PRESIDENT Joan opened our February meeting and welcomed all ladies present.

Joan introduced four new ladies to the members and warmly welcomed them.

Correspondence was read out and then put on display.

Details of the route for the baton for the W.I. Centenary were displayed.

Various items were discussed, and then it was time to introduce our speaker Mr Peter Berry, title of his talk: 'And the Wife Came Too'.

The screen was erected and the slides were ready and we were taken on a wonderful journey across mid West America to the wild West, in search of old steam trains.

Peter has three loves, photography, steam trains and his wife (not necessarily in that order). He has travelled across the planet with Sarah his wife, in search of old steam locomotives.

They flew to Dallas and Denver, then travelled by car and steam trains, calling at the wild West towns of Chama, Durango, Silverton and Leadville; Silverton is a real cowboy town, it has a real cowboy saloon, Sherriff's office and a jail.

They were lucky to see a wild West wedding taking place.

They often hired private steam trains stopping 20 or 30 times a day looking for the best places for photographs.

They saw grizzly bears and wonderful Aspen trees.

They saw the tomb stone of William Cody who was buried in the mountains of Denver.

He supplied meat to the men on the railway, hence the name 'Buffalo Bill'

In Denver's railway museum, they found the largest steam engine on the planet, an enormous machine.

What a wonderful journey; we felt we were travelling on these old steam trains ourselves. Magnificent scenery.

Joan gave a vote of thanks for a fascinating talk which had many amusing anecdotes.

We then enjoyed our coffee and a chat.

Visitors are always welcome, we meet on the second Wednesday in the month (except August) at the Congregational Church Hall, Bedford Street, Stroud.

Starting about 10.30 am.

Please do join us.