On 21 October was an interesting evening, with Deena Pickard giving a short history of hat making, from outrageous headgear in the 1800’s, a fashion for bird feathers (thankfully outlawed in the early 1900’s), and a renewed enthusiasm for hat wearing after Princess Diana started wearing so many different styles.  The background to some well known phrases about hats was covered   –  ‘mad as a hatter’ goes back to the time when hats were made using mercury (!), causing madness in the makers; ‘keep it under your hat’  and ‘I take my hat off to you’ are other well known phrases.  After this we were allowed to try on the various hats, fascinators etc which had been brought along, which was most enjoyable.  One of Deena’s hats was the first prize in the raffle, which was won by Hildegard Smart.  A total of £170 was raised for Church Funds.