We have now cancelled our zoom membership and all meetings are face to face at St Andrews Bowling Club on Derby Road. We meet on the third Tuesday of every month for an 8pm start. Doors normally open 15 minutes beforehand.
The Gloucester Road WI is a diverse group of women with some amazing skills and experience.
We formed in 2011, and currently have over 50 members who meet monthly and engage in an activity or listen to a speaker. We also fundraise for local charities and participate in the national WI campaigns and initiatives.
Membership for 2023
Membership for 2023 opens in April and costs £46 per year. You can also attend meetings on a trial basis before joining. If you have any further questions about joining our vibrant and active WI please get in touch.
21 March : Preventing Plastic Pollution & Guerilla Gardening - Plastic Pollution
21 February : The Road to The Antiques Roadshow - Antiques Roadshow
Review January : Swishing! - Start the New Year with a Swish!
6 December : Our Christmas Party! - Christmas Party!
Review November: Styling with Elise! - Styling session with Elise!
We meet on the 3rd Tuesday each month at the Bristol St. Andrew’s Bowling Club.
Meetings are free to members and we do accept visitors with a requested donation of £6.50 cash
Programme is subject to change but will be updated regularly on this site. Sign up to the monthly newsletter
17 January
Swishing! Start the year in style with a clothes swap – clear out the old and herald in the new
21 February
The Road to The Antiques Roadshow – Chris Yeo, from the Antiques Roadshow, talks about his life and values your antiques
21 March
Environmental Focus on plastic pollution and how to reuse plastics in craft. Plus making seed bombs.
18 April
Wine Tasting
18 May
Get your 80s kit out – it’s Mum Dance! https://mum-dance.co.uk/
20 June
Harbourside Tour tbc
18 July
Shiatsu
15 August
To be decided based on numbers available
19 September
Salsa Story (local salsa company) & tequila
17 October
The history & folklore of death and dying
21 November
Christmas Craft Drive to create crafts to sell at Christmas fairs, for our charity
12 December
Christmas Party!
Our Christmas party with a charity raffle for fabulous prizes, skittles, and fizz!
Additional charges may apply for extra events or activities.
Programme may be subject to change at short notice.
We meet at 8pm on the third Tuesday of every month in the:
Bristol St Andrew’s Bowling Club,
Derby Road,
St Andrews,
Bristol
BS7 9AQ
On Tuesday 21st March, Imogen Douglas, a Project Officer in the Plastics and Sustainability team at the Environment Agency will be giving a talk on plastic pollution. Learn about the impacts of plastic pollution and the action that is being taken to prevent it. Get inspiration on how you can make a difference and tackle plastic pollution on a personal level.
Rather than just preventing pollution, the WI likes to take action, so we will be making seed bombs out of clay and wildflower seeds for you to scatter on your way home. The clay helps protect the seeds and aids germination meaning they can be dropped on any vacant piece of land with the hope that they will flower in the summer, helping drainage, wildlife and the absorption of CO2. You never know, it might even stop someone from dropping their plastic litter there. As a well-known brand says ‘every little helps!’
On Tuesday 21st February, Chris Yeo from the Antiques Roadshow gave us an amusing and information talk about his life in antiques, as well as giving valuations to some objects brought in by our members. Chris was curator of the Ken Stradling Collection in Bristol, an eclectic array of British and European design from the 20th century, and is currently a valuer at Clevedon Salerooms. His specialism is 20th Century art and design and he has appeared regularly on The Antiques Roadshow since 2015. He told us about how fashions change and can affect the price of antiques so you should always buy what you love, rather than what you think might make you money (as it very often won’t!)
On 17th January we held a swishing event, at St Andrews Bowls Club, to swap clothes old and new. It was a well attended event with lots being brought and re-homed, doing our bit to help reduce waste, save money and the planet! Left over items were not binned but taken to other clothes swap events and one smart, new coat was donated to the Bristol Central Library’s Coat Rail, which has coats available throughout the winter for anyone who needs one. While this was only a small contribution to charity we are considering doing a public swishing event next year to raise funds for local charities. Please email us, using the contact page, if you are interested in helping or supporting this event.
On 6 December, we had our annual Christmas Party. Fizz and raffle tickets were sold to raise money for our charity The Square Food Foundation. Everyone brought a dish to share, some from the late, great 2013 Gloucester Road Cook Book! Hannah Lowry won the skittles (again!) and Jo Furney won first prize in the raffle, which was an epic hamper! We also announced our new programme, which can be viewed on our programme page.
In November, we held ad a Personal Styling session with Elise Heptinstall-Holmes of Redefined Styling.
We discussed how to build a capsule wardrobe, what colours to choose, how to use accessories and more!
In October, we held our Annual General meeting to review our annual report and finance report for the year.
Our finances are healthy and we agreed we had had a good mix of different types of event at our monthly meetings. We discussed ideas for next year’s programme.
We discussed how to bring back our Wild Women group who held adventurous and sporty meet ups to try different things like paddle boarding and wall climbing.
We did some pumpkin carving to celebrate Hallowe’en, and some members carvings were very impressive!
In November, we are holding a Personal Styling session with Elise Heptinstall-Holmes of Redefined Styling.
We will be discussing how to build a capsule wardrobe, what colours to choose, how to use accessories and more!
In October, we will be holding our Annual General meeting to review our annual report and finance report for the year.
We are also going to be carving pumpkins, (or other veg) to celebrate Hallowe’en.
In September, we celebrated the apple in all its forms!
We tasted apples, apple juice and of course, cider! Members brought their spare apples and we had an apple pressing, and had competitions for apples, apple based foods and apple crafts, an apple quiz and a cider tasting!
Gloucester Road WI 
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