Hello!
What a busy April we had! Between Easter, trees in blossom, monthly meetings, outings, and lovely spells of warm weather, there has been plenty to enjoy, so this month’s newsletter is a bumper edition!
I’d like to start with a huge thank you to everyone who renewed their membership – we now have 63 members. I’m pleased to welcome our 5 new members, Alison, Sarah, Nick, Lina and Alice. For those members not renewing this year, we are sorry to see you go and will of course ensure you are removed from mailing lists for newsletters and groups in the next few days in line with GDPR requirements. The committee would also like to thank all those who volunteer and make our WI such and active and vibrant group. Thank you for all the time, energy and thought you give to BWI and members.
As we move into our new BWI year, your committee will endeavour to do the following during the remainder of our term:
- To empower and support our members so they can make the most of their membership of the Battersea WI;
- To be easily available to group members;
- To support initiatives that raise funds/help support local charities;
- To support our hard working group leads;
- To communicate with group members regarding developments, activities and campaigns in as many ways as we can to ensure our BWI is as inclusive as possible.
It was great to meet so many of you at our International Womens’ Day celebration on 10th April at Battersea Arts Centre. We raised £154 for Refuge, the charity supporting Women and Children fleeing abusive relationships. I’ve shared my reflections on the day in the Groups section below. I was recently contacted by Unfold, currently looking for Mentors for Mothers. There’s more information in Offshoots.
At our monthly meeting, guest speaker Chiara from WRAP gave an excellent talk on the fashion industry from cradle to grave, making us think about what, where and who we buy from – including shopping in our own wardrobes as about 28% of clothes in wardrobes are never worn! And on that note, on 15th June, Remaykit is hosting an up cycled fashion show at the Bedford Balham (including yours truly!) Hope to see some of you there. It’s free but you do need to book ahead.
Our Members Spring Outing on 24th April was Walk and Learn The Wandle. You can read all about it in the Our Groups section. Much of my working life was spent nurturing green spaces, so anything that supports nature gets my vote: coming up on 21-29 June is London Climate Action Week If you have any suggestions for an outing or further reading or any other activity, please get in touch.
And don’t forget to check the updates from Surrey Federation – including an opportunity to join their trip to the Tower of London on the 17th May – as well as the National Federation, which is celebrating 110 years of the WI by encouraging WIs and Federations to join in the celebrations through activities. They have posted a free WI Webinar session on the Learning Hub. Do send the committee your ideas for how BWI can mark the event. NFWI is also getting behind the Climate Coalition’s Mass Lobby on 9th July. See p16 of April’s WI Life for more info and register for the event via My WI. More information will follow in forthcoming editions of WI Life.
I look forward to seeing you all very soon
Jane, President Battersea WI
E: presidentbattersea@surreyfedwi.org.uk
In Your May 2025 Newsletter:
 Keep up with the latest date BWI news via our Instagram feed |
- Your BWI Groups
- Coming up: Special outing for all members
- Group meet up dates in May
- Forthcoming speakers for 2025
- Offshoots – activities inspired by BWI groups
- Surrey Federation
- NFWI news and information
Your BWI Groups
Art Group
BatterseaWI – International Womens’ Day Celebration
Reflections by Jane C
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Focusing on our own well being made a good start to the event. I keep thinking of Derek’s refrain, “keep moving!” Good advice. The highlight of the afternoon for me was Clare’s talk on Charlotte Despard, reminding me of all the strong women busy helping to make the world a better place for us all. I would like to build on this theme with a talk in the summer. I came home with delicious cake and a good book. Thank you to everyone who contributed and to members who found the time to come along. Reflecting on the afternoon, I learnt that I could improve our communications, and in future will work harder to get them more focused. The main vehicle we have for our communication is the monthly newsletter, so do find time to read it to see what is happening.
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Battersea WI – Walk and Learn the Wandle: Carshalton to Morden Hall Park by Elaine
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We met at the Honeywood Museum tea room and set off led by London Park City Ranger Elly Platt who is also a textile artist (read all about her found materials project in the link above.) We learned about traditional fabrics (silk, wool, flax, cotton) that were used in the days before synthetics were developed. There used to be 90 assorted mills along the Wandle, from calico bleaching to vellum and leather works. The river is a chalk stream, and was key for English textile designers such as Liberty and William Morris. En route we enjoyed Hackbridge Community Garden and the Watermeads Nature Reserve. Near this point the Hogsmill meets the Wandle and the difference in the smell was remarkable as this is where the recent diesel spill entered the Wandle – there is still a fairly long section avoided by wildlife. The river continued to wind its way to Morden Hall Park where our walk finished, appropriately at a mulberry tree just before the Rose Garden. A sit down and a cup of tea was most welcome by that point. Definitely a great walk to do if you get the opportunity. We were accompanied by birdsong and sunshine the whole way – using the Merlin ID app, over 24 birds were identified.
