HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE FEDERATION OF WIS

Miss Grace Hadow, born in Gloucestershire, was a keen advocate of women’s suffrage, adult education and of village life.  She was appointed to the Gloucestershire Chamber of Agriculture in 1916, when there was an emphasis on encouraging and organising women to play their part in the war effort.  As a result, she was instrumental in the formation of the first Gloucestershire WI, in Cirencester in July 1916 and was their first President.  In later years, Miss Hadow became National Vice Chairman.

By 1918 eleven institutes had been formed in Gloucestershire, primarily to encourage women to increase the production of vegetables in their gardens and to market them on a co-operative basis.  In September 1918 the Duchess of Beaufort chaired a meeting called by the Board of Agriculture to consider the formation of a Gloucestershire Federation of WIs.  In October 1919 a Conference of WI Members was held, addressed by amongst others, the Duchess of Beaufort, Mrs Nugent Harris and Lady Denman.  It was agreed to create GFWI and the first Executive Committee was elected.

A significant part of the movement was organising classes and instructors: among the first classes offered were renovating and practical mending, upholstery, dressmaking and millinery.  Early lectures included soils and seed growing, hay box cookery, bee keeping, fruit bottling and preservation.  In all these, ‘thrift’ was an important element.  But so soon after the end of the first world war, it was also recognised that the social support provided by WIs to the many single, widowed or bereaved women was invaluable.

Numbers of WIs increased rapidly: by the time of the second Annual Council Meeting in 1921 there were 57 WIs, by 1923 there were 92 and by 1929 there were 133 in the County. Numbers steadily increased to 285 by 1975, although in that year, because of county boundary changes, 49 WIs transferred to Avon Federation.

In the very early years, the committee members worked from home, but by 1923 offices were shared with the Gloucestershire Rural Community Council in College Green.  GFWI had, along with the National Farmers Union and the Workers Educational Association, been instrumental in setting up the GRCC.  Then in 1949 No. 2 Brunswick Square was purchased, which remains the offices and meeting rooms of WI House to this day.

Members were not just involved in homewares and handicrafts.  Drama groups and choirs were soon formed, with classes for conductors and singing festivals.  Soon music was being specially written for GFWI, including a piece with music written by Herbert Howells and the words from Chaucer.  Mrs Imogen Holst was the adjudicator at the 1938 singing competition.

In 1938, when the NFWI ‘came of age’, GFWI contributed a page for a book to be presented to Lady Denman, with a collection of watercolour sketches of Gloucestershire, and the page can still be viewed in WI House in Gloucester.

Throughout the second world war, WIs were again instrumental in all aspects of food production and preservation, in addition to assisting in the care of evacuees, dissemination of information and keeping up morale in village communities.  A total of 162 fruit preservation centres were set up, which produced between them over 150 tonnes of jam!  This could well be where the oft used comment about WIs being all “Jam and Jerusalem” comes from.  As for ‘Jerusalem’ – well this has its own history, very closely associated to Gloucestershire.

If you have any questions about Gloucestershire Federation archives or the WI’s links with local history, please contact us at WI House and we will see what we can do to help.