Anglesey Panel

Description

Anglesey’s panel with its appliquéd map of Canada in the top left hand corner highlights the formation of the WI in Canada in 1897. The hand stitched purple timeline spells out, in blanket stitched lettering, the place of the first WI in Canada, Stoney Creek, and its development via the Menai Suspension Bridge into the place of the first WI in the UK, Llanfairpwll on Anglesey.

The timeline flows through the panel to end at the Summerhouse at the Graig, the meeting place of the first WI in September 1915. The WI continued to meet there for the first five years and the summerhouse has been completed in feltwork.

A sepia portrait in textile imaging of the founder of the WI movement, Adelaide Hoodless, is at the top of the panel on the left hand side, and to her right the bucket of spilt milk and wooden cross are symbolic of her child that she lost from drinking contaminated milk. This tragedy was the catalyst for the formation of the first WI. As a teacher, Adelaide had always championed technical training in schools and colleges and she saw, in the WI, the means of empowering women to improve the quality of life in their local communities.

The felted maple leaves denote its roots in Canada and the poppies the formation of the organisation in the UK during the First World War. The flags on the right in machine embroidery highlight the links between Canada, Wales and the United Kingdom.

The hand at the top of the panel, worked in felt, depicts the scattering of the seed further afield
and the growth of the movement in the UK from its formation in Anglesey. The sepia textile images of Mrs Madge Watt and Colonel Stapleton Cotton pay homage to their role in bringing the WI to the UK and for its formation on Anglesey. In June 1915 Mrs Watt gave an impressive speech in Bangor about ‘the interesting work done by the WI movement in Canada’, this was at the invitation of Colonel Stapleton Cotton who then went on to arrange that first meeting in Llanfairpwll. On the
16 September 1915 a resolution ‘that we form a Women’s Institute (WI), affiliated to the Agricultural Organisation Society’ was taken.

The Marquis’ Column in felt work on the right of the panel beneath the flags symbolises the link
between the Marquis of Anglesey and Colonel Stapleton Cotton who was his descendant. The land where the WI met belonged to the Marquis’s estate. The minute book worked in Aida fabric depicts
the first meeting and shows the subscription as 2/-. The soldier’s cap signifies the presence of
wounded soldiers at the first meeting and at that meeting music was played on a harp.

At the bottom of the panel the blackberries and blooms, worked in ribbon craft, are symbolic of
the preservation of fruits and vegetables, which was the topic of discussion at the first official
meeting on the 25 September, and the spray of wheat is symbolic of the need during this time, to grow food to feed the nation.

The federation’s bilingual badge is an outline of the Isle of Anglesey, the dragon in the centre is symbolic of Wales and the WI tree was the national logo at the time the badge was designed.
The badge is worked in machine embroidery.