As part of the Club's 20th Anniversary Celebrations, some of our members participated in the Witney Carnival procession along with 27 other groups from around the town. The carnival took place on Saturday 11th July 2026 and had as its theme Music Heroes. Our theme was The Beach Boys. Our President's car, with decorated trailer, was in the procession. 

On the Sunday of the same weekend (12th July), the Club held an Afternoon Tea starting at 3pm at Witney Lakes with members and guests in attendance.

We once again had a very interesting talk by Liz Woolley about Felicia Skene, whose philantropy and care did a lot to help the poor and needy in Oxford in the 19th century.  It was a return visit for Liz as she had previously given us a talk on Lord Nuffield.

For "Downton Abbey" fans (and others) Lilian has now got thr final details for a visit to Highclere Castle to take place on Tueday, 13th August.  The cost is £33 per person and the coach will leave Wigford Way Car Park at 12 noon.  Please let Lilian know as soon as possible if you are interested as she is about to offer it to other organisations in order to fill the coach.

We also learnt that Witney Lakes are unable to accommodate us for our June Meeting, which is also the AGM, so we are holding the meeting at The Harcourt Arms, Stanton Harcourt, where we had a excellent Christmas meal.

With the AGM in mind, several members of the current committee will be standing down at the end of their term of office, so we are looking for other members who are willing to serve on the committee.  If you feel able to do this, please let the President know at the next monthly meeting.

Once again we have had a fairly quiet month, but the talk at our meeting on the 14th was excelllent.  It was given by Karen and Bret Wiles about  food retioning and Cooking for Victory during World War 2.  Karen had even made and brought some food made from wartime recipes which were able to sample. Both the Bread Pudding and Vinegar Cake were very well received, but not so the bread which was available during the war. 

A photo is attached showing some food items which Karen and Bret brought with them.  I'm afraid to say that many of us were old enough to remember them!

Next month the meeting will be on March 13th and the talk will be  given by Liz Wooley on the subject of Felicia Skene: Oxford Writer, Prison Reformer and Friend to the Poor:  1821 - 1899
A look at the life and work of Felicia Skene, one of Oxford’s Social Reformers helping those excluded by society.

Our Social Secretaries are still busy planning future outings, but have nothing to announce at the moment.

Looking forward to seeing everyone, including new members on 13th March.

A Happy New Year to you all.

Unfortunately, we were left without a speaker for the first meeting of the new year.  Our advertised speaker was unable to attend because of illness, but one of our members steped into the breach and gave us an excellent illustrated talk on Worcester College, Oxford.  This was where she had worked for over twenty years prior to retirement. 

We are now looking forward to our next meeting on February 14th when we shall have talk on rationing during the Second World War.

There will be an outung to the New Theatre in Oxford at the end of the month to see the musical "Oliver".

Our Christmas Lunch on 13th December was a great success.  We held it at the Harcourt Arms in Stanton Harcourt as a change of venue from Witney Lakes.

We were very well entertained by Kate Wilkinson who soon got us singing along with carols.  We were then served with  an excellent Christmas Lunch, turkey with all the trimmings including a Yorkshire pudding! This was followed by Christmas cobbler or tarte tatin.

This marked the end of events for 2023 and we are now looking forward to the New Year when the first meeting of the year will be on 10th January back at Witney Lakes.  Our speaker will then be Andrew Humphries talking about Restoring Antiques.

So until then, have a good Christmas and a Happy New Year.

This month we have had two outings as well our monthly meeting. The first outing was a theatre trip to London to see "Crazy For You", this was greatly enjoyed by those who went. 

The second outing was a visit to the cinema in Witney to see Andre Rieu's Christmas Concert most members had a meal at Cafe Rouge before the cinema and it proved to be an excellent evening.

Our speaker at the Meeting this month was one of our own members, Susan Shayler, who gave a Talk about the Witney Food Bank..  She has been involved with this for several years and told us that the number of people having to resort to using this service has risen dramatically over the last few years.

We are now looking forward to our Christmas Lunch which will be held at The Harcourt Arms on Wednesday 13th December where we will be entertained by Kate Wilkinson who will sing a programme of carols and other songs.

We have had a very successful year so far, we have gained several new members and membership now stands at 39 people, but we still have room for more if you are interested in joining us. 

Several visits are now being arranged for next year, including a visit to Highclere Castle in August.

We have again had an enjoyable month, at our meeting we had a talk by Julie Macken all about bees.  We learnt an awful lot about the social life of bees and what exactly goes on inside a hive of bees.

On Friday 20th September a group visited Thenford Gardens, the home of Douglas Hurd.  The weather was far from perfect but we all enjoyed exploring the extensive gardens and woodland.

Next month we have a talk by one of our own members on the Witney Food Bank.  We also have an outing to London to see a performance of the musical "Crazy for You".

In December we have more outings planned, including a visit to Blenheim Palace to see it decorated for Christmas, and possibly one to Chastleton House which will be decorated as a 1960's Christmas.  (an era which brings back many fond memories for many of us!)

If you feel you like to join the club, please do not hesitate to contact us through the email given on this website.  We are a very friendly club and are always pleased to welcome new members.