Our speakers at the monthly meeting in May were Eve and Gill from the Newbury Street Pastors. Eve is the one with the blue hair! She had it done a few years ago for a fundraising event and has continued with it ever since, she says it is a good talking point with the people she meets on the streets of Newbury. Street Pastors is a worldwide organisation, they are all Christians and of many different denominations. In Newbury they go out in teams of four at 10:30pm on Saturday nights, usually to about 3:30am or even later. They help the intoxicated. lonely, depressed and homeless, giving out flip-flops to girls without shoes, sweeping up broken glass and giving out lollipops. They have saved several young people from suicide by staying with them for several hours and talking to them. They also witnessed the theft of Paddington from Northbrook Street and were able to give the police information which led to the arrests of the offenders. The training to be a Street Pastor is very rigorous, even including how to deal with gun shot and stab wounds, although thankfully there haven't been any of those in Newbury. Thank you Street Pastors for helping to keep Newbury safe, we were all very impressed with what you do.
Our speaker at the April meeting was Alastair Lack, a retired journalist, producer and editor, who took his audience on a fascinating and colourful journey of his life working for the BBC World Service. When his journalistic colleagues questioned why he stayed for so long he reminded them that 300 million people listened to this service.
World Service Radio was a great British success; it was broadcast 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in various languages, initially from Bush House in London, later moving to the BBC’s HQ where an interesting mix of people worked. Koffi Annan, a previous UN Secretary General, is quoted as having declared the Service as ‘the BBC’s gift to the world’.
The Service began in the 1920’s as the BBC Empire Service for expats to keep in touch with the UK, later becoming the BBC World Service in the 1930’s. Around this time Mussolini’s propaganda tried to convince people that the British were war mongers so the BBC set up various radio stations to broadcast the truth, particularly in Germany. These stations broadcast in the language of the specific country.
We learnt that when Mikhail Gorbachev was under house arrest, he listened to the BBC World Service to hear the news and it was the first to broadcast the news of Indira Gandhi’s assassination.
During WW2 the language services were extended. George Orwell worked for the Eastern service. During the Cold War and the fall of communism funding and programming increased.
The World Service is jammed in 3 countries, China, Myanmar and North Korea.
Alastair talked about his time as Editor of the Outlook programme which he clearly enjoyed. Outside of the studio he mentioned his travels to many of the ‘hot spots’ of the world, the Falkland Islands, Argentina, South Africa, the Middle East and more. He met many famous political figures including Nelson Mandela, George Bush and Margaret Thatcher.
Alastair ended by answering audience questions; he received enthusiastic applause for his interesting and varied talk.
On the 13th March our speaker at the monthly meeting was Dr Nick Young with his talk 'Thatcham Then and Now'. Nick is hugely knowledgeable about the history of Thatcham having been interested in it and researching since he was a child. He was able to give us a great number of interesting facts all without referring to any notes, very impressive! One of his facts was about the building we all call the Old Bluecoat School, Nick told us that it was never officially called that. After starting life as St Thomas' Chapel in 1304 it became Lady Winchcombe's Charity School in the 18th century and the boys who went there wore blue uniforms, hence the nickname of Bluecoat School. It was very interesting to see old photographs of Thatcham, some were recognisable today but others had been demolished - we take much more care now to preserve historical buildings.
On the 13th of February we held our usual monthly meeting. Our speaker was Mike Brook with his talk "My Favourite Comedians". Mike talked to us about lots of different comedians ranging from Laurel and Hardy in the 1920s to Milton Jones in the present day. The talk was very amusing and we all enjoyed ourselves remembering comic sketches from days gone by. Thankfully our Chair's appeal for someone to take on the refreshments at our monthly meetings was successful and we now have a rota in place for future meetings, thank you to those who volunteered.
On the 9th January we held our usual monthly meeting at the Frank Hutchings Hall. Refreshments were provided by Joy for the last time as she is stepping back from her role due to ill health - a new volunteer is needed to take on the refreshments role. Our speaker this month was one of our own members, Reg Bodman, who spoke on "My Journey into the World of Art". Reg told us that he first got into watercolour painting when his wife bought him a watercolour workshop day as a birthday present, he didn't want to go but after attending he found he liked it and his painting journey went on from there. Reg showed us many of his paintings and explained a little about different paints including Inktense pencils which most of us hadn't heard of. Reg likes doing botanical paintings and the ones he showed us were very detailed and beautiful. See some of his paintings below. Thank you for showing us your beautiful artworks Reg!
On the 12th December we held our Christmas party for members. Thanks to Joy for the teas and everyone who helped to wash up, and to Jan for buying and plating up the food. The quiz provided by Janet and Julie had several different sections and got everyone's brains working hard, thanks to Julie for buying the prize for the winning table. Nick Newman entertained us with some excellent singing and guitar playing, thanks to him for stepping in at the last minute. Jan made us laugh with limericks she wrote about members of our Executive Committee! We held a super raffle, thanks to Dennis and Pauline for sourcing prizes and also to Julie who donated the hamper prize which was won by Jane. Father Christmas came and gave everyone a gift. A large Christmas cake made by a member was auctioned. Thanks to Mike for organising the community singing of Christmas songs, the action-packed version of The 12 Days of Christmas caused great hilarity! A good time was had by all, thanks to Ann for making sure that everything ran smoothly.
