ABSTRACT
In 1965 the rural women’s organisation, the Women’s Institute (WI), set its members that task of creating village scrapbooks as part of the celebrations for their Golden Jubilee.1 WI chairman, Mrs Gabrielle Pike, declared that ‘Each W.I. should enter the “Village Scrapbook Today” competition, which could well result in an “historic contribution towards the social history of this country”.’2 Emphasising that scrapbooks should provide a snapshot of village life in that year, rather than a chronicle of village history, she urged members to ‘think 1965 – what you’re wearing – what you’re thinking – what you like and what you don’t like, and without fail see that YOUR village is a link in this huge picture we hope to paint.’3 Institutes across England and Wales took up the challenge and 2,500 scrapbooks were entered into the competition. An exhibition called Scrapbooks of the Countryside Today was held at London’s Regent Street Tea Centre, showing the winning scrapbooks from each region together with the best one from each county.
