Romsey & District u3a November 2021 Newsletter

Romsey & District Learn, Laugh, Live

Newsletter – November 2021 romseyu3a.org.uk General Monthly Meetings

Talks have resumed in Crosfield Hall but we hope you will also be able to join in from your home, via Zoom, at the same time!

There may still be further CHANGES to the PROGRAMME so remember to check for updates - visit our website events page.

Meetings start at 10.30 am (ZOOM log-in from 10.15 am).

————————————————— 15 December Christmas Quiz Come along in person, or see how many questions you can answer at home!

————————————————— 19 January 2022 Gordon Massie Gaudi’s Barcelona The story of Antoni Gaudi and a look at some of the buildings which he designed and in particular the, as yet, unfinished La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

————————————————— 16 February Roy Norton 50 years in Television Production - Take 2 Roy returns to us to give his experiences in television production, part2. So stand by for more ‘off camera’ anecdotes, scandals, show business items and the inevitable ‘cock-ups’.

————————————————— *30 March* *Change of date and speaker* Andy Skinner Southampton’s Darkest Hour Andy will help us discover the story of Southampton during the 2nd World War. —————————————————

1

NAOMI KEY 06/05/1949 – 01/10/2021 “When you stop learning, you stop growing.” Kenneth H. Blanchard.

I am sorry to have to announce that Naomi Key passed away unexpectedly, but peacefully, in her sleep on 1 October. If you knew Mum from any of the various u3a groups that she attended, hopefully you will already know the sad news of her passing.

Mum really did embody the ethos of u3a and continually sought to learn new knowledge and skills, it had always been an integral part of her life. She was a Midwife for her entire career and although she had a lifelong passion for literature, gardening and art it wasn’t until she retired and joined u3a that she could really explore these hobbies and challenge herself to grow and develop new skills. Mum was a member of the Garden, English Literature and Luncheon clubs and had been for over a decade. She was also a member of the Art group until it ended, but in typical style, Mum also went to two other watercolour groups as well! All the u3a groups offered valuable social opportunities (especially since we lost Dad in 2009) and we know the loss of these groups was keenly felt during the pandemic. We are thankful that some of these groups managed to restart, and Mum remained an active member until the end, even hosting Book group in the week that she died.

Mum had a razor-sharp mind (especially for Sudoku and crosswords) but her memory had deteriorated somewhat over the last couple of years. We mention this because we think it had become less usual for her to pick the phone up for a chat or to read her emails. It might be that you hadn’t heard from Mum or spoken to her for some time. We really want you all to know that she valued all of her many u3a friendships greatly and you all enriched her life in so many ways – thank you.

We would like to thank everyone who has sent cards and shared their condolences with us. The funeral is going to be on the 5 Nov, but that will have passed by the time you read this newsletter. If you would like to get in touch with us, it would be wonderful to hear from you, please email davegkey@outlook.com.

Finally, it won’t be long before all the u3a groups start to plan their Christmas get-togethers, so please raise a toast and remember Mum this season, the multitude of Christmas lunches was a real highlight for her.

David and Andrew Key

2

Chair’s report In our previous newsletter, in which I wrote for the first time as your u3a Chair, I said one of the things I wished to do was oversee the resumption of our monthly meetings in Crosfield Hall. Well, that has been achieved, albeit slightly differently from pre-Covid days, but what a splendid sight it was to see so many smiling faces in person rather than on a computer screen! Thank you to those of you who came along to see Jane Glennie presenting Suffering Suffragettes and thank you to all those who worked hard to make sure it happened.

The publication of this newsletter coincides with our November meeting when the life of one of the nation’s best known and loved cartoonists, Norman Thelwell, will have been outlined for us by Tim Craven. You may have visited, during the early months of 2019, the Thelwell: Laughter and Landscapes exhibition at nearby Mottisfont Abbey. This included some old favourites, including the antics of Penelope and her mischievous pony, Kipper, as well as some of Thelwell’s other astute and amusing observations on country life, satirical cartoons, and breath-taking landscapes. I remember being enthralled by it all.

Since our AGM in May many new members have joined us and our membership total is well in excess of 700. Welcome to you all; we are delighted to have you on board and hope that you are already joining as many of our groups and activities as you have time for! We look forward to what you can bring to us too. The u3a movement is all about enjoying learning together and sharing knowledge and expertise with one another.

