December 2023 - Christmas Party 

We enjoyed a delicious meal at the Castle Inn, West Lulworth for our Christmas party, and kept busy between courses tackling village anagrams, some with a festive theme and with all members' villages included, together with dingbats and a quiz.  We had fun guessing the identity of wrapped presents in a sack, and exchanged secret santa gifts.  A fun evening!

November 2023 - Ghosts, Royals and Ferrymen 

There was a good turnout for our November meeting despite the inclement weather.  Brian Margetson told us all about the oldest form of transport, the ferries across the 124 river and estuaries in and around England.  We learned about different types of ferries and ways of crossing rivers, including those powered by engines, oars and chains with examples from around the country.  We also enjoyed Brian's excellent storytelling as he took us to different locations with tales of ghostly apparitions and tactics employed by Roundheads and Cavaliers during the civil war.  

October 2023 - Xtreme Falconry - talk with birds

We were pleased to share our October meeting with eighteen visitors who, like us, had come to see and learn more about birds of prey from the Dorset Falconry Park.  Martin from Xtreme Falconry gave a very lively, entertaining and informative talk, ably assisted by four of his birds of prey, telling us about their habitats, colour variation, hunting methods and food preferences.  First, a beautiful barn owl, which uses its hearing to seek out its prey, and were even shown its surprisingly large ears under its feathers.  The kestrel was next, a bird that we often see hovering in the fields, but what a treat to see one close up.  The African Spotted Eagle Owl was very sociable, and had huge eyes, being a visual hunter.  Finally, we were in awe of the enormous bald eagle, now thankfully off the endangered species list.  We thoroughly enjoyed meeting all these beautiful birds and finding out more about them.  We learned about how the birds of prey fit into the ecology of the countryside, and many of us are now hoping to visit the Park when it reopens in the spring.  www.dorsetfalconrypark.co.uk 

September 2023 - Fine Cell Work and the History of Patchwork

Ginny Stobart gave us an extremely interesting and informative talk, touching on the history of patchwork, and the introduction of needl craft sessions in prisons.  She highlighted the difficulties faced with working in a prison environment, and of the positive outcomes of the voluntary work with prisoners.

July 2023 - Dorset Search and Rescue

Dorset Search and Rescue (DORSAR) specialise in finding vulnerable missing persons, which could include children, elderly people, people with medical needs or mental health issues.  Alerted of an incident by the Police, DORSAR mobilises a highly trained team of volunteers to carry out an organised search, covering an area from the hills of North Dorset to the coast, often working with neighbouring counties or the Coastguard.  They work on similar lines to the more well-known mountain rescue teams in upland regions.  Dave, a veteran of DORSAR, explained that they are a charity relying largely on fund-raising efforts to deliver their valuable service, with unpaid volunteers always ready to respond to emergencies.

June 2023 - Exploring the Villages and Lanes of West Dorset

Jackie Winter, ably assisted by her husband Alan, showed us pictures and talked us through a variety of familiar and not-so-familiar pretty places in West Dorset.  Starting, of course, with pubs (!) Jackie went on to reveal some of the lesser known churches, villages, manor houses and sunken lanes, with some background on their history.   

May 2023 - The Creech Barrow Seven

The Creech Barrow Seven were part of a secret resistance unit in the Second World War.  John Williams gave a very interesting talk, giving us an insight into the fascinating work of this unit.  Men considered to be of the right calibre were selected from local units including the Home Guard but, having signed the Official Secrets Act, even their families did not know what work they did.  John has been instrumental in discovering more about the operation of the unit, finding some of the limited documentation that is available, restoring bunkers and providing information boards.  You can read more about their research at www.staybehinds.com. 

To follow up, twelve of us visited the Creech Barrow Memorial the following week, and walked in the pretty Kilwood Nature Reserve, ending at the Cake House at East Creech for coffee, cakes and lunches.

April 2023 - AGM and Country Dancing

At the AGM our President and Treasurer reported on another very successful year for West Lulworth WI.  You can read all about our meetings below, and regular activities and fundraising events can be found on the relevant website tabs.  The new committee was elected and Jacqui Leaton was voted in as President.  Several members had brought in home baked Easter goodies to enjoy, and we rounded off the evening with some country dancing.  As well as being our teller for voting for the AGM, Isabell van Millingen from Wool WI very kindly organised the dancing, which was great fun.

March 2023 - Recycling with Dorset Waste Partnership

What might have been a fairly serious and possibly dull subject was made very interesting and informative by two members of Dorset Council's Waste Partnership.  As well as explaining which bins welcomed which items of waste, we also found out about where our waste goes, how it is processed and what happens to it afterwards.  Plastics are processed into pellets for making into new things, and paper repulped and made into boards.  Glass jars/bottles and their lids are separated electronically, before being processed separately. Even the rubbish in our 'skinny bins' is made use of, being incinerated and producing energy.  The Waste Partnership has several projects on the go to encourage us to recycle more and, better still, to create less waste in the first place.

February 2023 - Janine Scola, Call of the Wild

We were lucky to have local photographer Janine Scola to talk to us for this meeting.  Janine is a professional wildlife photographer and she shared moments of her intrepid visits to Sri Lanka, Antarctica and Namibia, with fantastic photographs of all manner of animals including elephants, penguins, seals, whales, impala, leopards and lions.  We were impressed that she got so close to her subjects - only ten feet from a cheetah! - and it was also lovely to see less-known creatures such as pangolin and star tortoise.

January 2023 - Games evening

To liven us up on a cold wet January evening we all got involved in some games. We are lucky to have a very impressive pop-up skittle alley at the village hall, and we each played two rounds, taking it in turns to be scorers and sticker-uppers.  After a lot of varied results, and a lot of laughter, the eventual winner was Jacqui.    We then enjoyed a social time with coffee and nibbles before sitting down for a rather rowdy game of Beetle, which was won by Gill M.  A fun and enjoyable evening.