FOR their June meeting, several Bulphan WI members, along with six of the Brentwood Belle’s WI took a trip out to New Hall Vineyards in Purleigh, which has been producing wine since 1969 and is the largest in East Anglia (second largest in England).
OVER 3000 people attended the Strawberry Fayre held at Orsett Hall on Bank Holiday Monday. There was something to do for all the family and wherever you went you were greeted with smiling faces. The Fayre is a chance for all the family to get together and enjoy an afternoon of fun, food, drink and entertainment at Orsett Hall.
THERE WILL be an evening of live classical music on Saturday June 8th. The Windmill Quintet will play in a concert as well as a classical guitarist.
Phew! Now that the Federation of Essex WIs has moved AGM dates, we had such a lot of business to get through at our May meeting. We took time to welcome visitor Carol Moring and brand new member Dot Porter, and of course the discussion of the important matter of our wine-tasting outing to new Hall Vineyards also took priority! We will be leaving Bulphan Village Hall at 6.45pm, but places must be pre-booked with Sally. Many complimentary thank you letters were read out from visitors who had attended our birthday party Cabaret Evening last month.
BULPHAN Women’s Institute is 84 years old – and we celebrated in style with a cabaret evening that had everything: very smart members and guests from other institutes in Thurrock and further afield; a delicious 3-course meal with all the trimmings prepared and served by the committee; excellent venue (Bulphan Village Hall – one of the best halls around); very smooth entertainment from Rat Pack tribute singer Peter James; guests who joined in enthusiastically, whether it was buying raffle tickets, singing or dancing; and of course our own dancing girls who turned up in cheeky basques, fish nets and feathered head dresses.
DESPITE the cold weather and snowy forecast, lots of supporters came to a Table Top Sale in Horndon on the Hill and raised £350 for Breast Cancer Campaign. The tables sold out in record time and supporters came from all over the community and thoroughly enjoyed their afternoon.
Tracy Mackness, of Giggly Pig fame, has now been rebooked for our meeting on 10th July and we have lots more to look forward to: we will be celebrating St George’s Day with afternoon tea at Marygreen Manor in Brentwood, enjoying a visit to New hall Vineyard (with wine-tasting!) for our June meeting and we were able to book tickets for the Silver Bells Christmas Show at the Thameside Theatre before they sold out this year! The wine-tasting visit on 12th June is open to non-members/anyone and will cost £10. Please book with Sally Wall on 01268 542129. We pile into cars at the village hall at 7pm – it should be a brilliant evening out.
Our own members leapt into the breach, and were invited by President Janet to give us a very brief outline of what jobs they had had in the past and/or have now. The responses were definitely a surprise, being fascinating and varied – and, as we ran out of time, there are more to come at a later date. However, some members revealed skills and experience we were unaware of, and those retired members who felt bored have been offered volunteering opportunities!
TWO more new members were welcomed to Bulphan Women’s Institute in January: Michaela Waite and Jan Menzie, and Pam Bowles was presented with a card and orchid on the occasion of the 80th birthday. Our December meeting had been held at the Shepherd and Dog, Shepherd’s Hill, where the whole institute enjoyed a wonderful Christmas meal, in very smart surroundings and with excellent service. Also on a Christmas theme, Carol, Joanne, Linda and Monica had decorated a tree at Hyde Hall with coloured pine cones and teasels and it looked splendid. Rosemary Head had read the lesson on our behalf at the Thurrock WI Group Carol Service at Orsett, and Sarah Mortlock had read (from her iPad!) at the Bulphan Carol Service.
So much happening at Bulphan WI: at the November meeting we took part in box-making, Christmas Pudding Truffle-making, Christmas Garland making, gave a short concert to demonstrate the musical skills learned at our recent course of singing lessons, applauded as Iris Aedy was awarded the Competition Cup for this year, and welcomed 2 more new members: Rita Appleby and Michaela Waite.
OCTOBER has been a very busy month for members of Bulphan WI: there was a hugely enjoyable coach visit to Kensington Palace and many of us have been meeting weekly for our hilarious singing lessons with Doreen Potter. We decided we would feel more like a choir if we were colour-co-ordinated, so we were visions in pink, then purple, then red and finally black and white. Doreen not only improved our musical skills, but provided inspirational anecdotes between songs: a wonderful lady.
