Kettering's Wicksteed Park to host district celebration for Inner Wheel Club centenary

Members of a community organisation will celebrate 100 years of service at a special lunch in Kettering this month.

Inner Wheel founded in Manchester in 1924 and will mark the milestone locally at Wicksteed Park on April 17.

Joining clubs from Northamptonshire will be others from the District 7 group that includes Leicestershire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Lincolnshire and Rutland.

Hilary Winfield, president of Kettering Huxloe Inner Wheel, will welcome guests to her hometown.

She said: “Kettering has two Clubs, Kettering Huxloe (my club) and Kettering, which is the oldest club in District 7. The very first district rally was held at Wicksteed in 1946 and that is why the celebration is being held there.”

Inner Wheel, once part of Rotary but now a separate entity, promotes friendship and serving the community - at home and abroad.

Clubs meet regularly and have a full and varied programme through which friendships form and flourish. Members support refuge centres for abused women, hostels for the dispossessed, child centres and drop-in centres, school breakfast clubs and other causes.

In 2023, Inner Wheel members honoured the Kettering-born Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert, co-developer of the Oxford–AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.

She accepted an international award from the organisation at a homecoming lunch in her honour after being nominated by Kettering Inner Wheel lunchtime group members for the Margarette Golding Award.

The first Margarette Golding Award, created in honour of the founder of the Inner Wheel, is awarded for highly commendable personal service through Inner Wheel or in the community.

For information about Inner Wheel including clubs in Kettering, Rushden and Wellingborough go to https://innerwheel.co.uk/district-7/.