MAMBLE CUM BAYTON W I: At the March meeting, president Val Evans welcomed members and a visitor. A get well card was signed by everyone for Mrs P Trow, who has been a member for many years. She had fallen and broken her leg, but is now recuperating in a home near Tenbury. Pauline Blumer was thanked for arranging the recent visit to the Carpet Museum in Kidderminster, which everyone found to be very informative and well worth a second visit in the future.

Several members will attend the Teme and Tenbury Spring Group meeting to be held on April 28 at Lindridge Parish hall, and hosted by Menith Wood WI.

We welcomed Mervyn Silcox of Kidderminster as our speaker. We enjoyed his memories of 'living with my father', who was a WW1 veteran. Unable to return to the job he had before the war, he started buying and selling confectionery on the markets in and around Brierley Hill. Mervyn's mother had been a ticket inspector on the buses, but after the war, being an excellent seamstress, she made and sold garments on the markets too. After purchasing a house in Bank Street, Brierley Hill, they turned the front room into a shop and widened the range of goods sold. Later, on moving to Kidderminster, the front room became a shop, as well as continuing to sell goods on the markets. After WW2, with the coming of the supermarkets, father decided to purchase old trams from Birmingham Council and turned them into holiday chalets in Kingsford, as well as purchasing houses to rent. Quite an entrepreneur.

The next meeting will be on April 11 in Mamble Village Hall, starting at 7.30pm, the first of our 'summer' meetings. Mr R Barber's talk is "Blackbirds", the competition is an item beginning with "W" and there will be a trading stall.