WOMEN'S Institute president Frances Butcher caught a glimpse of the top of her head and the rim of her glasses in a 30-year-old picture in Midweek last month.

The picture, taken in October 1971, was published on June 20 and asked readers to contact us if they knew anything about the scene.

Mrs Butcher, 59, of Hughenden Avenue, High Wycombe, saw the top of her head underneath the WI banner and confirmed that the picture was the Downley Evening WI and that a lot of the ladies in the photo were still members today.

She said: 'The WI put some invitations for their meeting through letter boxes and I decided to go along. It was the first meeting I had been to and it was so exciting that I became a member three months later.'

Mrs Butcher became president of the group in 1976 and said the photo showed the first annual meeting held at The Pastures Free Methodist Church Hall in Downley.

The group was a new WI, formed as a 'breakaway' group from the original Evening WI in Downley Village, although now the groups are one again.

Mrs Butcher, who works one day a week at the WI head office in Stuart Road, High Wycombe, added: 'Quite a number of the group have moved since the photograph but many of them still come back to monthly meetings. Most of us are now grey but we still have lots of fun every year.''

Former WI member Audrey Rugg, 64, of Hughenden Avenue, Downley, High Wycombe, also recognised herself. She said: 'I am in the front row, right at the end on the right. I was wearing a chequed dress that used to be about five inches above my knee. I'd never wear anything like that now.'