Federation Chairs, past and present, join together to cut the celebration cake
Yesterday, a happy horde of WI members descended on Chy Noweth an Conteth to help celebrate the 20th birthday of our remarkable County House.
Chy Noweth was opened in 2003 to great fanfare, by Princess Anne. A number of members who had been there on that momentous occasion came to yesterday’s celebratory cream tea yesterday. Liz Anderson, who had been our County Chairman in 2003, gave a brief talk about the day, about what went into getting the building built and about meeting Princess Anne.
We had a beautiful celebration cake on hand, made by our own very talented Dot Rogers, and cream teas as far as the eye could see! The weather even cooperated enough for members to sit outside!
Former Federation Chairs/Chairman were on hand to help us celebrate: Sheila Goldsworthy (1990-1993), Liz Anderson (2002-2005), Yvonne Toms (2008-2011), Kathy Reed (2011-2014), Barbara Corbett (2014-2017), Margaret Johnson (2017-2021) and Helen Kestle (2021-present). Unable to attend were former Chairs/Chairmen Rosemary Slee (1987-1990) and Annabel John (1999-2002), who were much missed.
When Chy Noweth an Conteth (Our New County House, in Cornish) was built, it was ahead of its time – with a clean, modern design and with photovoltaic panels on the roof. It was certainly a vast improvement over the Federation’s former home, Strangways Terrace, in central Truro. Strangways Terrace had no parking and no disabled access.
It’s so wonderful that now we can welcome all our members to what is your home! Unlike many Federations across the country, we have generous parking, a fully accessible building, room for storage, comfortable space for our office staff and two lovely meeting rooms. We thank all the hard-working and determined women who helped create this wonderful home for our Federation.
If you’ve never visited us, do pop in the next time you’re near Truro. You can find us here.
A big thank you to all who attended and joined in the celebration yesterday. But how did we forget to sing Happy Birthday??