Soroptimist Bristol members were delighted to hear Sue Mountstevens OBE at our Speaker and Supper Meeting on Monday 11th November.      Sue is no stranger to SI Bristol as Sue was our guest speaker at our annual luncheon in 2014 and number of us are Magistrates too. Sue was the first person to hold the post of Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner in Bristol and was first elected in 2012, having stood as an independent candidate.  She was vice-chair of the Independent Monitoring Board for Bristol Prison and was a magistrate for 15 years. She now works as Chair of Quartet Community Foundation. Earlier in her career she was a director of a family business, the Mountstevens Bakeries chain. Sue understands that addressing domestic abuse crime only as a ‘women’s issue’ risks blaming the victim and ignoring the actions of the

  We were honoured and delighted to welcome Peaches Golding OBE CStJ, the Lord Lieutenant of Bristol, as our Speaker at our club’s meeting on 14th October.   Peaches has been an honorary member of our Club for many years and has always been present at our special celebrations and occasions, for which we are very grateful. Last Monday she entertained us with many interesting stories about 20th Century Female Royal Role Models. At this evening we were also delighted to give a warm welcome to our Regional President, Daphne Dowsing, who came over from Tiverton especially to meet us. It was a pleasure to host Daphne and we certainly hope this is one of many visits. We also welcomed and introduced two new visitors at the meeting and we hope they will join us as members in the near future. We must say a

  At our Speaker Meeting we were delighted to welcome Henry Alpass whose knowledge of St George’s amazed us.  Henry took us through the different phases of St George’s ending with the recent upgrade.   He told us that in in the early 1800s St George’s was St Augustine’s Chapel  and was built in a burial ground between Great George Street and Charlotte Street.  Then in 1832, it became St George’s Brandon Hill. Then in 1975, lunchtime concerts began at St George’s.  The first evening concert took place in 1981 and then in 1984, St George’s closed as a parish church.  In the 1990s St George’s became a concert hall and the pews were replaced by seats.  Finally in 2018, a new pavilion extension was completed, with a new gallery and performance spaces. We were amazed at the changes that have taken place over the