What skills and talents do you have that you can share with other members?

Can you help with the planning, organisation or running of any of our Interest Groups? Would you like to set up a new Interest Group to cater for a subject we do not cover at present? You don’t have to do it alone. Our two Groups’ Co-Ordinators are on hand to guide you and you can always do it with a friend or group of friends. Quite a few of our Groups are run by small committees rather than one leader.

By the time you read this I will have been privileged, along with Romsey Archway’s Chair, Steve George, to have been invited by the Town Mayor to represent Romsey & District u3a at the Memorial Service in Romsey Abbey, the wreath-laying ceremony in the Memorial Park and then at the Mayor’s Reception in the Town Hall. I know many of you would also have been present, either as individuals paying your respects or

3

representing other organisations to which you belong. This annual event is a moving experience and, as in the rest of the UK, Romsey does it so well.

Now we look forward to Christmas with the hope that it will be a better one than last without the restrictions we had to endure apart from on two precious days. We’ll kick this year’s festivities off in our December meeting – in Crosfield Hall – with a Christmas Quiz and seasonal fun. Make sure you come along to join in on Wednesday 15 December!

Kay Lovell

ON THE AGENDA Your management committee (the 12 trustees appointed to manage our R&D u3a independent charity) typically meet every 2 months to review progress and consider ways of improving what we do and how we do it.

Recently the trustees have decided that we should:  Continue to pay for two Zoom Pro accounts to support those groups who prefer to run their meetings online. In recent weeks a number of groups, mindful of Covid cases locally and the oncoming winter flu season, have decided to revert to holding their meetings on Zoom.

Group leaders can ask for their meetings to be scheduled on Zoom by emailing online@romseyu3a.org.uk or vice.chair@romseyu3a.org.uk  Continue to hold monthly meetings in Crosfield Hall: chairs spaced; masks ‘ON’; no refreshments until December; minimising risks. From November (‘fingers crossed’) we will simultaneously deliver the monthly meeting on Zoom;  Update and modernise our Constitution. The current version is 3 years old and many things have changed e.g. holding our AGM online. A draft has been approved by the trustees and we have commenced consulting with the Charity Commission and Third Age Trust;  Modernise and simplify our Membership / renewal process by: - Merging the forms into one; - Abolishing the need for a renewal form if you pay by Standing Order; - Issuing ‘stand-alone’ membership cards with individual barcodes to enable electronic registration at monthly meetings, from June 2022.

The programme will be on our website and in the Newsletter; - Contacting members who have Standing Orders, each January to ask them to update their SO to the new annual subscription rate [£15.00 in 2022] to be paid on 1st April (not earlier); - Informing all members in the first week of March that renewals are due 1st April.

4

SUFFERING SUFFRAGETTES! On Wednesday 20 October, 93 excited, smiling, enthusiastic members gathered at the Crosfield Hall for our first speaker meeting in 18 months.

Keen to meet up with friends and other members, and following the appropriate risk management rules, we were soon seated at the recommended 1-metre social distance to enjoy a real live talk! It all seemed strangely exciting after so many months of Zoom.

Dressed in a stylish 1913 outfit and hat, adorned in the Suffragette colours of green, white and violet, Jane Glennie whisked us back in time to a meeting of the Romsey Votes for Women Society. With the help of Mrs Wragg (strangely invisible at the back of the room!!!) the chair of the meeting explained the history of the Suffragist movement and the campaigning work of the suffragettes.

She explained the significance of the colours in her hat: green [G], white [W] and violet [V]; they stand for Give Women Votes!

We were reminded that Emily Davies, the famous campaigner for women’s education, was born in Southampton. She led the campaign to found Girton College, Cambridge, Britain's first women's college. She was also a friend of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the pioneering physician and political campaigner, and the first Englishwoman to qualify as a doctor; and her sister Millicent Fawcett who became leader of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), Britain's main suffragist organisation.

Having been encouraged to SHOUT AT MEN!!!, the ladies present voted that the Romsey Votes for Women Society should henceforth follow the path of the Suffragette, rather than the Suffragist, movement and the meeting concluded with enthusiastic singing of Forward, forward sisters; onward ever more !! to the tune of Onward Christian Soldiers.

