TARVIN WI- MEMBERS NIGHT

Members were shown a Presentation of the June Fashion Show which was presented by Imaginations of Tarvin. The event was well attended beginning with a Prosecco Reception. There were 8 stalls placed around the Hall for guests to browse or buy.
Models included ladies from the WI, friends of WI and representatives of Tarporley Cottage Hospital. It was a great night!

After the Fashion Show presentation Irene presented Gill Clough, Administrator at Tarporley Cottage Hospital, with a cheque for £800. Gill thanked Irene and the WI telling everyone how important it was for local people to support the Hospital.

Irene Wilkinson with Gill Clough (Tarporley Hospital)

Nancy Williams, WI Treasurer, Margaret Matthews Secretary and Irene Wilkinson President then read some poems that had been written by Nancy. Example of one below:

HISTORY HALLS
The hallowed halls of history
Speak of the past, whisper to me,
Of days that are over, people that are gone
Things that have passed, yet the halls live on.
Touched by the hands of a thousand years,
Echoing with voices, laughter and tears.
Footsteps sounding through their ways
Of people long gone to their graves.
Steps worn smooth by constant tread
Pitted, scarred tables where many have fed.
Small windows leaded with coloured glass
Through which the sun has often passed.
Shining on the layered dust of yore
That covers the old scratched wooden floor
Upon the people of yesteryear
Whose ghostly shadows forever live here.

Nancy runs the writing Group at WI and will be resuming the courses in September

Irene then introduced Pam Royles who had travelled from London with her daughter to give us an insight into her life as an evacuee in Tarvin.

As a small child she sat on the train clutching an old handbag and a small attaché case. She was six years old, with short fair hair cut with a fringe and her nose freckled from the long hot summer sun. She wore scuffed, brown leather sandals with buckles at the side short white socks with a thread of white cotton hanging from the carefully sewn name tape; a blue and white gingham cotton dress with a Peter Pan white collar, two patch pockets and three small pearl buttons down the front.

Like a parcel a label was tied on one of the silver buttons of her red blazer which read, 'Pam Smith, Hey Green Road School, Liverpool' and slung over her shoulder with rough hairy string was a gas mask in a cardboard box.
She sat in the hot compartment, full of children she had never met before and a teacher she did not know, wondering what was happening, where she was going and why she was going away. Eventually, arriving in Chester she was billeted with Mrs Fellows. When Pam was asked by Mrs Fellows if she would like to write a letter home she wrote the following to her uncle:
" Dear Uncle Kenny. I'm well. There are 2 dogs here. Rover and Gwenda. Plees could I have some emblopes and stamps. I hop the Germans arnt boming you. Love from Pam xxx' "

Pam remembers that the lavatory was outside in a wooden hut, at the end of the path that ran through the orchard. The seat was like a low wooden shop counter with two holes cut in the top. Newspapers torn into squares and threaded with string hung from a nail on the side wall. She did not like the smell and worried that she might fall through the hole into the horrid mess heaped up below. If she wanted to go in the night she used the white enamel chamber pot under the bed. Although Mrs and Mr Fellows welcomed her, she cried every day. Not noisy crying but quiet sobbing, usually in the morning when she woke up and realised nothing had changed.

Pam stayed in Tarvin for 3 months and then returned to her family. She has never forgotten her time in Tarvin and has fond memories of her stay.

At the end of her talk there was a lively Q & A session with Members sharing memories and tales of their own with the Group.
Francis Woollam gave our vote of thanks to Pam

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday August 30th at Tarvin Community Centre, Title of the talk will be 'An English Woman in the White House' by Susan Leicester. Visitors are always welcome, so feel free to join us. For Further information please contact Irene Wilkinson 01829 740868 or website Tarvinwi.co.uk