The founder member of Hambleton W.I. was Mrs. Molly Lister. Mrs. Lister first canvassed the ladies of the village to ascertain the level of interest in having a W.I. in the village and then wrote to a Miss Ansell at Denman College to request an application to set up the new organisation. This was in 1953. New members elected Mrs Lister as their Chairman, with Miss Pearl Chilvers as Secretary and Mrs. Hall to act as Treasurer. Amongst the other first members were Mrs. Joyce Millington, Mrs. Gell, Mrs. Simpson and Mrs. Norton and the monthly meetings could not go ahead until Mrs. Parrott arrived to play 'Jerusalem' on the piano. Mrs Lister's tenure as Chairman lasted 21 years and Mrs. Hall was reappointed Treasurer, on an annual basis, for a similar period of time. Committee and Monthly meetings were held in the Old School, Station Road. Although the day time use was for the education of village children, during the evenings and weekends it was used by the residents to hold many social and Church functions and Hambleton W.I. became regular part of the village life. The meetings were very formal, following the rules of the National and Local Federations, and involved the singing of ' Jerusalem', welcoming members and guests, taking apologies for absence, and reading of Minutes, a Guest Speaker, a competition - usually based on the Speaker's theme, a raffle and refreshments. On other occasions instead of having a Guest Speaker there would be a fund-raising event such as a coffee evening or jumble sale. There would be regular competitions held with other village W.I.'s which became very competitive. These competitions were judged on different aspects of arts, needle crafts, flower arranging, and baking using themes such as 'The Seaside', 'Harvest', and 'Christmas'. The organisation for these competitions took many weeks to prepare for and talented members were encouraged to participate. Hambleton won a number of 1st prizes at these events, with much discussion taking place following the event. Participation in showing different skills was also encourage through the York Federation of W.I's Show within the annual Great Yorkshire Show with Mrs. Ingrid Millington winning a 3rd prize one year, for cake decoration. The theme being 'A Nursery Rhyme', her entry being 'Hickory Dickory Dock'. Hambleton W.I. held annual coffee evenings to raise money for a selected charity, usually having a raffle, cake stall, plant stall and book stall all contributing to the final total collected. The monthly W.I. meetings were well attended and there was participation by members with local and national trips and social gatherings, with some members attending the National Federation A.G.M.'s in the Albert Hall in London and visiting Denman College.
Towards the end of 1982 Hambleton members were advised that the National Federation intended to sell the Yorkshire Federation offices on the Knavesmire, York. Many members of other W.I.'s across Yorkshire believed that this was not in the best interests of the Yorkshire members and were prepared to disassociate themselves from the National and Local Federation and form a new Association. Along with this news came the notification of the new subscription charges for the year 1983. Discussions among Hambleton members took place and before Christmas 1982 the decision was made that Hambleton W.I. would be formally closed at the beginning of 1983 with notification being sent to the National Federation Headquarters in London.