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Book Groups – what we’ve been reading
Battersea Bookends update by Danielle
We welcomed 2 new members this month, both of whom joined in the discussion of this month’s book, Stendhal’s The Red and The Black. Opinion was divided as some found it a bit turgid whilst others enjoyed it. Despite this, we had a stimulating discussion about the protagonist’s emotional maturity, love and the older woman/mother figure, sin/the fallen woman and repentance, with Julian, the protagonist, was represented almost as a Christ figure. Only female servants evaded complete seduction by Julian – as a social climber he ditched them as soon as they were no longer useful.
Boozy Books update by Amanda
Susie Dent’s Guilty by Definition follows a team of lexicographers at the offices of the Clarendon English Dictionary, who receive an anonymous letter containing a challenge. The letter hints at secrets, lies and a year. 2010. For Martha, the new senior editor, that year her older sister Charlie went missing. More letters arrive, pointing towards a secret at the dictionary itself. Martha and her colleagues start pulling apart the clues but someone wants to keep those secrets buried. We enjoyed the book though found it lost pace in the middle. Some thought it deserved a re-read to truly understand all the clues.
Chapter One Reading Group update by Jane H
In April we discussed Still Life by Sarah Winman. This is a sweeping novel which cross-crosses between London and Florence from 1944 up to 1979. It is full of wonderful stories and unconventional characters set against the historical background of the years following World War II and talks about love, art and poetry with wit and warmth. Whilst a few of the group thought it was an engrossing thoroughly enjoyable read sadly the majority didn’t fall for its charm. They felt that it rambled too much with too many characters, too many historical and cultural references and covering too many years. This is one for the “love it or loath it” category.
Coffee Morning update by Clare GS
Craft Group update by Elaine
We spent a fascinating April morning at Battersea Arts Centre with Bella Lane teaching us more about gold work embroidery. The for workshop theme was a bumble bee, very in keeping with BAC’s famous mosaic floor. We learned a lot about traditional techniques and the importance of patience when doing this type of craft. We took our bee kits away to finish at home. I will share photos of finished bees once completed. Bella offered to do a follow up in the future, so watch this space!
Exhibitions update by Danielle
In April, Exhibitions group visited Splash, a Century of Swimming and Style It was interesting to see how swimming influenced the portrayal of the ideal body image in fashion and advertising and propelled the popularity of package holidays abroad in the 60’s. None of us had seen transgender swim suits before and Tom Daley’s budgie smugglers look tiny! However, we all felt that the exhibition was a bit light on content and missed many opportunities to explore ideas it raised, for example class and the popularity of swimming. On the plus side, the cafe upstairs was very welcoming with great views across Holland Park.
Film update by Clare G
Ten of us met up at Clapham Picturehouse for our April film choice, The Penguin Lessons. On an unusually warm and sunny evening we enjoyed gathering for an al fresco drink and chat first; we
thought the film was good, too. Based on a true story, it’s set in Argentina in 1976, during the dark days of the Junta’s military dictatorship. Steve Coogan stars as Tom Michell, a cynical and disillusioned English teacher at a posh boys’ school in Buenos Aires, run by politics-avoidant headmaster Jonathan Pryce. But then Tom finds himself rescuing a penguin from an oil slick. And after that, his life and everybody else’s is going to have to change…. Out of these somewhat improbable-sounding ingredients, and on a small budget, that highly professional director Peter Cattaneo (best known still for The Full Monty) has managed to craft a film that we thought looked good and felt gentle, funny and charming—and sincere and politically serious, too. As a follow-up there’s an interesting ten-minute BAFTA interview available on YouTube with Coogan, Pryce, Cattaneo and Michell himself talking about making the film.
Foodies – update from Amanda
April was a three-course celebration of filled potato skins – coronation chicken, prawn cocktail, chilli con carne, mushrooms in a cream sauce, fish pie and tomato with chickpeas. A brilliant and delicious selection.
