THOUSANDS of women across the country have this year been celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Women’s Institute.

But what many of us perceive as a very British institution actually started in Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada, in 1897 and was founded by Canadian educational reformer Adelaide Hoodless.

The movement brought women from isolated communities together and offered training in home economics, child care and those aspects of farming that were traditionally done by women, such as poultry keeping and small farm animal husbandry.

The WI spread quickly through Ontario and Canada as a whole and there were 130 branches in Ontario alone by 1905. It still thrives in Canada to this day.

In Britain, the WI’s roots lie firmly embedded in the nation’s efforts to feed itself during World War One when local food supplies were crucial to the population’s survival.

The very first WI meeting in the UK was held in Llanfairpwll on Anglesey, Wales, on September 16 1915 and this was followed on November 9 1915 at Singleton, West Sussex, when the first English branch was established.

The WI was formed with the support of the Agricultural Organisation Society (AOS) which appointed Canadian Madge Watt, founder member of the first WI in British Columbia and then living in England, to set up branches across the UK.

It was formed to encourage country women to get involved in growing and preserving food to help to increase the supply of provisions to war-torn Britain.

As a rural county with many smallholders, allotment holders and farmers, Worcestershire was an early addition to the WI movement in the UK.

University of Worcester lecturer Professor Maggie Andrews who is a cultural historian said: “Worcestershire was really early in the WI movement. By March 1916 there were meetings going on all over the country. People were being encouraged to work on the land and the WI was a way of encouraging women to work on the land.

“Worcestershire was a big place for smallholders and allotments and wealthy titled ladies who pushed it hard. There were the Coventry family, the Allsopps and Lady Isobel Margesson who was a suffragette.”

Many of the emerging WI leaders had been active in the Women’s suffrage movement and Lady Margesson had been prominent in the Women's Socialist and Political Union - chairing many meetings where Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst spoke. The WI even adopted the suffragette colours of green, white and purple.

Prof Andrews, author of The Acceptable Face of Feminism – The Women’s Institute as a Social Movement, said the Pershore WI with Lady Deerhurst as president was the second branch in Worcestershire after Barnt Green and is the oldest remaining WI in Worcestershire.

An exhibition detailing the rise of the WI movement, the part it played in the development of opportunities for women nationally and the role of Worcestershire has been on show at the Hive in Worcester. It is also part of the Worcestershire World War 100 programme – a four-year programme of events and activities commemorating the role Worcestershire played in WWI . More information is available by visiting http://www.ww1worcestershire.co.uk/

The exhibition in the Hive, largely put together by Prof Andrews, students from the University of Worcester and Worcestershire County Council Archives Services, it is on display until tomorrow Wednesday November 22.

It is part of a series of events marking the centenary of the first English Women’s Institute meeting and also part of the nationwide Being Human Festival of the Humanities.

Once the exhibition is finished some of the material will be available to WI branches in Worcestershire to use as they celebrate their centenaries.

Prof Andrews went on to explain: “Worcester had one of the first WI markets in the country and there was a WI canning centre at Evesham WI. By the end of the war Worcestershire WIs had produced 100 tons of jam, 51,000 cans of fruit, 16 tons of pickles and chutneys and enormous quantities of canned tomatoes and bottled fruit.”

Ten per cent of the food produced in Britain during the war came from gardens, allotments and smallholdings of Britain, she said.

There were also plenty of opportunities to do crafts and earn some money for it. This was for some women the first time they had been able to earn their own money.

Some of the Worcestershire WI made toys, which were in short supply during WWI as many had been imported from Germany. There were also opportunities for women to learn knitting, cobbling, sewing, crocheting, making rag rugs and patchwork.

“For women living in rural areas, the WI was the most significant legacy which came from WWI. It is a very early women’s organisation which gave women a chance to shift a sense of themselves. It was the first time women of all classes had chaired meetings or taken minutes. It really empowered them.

“I think a lot of things they did enabled them to make changes for the next generation.” She pointed out that what the WI actually did during WWI and the opportunities it gave women then and for years to come is in stark contrast to the traditional image of staid middle class women dressed in twin set and pearls.

Prof Andrews added that the inter war years saw the WI movement in the UK flourish and it raised and championed many social and political issues.

“At the end of the war they were trying to build a new Jerusalem and they were looking at issues like housing and equal pay. They were right at the heart of the Green movement and issues like GM food, VD and nuclear weapons.”