Jan Moody

5

News from around the Groups HORTICULTURE GROUP The Horticulture Group had their first indoor meeting this year on 26 October, after a summer of meeting outdoors in some of our members’ gardens, for coffee and a chat.

Our regular speaker was not available for October, so we held a plant swap meeting where members brought cuttings or offshoots grown on from those of our garden plants that had been admired during the summer visits. The resulting plants were gratefully received, and we all went home with new additions to our gardens.

Our venue is the Scout Hall in Braishfield Road, on the 4 th Tuesday, at 10.30am. There’s loads of room to park and the hall is a generous size to social distance.

Linda Meyer

BOOKWORMS We are still meeting via Zoom, and are now booked until the end of the year. There is a vacancy; I can be contacted on 01794 512033 if anyone is interested.

Kaye Hannah

BRIDGE FOR IMPROVERS We have now resumed face to face meetings, while still taking Covid Guidelines into consideration, and would welcome any new members to our Group. We would ask you to have a basic knowledge of Bridge. We meet each Wednesday at 2pm at Braishfield Village Hall Committee Room for some social Bridge.

THURSDAY MORNING PAINTING IS BACK!!!

Ten keen artists have resumed their weekly get-togethers every Thursday morning from 10am until 12noon, in the hall at the back of the Romsey Methodist Church on the Hundred. In a relaxed atmosphere, punctuated with chat and a cuppa coffee/tea, this friendly group work in a variety of media: watercolour, pen and wash, acrylic, charcoal, pastels, watercolour pencils, etc.

Pop in to see us if you are interested!!

Janet Moody 6

ARCHITECTURE AND LOCAL HISTORY (1) The White Horse Inn, Romsey In August, Ruth Walker, a founder member of our group, presented her research into one of Romsey’s principal inns. Very few galleried inns survive; thus, the White Horse is of exceptional interest. Built in the late C15th /early C16th on the site of an early medieval inn (of which only the stone cellars survive), its construction is timber framing, brick, clay tile roofs and timber windows. It had room for four stage coaches and stabling for 50 horses.

The present Georgian façade is an early C19th addition, with the oak-beamed, late-medieval inn well preserved behind the façade. Through the gate house, some of the original construction can be seen, and the long narrow yard shows the enclosed galleries which originally would have been open. A rear staircase gives access to the upper floors; a long three-storey range at the rear now provides hotel bedrooms. The unwalled walkway at ground level has early C19 th glazed timber infill with casement windows and horizontal shutters above.

Once inside the White Horse, Ruth urged us to look above our coffee cups and marvel at the largely intact purpose-built inn. The front room facing the Market Place has high quality timber framing with bracing of exceptional size. There are also inglenook fireplaces. The second, Tudor Rose room, is now mainly open plan with exposed timber framing and a heavy chamfered axial beam; a brick chimney breast is on the north wall. On the cross partition, there is a series of wall paintings showing typical mid-C16th to early C17th decoration. The mullioned windows are most likely early C19th, as are the restored ones in the corridor. The first floor contains a part exposed chimney breast with decorative wall painting on plaster.

Ruth went on to look at the social history of the inn. Rich and influential medieval innkeepers played an important part in the evolution of the economic, social and political life of the nation. The C16 th saw weekly markets, with itinerant pedlars and farmers’ wives; visitors from a wide area would seek accommodation. A 1607 inventory showed that the widow of the White Horse owner had a considerable fortune.

The coaching era, from the mid-C17th to the mid-C18th, was the heyday

7

of the White Horse as a coaching inn, responding to smoother roads, well placed staging posts and improved carriages. Romsey was well placed for coaches to London, Portsmouth, Salisbury and the West.

Middle Bridge was an important crossing. A sophisticated travelling public needed staff to attend them: the service industry had arrived. An influx of doctors, lawyers and bankers led to a prosperous town.

