A VETERAN jam-maker has branded views of the Women’s Institute as old-fashioned “balderdash” after being celebrated in the New Year Honours list.

Barbara Gray, 84, has been made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her services to the community through the WI.

The former Freeland Primary School teacher, who lives in Summertown, Oxford, has been a member for 50 years. As well as indulging her passion for cooking she founded a score of WIs across Oxfordshire, spent 30 years as a trustee and served as chairwoman twice.

Mrs Gray first joined the WI in 1964 when she and her husband Alan moved to Begbroke, near Kidlington.

She said: “They were a friendly lot. I was elected president and then a letter came round asking if we were interested in doing more. I rashly said I was interested in everything, and I got hooked.”

Over the next five decades the WI would represent not just a monthly social to Mrs Gray, now a grandmother of 10, but a vital lifeline in times of need.

She said: “My husband died very suddenly nearly 30 years ago of a massive heart attack. They were the most amazing support.”

Mrs Gray now frequents Wolvercote WI on the second Tuesday of every month where crafts such as patchwork and jewellery-making are top of the agenda.

Mrs Gray helped set up 20 different WIs around the county including West Oxfordshire, Freeland, Faringdon and recently, in 2009, Blackbird Leys.

She said the notion that the WI was an antiquated body was “balderdash”, adding: “It has moved with the times, and there’s something for everyone.”