun time was had by all.
A Trip to Mount Vineyard
On Friday 6 September, members, friends and family visited Mount Vineyard in Shoreham, Kent, for a tour of the vineyard and to taste some wines. We enjoyed the lovely surroundings, good company, interesting wines and plenty of food. It was great to share the evening with members from both Corbett WI and Woolwich and Plumstead Roses WI.
Summer Disco
On Saturday 20 July, Catford WI hosted a summer disco. It was a fantastic, fun night, full of good music, great company and lots of ‘fever’ on the dance floor! A big thank you the members who put a lot of work into making tonight such a success.
Our July Meeting
On 9 July, Rob Leeming came along to our monthly meeting to share stories of his work as a Police VIP Protection Officer. His talk was called ‘Ssh, it’s a secret.
Our June Meeting
Our June meeting was held on 11 June. It was a busy and active first meeting for our new president. Joshua Drewe showed us Tai Chi and Qigong, systems of exercise for general wellbeing of both mind and body. We were given different exercises to try and Joshua explained about the martial-art background of the forms we used.
Ham House
On 9 June a small group visited Ham House and Gardens. This interesting house contains a large number of paintings and original furnishings. The decor was somewhat dark, not what was expected! The formal gardens have been restored and the plants used are the same as those used in the late 17th century.
Guided River Walk
On 25 May a group of members, friends and family enjoyed an interesting guided walk around old London docks with guide Kaye Boyle. From Tower Hill Station to Wapping High Street, we walked through the history of the area.
Lunch at Westminster Kingsway College
On 23 May a small group of members enjoyed a delicious lunch at Westminster Kingsway College. The third-year students designed and cooked an amazing seven courses of tasty delights. A big thank you to Pauline for organising the lunch.
Boogie Bounce
At Catford Extra on 21 May, Abbie gave us a free Boogie Bounce taster session. We ran three separate sessions, allowing 27 enthusiastic women to boogie their bounce! There was plenty of energy in the room and a great time was had by all. A big thank you to Abbie for making the sessions fun.
Catford WI Annual Report 2018/19
Well we have had another incredibly full and fun packed year, which has seen us trying many new activities, making new friendships and eating lots of good food! Over the last year our membership has remained full at 70 with a waiting list of up to 44. We have had a record average attendance at meetings of 57, including guests from the waiting list, and it has been wonderful to welcome so many of you to our group.
Our monthly meetings have included talks, activities, crafts and food. We have learnt Bollywood dancing and calligraphy, made paper baskets and decorated wooden photograph frames. We have had talks about the history and uses of herbs, the Crossbones pauper’s cemetery near London Bridge and from local resident Freya Rodger about her self-imposed challenge after recovering from cancer to try every sport for women featured at the Rio Olympics. We tasted some delicious West Indian food provided by members and enjoyed a Christmas social. To mark the centenary of some women getting the vote, we had a talk about suffragette Emily Davison and organised Voting is a piece of Cake - a suffragette themed afternoon tea. Many thanks to all those involved in organising these events.
Just after the last Annual meeting the 2 darts teams both took part in the finals of the Federation tournament, which, much to their delight, was won by Catford B team. Both teams entered again this year with new names. The Thundercats did not progress beyond the initial round robin stage but the Sweetpeas got to the quarterfinals, before losing to Yalding. Apart from the tournament we have had regular practices and have played home and away friendly matches with Woolwich & Plumstead Roses as well as being the guests of Bellingham Bowls club. As always, thanks must go to Kay for all her hard work organising us all.
Members interested in throwing a few darts can always join us at the regular Catford Extra on the third Tuesday of each month. This less formal monthly evening now hosts a regular craft group, where members bring along any individual projects they are working on or can get involved in the planned group project to create a table runner to commemorate our 10th anniversary next year. Thanks to Clare and Alison S for setting up and organising this group.
The supper club went Nepalese with a visit to Ghurka restaurant in Sydenham, while Alison MacD has joined Katherine and Hazel in running the monthly book club, where they take it in turns to host this informal group.
The theatre group has been a bit quieter this year with just a trip to see Brief Encounter, but a cinema group has been started with a number of outings all arranged informally via WhatsApp. There have been visits to see the restoration of the Painted Ceiling at Greenwich Naval College, a tour of the heritage spitfire hangar at Biggin Hill, a tour of the Natural History Museum and 2 stylish exhibitions at the V&A – on Ocean Liners and Christian Dior. Over the summer, several members enjoyed a mini cruise to Cherbourg and Guernsey and more recently we put our glad rags on for an Abba tribute night (although this didn’t go quite as planned!) Finally, we have been kite flying on Blackheath and a group of members joined the audience for The One Show at broadcasting house.
After axe throwing last year, Kay has upped the ante with more archery, shooting crossbows, plunging down a 225m deathslide(the highest urban zipwire in the world) and most recently, driving tanks across the South Downs!
We have done a lot of walking this year! There have been a wide range of walks and talks with London blue badge guide Kate Boyle who has lead walks round Clerkenwell, The City of London and Guildhall Art Gallery and a Suffragette walk round Westminster ; while Kay re-ran her popular Slappers of Southwark walk, for both our and other WI’s. We’ve also had photography walks, a lowtide walk in the river at Deptford Creek and Nicole took us on a birdwatching walk at Rainham Marshes. On top of that, there has been a Thames path walk and several members walked parts of the Capital Ring – a 78mile route round London, with Kay, Alison, Ursula, Audrey, Elaine and Cam completing all 15 stages – many congratulations. And finally, the ever popular annual Lullingstone walk and Christmas meal was very well attended by both walkers and non-walkers alike.
While we try to give members as much notice of outings and activities as possible, there are times when things come up at short notice, so we are increasingly using WhatsApp to arrange some of our groups and have an 11th Hour group for members interested in taking up last minute opportunities.
Members have also joined events organised by the Federation, including playing whist, singing, and attending the Denman weekend, as well as joining other Federation members at the Christmas Carol Service at Maidstone and an ACWW lunch. Kay again acted as steward at this year’s Annual Council Meeting, while Alison attended as our delegate.
It has been gratifying that this year more members have joined in organising some of our activities and our thanks go to all those who have got involved. Don’t forget, this is your WI and the more you put in, the more you will get out of it. Going forward, plans are well under way for a number of activities next year to celebrate our 10th Anniversary, with hopefully something to appeal to all of you.
Our May Meeting
It was our annual meeting on 14 May. We began with regular Catford WI business and then moved on to the annual meeting. We debated this year's annual meeting resolutions (Don’t Fear the Smear and A Call Against the Decline in Local Bus Services); voted on several bylaws; confirmed the committee for 2019–20: Alyson McG, Bee, Caroline, Elaine, Fiona J, Kay G, Max, Pauline, Shirley G and Sue H; and elected Max as our new President.
We’re all looking forward to another successful year ahead.
Tank Driving
On 11 May, a small group of WI members spent an fun and fantastic afternoon tank driving. Hollywood has the Magnificent Seven, but Catford has the Tanked Ten. We got to drive a Chieftain Main Battle Tank, an Armoured Personnel Carrier, an Abbott Self-propelled Howitzer and a Stormer High Velocity Missile Carrier. What more could a girl ask for?
