JOAN Jarvis, our president, opened the meeting and welcomed three visitors, Eleyne Hutchinson, Heather Lawler and Wendy Williams, and then thanked Christine Wilkinson for the lovely table flowers.

Our speaker for the afternoon was Brian Halliwell whose talk was entitled ‘Historical tales, myths and stories’.

Having studied ancient history Brian had concluded that we could all learn a lot from Greece and Rome.

He said that many of our present day jokes came from there and compared some of these to those mother-in-law jokes told by Les Dawson.

We were also told that Julius Caesar was not an emperor of Rome and that it was Octavian and Mark Anthony who ruled the east and the west of the Roman Empire.

However, after they teamed up with Cleopatra the Romans did not want a foreign queen and so Augustus became the first Roman emperor; killing Anthony and Cleopatra to achieve this.

On a lighter note Brian mentioned that one of his hobbies as a youngster was to spot mistakes in historical films such as the use of false eyelashes, make up and a plaster on someone’s neck in the film Camelot.

This was an unusual talk, well delivered and greeted with a good applause.

This year for our summer outing in July we are going to a garden centre followed by a boat trip, then lunch and a guided tour around Much Wenlock in Shropshire.

In August, we have a trip planned to see the Anderton Boat Lift near Northwich.

Joan wished a happy birthday to Sally Taylor, Brenda Pinion and Lydia Howard who all celebrate their birthdays in June.

Around 40 members and visitors then enjoyed a delicious afternoon tea, served by the committee members.

This was followed by a toast to WI, with each member having a glass of wine and a piece of birthday cake to celebrate 100 years of WI as a whole and 95 years of the Cheshire Federation.

The raffle prize winners this month were Christine Wilkinson, Barbara Worthington, Margaret Fletcher, Maura Appleby, Wendy Williams and Isobel Harris.

Our next meeting is on August 18 and our speaker will be Andy Reid whose talk is entitled ‘Standing Tall’.

Visitors are always welcome.