The introduction of the railways led to the demise of the coaching era and the White Horse had to diversify into housing a cockpit, assembly rooms, auctions and grand dinners. It also became the scene for bankruptcy hearings. The inn changed hands over the years, several times in the C20th. It is still with us despite the vicissitudes of the last 500 years. The presentation was supported by many high-quality photos taken by Glenda Taylor. ********************

(2) Boys, Books and Bridegrooms and the Building that links them September’s talk by Shirley Rogers was about Romsey Library. It was built as a school for boys in 1871/2 in response to the setting up of School Boards to provide education for children between the ages of 5 and 13. It was designed by the distinguished Victorian architect, W Eden Nesfield who already had links with Romsey through William Cowper-Temple, the owner of Broadlands who supplied the funds for the building, and JWB Fleming, Lord of the Manor of Romsey Extra, who provided a one-acre site in Station Road.

Nesfield had designed Sunflower Lodge at the southern end of Broadlands’ wall. It has an eclectic mix of C17 th and C18th English with an element of Japanese, particularly sunflowers, then much in vogue; some elements were adopted by the Arts and Crafts movement.

The school is not so elaborate although the style is easily recognised: asymmetrical; deep-red brick; massive brick ribbed chimney stacks of dissimilar heights; a bellcote with stone dressings. A clever design feature is the joining of the single storey school with the two-storey master’s house at the east end, with its tile hanging to give a more domestic appearance. There is a modest amount of decoration, notably the sunflower.

Internally, the waggon head, or cradle roof, has the appearance of a medieval hall, not only the ceiling but the three fireplaces (only one visible now).

8

From its opening in 1872, the school’s fortunes followed the educational provision over the years until its closure in 1957. Many documents and photographs are held in Hampshire Record Office. An 1896 punishment book recorded lots of stripes and strokes of the cane for misdemeanours, from lateness to various sorts of bad behaviour. The headmaster then was Samuel Merrett who, rather surprisingly, was plagued by staff shortages, and there were the more expected closures because of measles and diphtheria. A basic education was given in the three Rs, Geography (Empire centred) and practical subjects (for future employment). The senior boys took Pitman’s shorthand, reflecting a period when few women worked. Religious Education was not listed, but the log book recorded a weekly visit from the Abbey vicar or his deputy.

In 1903, a damning report declared the school’s drains inadequate; water came from a well and the urinal had no flush. Four earth closets were not well ventilated. Soil was collected once a week and stored in a shed in the playground for garden use. Recommendations were made!

Broadlands maintained its connection when, c1909, Maud Ashley attended a tree planting ceremony in the school grounds. Sadly, she died at the early age of 30. Her elder daughter grew up to marry Earl Mountbatten and continued to live at Broadlands.

The large horse chestnut tree in the school grounds was won in a competition, providing much conker fun for the boys! Other competitions yielded cups for football, cricket and swimming. In 1918, compulsory education continued till age 14. At the end of the war in 1945 there is a happy photo of a VE party with Mrs Gay, the music teacher, amidst a group of delighted boys. Other teachers were Miss Offer (art) and Mr Kitcatt (nicknamed ‘kittens’) who joined the staff as far back as 1906; he was still going strong in 1956! According to reports, he was fond of using a 12” long bamboo cane! Frank Mercer was the post WW2 headmaster and Mercer Way is named after him.

1944 saw the far-reaching Butler Act conceived by the wartime coalition government. The school leaving age was raised to 15 but when the present Romsey School was built, this school closed.

The building fell into disrepair until rescued by the opening of the present Library in 1968. Gradually, it outgrew the space and an extension was eventually built in 2006. This preserved the south façade, and its design is very sympathetic to the original style, especially the internal oak roof trusses and steel tie rods.

9

Since 2017 the Library has also housed the Register Office; a year later it was licensed for weddings. These are valuable additions when so many libraries are under threat. One local resident who has a profound interest in history and architecture has said, “We have in our library building a precious part of the nation’s heritage as well as the town’s heritage.” ********************

(3) Nunneries and Nuptials: What do we really know about AngloSaxon royal women?

In a scholarly address to about 50 u3a members, Dr Lucy Marten posed this question, in October.

Dr Marten cited her sources, in particular, Doris, Lady Stenton, who concluded that Anglo-Saxon women were nearly the equal of their husbands and brothers until this was ended by the military society following the Norman Conquest. Women were then accorded an honourable position but essentially unimportant, a situation reinforced by the teaching of the medieval Church. However, an opposite conclusion was drawn by Jane Chance who stated that “Anglo-Saxon society demanded passivity, rather than leadership and initiative, from most of its women.”