Our next Foodies is a salad bar to counteract potato heaven! For this month’s recipe of the month, to celebrate VE Day you make like to make a Coronation Chicken dish. Foodies are using this as one of the two main dishes on our salad bar.
Knitting & Crochet hosted by Joan
Project Poppy is well underway (more info about poppies for Corsham WI in Offshoots, including knitting/crochet pattern) with 13 made so far. Derinda, Amanda and Sue have been busy knitting adorable jumpers, hats and socks for grandchildren, and Viv brought along a skirt she’s adapted from a 1960s dress, giving it a whole new lease of life. We were all very inspired by the WRAP talk in April.
Photography update by Rosemary
The Photography Group visited the Sony World Photography Awards at Somerset House. It is one of the world’s biggest and most prestigious photography competitions, and quite an extensive exhibition with a very diverse range of subjects. The overall winner was Zed Nelson, a British photographer, with an image was of Singapore’s Garden City Initiative introduced in the 1960’s. It was a beautiful sunny day, so we also took the opportunity of sitting in the courtyard and of course having coffee.
Walking Group update by Clare
Twelve of us and of course Tiger turned out on another lovely sunny morning for our April walk. We took a short train ride to Barnes Bridge, crossed over the Thames and then walked back to Putney along its north bank via Duke’s Meadows, Chiswick Mall, Hammersmith Terrace and Bishops’ Park. This is a really attractive and interesting walk at any time, but we agreed that we were seeing it at its best, with all the fresh greenery and spring flowers. Crossing back over Putney Bridge at the end we enjoyed a coffee and cake or scone break at The Putney Pantry, before catching our trains or buses home.
Coming Up
The Coming Up/Meet Up Dates information is for Battersea WI Members only. If you would like to join, please use the contact page to find out about joining.
Meet our Guest Speaker for May
May 20th Fools Gold – History of British Saffron by Sam Bilton
Sam is a food historian and well established food and drink writer. She gives talks and cookery demonstrations with a historical theme and works with English Heritage recreating historical recipes for the modern day. Her podcast, Comfortably Hungry, is available on all platforms, and has been shortlisted for this year’s Fortnum & Mason’s Food and Drink Awards.
Forthcoming speakers for 2025 (subject to change if the speaker cancels or rearranges)
- June 17th Mudlarking – Jason Sandy
- July 15th Lady Poisoners of Victorian England – David Allen
- August Outing TBC
- September 16th Fermentation – Clare Heal
- October 21st Lighting the Pyre – April Lewis
- November 18th AGM – Get ready to vote for your new committee for 2026. If you wish to stand please talk to our current committee and we can explain what is involved.
- December – Christmas Party Bring and share seasonal food
Offshoots
a round up of members’ activities inspired by Battersea WI groups
Remaykit Fashion Show 15th June
As part of Wandsworth Arts Fringe 2025, this fashion show will display the diverse talents of the people of Wandsworth who have reimagined and repurposed clothes to give them a second life. The Remaykit fashion show will demonstrate the skill and passion of sewers, knitters and menders who believe in the positive impact that upcycling clothes has on reducing pollution and landfill, while knowing a creative hobby can be good for health and wellbeing.
Battersea Library Spring Talk: Gardens in Bloom in Art, Tuesday 13th May at 6pm
Surrey Federation
The Surrey Federation website has all the latest news about events and links to their monthly newsletter. This month they have introduced a random member bursary – each month someone will be selected to attend the workshop/event/course of their choice! For a full list of workshops and to enrol click here.
National Federation of Women’s Institutes
The WI campaigns on a huge range of issues – from promoting women’s rights and fostering health awareness to encouraging sustainable development and building a fairer society. For more information about Campaigns please visit the My WI section of the NFWI website
110 years of the WI
As part of the celebrations, WIs and Federations are encouraged to join in the celebrations through a few activities, from tree planting and having a ‘party in the Park’ to a free WI Webinar session on our Learning Hub. We hope you will be able to participate in as many activities as possible!
Please click here to read more about the various ways you can celebrate the anniversary. We would encourage you to share photographs and any videos with us to publish in WI Life or on the WI Webpage by emailing the Events Department – events@nfwi.org.uk. If uploading any pictures/videos to your own social media accounts, don’t forget to use the hashtag #WI110years.
Thank you for reading. If you would like to join Battersea WI, please use our contact form and someone will get back to you very soon.