After the Christmas blip when a new Covid variant reared its head to prevent members feeling comfortable with indoor meetings we have now managed to hold three consecutive meeting in our usual meeting place, The Salisbury Hall.

In February our speaker was PC Chris Evans of the South Wales Police.

He gave the members a fascinating insight into this branch of policing. According to Chris when you train as a dog handler you also take on the training of your own animal so that you become a dog handler 24/7.

The dog you train not only works with you but lives in a large kennel at your home.

The preferred dog for this work is an Alsatian although Dutch Herders and spaniels are also used.

It takes 13 weeks for a dog to be fully trained and they are then able to detect drugs, firearm residue, cash, body parts, currency and even sim cards.

The vote of thanks was given by Pam Sharratt and raffle winners were Val Jones, Debbie Hoad, Sharon Dilley and Ann Maloney.

In March our speaker was much closer to home, a relative newcomer to the village, Lesley O’Connell, whose presentation was enigmatically entitled ‘There but not there’.

Lesley is a relative new resident and has always been keenly involved in the Girl Guides.

In that capacity she had attended Remembrance Sunday services many times and in our village became fascinated by the 12 names inscribed on the village war memorial.

As no one in church seemed to be able to give her any information about those commemorated she gave herself a retirement project to find out more about those named.

Lockdown restricted her research somewhat and she was confined to internet searches and family history sites like Ancestry.

Ten of the 12 commemorated had signed up to South Wales regiments and the village lost four young men at the Battle of Ypres within a nine day period.

It doesn’t require much empathy to imagine how this would have affected the inhabitants of Govilon.

The only woman’s name on the War Memorial, May Prosser, Lesley discovered was a local girl who had gone into service in Lancashire.

She had left service to work in a munitions factory in Rochdale and had died from TNT poisoning.

The pay may have been much better in the munitions factory but it also proved to be lethal for poor May who died at the age of 26.

A vote of thanks was given by Florence Thomas who was full of admiration for Lesley’s thorough research.

The raffle prize was won by Sheila Francis – a spring flower arrangement donated by Chris Beddow.

Our last meeting before Easter saw Janet Parry from Raglan WI give a fascinating talk about her textile exploits and skills.

She confessed that she had always been a keen needlewoman doing plenty of dressmaking and soft furnishing from an early age.

However after attending a short quilting course at Cotton Angels in Monmouth and with her family growing up Janet was inspired to take her skills further.

She embarked on a three year part time textiles course at Hereford College of Art which developed her design skills and knowledge about various forms of dyeing.

Janet had brought along a range of her work from full size quilts to foot stools and cosmetic bags.

Many of the quilts were for family members and a recurring motif was the handprint of relatives worked in a fabric that reflected the recipients interests.

Many of these quilts were backed in fabrics dyed using ice and jar dyeing which were techniques she had learnt in Hereford.

Members were amazed by Janet’s prodigious textile work which she managed to produce as well as spending time calving, farrowing and lambing on the family farm.

As Jill Nicholson said in her vote of thanks Janet must work on a clock with far more hours in the day than the rest of us have!

Govilon WI meets at 7.30pm on the second Wednesday of the month at the Salisbury Hall in the village.

New members and visitors are assured of a warm welcome.