One reason for this paradox, was that historians had treated the AngloSaxon period of more than 500 years as a homogenous whole. Although source material was scant, even for Royal and noble women, chronological investigation revealed that change was gradual over time.

Angles, Saxons and Jutes, from Northern Germany and Southern Scandinavia, in the C5th and C6th were not Christian but followed gods similar to those of the Vikings who later inhabited Britain, holding women in comparatively high esteem; they had the right to divorce their husbands, to inherit and to trade. They believed that the fates of all men were woven by female deities.

In 597 King Æthelbert of Kent and his Frankish wife met St Augustine, the representative of the Pope, and the long process of Christianising the Anglo-Saxons began.

Even so, when the King set down laws, he used the more accessible vernacular instead of Latin. He also shunned the Frankish Salic Law, that denied succession to women.

Anglo-Saxon Queens had reigned on the death of their husbands; indeed, King Alfred’s daughter, Æthelflæd, ruled Mercia after her husband’s death. After Christianisation, strong Abbesses in the tradition of high-status Anglo-Saxon women, emerged to rule their

10

domains. Their advice was sought by the elite as well as ordinary people, an example being Abbess Hilda of Whitby.

Artefacts of the period reveal that those belonging to men declared their ownership in bold engraving on the front, whereas the names of those owned by women were mostly engraved on the back. This supports the theory of women’s passivity. Dr Marten pointed out that most of the examples, particularly those of textiles, are from the late Saxon period not the beginning.

Women’s status changed gradually. As the position of Queen was never codified, change could more easily be effected. The C10 th saw a number of monasteries established, both male and female led, including those of Wilton and Romsey, that provided homes for royal women.

Romsey’s first Abbess, Ælfleada, was the daughter of Edward the Elder.

A subtle but important change in Christian theology was the elevation in the concept of Kingship. Kings began to wear crowns, with investiture and anointing by an archbishop, and as such could intercede with God. King Edgar, who refounded Romsey Abbey in 967, is portrayed in the picture on a level with the Saints.

The closer relationship between kings and the Church brought the Benedictine or C10th reform movement. This set out complementary roles for men and women with separate spheres of influence. Emphasis was on purity and chastity in contrast to the role of the laity. The function of royal women was essentially limited to perpetuating the dynasty.

Emphasis on female chastity led to the cult of the Virgin Mary. Impure female bodies were seen as a temptation to chaste men.

One woman who avoided the trend was the Anglo-Saxon Queen Emma, daughter of the Duke of Normandy and his wife Gunnor, of Danish descent. She was married first to King Æthelred, in a political alliance, and later to Cnut who became King of England. She attested charters and her patronage was called upon; she is depicted in a contemporary picture alongside the King.

Dr Marten summed up by saying that whereas female descendants of the Germanic settlers were valued as counsellors and advisors with the right to rule, over time, women were gradually constrained into passivity. Theological changes accorded women a role but side-lined them into a completely female space in a male-dominated world.

Shirley Rogers

11

Interest Groups News : November 2021 Many group leaders attended the Group Leaders Cream Tea event on Saturday 2 October where a much-needed reunion of leaders was led

by Kay & Dave Lovell, with help from members of the Committee of Trustees. Many thanks to them all for organising this event.

Several groups are struggling to keep going for many reasons and unfortunately some have already folded: Digital Photography, Luncheon Group, Latin 2, Craft.

Some other groups will soon be without a leader, so if you feel you can help by volunteering to take on some responsibility for running a group (even if you are not currently in that group), please do contact Jo or Margaret (see below). They are:

* Questers: nearly all the people who helped run the group and organise the trips have stepped down from their roles, so there are several vacancies on the organising committee. We would like to thank all the previous role-holders very much for all their hard work and dedication over the last thirteen years. * Theatre: this group is going to be reformed in a different way to previously. We cannot sell tickets at monthly meetings at the moment, due to Covid restrictions, so have decided to form a dedicated group of members in order to facilitate more discussion about which productions we could visit. We would like to start this group by holding meetings on the 1st Thursday of each month, pm, starting on Thursday 6 January 2022 (venue to be decided). If you would like to be a member of this group, please contact Julia (01794 517806), Jo or Margaret. We will then get back to you when we know how many members there are and we can arrange a venue accordingly or decide to use Zoom.

