Event News and Courses

February EVENT NEWS AND COURSES

February 3, 10, 17, 24

Scottish Country Dancing is cancelled for the moment due to the lockdown. We normally meet every Wednesday evening from 7.30 to 9.30 pm at Hatch Beauchamp village hall. If you would like to join us in the future please contact Anita on 01460 929383 or email anitaandjim22@gmail.com for more information.

Hawkchurch Film Nights

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, our screening for 8th February is cancelled, with planned screenings for 8th March and 12th April on hold, pending a review of the situation in mid-Feb. We hope to resume as soon as conditions permit. Best wishes to all our patrons.

February 9

Bridport History Society, Zoom meeting. Mayflower 400 - Who were the Pilgrim Fathers? Jane Ferentzi-Sheppard, My Mayflower Ancestors, Donna Heys. Meeting opens at 2.00 and the talks start at 2.30. If you would like more information please contact Jane on 01308 425710 or email: jferentzi@aol.com

February 13

Darning and Visible Mending for Knitted Items for

Beginners Online 2pm – 4:30pm. Cost £12. Why throw away your favourite clothes that need repairing? Join this workshop and learn a new skill. Contact the tutor to book a place and for a materials list ( a kit can be posted for a small fee) gina.youens@btinternet.com

The West Dorset Group of the Somerset and Dorset

Family History Society are hosting a Zoom meeting on behalf of the Society. Janet Few will be talking about ‘Sons of the Soil: Researching Agricultural Ancestors’. Meeting opens at 1.30 and the talk starts at 2.00. If you would like more information please contact Jane on 01308 425710 or email: jferentzi@aol.com

February 23

Bridport and District u3a presents a talk by John West, The making of the West Bay Discovery Centre, online via Zoom. 2pm. Bridport and District u3a is an organisation for people who want to undertake learning for its own sake, with like minded people, in a social setting. There is no minimum age, but you should be no longer in, or seeking, full time employment or raising a family. Since March 2020 most of our face-to-face activities have been moved online, and over 20 new online groups have also started. We continue to run our full programme of scheduled monthly talks, currently using Zoom. Please visit our website for specific details and contact information www.bridportu3a. org.uk, email newsletter@bridportu3a.org.uk or call 07775 692162.

February 25

Wildlife Gardening, a talk on Zoom by local garden designer, Muff Dudgeon. 6:45pm. Cost £3.50. Discover how to encourage wildlife into your garden. Please visit our website https://axminsterheritage.org/ or Facebook page for more information on how to book a place.

Beaminster Museum

Museum staff have expressed regret that their initial hope of re-opening in April is no longer viable. Despite the builders completing on time, due to lockdown, volunteers are not yet able to move onto the next stages of cleaning up and preparing to re-instate exhibitions. Further information will be announced in time.

Honiton U3A

Despite the ever-changing lockdown restrictions, Honiton’s successful U3A has remained active, with its 220 members rising to the challenge of running activities in these difficult times. Like many organisations, much of U3A’s work has temporarily moved online. Monthly meetings that members have enjoyed at the Beehive have been replaced for now with Zoom meetings.

In October, Stewart Raine gave an illustrated talk on how we used to travel. Stewart said of his talk: “The generation born just before and during the Second World War and those ‘baby boomers’ born after it in the 1940s, were the last to grow up in an age when travel by motor car was not the norm. Many cities had trams and trolleybuses in the 1950s and even into the 1960s, and if we went to London we went by train.”

In November, the prominent historian Todd Gray gave a talk on mob violence in Exeter. Todd was recently featured in the edition of Britain’s Most Historic Towns on Channel 4 filmed in Plymouth.

December’s monthly meeting was an online Christmas social, featuring songs, stories, poems and a quiz.

Members were encouraged to have seasonal refreshments to hand.

The backbone of any U3A is its interest groups, run by the members themselves. U3A exists to provide people who are retired or semi-retired with opportunities to share learning experiences not for qualifications, but for fun. Despite the present restrictions, many of the 28 interest groups have kept going, and even flourished in these difficult times, as a welcome piece of normality in members’ lives.

The history group has continued to meet regularly through Zoom. September’s topic was the Pilgrim Fathers and Puritanism, and then in October the group looked at the East India Company, both fairly topical given the US election and the ongoing discussion of slavery and Empire. In November they looked at The Jazz Age or ‘The Roaring Twenties’, particularly in USA, but also in the UK and in Germany.

The Armchair Adventurers recently began a study of the Forest of Dean. During a brief respite in the regulations, when groups of up to six could meet, they managed two socially distanced indoor meetings to share findings on the new project.

Members shared their discoveries on everything from a stone that bleeds when scratched, to Roman votive offerings including dogs, which apparently were thought to aid healing by licking affected parts. The group also reported on the strange Cappers Act of 1488 which forbade the wearing of foreign made caps.

Other groups that have continued to meet online include the Poem Sharers and a group dedicated to Wine Tasting for Fun. The Photography for Pleasure group have also continued to meet through Zoom, and the knitting group have continued to keep in touch by email.

There are 1050 U3As across the UK, with 444,000 members. There are over 100 U3As in the South West alone, including 37 in Devon. U3A members everywhere have embraced the national body’s mission to “Learn, laugh, live,” which is a particularly appropriate message for these strange times.

New members are always welcome. Details of the Honiton U3A and its activities can be found on the website: u3asites.org.uk/honiton/home