ARTS THEATRE CLUB: Held its annual meeting on April 15. Pat Morris who had been treasurer for 14 years, had decided to step down and was presented with a garden token with the club's thanks for all her work and helpfulness over the years. Members were delighted that she had, however, agreed to remain on the committee as a general member. Miss A Buckley was re-elected as chairman and Mrs D Chapman as secretary. Mr D Granville-Jolly joined the committee as treasurer, and Mrs P MacLaren-Humphrey as a general member. The evening closed with a short entertainment of music and poetry provided by members. The last meeting of the season will be held on Friday, May 20 at 7.30pm when the speaker will be Mary Croxson, her subject being William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement.

A visit to the Swan Theatre, Worcester, has been arranged for May 17 to see A Russian Spectacular and on June 20 there will be a midsummer outing to Hillers Garden Centre for a strawberry cream tea and guided tour of the gardens.

Visitors and prospective new members are always welcome to evening meetings which are held in the Courtyard Room at Number 8 at 7.30pm on Fridays. Further details can be obtained from the secretary, Mrs Dot Chapman on 01386 552989.

LADIES' GUILD: Members enjoyed an inspiring talk at the beginning of the April meeting. It was given by William Boughton on Creating an Orchestra. He explained that coming from a musical family it was to be expected that he would learn to play an instrument and have a musical education. His orchestra's headquarters became the Festival Hall in Malvern, where, in the first season, they gave five poorly attended concerts. It was not until he persuaded some very well known soloists to perform with them that their audiences increased. Two excerpts from CDs were played, one by Elgar and the other by Benjamin Britten. Mrs J Herbert thanked Mr Boughton for a wonderful talk.

Later Mrs Lockhart welcomed back Mesdames Du Cane, E Jones and J Cooper, who each had been absent for a while due to ill-health.

It was announced that names were being taken for the summer lunch, which will be held on June 23 at the Fruiterers' Arms and will cost £11.50.

Mrs Meller is again hosting strawberry teas on June 30 and July 7 in aid of this year's charity.

The skittles group are hoping to arrange a friendly match with Pershore WI.

Mrs Loach reported that the literary group had met recently and discussed the book Astonishing Splashes of Colour by Clare Morrall, which had been an interesting read.

The sales table raised £24.80. The next meeting will be on Tuesday, May 3 in Wulstan Hall at 2pm when Mr Mel Mills will give a talk on My Gran was a Gypsy, and country stories. The sales table will be jams and marmalades. New members and visitors welcome.