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

Not so long ago, the Women’s Institute group near Aberystwyth was looking to sell up - down to three members caring for an 180-something-year-old building, an overgrown garden and mounting bills.

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, the aims of the Institute have broadened and become the UK’s largest voluntary women’s organisation.

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

One of their secret weapons is Adelle, who was recruited despite her protestation that she was “too young”.

She proved herself by becoming the group’s tech and fundraising whiz, raising over £14,000.

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

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

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

“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: "We did many things to make the group more inclusive, especially working women, from changing meeting times to developing a new events programme.

“The cottage still requires maintenance, but the group is thriving - 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.”