Visitor From English Women’s Institute

Press, Volume C, Issue 29513, 13 May 1961, Page 2

Visitor From English Women’s Institute

__ I" the tiny village of Compton Abbas, near Shaftesbury. Dorset, England, a Women’s Institute has been in existence for 35 years. The village population is about 250 and Compton Abbas itself dates back 1100 years.

Mrs W. Stevens Perry, who is at present visiting Christchurch, has been vice-president of the institute for three years. She is also producer for the drama group and liaison officer for the Dorset County federation with the Associated County W'omen of the World.

In an interview yesterday. Mrs Stevens Perry described the village which was originally the dowry given to the daughter of King Alfred the Great when she became the first Abbess of the Abbey of Shaftesbury. Compton Abbas means the land in the combe or valley, belonging to the abbey. The institute meets in the former school hall which has become a local community hall for the village. The school closed when the roll dwindled to seven pupils. The drama productions are usually one-act plays dealing plainly with country life. The audience usually sit round the sides of the hall leaving the floor to the actors. Costumes come from the members own wardrobes and from •’props” collected by Mrs Stevens Perry and the institute president. Talent For Drama ”1 have been very pleased indeed with the talent I have found among members in the drama group,” said Mrs Stevens Perry. “One or two are really outstanding and among these is one who is a great-grandmother. She really enjoys acting, she has a marvellous memory and really knows how to play up to her audience.” In Christchurch, Mrs Stevens Perry attended the birthday party of the North Beach C.W.I. and watched the play "Miracle at Blaise” presented by members. "I was very interested and 1 thought they did it extremely welt” she said. "It is a very difficult play to put

across but they managed It most successfully.” Mrs Stevens Perry has been associated with the Compton Abbas institute for only 6| years. Before that she belonged to two in Surrey, the West Byfleet and the New Haw institutes. For the West Byfleet group she was drama producer and choir mistress and was drama mistress at New Haw. In the interests of the choir she took a course on conducting at the Denman College where she had previously taken a course on singing for pleasure when mistress of the village church choir. She

learned her theatre craft from an assistant of the well-known theatre personality Lillian Bayliss of the Old Vic. Similar Aims Mrs Stevens Perry finds all aspect of institute work absorbing and interesting. Through her work for A.C.W.W. she has met women from institutes in Malaya, Canada, and the U.S. as well as from Australia and New Zealand. She has also met representatives from a similar women's organisation in India. “Their aims are much the same in every country. They work for the betterment and improvement of rural conditions,” she said An old craft which has been introduced to New Zealand women through the link with Dorset is Dorset featherstitching. A copy of a book on the subject, written by Mrs O. Pass, has been sent to New Zealand together with transfers for patterns. Mrs Stevens Perry brought a doll and doll’s clothes to the New Zealand Dominion headquarters to show the genuine Dorset stitching. “Another form of needlework that has its origin m Dorset is handworked buttons. One hundred years ago Dorset was famous for its buttons and these ones are made on rings of slik or linen thread. Very fine crochet work is done round the edge and the centres are embroidered with a fine pattern. I have never seen them on sale. It seems to be an art you would have to learn vourself,” said Mrs Stevens Perry. Mrs Perry has relatives in New Zealand and this is her second visit. She will travel round the country and visit institutes till February, 1982, when she will return to England by sea.