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Thornton Hall

Thornton Hall

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A group of our members met recently for a stroll through the beautiful flower gardens at Thornton Hall, near Darlington.  Thornton Hall was built around 1550 by Ralph Tailbois, and is one of the oldest buildings in Borough of Darlington.  The gardens have been designed and developed by the current owners of the Hall since they arrived in 1989.  They started with bare grazing paddocks and have produced a wonderful display of beds full of flowers and shrubs.  Only open for a few days each year, a visit here is a real treat.  And so was the Afternoon Tea: delicious!

Richmond Town Mayor-Making

Richmond Town Mayor-Making

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Jane Beeton and Margaret Clayson represented SI Richmond and Dales at the recent inauguration of the new Richmond Town Mayor, Councillor Ann Brewer. This is a traditional ceremony, with regalia dating back to 1668.      In addition to the Town Councillors, the ceremony is attended by representatives of a wide range of town organisations, to celebrate the appointment of the new Mayor following May’s local elections. Interestingly one of the new Mayor’s three nominated charities for the year ties in with ours, being Garget Walker House.  She is also the Town Council representative for Dementia Awareness. The other charities are developing disabled access at St Mary’s Church and the Richmond Meet.

May Meeting

May Meeting

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SI Richmond and Dales held its May meeting on Thursday 19th May.  We welcomed as speaker Lieutenant-Colonel Jim Turner, Commander of Catterick Garrison, Richmond’s near neighbour. He gave an very entertaining and informative talk on the history and structure of the Garrison, and his role in command.  Very wide-ranging it is, too. We also welcomed a new member, and guest Leslie Richardson, Head of 6th Form at Richmond School.  She spoke briefly to mark 10 years of our collaboration with the school in our ‘Sharing our Skills’ Project.  Leslie commended us for the considerable achievements of the project.  It has introduced students to meetings and organisation skills, and raised their awareness of issues around the world.  They have responded with fundraising to support our charities and organise their own groups. Our Programme Convenor, Jenny Cathcart, was also able to report that we will shortly have

April Meeting – AGM

April Meeting – AGM

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Our April meeting was the AGM, as we move into the new year, 2022-23. The meeting began with readings by members from our ‘Women of Influence’ project (posted separately).  What inspiring and remarkable women we heard about!  As usual, the AGM was a fairly ritual process, reviewing the previous year and previewing the new.  We were able to donate over £3000 last year, plus donations in kind, which was quite an achievement, given the limitations of the Covid pandemic.  We were also very pleased to welcome two new members to the club. Chair Jan Beeton thanked all members of the club who participated in this successful year, in particular the members of Executive, who have kept the ball rolling.  The new Executive was confirmed, and will continue to meet via Zoom, which has worked well this year.  The new Executive follows the structure of a

Women of Influence

Women of Influence

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Soroptimist International celebrated its centenary in 2021, and to mark this milestone m embers of SI Richmond & Dales decided to compile a record of women who, in their lives, had inspired and influenced them. Here are the citations for our Women of Influence, which were read out at the AGM: Jean Crouch – Role model for education, nominated by Jan Beeton As the co-editor of the “Girl” comic and annual, Jean Crouch provided life stories of influential women from British History and the Arts. This counterbalanced a very male view of history being taught in schools in the 1950s, being full of battles, revolutions, and royalty. Each Christmas I would get a Girl annual and as an avid reader, I read them over and over again. It’s via this comic that I learned about Boadicea, Florence Nightingale, Edith Cavel, Flora McDonald, Elizabeth Barret-Browning, The

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson

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SI Richmond and Dales were delighted to host an evening with Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson at the Scotch Corner Hotel on Thursday 24th March.  This was a really long-awaited event, as we originally planned this prior to the pandemic.  After several postponements, we were very pleased the event was finally able to take place.  This was despite an road accident just below Scotch Corner an hour before the event, which closed the A1 Southbound, and caused traffic chaos around the junction and the hotel. Luckily, Baroness Tanni arrived early.  Sadly, many of our guests were delayed, and our fellow Soroptimists coming south from Darlington and Durham were unable to make it in time to hear her speak. The event was organised in support of International Women’s Day.  SIGBI’s theme for International Women’s Day was Breaking the Bias and Baroness Tanni inspired us to seek a world

March Monthly Meeting

March Monthly Meeting

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March Monthly Meeting Here is the update on our March Monthly Meeting.  We did not have a speaker at this month’s meeting, as it was our annual Programme Action Review.  Jenny Cathcart, the incoming Programme Action Lead, described the varied things we were able to despite the limitations of the Covid pandemic.  These have been described on the news blog through the year, but it is always useful to remind ourselves of what we have been able to do, especialy for our main charities this year, Just-The-Job and Colburn Foodshare.  As always, we seem to have been able to do much more than we remembered.  Let us hope that we are less subject to restrictions this year, and can return to full throttle. Members have been active this month alongside others in this area in donating food and baby supplies to the Ukraine Crisis initiative

February Meeting

February Meeting

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The February meeting saw a good turnout of members plus several guests.  We were also joined by our new cohort of 5 students from Richmond School. They will be joining us for the next 3 months for our ongoing ‘Sharing Our Skills’ project.  This gives the students an opportunity to see how we work – see the structure of Executive and business meetings, and take part in charitable and campaigning activities. Upcoming Events Our International Women’s Day event will be on 24th March. We will at long last be able to welcome Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson to speak to us at the Scotch Corner Hotel.  Due to the pandemic, this event has been postponed for 2 years!  Over 130 tickets have been sold. We will also be selling copies of “Spider Woman”, the autobiography of our patron, Baroness Hale, at the event, and running a raffle.

Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson

Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson

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Before the arrival of Covid, we scheduled ‘An Evening with Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson‘ as our tribute to International Women’s Day.  Inevitably this had to be postponed, then postponed again, but we are pleased to announce that this event will take place on March 24th 2022 at The Holiday Inn Scotch Corner.  The timing is arrival from 6pm for 6:30 start, with a meal served at 7pm.  If you bought tickets for this event, dust them off and contact us to confirm that you will be attending. Please email us on sirichmondanddales@yahoo.com.  We are really looking forward to welcoming you to this event!

SI Richmond and Dales January update

SI Richmond and Dales January update

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Happy New Year to all!    As we had no meeting to December, this is the first post of 2022, SI Richmond and Dales January update. Quiz Night We held a fundraising Quiz & Supper at The Holiday Inn Scotch Corner at the end of November. Approximately 70 contestants too part in the quiz, and a total of £404 was raised. The Hotel served a very good Pie & Pea Supper, and the quiz was set and run for us by local regular quizmaster Dave Tucker.  First prize was a voucher for dinner for two in Fratello’s, the Scotch Corner Hotel restaurant.  Members of SI Richmond & Dales marked the occasion by wearing orange to highlight the international campaign 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.         Xmas Meal We were able to celebrate Christmas with a meal at The Station, Richmond,