A group of 60 ladies and two token men sat down to afternoon tea in Longbridge Deverill Village Hall, organised and prepared by Warminster Inner Wheel ,to raise funds for president Mari Poole’s charity, the Jubilee Sailing Trust. 

Before tea, Sue Scot gave a marvellous demonstration of the art of flower arranging with Easter in mind. She said that everyone has a wreath at Christmas but there was no reason why we should not have one at Easter, and she built up a delightful wreath with all the colours we associate with this time of year.

Jane Yates thanked Sue for making flower arranging look so easy, and all the arrangements were raffled. Member Pam Hyland ran a stall of home grown garden plants.

After a delicious tea Mari thanked everyone for supporting the event and her charity. With the sale of tickets, plants and the raffle, £650 had been raised.

The Trust’s ships Nelson and Tenacious are the only tall ships in the world that have been purpose built to enable people of all physical and sensory abilities to take an active role in sailing.

They have 14 permanent crew and take 40 passengers when sailing, both male and female, 20 each disabled and able-bodied. The time on board is both confidence and character building.

Every place is subsidised by 30-50 per cent and the total cost of operating the two ships is around £2,900,000 a year.

About 50 per cent of this cost is covered by income from voyages, otherwise they depend on donations such as has been raised by the Inner Wheel afternoon tea.