For any matters or concerns connected to groups, please do contact your Interest Group Coordinators: Jo Morgan : 01794 514134 Margaret Marchbank : margaretmarchbank@btinternet.com

12

PEEP Forms If you plan to attend a meeting in Crosfield Hall in person and have any disability (visible or not) which might make it difficult for you to exit the hall without someone’s help, a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP) form must be completed in advance.

Contact Dave Lovell for a form on vice-chair@romseyu3a.org.uk 01794 515316. He will also help you to complete it.

Halloween I thought these images would brighten up the Newsletter!

Mr Pumpkin, home-grown on my allotment and, along with a dozen others, donated to The Romsey & Waterside Lions Club. They used them to raise funds for local charitable causes at their Book & Bric-a-Brac Sale on 9 October in the Market Place!

My allotment has been a godsend during the Covid-19 lockdown, plenty of exercise and fresh air, not to mention plenty of fresh and frozen-down vegetables.

Roger Hunt

Newsletter Team Contacts Please send copy for the FEBRUARY 2022 newsletter to:

John Saunsbury : 01794 324841 news.copy@romseyu3a.org.uk The deadline is FRIDAY 28 JANUARY 2022 but PLEASE send any copy as soon as you have it!

OTHER newsletter queries to: newsletter@romseyu3a.org.uk 13

NATURAL HISTORY In August we visited the Fishlake Meadows Nature Reserve where different members concentrated on the birds and flowers, and enjoyed the morning although the weather was dull.

Plans to hold an autumn meeting hunting for fungi in September were frustrated by the apparently unsuitable dry weather for toadstools and mushrooms, so we visited an alternative site in the New Forest as a general trip. The fungus search was delayed to October when we found enough fungi to keep members busy with identifications for the duration of our visit to a wood near Nomansland.

We expect to meet indoors in most of the winter months and have planned a November meeting, talking about insects and discussing our future programme.

Michael Sleigh

PICKLEBALL The Pickleball Group are now meeting twice a week. On Wednesdays, indoors at Mountbatten school sports hall, 17:00 – 18:30, £2 per session.

We continue to play outdoors (weather permitting) on Thursdays at the tennis courts at North Baddesley sports centre, 14:00 – 15:30, £1 per session. Booking is required for the indoor session only; please contact the Group Leader 24 hours beforehand to ensure sufficient courts are available. Come and have a go, it’s great fun!

Trisha Meredith

INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE Well, we're still keeping up our interest in Industrial Heritage, though mainly at a distance since our last regular meeting at Crosfield Hall, in the Annexe, way back in March 2020 (BC). We have travelled further afield virtually, over the last 15+ months. We have had invited speakers from Brunel's Tunnel Museum in Rotherhithe, the Manchester Ship Canal's Art Deco steam tug, and a Sheffield Cutlery enthusiast.

Closer to home, we've heard about the vital role of women in the Battle of Britain during WW2, and...

Our planned visits to Farnborough, Sprat & Winkle Line by minibus, Bath at Work, Bridport, the Mary Rose, Bletchley Park, among others, are still on hold, probably until spring 2022 at the earliest, but we've also been warmly invited to visit the museum in Rotherhithe, as well as take a trip on the Art Deco steamship further north. Plenty of

14

places, when the time is right.

Closer to home, we did manage one proper meeting in person, when about half the group were able to join us for a private event at Romsey Signal Box, in August. Several of us are also involved with Romsey's very own heritage attraction, and it's well worth a visit!

Homemade scones and a cream tea were very much enjoyed by two dozen of us, and there was time to catch up with each other, as well as learn more about Romsey's historic signal box, and the quarter-scale model of a more complicated junction in Devon, both enthusiastically demonstrated by some of the Signal Box Project's younger volunteers, able and willing to answer our questions.

Quite a few of us got to the various Heritage/Open House events, locally and further afield, during September. At October’s online meeting, we talked about our individual visits to Winchester for the King Alfred bus-running day and Alresford for steam trains, a Victorian fire engine, and the eelhouse on the river. In London, my photos of a tour of St Pancras Station and its Clock Tower prompted one of our members to talk about the time she’d stayed at the (very grand!) hotel there. Somewhere for a future trip, perhaps?!

