The Llanafan WI have been dubbed “mavericks” of the WI for their incredible work reviving a dwindling group and in doing so, uniting a community.

It wasn’t so long ago when the Women’s Institute group near Aberystwyth was looking to sell up - down to three ageing members, they were saddled with an 180-something-year-old Grade-II listed building that was crumbling, an overgrown garden and bills that were adding up.

But in a last-ditch effort, the trio threw a party celebrating 100 years of the Llanafan WI in 2018 and, in doing so, attracted new blood.

This sparked a quiet revolution - 17 new members joined spanning across five decades, who started hosting monthly coffee mornings where up to 100 locals come, raised thousands to restore the cottage and gardens, and recently gained the Green Flag Community Award for their garden.

So, how has a group in a small village faced with closures left and right - from the post office, schools, playing fields, offices - managed to recreate a bustling community?

New member Angela said: “We twist people's arms.

“We’re the only WI in Wales to own their own building; others just hire a hall - we have to keep this building going, so we had to be innovative.

“No one wanted it sold - that’s the reason I came along.

“People were scared of what needed paying for.

“We’ve been told we’re a ‘maverick’ group - we don’t know what the WI are meant to do, so we just do what we want.

“We don’t want to look like fuddy duddies.”

The Women’s Institute was set up in 1915 in Anglesey to encourage women to get more involved in producing food during WWI.

110 years later, from women’s suffrage to aiding child evacuees to preserving rations to equal pay, the aims of the Institute have broadened a smidge, now representing the largest voluntary women’s organisation in the UK with 180,000 members.

But these are not “fuddy duddies” - along with trips to the Wool Museum, litter picks and plant sales, Llanafan WI hosts talks on aerial photography, police forensics, swift projects, police dog handling, to life growing up on a tea plantation.

But with over £2,000 needed for running costs paid for by membership fees for the cottage donated to the Llanafan WI, the ladies can’t afford to sit on their laurels.

One of their secret weapons has been the recruiting of Adelle, who moved to Llanafan from Yorkshire for a quieter life, but was recruited despite her protestation that she was “too young” (in her 50s).

She proved herself as the group’s tech and fundraising whiz and has since helped to raise over £14,000 in funding and donations.

Adelle said: “I was painting the front of my cottage and a woman walked passed and said I needed to join the WI and that she’d pick me up.

“I never thought of joining a WI, but I probably wouldn’t have met anyone otherwise.

“I don’t think we’re a normal WI, but we’re lucky.”

Adelle said she stayed because of the lovely women she met and the interesting talks: “It’s amazing who lives here locally.”

Angela explained: “No one under 60 wants to join, but you’ve got to keep going on recruitment or all the members will age out.

“The old women who used to care for the place couldn’t cope; they just got overwhelmed.

“It was difficult to start off with, people set in their ways.

“But we can’t have new people come and keep it the same.”

Helen Rowe, President of Llanafan WI, said on surviving the “make-or-break” moment in 2018: "We did many things to make the group more inclusive and welcoming of new members, especially working women.

“From changing the times of meetings to developing a new events programme that gets members involved in choosing activities and topics.

“Within the last year, we have opened up a lovely community garden open to the wider public, which invites others in to meet us.

"Every month, we hold an event where members of the community can buy and sell homegrown produce, too.

“The cottage still requires maintenance, but right now the group is thriving - and we're riding the wave, making the most of the momentum!"

CEO of the National Federation of Women’s Institutes, Melissa Green, said that Llanafan WI “personifies the quiet power of our whole movement”, explaining: “The WI is full of women who identify a problem, and work tirelessly on its solution; whether that's maintaining a building important to our legacy, challenging the pollution of a local waterway, or lobbying for change to improve NHS healthcare and diagnoses.

“Around 25,000 women joined the WI in the last year alone.

“We remain a welcoming place to find friendship, community and alliance; and it is the work of women like the members of Llanafan WI who will ensure we continue to offer this for generations to come.

“Well done, Llanafan WI."