Balloons and a banner will help mark the 60th anniversary of the Women’s Institute’s Newport Headquarters, on Monday. Members are holding a party, to celebrate six decades in the Victorian town house on Carisbrooke Road. The Women’s Institute itself has been meeting on the Island since 1919, when branches opened in Ningwood and Shalfleet and Wootton Bridge. The organisation bought 42 The Mall, in Newport, on 30 July 1947. It cost just £2,250. Federation Chair Joan Kirby said, “It has served us extremely well over the years. We now have 12,000 members in 39 WIs across the Isle of Wight and the house, which acts as our permanent office, is an asset for meetings and lectures of various kinds.”