A federation of women’s guilds celebrated its 60th anniversary this week.

South West Essex Federation of Townswomen’s Guilds met for the event yesterday (November 25) at St Mary’s Church hall, in High Road, South Woodford.

A formal meeting in the morning was followed by lunch and setting up tables to display the different guilds’ past histories.

Tea and cake followed at 3pm.

The federation has nine guilds but 60 years ago there were 31.

There are around 30,000 members, 706 branches and 77 federations across Britain.