Meanwhile, as the days get shorter and colder, we’re taking a virtual tour of some Seaside Piers, with an invited speaker from the National Piers Society. That’s for our November meeting, and in December we’re planning a return visit to Romsey Signal Box, with mince pies this time.

As for early 2022 – there are enough varied experiences of historical computing amongst our group to make a meeting topic, even if our modern computers don’t generate enough heat to keep the office cat warm, as the old valve ones did.

If you’re interested in any aspect of Industrial Heritage, whether that’s railways, canals, ships, buses, automobiles, aeroplanes, breweries, mills, computer history… why not join us?

Janet Payne

15

READING FOR PLEASURE In August we read Learning from the Germans, by Susan Neimann. This book examines how Germany has managed to deal with the aftermath of WW2, and to live with its Nazi past. How does a country overcome such a past, and move on? The author grew up in the American South as a white girl during the civil rights movement, and has spent much of her adult life as a Jewish woman in Berlin. She has what must be an almost unique perspective on how much has changed, yet also how much is still the same. She draws comparisons with colonialism, slavery, postapartheid South Africa, and Northern Ireland, to see what psychological, philosophical and practical solutions there are to living with a troubled past. It is not an easy read, but does hold out hope of ways forward, as long as there is an acceptance of responsibility and a will to change.

September’s book was Sophie’s World, by Jostein Gaarder. An anonymous note sets fourteen-year-old Sophie on a journey through the history of philosophy, guided by a mysterious tutor. She begins to question the decisions and assumptions made by the adults in her life, and to understand why philosophy is so important. This is a mystery, which has Sophie wondering what is real, and what is not. The book was easy to read, and enjoyable, making the history of philosophy fascinating. If some of the characters seemed stereotypical, then we found out why in the twist at the end. Reading it now, though, it has a much more sinister edge than was felt when it was written, in the early 1990s. It now feels as if the tutor is grooming the teen for his own motives. As her world implodes Sophie has to decide which route she wants to follow. Does she become a philosopher, questioning everything, or does she nestle down into the fur of the white rabbit, and let life happen to her? Our discussions included considering how our viewpoints have changed since the book was written.

A Country Road, A Tree, by Jo Baker was our October book, a fictionalised autobiography of Samuel Beckett, the playwright of Waiting for Godot. In France, when the Germans invaded, Beckett and his lover, Suzanne, found themselves part of an exodus from Paris. They were constantly only one step ahead of the invading force, as it worked its way south. The difficulties he faced, and the atrocities he saw during this time showed clearly how his writing style was forged by what he had lived through. He learnt the importance of silence, and that the fewer words

16

said, the safer the speaker. As an intelligence officer with the Resistance, his friends and allies often put themselves in great danger to help him.

Some paid the highest price for it. What came over extremely well in the book was the overwhelming claustrophobic terror of never knowing from one second to the next whether they would be rounded up and shot. At one point Beckett and Susannah have to make a quick escape, helped by the Resistance. They are taken to a tree on a country road, and told to wait for their contact to arrive. They had no food or water, nor any idea whether their contact would arrive in minutes, hours or days. They also had no idea whether the entire thing was a trick to capture them. As in Waiting for Godot, the pair had no option but to wait, and wait, until something happened. Either they were rescued or captured. It was writing at its best.

Nan Keightley

ITALIAN FOR NOVICES We have been lying fallow since the Covid restrictions started, but we have now restarted meetings.

We meet every Monday at 2.30 pm (changed from the original time of 3 pm) for 2 hours at a member’s house in Romsey. We are working our way through the BBC’s Italian beginners’ course, Buongiorno Italia, which has a book and CDs. Having got about half way though this course before the lockdown we have now restarted at the beginning because we have new members; this is also good revision for the old hands!

Angela Bogatto & David Haigh

ACTION FOR HAPPINESS New Ways November This month's theme is based on Trying Out: Keep learning new things Nov 23: Set aside a regular time to pursue an activity you love.

