Meeting Report September 2012
Phillip Hoyland
September in Woolavington, and a WI Social Secretary’s nightmare – the speaker cancels just as she is due to go on holiday! We omit the ensuing activity and simply say that the end result was excellent – Mr Phillip Hoyland stepped in at short notice, bringing with him a most amazing array of brass emblems and a large wooden box!
Phillip’s talk, “Benefits, Brass and the Girtest, Grandest Day”, was about the West Country Friendly Societies – fore-runners of today’s insurance companies, but so much more than that.
Such societies, or “sick clubs” existed as early as the 17th Century, and could be a burial fund or for blankets, food or shoes. With the introduction of union workhouses, clubs sprang up in almost every village to try to save people from the dreaded fate of being taken to the workhouse.
To join a sick club required 2 letters of application –one to certify good character, and one of good health; a joining fee might have been 2/8d or 4 gallons of cider, and thereafter we know that Burnham men paid 8d/week. Each club had a president and 2 stewards, an emblem and its own set of rules and each had its annual “grandest day”, when the whole village came to a halt and the men ”walked”. Starting from their meeting place - invariably the pub, it being the only place big enough to hold them all - once the business was conducted they all paraded, first to church and then around the larger houses and farms for ‘refreshment’; immaculately dressed in their finest, sporting tusseys* and their brass-topped staffs and possibly even accompanied by a brass band!.
Phillip’s talk seemed to be over far too quickly, but we very much hope he will return with another at a later date!
After the break Corena read some extracts from the minutes of the earliest days of our own WI, back in1943. Apart from greater formality then, it was heartening to see how little changes – concern over non-participation in competitions, maybe even cutting the refreshment buns in half to save money!
The competition for an unusual teapot resulted in a real mix of exhibits – a Rington’s lorry-shaped pot was the winner belonging to Corena, followed by a fabric doorstop – Lynne, and a mortar-board-wearing owl of Jackie’s. What a super evening!
*tusseys – small posies worn on a jacket
Phillip’s talk, “Benefits, Brass and the Girtest, Grandest Day”, was about the West Country Friendly Societies – fore-runners of today’s insurance companies, but so much more than that.
Such societies, or “sick clubs” existed as early as the 17th Century, and could be a burial fund or for blankets, food or shoes. With the introduction of union workhouses, clubs sprang up in almost every village to try to save people from the dreaded fate of being taken to the workhouse.
To join a sick club required 2 letters of application –one to certify good character, and one of good health; a joining fee might have been 2/8d or 4 gallons of cider, and thereafter we know that Burnham men paid 8d/week. Each club had a president and 2 stewards, an emblem and its own set of rules and each had its annual “grandest day”, when the whole village came to a halt and the men ”walked”. Starting from their meeting place - invariably the pub, it being the only place big enough to hold them all - once the business was conducted they all paraded, first to church and then around the larger houses and farms for ‘refreshment’; immaculately dressed in their finest, sporting tusseys* and their brass-topped staffs and possibly even accompanied by a brass band!.
Phillip’s talk seemed to be over far too quickly, but we very much hope he will return with another at a later date!
After the break Corena read some extracts from the minutes of the earliest days of our own WI, back in1943. Apart from greater formality then, it was heartening to see how little changes – concern over non-participation in competitions, maybe even cutting the refreshment buns in half to save money!
The competition for an unusual teapot resulted in a real mix of exhibits – a Rington’s lorry-shaped pot was the winner belonging to Corena, followed by a fabric doorstop – Lynne, and a mortar-board-wearing owl of Jackie’s. What a super evening!
*tusseys – small posies worn on a jacket