Bicester's crafty ladies (From Bicester Advertiser)

Bicester's crafty ladies

10:29am Thursday 10th March 2011 in News By Peter Barrington

Bicester’s Crafty Ladies – famed for their handmade aprons, pegbags, gloves, shawls and other handicrafts – are going countywide.

Instead of just selling their work at the Methodist Hall once a month, they are now offering to sell their wares at any fete, flower show, bazaar or summer event.

The group of women formed themsleves into Bicester Crafty Ladies way back in January, 2006, after the Bicester Country Market closed down in December, 2005, Originally they were part of the team that staged Bicester Women’s Institute Market, which ran for around 30 years at various locations in the town, ending up at the Methodist Church Hall in Sheep Street.

A few years ago the WI Market evolved into a Country Market where suppliers of handicrafts joined with homemade jams, preserves and baked pies and biscuits.

But when the Country Market closed, the Crafty Ladies carried on – but once a month, rather than weekly.

However, the recession caught up with their sales and they were forced to shut up shop at the end of last year.

One of the sellers, Audrey Sapnik, said: “Until two years ago we had been going well, but the economic situation hit us.”

And Lesley Pennington gave another reason for closing. She said: “We are all getting older. We will not miss having to get up at 5.30am to get down to the hall in time to open up at 8.30am.”

Mrs Pennington makes clothes, bed socks, children’s bonnets, booties and fingerless gloves.

She added: “Gloves without fingers were popular with market stall traders in the town because they kept the hand warm but left the fingers free to handle the fruit and vegetables. The gloves were also sought after by dog owners for when they took their pets for a walk on a leash,” she said.

Mrs Sapnik, who was also one of the home bakers supplying the WI and Country Markets, also made baby clothes and shawls.

Another member of the group, Sue Merry sews shopping bags, pegbags, aprons and other items, while Pat Exell creates all kinds of greeting cards. She will continue selling her cards at weekly coffee mornings at the Methodist Church.

Although they mainly met monthly at the hall, they had already branched out to setting up their stalls at flower shows in Kirtlington, Fritwell and Steeple Aston and also the annual summer Teddy Bears’ picnic, run by Bicester Town Council in Garth Park.

One of their members, Angela Fyffe-Swords, organised a sale in Stoke Lyne, where she lives, to raise funds for the Thames Valley and Chilterns Air Ambulance.

All the crafts the women have become experts in were all once a familiar feature in households following the rationing during and after the Second World War. Then, mothers and daughters spent the evenings sewing, knitting and making dresses with the aid of paper patterns.

Mrs Pennington recalled: “I can vividly remember my mother making clothes. We did a lot in those days, as there were not so many clothes available off the peg.”

So why in these economic hard times do they want to carry on?

Mrs Sapnik said: “We enjoy doing the crafts. We don’t do it for the cash, as we only make pin money.”

l Anyone wanting to book Bicester Crafty Ladies for an event should contact Mrs Pennington on 01869 345268.