On the 14th November we held our celebration of 20 years of Thatcham u3a. Pictured on the left is our current Executive Committee with Thatcham Mayor Petra Pemberton, and on the right the celebration cake made by our member Margaret Goodhead, a very delicious cake it was too, thank you Margaret. We had many newsletters from the past 20 years on display for people to look at and also some pottery pieces from a pottery painting activity at Blue Beetle Ceramics that some members took part in. As well as all this we had Dan Keel who gave us a very interesting talk about swans - Dan doesn't think it's true that a swan could break your arm, he has made calculations to prove it!
On the 17th October we held our Open Afternoon as part of the Thatcham Festival. Thatcham Mayor, Petra Pemberton, opened the event and stayed to talk to our many group leaders and listen to the musical performances by our Recorder Group, singing groups Adagio and Songsters, and the Ukulele Group. We welcome this opportunity to showcase what we do to members of the public and several new members were signed up during the event. See photographs of the event below.
At our General Meeting on 10th October we had a very interesting talk about viruses from Jane Sellwood, a former Clinical Virologist with the Health Protection Agency. She told us that viruses are very successful organisms, every living thing has viruses that go with it and even some viruses have viruses! Viruses are extremely small, ten times smaller than bacteria and you need an electron microscope to see them. They all have a similar structure with protein spikes around their protective coat, I'm sure we all remember seeing the pictures of the Covid virus with its spikes. Jane told us about different types of virus and how important it is for older people to have the flu jab every year as flu still kills over 10,000 people a year.
At our General Meeting on the 12th September we had a very thought-provoking presentation by Howard Grace. He showed part of a film he made called 'Beyond Forgiving' which was about forgiveness in the context of post-apartheid South Africa. A white woman called Ginn Fourie was able to forgive the black man, Letlapa Mphahlele, who ordered the shooting that killed her daughter Lyndi in 1993. Letlapa had written a book in 2002 in which he took responsibility for ordering the shooting and this was the catalyst for Ginn to meet him and ultimately to forgive him. It was very moving to see her talk about it in the film. After the film there was a discussion where members gave their opinions about forgiveness in different contexts.
Thanks to Jane
On Friday 5th September a presentation was made by our chair Ann Dibble to Jane Head who has decided to retire from organising our coffee mornings at the Baptist Church after thirteen years in charge. We are very grateful for all Jane's dedication and hard work over the years and the welcoming atmosphere she created for everyone who attended, as well as the proper coffee, tea and a lovely selection of biscuits. We're glad that she still intends to be on the rota for helping at future coffee mornings. Thank you for everything Jane, you will be a hard act to follow!
We held our annual picnic for members at Thirtover Place on Friday 29th August. We were all rather concerned as the rain poured down for the first part of the morning but luckily the rain did stop - we had four gazebos which could act either as sunshades or as rain protection so we were well prepared for the light showers during the picnic. The Songsters singing group entertained us well and we also had a quiz, organised by our Chair Ann, which was won by Mary, Marguerite and Gerda. Thanks to Joy for making the teas and coffees, and to the servers Jan, Kerry and Lynn. Thanks also to Mike and Chris for the PA system and background music, to Mike for erecting the gazebos, to Ann-marie and Roy for collecting the entrance money, to Chris for organising the Handybus and to Ann for the overall organising of another successful event.
At our General Meeting on 11th July we had a very interesting talk by Mervyn Edwards, titled 'Walking the Beat to Nirvana', about his 30 years of service with Thames Valley Police. He was a firearms officer for 15 years and undertook many missions to keep the public safe. He was part of the team that guarded Mrs Thatcher at Chequers one Christmas and she came to personally thank the team on Christmas Day. Mervyn's wife said to him he should write a book about his experiences for their children which he duly did and it has now been published, several of our members bought the book. He is now writing a second book.
On Sunday 29th June we had a stall at the Thatcham Family Fun Day. 20 members, led by our Chair Ann, braved the heat to engage the public about our u3a. There was artwork on display from our Art Group and a 'Guess the purpose of the unusual object' game. Thatcham Mayor, Petra Pemberton, pictured right, came to see our displays. A lot of leaflets were handed out and we hope that we will gain more new members following this event.
