President Patricia Ash greeted members at the January meeting with good wishes for a happy new year.

Subscriptions were duly paid up and dates noted and booked for attending a new speakers day at Rock, the annual council meeting at Malvern and, as 2008 is the year to celebrate 90 years of the Worcestershire Federation, several applied to go to a special dinner in May at the Three Counties Showground.

The speaker for the afternoon was Jenny McGowan, who told us the history of the many almshouses in England. The oldest, known as God's House at Wallingford, was built by Chaucer's grand-daughter and many more that evolved over the years are still in existence. They began as monasteries and hospices for travellers. Other names were Bede or Leper Houses and many hospitals were founded by Bishops, for example St Wulstan's Hospital which is known in Worcester today as the Commandery. These provided ale, bread and coins for the poor. There are still nine almshouses in Worcester supported by charities.

Ms McGowan inspired us to look out for similar ones in other cathedral cities of England such as York, Warwick or Winchester.

Eileen Chapman expressed our warm thanks for a really interesting talk to start off the new year.

On Saturday we look forward to hearing Garth Lowe talk about the Knapp Paper Mill Nature Reserve (with slides) at 2.30pm in Broadheath Village Hall.

ALISON REYNOLDS