"If you think the WI's intimidating, wait 'til you run into the Mothers Union" said the lady who collected the tea strainers, "you have to live in the village ten years at least before they start to accept you. My husband wouldn't let me join - he said the house would be always filled up with women's meetings." The Mothers Union was founded by Mary Sumner in Old Alresford in 1876. It now has a million members worldwide. Locally they tend to be older than members of the Women's Institute, wealthier and more serious.