October 2026 subgroups

Walking Group – Frodsham Woodlands

Just a few of us embarked on the walk in the Frodsham Woodlands, previously Frodsham golf club. In the winter of 2023/2024 the Woodland Trust began planting 30,000 young trees on the 95 acre site to create a haven for wildlife and for the local community to enjoy. A network of paths around the woodlands was created with wonderful views to the Welsh borders, the western Pennines and the Bowland Fells as well as the Liverpool and Mersey estuary.

We had a lovely morning and the weather was wonderful, plenty of paths to explore between the mature trees and meadowlands.
We had lunch at The Ring of Bells, Frodsham, all very enjoyable

Book Club – – Gone by Ruby Speechley

A teenager goes missing and his separated parents work together trying to find him. He had gone to a party, against their instructions. He and a group of his friends were all missing. The parents all receive ransom demands, the children seem to have been taken abroad, and a link between their families emerges.
Our group had mixed views on the book, members gave scores from 4 to 8 out of 10

Village Group Autumn meeting

The Autumn meeting for the Village Group of WIs was held at Whitley Village Hall, and we welcomed members from the 6 local WIs within this group.

An unusual account of the courage of Peggy Knight during WWII – told by Lesley Smith who took on the role of Peggy – appropriately dressed for the period in a green serge suit. You almost believed it was Peggy herself telling your her story – though she didn’t look old enough to have been active in 1940s! Peggy was brought up to speak fluent French in her home and this proved invaluable when she was recruited by the Special Operations Unit to be parachuted into occupied France to join the resistance network.

She carried dangerous operations there, and demonstrated extraordinary courage. Her work was recognised by 3 different nations.

Thanks to Melanie and her team for a really enjoyable and informative evening – a privilege to hear this brave woman’s story.

October 2026 Main Meeting

Jean congratulated Ann Brock for winning the Adelaide Hough Bowls competition. She thanked Pat S and Helen for arranging the WI Day coffee morning at Antrobus Cafe and Pat S for putting an account of our Lion Salt Works visit in the Cheshire News. More thanks to Pat for the lovely flowers she brought along to share on the President’s table.

Our speaker was John Lindley, ex Poet Laureate of Cheshire. He shared some of his poems with us which were very entertaining. Thanks and congratulations to Alison who gave the Vote of Thanks in verse – it was the first time John has had that experience!

Chris shared information about upcoming events. She reminded people about the CFWI Zoom meeting on Artificial Intelligence on 22nd October, an important topic for us all – contact Chris for details of this.

The committee are so appreciative of the support from our members – thanks to Caroline, for helping on the Welcome Desk, Sue B for helping with the raffle and to Deborah, Vanessa and Anne T for serving the refreshments.

Adelaide Hough Bowls competition

We had a lovely enjoyable and sunny day for the Adelaide Shield bowling competition.

11 members competed including 1 lady who had never bowled before!

The competition was won by Ann Brock. Janet Patterson was 2nd and Caroline Priestner was 3rd.

WI Day celebrated

WI Day is celebrated on 16th September every year. This year it was 111 years since the very first WI in the UK opened. Members from Whitley WI got together at the newly opened Antrobus Local Community Café, which is run entirely by volunteers.

It was a very happy occasion, lots of chatter and delicious coffee and cake to enjoy.

‘Go local’ is a good philosophy to have, and all attendees will visit again, especially as they were told that on Thursdays, there is always home-made bread to purchase.

The café is open every morning from 9.00am until 12.30pm.