THE WI Centenary Baton, which has been travelling around the British Isles since the relay's launch in North Wales at the beginning of January 2014, will be visiting South East Cornwall this week and will eventually have visited every WI Federation by June of this year.

It was landed in Cornwall by air from the Channel Island of Guernsey earlier this week ready to begin its week-long stay in the county.

The baton is part of the WI's celebrations for its 100th year. It is now the largest voluntary women's organisation in the country and was first formed on the Isle of Anglesey in 1915 to revitalise rural communities and encourage women to become more involved in producing food during the First World War. Anglesey was therefore chosen for last year's launch of the baton's journey.

Today the organisation has 212,000 members and around 6,600 WI branches.

The baton began its Cornish visit in Truro and will arrive on Monday in South East Cornwall, where many preparations have been made for its welcome.

The first handover will be between St Neot and Pensilva WIs at 11.30am on Monday and will take place at The Hurlers stone circles at Minions. Pensilva WI will then transport the baton by tractor to Millennium House, where refreshments – including saffron cake – will be on the menu.

The baton will then continue its journey by tractor to arrive at Kit Hill, weather permitting, at 1pm. There it will be handed over by Pensilva to Harrowbarrow WI. It will be received by the Tamar Valley town crier, Hilary Fairhurst and chairman of Calstock parish council John Roberts. WI members will then give a rousing rendition of the Cornish anthem Trelawny.

A vintage MG sports car will take the baton from Kit Hill to Harrowbarrow and Metherell village hall, where a pasty lunch will be enjoyed, before the next handover, which will take place at Trerulefoot at around 3pm and will see the Downderry, Seaton and Rame Peninsula WIs receiving the baton.

The baton will then continue its journey through Hessenford to Seaton beach to be passed on to the Crafthole and Rame WI.

Having had their turn with the baton, Torpoint WI will end the day with a Cornish evening to celebrate the WI's centenary and will then pass the baton to Trematon WI.

On Tuesday the baton will leave Cornwall in a bus over the Tamar Bridge and at midday on the Plymouth side of the bridge it will be handed to representatives of the Devon Federation of WIs, having travelled a total of 310 miles around Cornwall.

Every WI Federation has been invited to upload 12 selected photos onto a memory stick within the baton, to represent their membership, WIs and their local area. The memories uploaded will in due course be shared on social media.