Ardeley & Cottered WI

13/05/2026

Ardeley and Cottered celebrated their 75th Birthday today by having a lovely meal at The Bull in Cottered.

11/05/2026

09/04/2026

Ardeley & Cottered WI April Meeting

At our meeting last night we had the pleasure to listen to Jan Penman who is a Clinical Nurse Specialist, at The Isabel Hospice in Welwyn Garden City which covers the East Herts, and she has been working there over twenty years. Like so many other organisations Isabel Hospice is facing financial problems with 70% of its funding having to be raised by donations. In 2023 she set herself a challenge to raise funds and decided to do a Mountain Challenge after speaking to one of her patients who commented that every day was a challenge and she was so exhausted by the end of the day she felt as if she had climbed a mountain.

Jan decided to climb one mountain a month in the UK in 2023 and as a mountain has to be over 2,000 feet she set out to find the appropriate ones.

January she climbed Moel Siabod which is a mountain in Snowdonia, Wales, at 2,861 ft.

February she climbed Pen y Fan, situated in Brecon Beacons National Park 2,907 ft above sea-level. This was for the Administration Staff who are very much needed in her job.

March the mountain was Cadair Idris in Snowdonia 2,930 ft, in memory of Julia Moodey who died in 2022.

April Snowdon was climbed with Danielle Scripps in memory of her husband Andrew who was well known. This is the highest mountain in Wales and England, standing 3,560 ft. tall in Snowdonia National Park.

May - Glyder Fawr which is the highest peak in the Glyderau range in Snowdonia, Wales, standing at 3,284 ft. This was for The Community.

June - Yorkshire Three Peaks which was three mountains in a day. Pen-y-ghent 2276 ft. Whernside 2414 ft. and Ingleborough 2372 ft. They covered 26miles climbing up and down. This was for Volunteers, she said they had a good network of volunteers before the Pandemic but they couldn’t be there at the Hospice then, and the numbers haven’t returned to pre pandemic levels.

July - Moel Elio 2,382 ft mountain in Eryri, Snowdonia.

August - Slieve Loughshannagh which is a 2,024 ft mountain in the Mourne Mountains, Northern Ireland, this was for Men’s Health.

September - Slieve Binnian is the third-highest peak in the Mourne Mountains, County Down, Northern Ireland, rising to 2450 ft. This was for Jenny who ran the Garden House Hospice in Letchworth.

October - Cnicht often called the "Welsh Matterhorn" 2,265 ft. It is a striking pyramid- shaped mountain in the Moelwynion range Snowdonia. This was for Barry Redford, and his three sisters did the climb with Jan and raised a great amount for the Isabel Hospice.

November - Great Gable 2949 ft. a prominent Lake District mountain, is immensely popular with hikers and climbers, often draws hundreds of people for the annual Remembrance Sunday service. This was in memory of Joyce Sharp.

December - Mynydd Mawr is a mountain in Snowdonia. Often called "Elephant Mountain" due to its shape This climb was for all the Patients Past and Present and they came down through a snow storm. This is always a special time as for many patients this could be their last Christmas.

A truly inspirational talk by Jan who then unpacked her very heavy rucksack to show us what she carried on these climbs. Dry socks, phone charger, gaiters, fluorescent lightweight jacket, plasters, gloves, survival bag, and lots of others things but she also added to the weight when food was put in for the climbs. As you can imagine there were lots of questions by members.

This was followed by business then coffee, tea and lovely cakes. A competition and a raffle before we all left for home. Next month is our Birthday Party and we will be 75 years old so we are going out for a nice Celebratory Meal.

12/03/2026

There was a good turnout of members and visitors at our meeting last night to listen to Nick Hunt talk about “The Trials and Tribulations of Working in Commercial Television”. Nick began by telling us that he always liked television from a young age and felt lucky he was able to do a job that he loved.

By 1973, the ITV network consisted of 15 regional broadcasting licenses, each operated by a different company, to provide commercial television across the UK. Anglia Television, Associated TeleVision, ABC Weekend TV, Border Television, Channel Television, Grampian Television, Granada Television, HTV (Harlech), London Weekend Television, Rediffusion London, Scottish Television, Southern Television, Tyne Tees Television, Ulster Television and Westward Television.

While he was working for Ulster Television he was sent up to Belfast for a while and stayed in the Europa Hotel. One evening the Fire Alarm went off and guests were told to go out of the back exit, not the front. Nick thought it would be alright to go out of the front, which later he realised wasn’t such a good idea as when the bomb exploded, the Hotel which was all glass, covered the whole area. Luckily Nick survived but never stayed at the Europa again. When he telephoned his parents to tell them he was alright their comment was “trouble always follows you!”

The television world is not run by a 24 hour clock it is run by a 30 hour clock. He said the Commercial side is very stressful with Advertisers always wanting results and questioning many things.

He spent just over 25years at SKY as Ratings Controller, and said they were a good company to work for and he enjoyed working there once he got the measure of things. As the years went on and various offices were closed and transferred, his commute to work became much longer his work life balance changed and there was very little social life. When Covid came and everyone was sent home to work, this meant he had much more time and began to imagine the life he would have if retired, so when early retirement was offered he jumped at the chance. (40% of Advertising revenue was lost during Covid). He was very surprised when going into his office to take back various pieces of equipment before he retired lots of his colleagues were there to give him a send off. They had not seen each other since the start of Covid. After some questions Lisa then gave the Vote of Thanks.

After Nick’s very interring and humorous talk we all tucked into very nice refreshments, followed by the raffle which was won by three visitors and a member. A Quiz about television was next and lots of members took part. It was good to see so many visitors and anyone who wants to come a visit us again with a view to joining is most welcome, we would love to see you.

12/02/2026

At last nights Ardeley & Cottered Open meeting we had a very full room of members and visitors to listen to Ian and Julie, both Magistrates, talking about what’s involved in being a magistrate.

Ian and Julie started off by telling us that a magistrate is a volunteer, serving their community, they are ordinary people from all walks of life, not professional lawyers. Volunteers are unpaid officials who hear criminal and family court cases at the Magistrates Court, they make legal decisions, such as issuing bail, community service orders, short custody (up to a year) and resolving disputes, with guidance from the legal advisors present. Three Magistrates sit on the bench, using common sense and fairness to decide cases, they handle less serious offences or pass more serious crimes, (for example murder, r**e and robbery) to the Crown Court where the defendant will undergo trial by a jury of twelve ordinary people. A system which goes back over 800 years to the Magna Carta in 1215.

Almost all criminal cases begin in a Magistrates Court. Magistrates deal with crimes like, minor assaults, motoring offences, theft, handling stolen goods or TV licence evasion. Magistrates decide if the defendant should be, kept in custody, let out on strict conditions or kept away from named people or places.

Family cases are held at a Family Court, Magistrates Support families by making decisions about child arrangements and maintenance and help with issues like domestic abuse. They can get advice from the child’s guardian or a family court adviser during the case.

To be a magistrate you must meet some eligibility requirements. You do not need formal qualifications or legal training to become a magistrate.You will get full training for the role, and a legal adviser in court will help you with questions about the law. You need to show you’ve got the right personal qualities. You have to be aged between 18 and 74 and Magistrates must retire at 75. They are normally expected to serve for at least 5 years, and need to be in court for at least 13 full days a year.

After an extremely interesting talk followed by many questions, refreshments of tasty homemade cake and a cup of tea or coffee were served. Everyone tried to complete the quiz of jumbled up legal words, the raffle was drawn, and we then had some WI business before making our way home on a cold wet evening.