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2026 Trefonen WI turns 100!! |
HAPPY 100th BIRTHDAY!!
Trefonen WI has reached a significant milestone, celebrating a hundred years of the Women’s Institute in this attractive North Shropshire village.
100 years of friendship, learning, and community spirit.
The WI movement began in 1915, created to revitalise rural communities and encourage women to gain new skills and take an active role in local life during the First World War. From those early days, the WI grew into the largest voluntary women’s organisation in the UK — a place where women could learn, lead, and lift one another up.
Just over a decade later, in January 1926, the women of Trefonen decided it was time to join that movement. According to our original handwritten minutes, almost 100 people gathered in the Trefonen Schoolroom on 25 January 1926 to discuss forming an Institute. Miss Webb, the County Organising Secretary, attended, and under the chairmanship of Mrs Drew Woodhill, the vote was unanimous: Trefonen would have its own WI.
A committee was elected that very night — with Mrs Drew Woodhill as President — and plans were set in motion for monthly Friday meetings. Those early members wasted no time. At the first official meeting on 5 February 1926, 61 women enrolled, and the evening featured a Singer sewing machine demonstration by Miss Bell from Chester, followed by a reading of the rules and a flurry of suggestions for activities, improvements, and community involvement.
The minutes from those first weeks show a group of women full of energy and purpose:
• planning jumble sales,
• arranging craft demonstrations,
• organising courses,
• encouraging members to share patterns, recipes, and ideas,
• and even debating the timing of meetings around Good Friday.
They were practical, organised, and ambitious — qualities that have clearly carried through the generations.
At the party held in Trefonen village hall on Thursday 5th February 2025 members shared supper and a glass of bubbly with a slideshow of photographs from the 1950s to present day. There was even a display of Singer sewing machines to represent that first meeting a century ago.
Current president, Deana Paarsons Jaegar said, ‘And now, 100 years later, here we are: still gathering, still learning, still supporting one another, and still contributing to the life of this village. The world has changed in ways those first members could never have imagined, but the heart of the WI — community, creativity, and connection — remains exactly the same.
Tonight, we honour the women who came before us: the founders who filled that schoolroom in 1926, the committees who kept our WI thriving through war, social change, and modern challenges, and every member who has shared her time, skills, laughter, and friendship.
And now we celebrate the current members of Trefonen WI, who carry this legacy forward into a new century.
Here’s to the next 100 years — may they be as bold, warm, and inspiring as the first.
Let’s raise our glasses to Trefonen WI!’
100 years of friendship, learning, and community spirit.
The WI movement began in 1915, created to revitalise rural communities and encourage women to gain new skills and take an active role in local life during the First World War. From those early days, the WI grew into the largest voluntary women’s organisation in the UK — a place where women could learn, lead, and lift one another up.
Just over a decade later, in January 1926, the women of Trefonen decided it was time to join that movement. According to our original handwritten minutes, almost 100 people gathered in the Trefonen Schoolroom on 25 January 1926 to discuss forming an Institute. Miss Webb, the County Organising Secretary, attended, and under the chairmanship of Mrs Drew Woodhill, the vote was unanimous: Trefonen would have its own WI.
A committee was elected that very night — with Mrs Drew Woodhill as President — and plans were set in motion for monthly Friday meetings. Those early members wasted no time. At the first official meeting on 5 February 1926, 61 women enrolled, and the evening featured a Singer sewing machine demonstration by Miss Bell from Chester, followed by a reading of the rules and a flurry of suggestions for activities, improvements, and community involvement.
The minutes from those first weeks show a group of women full of energy and purpose:
• planning jumble sales,
• arranging craft demonstrations,
• organising courses,
• encouraging members to share patterns, recipes, and ideas,
• and even debating the timing of meetings around Good Friday.
They were practical, organised, and ambitious — qualities that have clearly carried through the generations.