BULPHAN WI members who took part in the “Escape the Olympics” challenges at their August meeting were rewarded with barbecued sausages in freshly-baked rolls with optional onions. It was a lovely summer’s evening, and ladies exerted themselves on the outdoor gym equipment, the tennis court and the croquet pitch, tried to beat each other at sorting sweets with chopsticks and sucking jelly beans (via a drinking straw!) into bowls and seeing how many clothes pegs they could fit into one hand. Finally, there was an Olympic quiz sheet to complete and a shape-sorting challenge.
Jane and new members Nicola and Kay had prepared very tasty homemade cakes to have with our tea. Sally still had some seats available for our coach outing to Beth Chatto Gardens on July 4th, and our next meeting on July 11th will be a car-sharing outing to Hullbridge: a gentle walk along the river, then into the pub! We leave the village hall at 7pm.
And although it was quite a chilly evening, people turned up, went home for blankets, and came back and enjoyed a lovely evening of traditional Proms pieces, including a set especially in honour of the Olympics and all our favourites, including the Dambusters March. Compere Dave Bowman welcomed promenaders from America, Germany and Scotland, as well as those who had travelled all of 50 metres to attend!
Women’s Institutes all over the country are informing themselves about the rapidly-rising birth-rate in some areas – and particularly within M25 – more complex pregnancies and deliveries and ongoing problems in recruiting, training and retaining midwives. If agreed by the majority of WIs at their AGM at the end of May, the campaign for the coming year will be to urge the government to commit resources to improving midwifery services.
It’s not too soon to buy your tickets for this year’s special Jubilee Proms in the Park in Bulphan (behind the village hall – or inside the village hall if the weather is really bad!).
As well as raising vital funds the group are also looking for new Committee members who can volunteer some time on litter pick and clean up days, design and deliver leaflets, be a helper for events, research and apply for grants, fundraise, publicise the group, take charge of admin and organize events.
A party planned for the Mortimer’s friends and family, including the best man at their wedding, had to be called off after Elsie, 81, had a heart attack and had to spend her special day in hospital.
The couple’s son Paul said: “We told staff about our plans, and how disappointed we all were and they said we could bring the party to mum and dad in hospital.”
Richard Furnivale-Jones gave us a really interesting history of Harrod’s and his experiences of a lifetime career in the store. He stressed that although there are extremely pricey goods for sale there, inexpensive items are also available. He was thanked by our own retail expert, Rosemary.
UBIQUITOUS. If there is a word to describe the reign of Thurrock mayor, cllr Charlie Curtis then it is that word. And although carrying a knee injury (he is ex-Tottenham) the Mayor got onto the pitch to kick off proceedings at the new Bulphan school football pitch on Church Road.
If you had been travelling along Fen Lane on the evening of our February meeting, you would have been amazed and delighted (we hope!) to hear 40 ladies voices singing in harmony in the school hall. The effervescent Doreen Potter was leading and accompanying us as we sang for our supper. Between songs, Doreen amused us with poems and anecdotes and then we were all rewarded with French bread, cheese and salad, with wine, served by Pierre, Thierry, Jean-Paul and Henri. (No, we don’t often have men at WI, but our 4 tea hostesses had decided to liven the evening up by dressing up as French onion sellers, to serve the French bread).
Christmas dinner at Hyde Hall got our members in the Christmas spirit and for our meeting, there were many twinkling ladies, bring plates of festive food. Irene Arney was thanked for reading at the Thames Group Carol service, which was in the somewhat isolated and wind-blown St. Catherine’s Church at East Tilbury. Janet McCheyne played the organ, which luckily was audible over the wind!
Following the adoption of the usual reports, last year’s committee and President were re-elected and we had a welcome cup of tea before the highlight of the evening: every member had been asked to bring (or just tell us about) something they could not do without. the inspirational (personal challenges) and the cheeky (a black see-through bra and seasonal underwear – thermal Long Johns, bloomers and a teddy)
16th September is Love your Library day, so to show our appreciation, WI member and avid reader Pat Hall presented a cake, iced to resemble a book, with the words Bulphan WI love their library, to Barry Burt, who has brought the mobile library to Bulphan every week for over 30 years.
