Programme
Programme 2025 - 2026
2025
GREAT ASHFIELD & BADWELL ASH WI
CENTENARY YEAR
2024- 2025
April 10th 7.30pm
Lord Thurlow Hall, Great Ashfield
Open Meeting. Everyone is welcome, entrance is £3 and includes refreshments and a raffle ticket.
Speaker: Lucy Lewis - Lighting the Fuse
After sailing a tall ship round South America, the Amazon and the Caribbean Lucy Lewis joined the Army on the spur of the moment. She trained at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst and was chosen in 1989 to become the first woman to operate as a Bomb Disposal Officer with the Royal Engineers. She subsequently served with the Royal Military Police in Germany and Northern Ireland, retiring in the rank of Major.
In 2018, Lucy made history for a second time by becoming the first woman to be appointed University Marshal at the University of Cambridge and now leads the University Constabulary, one of the oldest Constabularies in the world.
May 8th 7.30pm
Lord Thurlow Hall, Great Ashfield
AGM
Bring and Buy Sale
Crafting session
June 12th 7.30pm
Lord Thurlow Hall, Great Ashfield
Speaker: My WiSH - West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
Our local NHS Charity. Their mission is to enhance the wonderful care you, your family, friends and loved ones receive at the Trust. The charity was entered on the Central Register of Charities on the 15th September 1995. It constituted of 91 individual funds and was managed on an ad-hoc basis by the Trust’s Finance department. In May 2016 the decision was made to rebrand the charity launching under the new name of My WiSH Charity. This decision has seen the charity go from strength to strength.
Learn more about the current appeals, how to get involved and what contribution their fundraising has made.
July 10th 2pm
Garden visit:
Columbine Hall Gardens, Stowupland, Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 4AT
After having to cancel last year we have rebooked!
The Hall is over 600 years old, and is surrounded by a deep and wide moat, thought to be older still and built to resist Viking raids. In 1993 the hall and 29 acres of the original manorial lands were sold to Hew and Leslie Stevenson. As far as the gardens are concerned the Stevensons were given a blank slate - an iceberg rose and plenty of mature trees. After almost 30 years of planning and planting nearly everything is full-height and mature. There is a large, walled vegetable garden, numerous single colour beds, a bog garden which winds its way along an old ditch, now a running stream.
Cost to guests of WI members will be £10-15 payment is required before the visit and is non refundable. Fee includes tea and cakes.
August 14th 2pm
Members Garden Meeting, and Bring and Buy Sale
Location to be confirmed
September 11th 7.30pm
Lord Thurlow Hall, Great Ashfield
Speaker: Sarah-Jayne Clarke - Recycling and Rubbish
Get your recycling right! What can and can not go in those coloured bins?
What can we can expect following the new rules due in April 2026?
October 9th 7.30pm
Lord Thurlow Hall, Great Ashfield
Speaker: Pip Wright - Witches in and around Suffolk
Just in time for Halloween! For those interested in finding out more about witchcraft and our enduring fascination with the occult.
October 18th
Lord Thurlow Hall, Great Ashfield
Coffee and Craft
On Saturday 18th October 2025
From 10.00 – 12.00
As well as refreshments including cakes, tea, coffee etc some stalls hosting local makers
Start your Christmas shopping early !!
November 13th 7.30pm
Lord Thurlow Hall, Great Ashfield
Speaker: Lynda Brignall - 42 Years as a Midwife
Hear about the changing face of childbirth and midwifery.
December 11th 2.30pm
Lord Thurlow Hall, Great Ashfield
Speaker: Mike Wabe - Father Christmas Myths and Mistletoe
Back by popular demand ex Town Crier Mike Wabe.
Learn how the “Jolly Old Elf” feels about mistletoe - he's not that impressed, I warn you - and find out too, why he is known by different names around the world.
Discover how and why we celebrate Christmas when we do. Be surprised, and maybe even amazed, at when and how the traditions we currently associate with Christmas – cards, holly, mistletoe, crackers, turkeys to name but some – came about.
2026
January 8th 2.30pm
Lord Thurlow Hall, Great Ashfield
Speaker: Michelle Freeman - Crafty Foxes
Crafty Foxes is a community based craft company started by Michelle, who’s moto is if you’ve got time for a crafty coffee then you have time to make wonderful items to befit your home or as gift.
February 12th 2.30pm
Lord Thurlow Hall, Great Ashfield
“A Crafty Afternoon”
March 12th 7.30pm
Lord Thurlow Hall, Great Ashfield
Speaker: Michele Russell - A Journey with Glass
Join us for a evening of artistry and light!
It was after taking voluntary redundancy Michele Russell started pursuing a creative interest in stained glass. She bought a second-hand kiln and after the first firing of some jewellery she was hooked. Michele from Elmswell has set up Churchhouse Stained Glass making jewellery, foils and lead framed stained glass designs.
Michelle will bring items of her work to sell.