JAIL BREAK????

Jane organised this outing for WI members, partners and friends. 

We visited behind those very high walls of Shepton Mallet prison on Saturday 13 January 2018.  Our guided tour was with one of the ex-prison officers.  The 2 hours we were there gave us the opportunity to “walk in the footsteps of prisoners who have been residents of those wings during the last 400 years”.  We learnt a lot about is history dating back to 1610 – the daily life, visits, prison work, the gym and the Chapel.  

In the early years all prisoners, men, women and children, were held together in reportedly dreadful conditions. The gaoler was not paid, instead making an income from fees from his prisoners. The buildings were later extended and the high wall surrounding it built.  

In the early 19^th Century, a large treadwheel was built within the prison on which men who had been sentenced to hard labour would serve their punishment. The wheel was used to power a grain mill outside the prison wall.The prison closed for a few years in 1930 due to under use.  Later it was run as an American military prison.   

It returned to British militaryuse and soldiers held there included the Kray twins who were serving out their national service after absconding.

During the War it was also used to house various items, believed to have included the Domesday Book & Magna Carta.

The buildings were again modernised towards the end of the 20^th Century and the prisoners were given the opportunity to study and learn a trade or to be employed in the kitchens.  When it finally closed in March 2013 it was the oldest working prison in the United Kingdom.

Various events can now be booked there, such as parties, hen nights, etc but we weren’t sure about staying overnight!  It was also recently used for some of the filming for Paddington 2!  



There is much talk about the area being developed into housing so this was a wonderful opportunity to view it as a Prison.


I'm pleased to say that at the end of the tour we were all allowed to go home!

Meeting 8 January 2018

At our January meeting the programmes for the coming year were handed out and we were reminded to bring a raffle prize to a meeting if we had not already done so. Mary noted the programme did not include any outings but felt it better to arrange these at short notice during the year as suggestions cropped up.

Reminders were given about some forthcoming events such as the WI birthday lunch at Barbara Turner’s house on Saturday 3^rd Feb and the Village Clean Up on Sat 3^rd March. This would be held between 2 and 4pm with refreshments available from 3pm and as always was open to all volunteers not just WI members. We were also reminded that if we wished to attend any events appearing in the WI County News not to apply direct but to let Mary know and she would arrange it.

Our talk had a rather unusual opening with speaker Clive Fairclough, the new vicar of Mells, first playing From Russia With Love for us and then donning a Russian type fur hat and falling briefly into James Bond mode.  He had been ordained 14 years ago following a life including 20 years in military service and came originally from a farming background so was happy to be back in rural Somerset. However the most interesting period of his ministry had been 2 and a half years spent in Moscow and he gave us a fascinating account of his time there.

The next meeting on Monday February 12^th will include a craft workshop, please bring some scissors and a general purpose chopping board.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR MEMBERS

Meeting on Monday 8 January 2018

This will be an Open Meeting - please ask friends, partners, neighbours if they would like to join us for the evening.

The speaker will be Rev Clive Fairclough, the new Vicar of Mells, talking on
His Life & Adventures before he became a Vicar.

Meeting 11 December

LEIGH ON MENDIP WI

We were already getting ready for the coming year at the December meeting with the tea rota to check to make sure we were free on our allotted day and volunteers needed to sign up for thanking the speakers.  Names and money were being taken for the visit to Shepton prison on January 13^th, we had a reminder about the WI birthday lunch at Barbara Turner’s house on Sat February 3^rd and were given advance warning of the annual village clean up which would be on Sat 3^rd March.

Two WI issues to address in January. The suggestions for the Resolutions were in the current WI Life and we were asked to fill in our choice on the slip there to bring to the January meeting. Also at that meeting we should bring our subs for the coming year which have gone up slightly to £41.

The talk called “Girl Cop” was given by Sandy Osborne, the author of a fiction book of the same name and its follow up. Sandy was still a serving police officer in Bath and had based her stories on the area including her own real life experiences. She told us how her writing career started and how difficult it had been to get published and read us extracts from both the book and some of her writing for magazines.

The next meeting will be on Monday January 8^th at 7.30pm

Christmas is Coming!!

At our November meeting we had fun making some simple Christmas 
decorations!

Meeting 13 November

At the last but one meeting of the year in November we were told the 2018 programme is almost complete and would include a good variety of speakers for us to enjoy. Two of the group meetings would be in Leigh next year, the business one on 25^th July and the ordinary meeting on 26^th September, two dates for your new diary! Before these another diary date planned was a lunch to celebrate our 69^th birthday which would be held at Barbara Turner’s house on Saturday 3^rd February. In addition final arrangements for several forthcoming events were made. These included making choices and payments for the Christmas meal on Tuesday 5^th December and a suggestion to consider two first Friday lunches in December on the 1st, one in Buckland Dinham after the carol service and for those not attending this one in Leigh as usual. Sue Rodford would check numbers for the concert and book a table in the Bell at Buckland if relevant. Tickets were given out for the theatre outing to the Merlin and the carol concert in Wells.

Following the business matters we had a simple craft session led by the owners of the Hive business in Shepton. They started as a shoe repairers but these days hold a variety of stock such as fabrics, wool and other craft items, have a catering side and also run courses such as flower arranging and cake decorating. For our WI they had cut out felt shapes of angels and Christmas stockings for us to put together and decorate and add to the cracker supplied if we wished. The winner of the best effort received a voucher for a free afternoon tea.

At the meeting on Monday 11^th December at 7.30pm we will have a talk entitled “Girl Cop”