To kick off the New Year, our first speaker was Sam from the Shoe Museum who gave an amusing and enthusiastic talk about the Alfred Gillett Trust and the Shoemakers Museum in Street. She outlined the history of shoe making in Street, from a cottage industry to mechanisation led by the Clarks family. Many buildings and findings, such as internationally recognised fossils, have occurred as a result of the development of the shoemaking industry in the Street area. She talked through the concept of the museum and its four galleries. The galleries exhibit the history from the agricultural roots, to the machinery used in shoemaking, to the selling and marketing with examples from the 1950’s and 1980s including adverts and shop interiors of the time, and the finds that have been excavated including an internationally recognised fossil. We are planning a group visit in the Spring. Shapwick Allotment Association In February our speaker was Laura from the Repair Cafe and Re-use shop. The repair café concept, started in the Netherlands in 2009, was now well established in Britain. There are repair cafés in Street, Wells, Langport, Burnham, for example. More details can be found at www.repaircafe.org/en or on the Somerset County Council website. The cafés operate on a volunteer basis, usually once a month for a couple of hours. People bring things in which they wish to be repaired and work alongside a volunteer who teaches them how to repair their item: such as small electrical appliances (toasters, lamps), clothing/textiles, bikes, toys, and wooden furniture. The group also runs a café alongside the repairs and asks for donations towards the repairs and refreshments. The aims and values of the movement are to bring people together, utilise skills, encourage people not to throw away items but to repair them and to lobby government and manufacturers for the right to repair. Many of you who are village walkers will have noticed the 'mud to stone transformation' of the entrance to the allotments and completion of the fencing on Bridewell lane. It's taken a while, but well worth the effort and the entrance and easy and safer access is now complete. Thankyou to Stuart Dennis for helping to install the fence and to Colin Pople and Dave Gardner for laying the new entrance drive way. As it's now warming up, our growers will make good use of it! Bring on spring Shapwick Starlets WI 7 S PR I NG I S SUE | APR I L 2 0 2 6 MARY--JANE HINCLIFFE SIMON DAWES In March, the lovely Wafaa returned, this time to entertain us with a demonstration of Lebanese cooking. A lot of chat and laughter ensued as she prepared three dishes - a salad; bulgur wheat and chick peas; tzatziki - with the help of Caroline, Emma, Sally, Louise G and Nikki. Once prepared everyone tried the food and agreed how tasty the dishes were. Many people bought her book, with one being donated by a member for the raffle and another being donated by Wafaa for a subsequent raffle as she had sold out on the evening. Our competition cup for last year was won by Jean J. and presented to her by Bente, continuing the tradition that Dora started in the 1970's. And our walking group has now ventured out again as the weather starts to improve. Lots of interesting speakers booked for 2026 and some more adventures: not just in August. We meet the second Tuesday of each month in the village hall (see p. 8), and you can follow our Facebook page: Shapwick Starlets WI.
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