Monthly Meetings
In light of the current situation, and following Government guidance, our meetings will not be held at The Heathcote & Star until further notice. Instead, our monthly meetings are now online!
The programme may be subject to change, but we can still guarantee the same amount of fun, friendship and support. Guests are still welcome to join us just contact us in advance for the Zoom Meeting ID.
Our monthly meetings are great fun, covering a diverse range of topics and activities. We often theme them to tie them in with current WI campaigns. Previous meetings have included:
- Talks on women’s issues, health & well-being, local history & the local causes and community projects we support
- Crafts such as making soap, beeswax food wraps, greetings cards, Easter Chick egg cosies & Christmas wreaths
- Quizzes, Music Bingo and Food & Drink tastings
- Gardening themes – making posies to combat loneliness and learning how to encourage bees into our gardens
All meetings are held in the function room of the Heathcote & Star pub, unless otherwise stated.
Upcoming Meetings & “The Birds” Outings
SRWI Monthly Meeting:
Wednesday 14th July 2021, 7:30pm – ONLINE VIA ZOOM
Dorcas Societies: Crafting Textiles in the Front room
A talk by Rose Sinclair, Lecturer in Design (Textiles) Goldsmiths, University of London.
Dorcas, a woman who made garments for the poor (Bible: Acts chapter 9, v36-42), gave her name to countless Dorcas societies. These societies and clubs would become embedded carriers of knowledge exchange and culture in textiles. For women migrating from the Caribbean to Britain from the late 1940’s they would continue to provide a space to share ‘church’ and textile expertise, a space where textiles were both on show and could be shared.
Rose will tell us about the history of these societies and let us sample the atmosphere of these craft experiences.
BIOGRAPHY:
Rose Sinclair is a Design Lecturer (Textiles) in the Design Department at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she involved in teaching textiles/fashion and Design related practice up to Postgraduate level.
Rose has authored several textile books, her most recent being Textiles and Fashion, Materials, Design and Technology by Woodhead publishers 2015.
Her current PhD research, explores the relationship between textiles practice and communities and networks, such as those found in Dorcas Societies, and Dorcas Clubs, especially those inherent in the Caribbean communities and was recently featured on the BBC Four television programme Craftivism: making a difference (Feb 2021).
Her recent paper in Craft Research Journal (Issue 6.2 Intellect) entitled ”Dorcas legacies, Dorcas futures: Textile legacies and the formation of identities in ‘habitus’ “; discusses the impact of diaspora and migration within this textile network.
Rose’s textile design work has developed in area of civics, social and public engagement for which she has been awarded The Warden’s Special Award for Community Engagement 2019 and The Warden’s Special awards for Civic engagement (2020)
Rose is a member of the advisory board for the Journal of Cloth and Culture, and is Co-Editor for Journal of Textile Research and Practice.
The Birds Outing:
Saturday 17th July 2021 Timing TBC
The Leyton Sports Ground
2 Crawley Rd, London E10 6RJ
Joyce Guthrie Leyton Sports Ground Manager will show us around the Grade 2 Listed Victorian Cricket Pavilion and the new building that forms the indoor cricket and activities hub and tell us about how girls and women’s cricket is developing using the facilities.
More details and booking deadline to follow.
SRWI Annual Garden Party:
Saturday 28th August 2021
The annual Pimms and Cake Garden Party, set in Christine’s gorgeous garden, is back!
A range of drinks and cakes, plus preserves and plants, will be on sale to raise money for Solace Women’s Aid – our nominated charity.
The best bit is that we can meet and socialise with gusto!