Mrs Webb looked back and recalled how the first W.I. meetings
were held in the old school. The furniture was uncomfortable. The Institute was
formed at the second meeting in 1924, with Miss Alice Jervois as President.
Annual sub. 2s. Meetings were 6.30-9.00 pm, ending with the National Anthem. In
1925 'Jerusalem' was introduced and ended the Cumnor meetings, except in August
1926 when 'it was too dark to play the piano for 'Jerusalem'. The W.I. was in
the forefront of fundraising for the new Village Hall, which was opened in 1928
by the Master of Balliol. There were twice yearly coach excursions to London.
One report was of a 'charabanc' in which 'they went one way to London and came
back the other'. An outing to Southsea cost 7s and members were advised to save
for it. The 21st 'birthday party' occurred during the war when rationing
precluded a proper cake, so a tin was covered in plasticine, with candles. The
annual summer meeting was held in a garden, usually at New Cumnor Place.
Martha Franklin recalled 'I was one of those who went to the first meeting, in
the school. It was rather cramped and there wasn't much room to move about.' In
1924 an unsuccessful children's party was held. The mixture of babies and
children up to 14 was rather chaotic. Next year an old folk's party was arranged
but there were no street lamps and it was a terrible night and hardly anyone
turned up.'We asked Wilfred May to come and sing. He lived at Bradley Farm.
Business dragged on, and no sign of him. We were still in the old school. There
was a children's lobby, with no light. When we opened the door he'd been there
half an hour - in the dark. I remember he sang 'I must go down to the sea
again'.
The Institute began to play an important part in parish life. 'I like to think
it was the start of the emancipation of Cumnor women. Alice Jervois was queen of
the village in those days.'
The Post Office, in those early days, was along the Oxford Road in someone's
front room. There was one shop but no baker. Mrs Franklin was one of the three
trustees of the village hall. Mr Thomas was another. They relied first on oil
lamps and oil stoves. The hall then rose to the rafters and the heat went up
there too. Strict decorum was observed in discussing who might represent the
Institute at outside events.