Frinton WI

08/06/2026

Well what can I say. What an amazing afternoon celebrating the King's Big Lunch. An amazing turnout of lovely ladies and gents from our own Community cafe, Home Instead and Touched by Cancer. Over 70 people enjoyed a lunch put together by our wonderful WI and helpers. Our guests enjoyed a lovely lunch and homemade cake and were regally entertained by the wonderful Frintones choir.
Huge thanks to all of our local businesses who donated food, money and prizes for the raffle. Please see the list below. Thank you to all the helpers who made this afternoon so memorable. ❤️❤️❤️

WI Essex
The WI (National Federation of Women's Institutes)

06/06/2026

What a fantastic Repair Café today, with over 43 items repaired.
A huge thank you to our wonderful repairers and helpers for giving up their time and sharing their skills. Your hard work makes events like this possible.

Meet Eric, an RAF veteran, who brought along a pocket watch that had been sitting in a drawer for over 50 years. Seeing treasured items brought back to life and hearing the stories behind them is what the Repair Café is all about.

Our next Repair Café will be:

Saturday 19th September
9:30am – 11:30am
McGrigor Hall

We look forward to seeing you there.

05/06/2026

Good morning all. Just a reminder that the WI are hosting a Community Repair Cafe at the McGrigor Hall tomorrow 9.30 until 11.30.
Bring your items along to be repaired.
Tea and coffee available while you wait.

31/05/2026

It seems that May is nearly at an end and it's time for a catch up.
The afternoon meeting on meditation obviously worked as there were some gentle snores and deep breathing. We were all relaxed!
The community cafe was a delight and one of our members had a birthday, the lovely Dot, I believe she was 94 and still as bright as a button.
Craft club produced some very good makes and we all had a lovely afternoon crafting boats and beach huts made from maps then framed in a box frame. Very satisfying.
The walking group had a lovely walk in Fordham. The weather forecast wasn't good, but we managed to dodge the showers right up to the end of the walk when the heavens opened and we all got drenched! Lunch in the Cricketers pub made up for it!😉
Garden club paid an annual visit to Hylands House Flower festival. The theme this year was the Wild West. There were some extraordinary exhibits. The grounds featured plant stalls and garden paraphernalia (known as stuff) and our mini bus was duly packed with plants and said stuff. It's amazing what you can fit into a mini bus. 😂
No speaker for the evening meeting as it was the Frinton WI annual meeting, we came away with a new President.
Many thanks for the last years work from Joanne Hughes our outgoing President and congratulations to Vola Carter our new President.
The annual tea party was held in Brenda Kettle's beautiful garden (she opens for the RNLI open gardens)
It was so hot, the cream for the scones melted!
Despite that we had a delicious tea and also a glass or two of Prosecco. Many thanks to our Tea Party Team Jan, Lorraine, Sheila and Ann for making it a special day, we also raised £546 for this year's charity which is Next Chapter, a refuge for women (and men) escaping from domestic violence.
Finally the Garden club visited a member's garden (mine this time 😊) it was a fabulous afternoon and so lovely to see everyone chatting and enjoying the sunshine. The odd glass of prosecco was also imbibed along with numerous cups of tea.
A very productive month for Frinton WI.
Our next meeting is on Tuesday 2nd June and our speaker is Ian Anderson talking about the Natural History of Spices. Ladies, do join us if you can. £5 for non members and it starts at 1.45 at the McGrigor Hall.

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03/05/2026

April has come and gone, where does the time go? Another busy month for Frinton WI.
The afternoon meeting went very well, I can't say much as I was the speaker giving a talk about my early life as an Opera singer! Everyone seemed to enjoy it though. Phew!
Lots of our lovely ladies attended the Community cafe, they all have a lovely time. Craft club were engrossed as usual and parchment work and Iris folding was on the menu.
The Gardening group enjoyed tea and cake and a beautiful walk through the bluebell wood at Lifehouse Spa, and we were blessed with lovely weather.
Our evening meeting speaker was Peter Lyall a cameraman for 55 years, his exploits over that time kept us enthralled and amused.
Our Spring Fair was a highlight of the month and we raised over £700 for our charity Next Chapter.
A lovely afternoon was spent in a members beautiful garden in Clacton the weather was warm and we had some amazing cakes with our tea. 😉
At the end of the month the allotment gang were hard at work weeding and planting the carefully nurtured seedlings that members had grown.
Our next meeting is on Tuesday 5th May at 2pm in the McGrigor Hall. Our speaker is Joanne Larner and she will be telling us about meditation and various techniques.
If you would like to join us (ladies only) the guest entry is £5.00.
We look forward to seeing you. 😊

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13/04/2026

Don't forget the WI Spring Fair is on Saturday 18th April. Lots of stalls and cake...lots of cake!😉

23/03/2026

I can't believe it's nearly the end of March! Frinton WI has had a busy time.
We sent off 385 poppies for the Standing with Giants appeal, many thanks to all who participated.
Our afternoon meeting was very interesting, Andy Moore gave us a talk on the role of Zoos in Conservation. Andy is director of Science education and training at Colchester Zoo. It was a very entertaining and insightful talk.
We celebrated International Women's Day in style, three very different but inspirational women told us their stories and then entertainment from Cherie Pearce as the amazingly inspirational Dolly Parton, a fun but very meaningful afternoon.
Our community Cafe was very well attended and our guests had a wonderful afternoon.
There were beautiful makes at craft club. Spring flowers in a teacup and felt heart baskets, these looked very simple but I found them quite difficult I later found out that seven year olds make these!😂
The walking group had a blustery time in Wrabness but of course they loved it!
The Repair Cafe was very busy and our wonderful repairers fixed many items, much has been saved from going to landfill.
Our Garden club had a wonderful afternoon making Kokodamo (the art of Japanese hanging baskets, very satisfying) after an interesting talk on how not to kill your houseplants!
Finally, the evening meeting was all about chocolate, TEMPRD a local company making hand made chocolate came and gave us a talk about how they set up their company. There were lots of samples so the WI was very happy😋

21/03/2026

Unfortunately all of the spaces for our Spring Fair have been taken. Please email us on
[email protected] and we will add you to the list for next time.
Thank you so much for your interest.

08/03/2026

17/02/2026

A busy couple of weeks for Frinton WI.
A great speaker for our afternoon meeting, Dan Trussler talking about new ways to combat Arthritis, a very interesting talk.
A busy time at the Community cafe, our guests had a lovely time, it was brilliant to hear the chatting and laughter.
At the craft workshop we did stone painting and organza embroidery, there were some beautiful makes. Lots of concentrating going on but also lots of chatter. We do love making a mess! 😂
The garden club managed to dodge the showers when they went to Horkesley Hall to see the snowdrops. They were amazed that some of the snowdrops on sale were £80.00 plus! Despite a couple of showers they enjoyed themselves.
Yesterday the walking group led by Margaret Strevens did a circular walk starting at Great Tey. We started in bright sunshine and blue skies and ended with torrential rain just as we arrived back at the van! Lunch at Poplar garden Centre made us all feel much better!😉

We have our evening meeting this Thursday 19th 7pm our guest speaker is Gary Egerton talking about the funny side of Policing.
Ladies, do come along, it's £5.00 for visitors and I think this talk will be fun.


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