At the party held in Trefonen village hall on Thursday 5th February 2025 members shared supper and a glass of bubbly with a slideshow of photographs from the 1950s to present day. There was even a display of Singer sewing machines to represent that first meeting a century ago.
Current president, Deana Paarsons Jaegar said, ‘And now, 100 years later, here we are: still gathering, still learning, still supporting one another, and still contributing to the life of this village. The world has changed in ways those first members could never have imagined, but the heart of the WI — community, creativity, and connection — remains exactly the same.
Tonight, we honour the women who came before us: the founders who filled that schoolroom in 1926, the committees who kept our WI thriving through war, social change, and modern challenges, and every member who has shared her time, skills, laughter, and friendship.
And now we celebrate the current members of Trefonen WI, who carry this legacy forward into a new century.
Here’s to the next 100 years — may they be as bold, warm, and inspiring as the first.
Let’s raise our glasses to Trefonen WI!’
2026 Programme
January 8th K Kimber – Resolutions
WI resolutions, a catch-up chat and New Year fizz!
February 5th Our (first) 100th Anniversary Party
Committee made supper for current members.
March 5th AGM and Celtic Dawn
After our AGM we will be entertained with music from Celtic Dawn - Andy Davis and Jacob Molineux
April 2nd Shaun Higgins presents Snowing Butterflies – Open Meeting
Young Charles Darwin, fresh from his voyage to strange new lands aboard the Beaglereveals what he has come across and begins to sow the seeds of his grand theories to come …
May 14th (note this is 2nd Thursday) Nicky Morris from The Movement Centre
A UK charity based at the RJAH hospital providing a specialist therapy called Targeted Training to help children gain movement.
June 4th 100th Anniversary Party
Welcoming members past and present to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Trefonen WI with Gabriella La Foley to entertain.
July 2nd Tony Wright on music of the 50s and 60s
A humorous talk with snippets of music from the era
August 6th Summer Outing – venue to be confirmed
September 3rd Making a centenary commemorative WI corn plait
Sheila Williams returns to help us make a large plait together as a WI centenary keepsake.
October 1st Alison Utting presents Ordinary Lives – Open Meeting
A celebration of everyday life in Shropshire throughout history, highlighting women’s stories in particular. Our mothers and grandmothers may not have made it into the history books, but they were the cornerstone of family and society in so many ways. This talk also celebrates the birth and growth of Women’s Institutes.
November 5th Christmas wreath making
With ….
December 3rd Christmas Party
WI resolutions, a catch-up chat and New Year fizz!
February 5th Our (first) 100th Anniversary Party
Committee made supper for current members.
March 5th AGM and Celtic Dawn
After our AGM we will be entertained with music from Celtic Dawn - Andy Davis and Jacob Molineux
April 2nd Shaun Higgins presents Snowing Butterflies – Open Meeting
Young Charles Darwin, fresh from his voyage to strange new lands aboard the Beaglereveals what he has come across and begins to sow the seeds of his grand theories to come …
May 14th (note this is 2nd Thursday) Nicky Morris from The Movement Centre
A UK charity based at the RJAH hospital providing a specialist therapy called Targeted Training to help children gain movement.
June 4th 100th Anniversary Party
Welcoming members past and present to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Trefonen WI with Gabriella La Foley to entertain.
July 2nd Tony Wright on music of the 50s and 60s
A humorous talk with snippets of music from the era
August 6th Summer Outing – venue to be confirmed
September 3rd Making a centenary commemorative WI corn plait
Sheila Williams returns to help us make a large plait together as a WI centenary keepsake.
October 1st Alison Utting presents Ordinary Lives – Open Meeting
A celebration of everyday life in Shropshire throughout history, highlighting women’s stories in particular. Our mothers and grandmothers may not have made it into the history books, but they were the cornerstone of family and society in so many ways. This talk also celebrates the birth and growth of Women’s Institutes.
November 5th Christmas wreath making
With ….
December 3rd Christmas Party