One hundred years we know have passed
since Snainton Women's Institute first met.
The years and mem'ries go so fast
and none of us were there...and yet...
We know women from all walks of life:
ladies, cooks, maids, farmer's wives
would meet in Snainton Village Hall...
find common interests in their lives.
Three Institutes had started then
in Yorkshire, Snainton being one
and Hackness!! (Couldn't make it up!)
and Rounton, near Northallerton.
Yet W. I. began abroad!
in Canada : Ontario
to educate the rural folk
in food and hygiene, long ago.
And 1918 saw the end
of war, but oh so many men
were killed: their husbands, sons, their friends...
yet women built their lives again...
And Suffragettes had won our right
to vote...nor cease from mental fight
for women...And our Institute
began...one winter Tuesday night
in Snainton !...Green and pleasant land...
How could they know in twenty years
another war would make them stand
again for freedom...hide their tears?
Women drove trucks, ambulances,
worked in munitions factories.
Flew planes, fed troops...went to dances !
farmed, took in evacuees...
Jerusalem, now sung at meetings,
once the hymn of Emmaline
when Suffrage ladies fought for freedom
then, on England's mountains green!
Food was rationed, yet those wartime
hedgerows, trees were full of tast-y
fruit to jam, preserve and pickle...
nothing was to go to waste!
JAM AND JERUSALEM, that label
stuck, and Women's Institutes
all thru' out the 20th cent 'ry
grew and gained lots more recruits!
Snainton, in the post war 50s
helped relieve austerity:
childrens' parties: fun at Christmas,
giving, helping charity.
For lots of causes need a hand
to shine on other's Clouded Hills.
Most of us have more than plenty...
use our gifts, our talent... skills.
Then...that Calendar! A bombshell!
Lovely ladies, brave and fun.
Sunflowers: then a film and stage show;
who needs bigger cakes and buns?
We have competitions, speakers:
Ukulele Band : Tai Chi :
decorating cakes...things floral,
line dancing : photography...
Harvest auction, Sons of Neptune,
laser guns, tales from the Bar!
Plastic in the sea...oh, Choc'late!
Paper-weights ...donate a bra?
So, Snainton Women's Institute,
we celebrate our first Centen-ary
and sing the words of William Blake
on Hubert Parry's pastures Green!
So...wear posh frocks...and rings of gold,
you might need arrows of desire
to turn out some nights (when it's cold)
and park your chariot of fire!
Meet us at Snainton Village Hall;
not swords...but sponge cakes in our hand!
We've made our Women's Institute
...In England's green and pleasant land!!
Anne P-G