At our General Meeting on 13th June we held our AGM and were pleased to have 82 members present. The current Executive Committee were re-elected and a new member, Janet Patterson, was also elected. Thanks for their service and a planter were given to Rosemarie, Bob and Dot. We were treated to cakes with our tea and also a super raffle with a hamper first prize which was won by Pat. Our speaker after the AGM was Philip Russell who was telling us about his trip with a friend through Africa in 1972 driving a Zambia Army ambulance which was painted like a zebra. He had some interesting artifacts on display, including the skin of a python and a seed pod from a baobab tree, and he told us of some hair-raising experiences travelling through war-torn countries. Unfortunately we ran out of time and didn't get to hear all of the talk, apologies to Philip for having to cut him off.
At our May General Meeting we were treated to a lively talk by Justine Salkeld from Dogs Trust. She was passionate about the work that the Dogs Trust do and was very informative. We now know that they used to be called the Canine Defence League which was started in 1891, and changed their name in 2003. The first dog to be saved was called Chocolat. The famous slogan "A dog is for life not just for Christmas" was coined in 1978 - now they just say "A dog is for life". There are 22 centres in the UK and Ireland and in 2024 9,000 dogs were rehomed. The average length of stay for a dog in a centre is 61 days and the cost is about £3,000 as lots of the dogs have behavioural issues and need intensive therapy to get them ready to be rehomed. We all learned a lot and are grateful to Justine for her knowledge and enthusiasm. See below for more photos from the meeting.
The Ukulele Group and Adagio Singing Group went to entertain the members of the CAMEO Group at St Mary's Church on Monday 17th March. CAMEO were very kind to us, giving us tea and cake and free tickets for their raffle where several of us won prizes. CAMEO members joined in with the singing and a good time was had by all.
At our General Meeting on 14th March we had a very entertaining talk by folk singer Amanda Shora. Amanda told us that she is not a trained singer but she loves to sing, we certainly enjoyed listening to her sing and joining in with songs we knew. We were very impressed that she sang unaccompanied. Amanda told us that the word folk comes from the German word volke, meaning 'of the people' and that folk songs were passed on by oral tradition over many years. Many songs had their lyrics tidied up by the Victorians to be more socially acceptable because many were rude! There are about 24,000 recorded folk songs, many collected and written down in the early 20th century by Cecil Sharp.
A new Recorder Group has started recently, if you fancy playing the recorder see our Groups page for more details.
At our General Meeting on 14th February we had a humorous talk by Neville Harris on Cinema and Cinema Going. Neville is from Abingdon and he gave us lots of amusing anecdotes about his experiences watching films at the Regal Cinema there from his childhood onwards. He also told us how he had met the film star Ronald Colman when he served him in WHSmith. Neville's fee for his talk was a slice of chocolate cake, pictured here with our Co-Treasurer.
At our General Meeting on 10th January we had a very thought-provoking talk by Tony Hersh called "A Day in the Life of a Magistrate". Tony has been a magistrate in Reading for seven years. He gave us information about magistrates, who are all volunteers, and the sentences they are allowed to impose. He then gave us five case studies of offenders and asked us what we thought the appropriate sentences should be, there were very varied views, before revealing what the actual sentences given were. Anyone aged 18-75 can volunteer to be a magistrate, give some thought to whether you could do it.
On Friday 13th December we held our members only Christmas meeting that 90 members attended. Our speaker was Nigel Smith who read us some of his very funny Christmas poems. He has a new book of poems out called Bard From School which he has also illustrated. We were treated to two singing performances from our singing groups, Songsters and Adagio, with Adagio being accompanied by our Ukulele Group, and everyone joining in singing some of the songs and carols. Penny and Stephanie from the Play Reading Group entertained us with Christmas cracker type jokes, groans were allowed! Food was organised by Bob, Dot and Jan and there was a super raffle organised by Dennis and Pauline, and also a tricky quiz written by Mike and Chris. A good time was had by all, see photographs below.
At our November General Meeting we had a very interesting talk by Colin Wade called "The Joys and Perils of being an Author". Colin told us that he is a self-published author, not an easy thing to do, and he writes for the love of getting his stories out. He has now published six books. You can find out more about Colin and his books from his website www.colinwade.com
On Saturday 19th October we had a stand on Thatcham Broadway as part of the Thatcham Festival. We were able to speak to a lot of people about the u3a movement and our u3a in particular.
On Friday 18th October we held an Open Afternoon as part of the Thatcham Festival. Our Chair, Ann Dibble, gave presentations to prospective members to tell them about how u3as work. In the main hall most of our Thatcham u3a groups had a table where the Convenors talked to people about what their groups do. Our two singing groups, Adagio and Songsters, gave a performance each, with Adagio being accompanied by the Ukulele Group. You can see some photos from this event below.
At our October General Meeting we had a very interesting talk by Martin Buckland entitled "A History of Canals - The World to Wiltshire". We were surprised to learn that the first known canals were built about 500BC in Egypt and China. Martin told us that at the moment the Panama Canal doesn't have enough water in it for large ships to pass along it and also the Suez Canal is in a war zone; this means that ships have to go the long way round and this is more costly thus adding to the cost of the goods that we buy. You can see some photos from this meeting below.
