A GROUP celebrated the life of a long-time former member during its September meeting at Hawksworth Methodist Church.

The chairman of the Hawksworth branch of the Yorkshire Countrywomen's Association, Mary Bowes, said that eight members had represented the branch at a thanksgiving lunch held at Otley Golf Club on August 30 to celebrate the life of Gillian Dale who had died a few days after her 89th birthday in July.

Gillian was an active member of the committee of Hawksworth YCA for a decade.

Mary encouraged members to attend the church on Saturday, September 21, as the chapel will hold at coffee morning from 10am to noon, where there will be a cake stall, bric-a-brac stall and a tombola.

She introduced the speaker David Mason, who is a volunteer for the Woodlands Trust.

Mr Mason's talk was illustrated by slides that showed pictures and interesting facts.

The mission of the Woodlands Trust is to create, protect and restore woodland and the organisation was formed in 1972-coming up with the slogan "plant a tree in 73 ", followed by "plant some more in 74". Since 1972, 68.5 million trees have been planted.

Members were given leaflets to take home and enjoyed refreshments served by Shirley Tillotson and Dorothy Pickersgill.

A talk on the Canadian Rockies will be the subject of the next meeting at 2pm on Monday, October 14, in the chapel.