Sad visit

Denman is the name of the college that has been at the heart of the Women’s Institute for more than fifty years. Housed in a lovely Georgian house near Oxford, it has always been beloved by WI members. I myself have been fortunate enough to visit more than fifty times, either on courses or in an administrative capacity.
A few months ago we heard the devastating news that Denman will have to be sold. Closed because of Coronavirus, the college couldn’t survive without the income of students. Now the lovely house, teaching blocks and accommodation rooms will all be sold.
Most of the bedrooms were furnished by county federations, and the rooms were full of quilts, embroidered pictures and other beautiful artefacts pertaining to their county. Some bedrooms were adopted by individual WIs, and my WI was one of these. We had a small room on the top floor of the main house. It would have been a servant’s room in former times.
It was arranged that we collect all our possessions from the room today. I agreed to do this and Normous, bless him, ‘volunteered’ to drive me and help with the collection. The college is near Oxford, so about an hour and a half away. It was hard work bringing all the stuff down from the top floor, but we managed it. All around us the place was being packed up, changing from a place of happy learning into a sad remnant of its former self. I wonder what will happen to the place.
After we had loaded up the car we visited a nearby garden centre with an amazing farm shop and a cafeteria. Just what we needed to revive the day.
We had a very wet drive home, and now have a dining room full of all sorts of interesting things which need to be found a home. Had the WI been having meetings, we could have had an auction!