Barnsley Opals Women's Institute - BOWI

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Barnsley Opals Women's Institute - BOWI

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Barnsley Opals WI is a young, in age and outlook, Women's Institute full of lovely Yorkshire lasses and honorary Yorkshire lasses.

02/10/2026

BOWI members were enthralled to hear Artist, Author and Colour Energy Alchemist Raychel McGuin telling us about her life and work as a Colour Witch.

Introducing us to the twelve colours at the heart of her alchemy, each of us wrote down the colour we related to most at that time and it was surprising that these actually related to how we felt this week, or even at this point in our life.

There’s so much more to her work than we realised, from colour perfumes, sound baths, meditation and spells to writing wonderful children’s books. Lovely to see members chatting with her after the talk and engaging with the ideas she had introduced us to.

Maybe BOWI ladies really have special powers, but we already knew that!

26/09/2026

🐾 Introducing the BOWI Barkers! 🐾

We’re delighted to announce the launch of our brand new subgroup, The BOWI Barkers! 🐾 🐶 🥾

A huge thank you to our lovely member Heather, who has set up this group for all BOWI members and their families to enjoy together (whether you have a dog or just enjoy a walk!)

Our first outing was a great success, taking in a beautiful circular walk from the Trans Pennine Trail at Wortley Wagyu, with plenty of fresh air, friendly chats and wagging tails along the way. 🐶 💬 And, of course, no walk would be complete without a cheeky ice cream at the end! 🍦😋 The food also looked amazing, we’ll definitely try it next time!

We're looking forward to many more walks, and exploring more of the beautiful Yorkshire countryside.

25/09/2026

🎃 The BOWI Buttons craft subgroup has been busy getting ready for Halloween! Our talented members created these beautiful hand-stitched pumpkins, and they turned out brilliantly.

A huge thank you to Danielle for leading the craft session and sharing her skills, creativity and enthusiasm with the group. Well done to everyone who took part! 🧵🪡🍂

🎃

24/09/2026

Huge apologies the BOWI social media elves have been having a bit of a break!

Our September meeting was a great chance to catch up after the summer and enjoy a bit of salsa 💃 and salsa 🌶️!! Check out our moves 🪩!!!

Amanda from Parkerdance was a very patient teacher (she needed to be!) Thank you so much for a wonderful evening of dancing and laughter 😆

💃❤️

10/08/2026

🧺☀️ BOWI August Picnic ☀️🧺

Our August BOWI meeting took the form of a lovely summer picnic, complete with beautiful food from Whykes Sandwich Shop in Darton and plenty of time to relax and chat. 🥪🧁🥗. Huge thanks to the team at Whykes for such lovely sandwiches, savouries and cakes (including excellent pork pies 🥧!)

Many thanks to Deb and her family for opening their home and garden to us and making everyone feel so welcome. Thanks to the dedicated BOWI committee too for organising and pulling this all together ☺️.

The weather was fine, although we somehow managed to pick the only slightly chilly evening of August so far! 🤣 Thankfully, good food, great company and lots of conversation kept everyone smiling (and only shivering a little bit 🥶)!

Such a lovely summer evening with fab company!

If you’d like to find out more about BOWI please drop a DM to our page or email 📧 us on [email protected]

04/07/2026

🎉 BOWI Annual Meeting – July 2026 🎉

This month we held our Annual Meeting, we are delighted that the existing committee will continue in their roles, with Becca being voted in as President for another year. Congratulations, Becca! 💐

A huge thank you to Linda and Jenny from Pen*stone WI, who acted as our independent tellers and ensured the voting process ran smoothly.

We were also pleased to welcome Amy and Laura from BIADS, who gave a fascinating and informative talk about the incredible work they do to support people living with dementia and their carers within the community. Thank you both for sharing your knowledge and experiences with us.

Of course, no July meeting would be complete without our Big BOWI Bake Off! 🍰🏆 Congratulations to our winners:
🥇 Sam – Best Brownie or Cookie with delicious Simnel Cookies
🥇 Hanna – Best Savoury with her fantastic Herby Sausage Rolls
🥇 Linda – Best Cake with a wonderful St Clements Cake

A special thank you goes to our judges Linda, Jenny, Laura and Amy, who had the very difficult task of choosing the winners from so many tempting entries! (Special mention to Rachel who made an amazing Guinness Cake which was a close runner up!)

As we reflect on the past year, we would also like to say a heartfelt thank you to all our members for your continued support, enthusiasm and friendship. BOWI wouldn't be the wonderful group it is without each and every one of you. You are all amazing, and we truly appreciate everything you contribute to our WI 💜

Thank you to everyone who attended and helped make the evening such a success. We look forward to another fantastic year at BOWI!

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05/06/2026

Last night we were joined by the inspirational Razan Alsous and her husband Raghid to talk to us all about how they created a hugely successful business making delicious squeaky cheese 🧀!!

Razan, Raghid and their children left Syria as a result of the war, where they had lost almost everything.

They settled in Huddersfield in 2012 and found that they couldn’t get their favourite Syrian breakfast of halloumi in the supermarkets. Razan set out to fix this and make halloumi style cheese. With a small start up loan and plenty of ingenuity they created yorkshiredamacheeseuk. Machinery was expensive so Raghid used his skills as engineer to repurpose an icecream machine to make their first batches of cheese! It turns out the secret to their cheese is that it’s made with excellent Yorkshire milk 🥛 🐄!!

They now offer a huge range of flavoured squeaky cheese and have expanded out into making Mexican cheeses, ghee and labneh!

They stock their cheeses at farm shops, independent stores and now Booths. Please give their pages a follow and have a look for them when you’re out and about!

30/05/2026

Thursday night was our BOWI Buttons craft evening, this is where members get together for a craft and a bit of a chat 💬🧵

Under the expert guidance of Julie, we made these gorgeous diamond art coasters 💎 (paint by numbers with sticky jewels!) A really mindful craft 🧘‍♀️

Address

New Rd
Barnsley
S75 6EW

Website

https://barnsleyopalswi.wixsite.com/barnsleyopalswi

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