Happier - Kinder - Together 17

SHORT DAY TRIPS (1) VISIT TO THE LORD BUTE HOTEL AND RESTAURANT On 30 September, our first Short Day Trip since lockdown took us for a coach drive across the New Forest to Highcliffe where we had lunch at the Lord Bute Hotel. There were 26 members, who enjoyed a superb two course lunch, with drinks and coffee. After lunch there was time to take a walk to the grounds of Highcliffe Castle and, for some, a short blustery walk down to the beach. Our coach collected us at 4 pm for the leisurely drive back to Romsey Bus Station. It had been a most enjoyable day.

Trip Organiser: Margaret Waghorn ********************

(2) BURSLEDON BRICK WORKS MUSEUM For our second event since the pandemic started, we visited Bursledon Brick Works Museum on 29 October; one of the only remaining steam-driven Victorian brickworks left in the country.

There were 28 members who left Romsey Bus Station at 09.30 and a traffic-free run meant we arrived very early for our 10.30 slot. Tea and coffee were served, followed by a brief introduction to the Museum. We then split into two groups for a guided tour, which finished at the kilns.

Our guides told us about the history of bricks and the Grade II* listed brickworks in which the Museum is based. The first unit of the brickworks, known as the South Block, was built in 1896-7 and is where the tour commenced. The brickworks were built by Hooper & Co., owned by and run by the Hooper and Ashby families, which were both Quaker families. The location had excellent transport links and an abundant supply of clay. Until the arrival of canals and railways, moving heavy materials around the country was fraught with difficulty so bricks were made where they were needed to avoid the expense of moving them.

However, when railways opened up the country, the site at Lower Swanwick was conveniently beside the newly opened Southampton to Portsmouth railway line as well as the navigable River Hamble.

Making bricks requires clay, fuel, a way of moving the bricks to the

18

market and, of course, labour. The day was long by today’s standards.

Work commenced at 07.00, with a tea break of 15 mins at 09.00, and lunch at 12 noon for one hour. The poor stokers and engineers running machinery often had to eat lunch where they worked. There was an informal tea break at 3 pm, and everyone clocked off at 5 pm. The breaks gave an opportunity for machines to be cleaned to stop clay clogging up blades. The work was dirty and dangerous.

We had arranged for the steam-driven brickmaking machinery to be up and running for our visit. It was very interesting seeing the steam engines providing the power, and the large old machines still working.

Brick production in 1900 was 8 million bricks a year, in 1908 13 million and, in 1935, 20 million. The workforce when in full production was 150 employees, who worked in gangs of ten. The brickworks produced bricks for 87 years and closed in 1974, when the superior clay had been worked out and the Health & Safety Act came into force.

The brickworks were left to decay for nearly 20 years. In the early 1990s the site was sold by Redland to Hampshire Building Preservation Trust.; they were saved because of their unique history. Redland had to pay a dowry to the Trust because of it being a Grade II* site. The money was spent restoring the machine house, the brickmaking machinery and the steam engine as well as building a new café/WC block. In 2012 the Museum was awarded a lottery grant for three years to help to create a fully functioning museum open on a regular basis.

After lunch members had free time to explore upstairs where there was an extensive display of bricks, brick moulds, decorative ridge tiles, and chimney pots. The grounds contained artefacts from other closed brickyards including a pugmill from the Paultons Park Estate Brickworks and photos of the rescue and repositioning of the Wet Pan by Michelmersh Brick and Tile Company.

We left Bursledon at 3.30 pm and arrived back in Romsey after an interesting day out.

Trip organiser: Pearl Pocock

19

WINE APPRECIATION SUMMER PORTUGUESE WINE TASTING!

In early August, 22 members of the Wine Appreciation Group spent a warm, sunny afternoon enjoying a delicious selection of Portuguese wines and food, in the delightful setting of Lynda and Steve Hemsley’s garden in Middlebridge Street. The wine was thoughtfully matched with food. We enjoyed two delicious whites, one rose and three scrumptious red wines, together with bread, chorizo, serrano ham, and sheep’s cheese. We also had a delicious home-made cabbage soup and tortilla, as well as more varieties of sheep’s cheese and biscuits. This was all topped off with the famous Pasteis de Nata (Portuguese custard tarts!!).

Warm appreciation and many thanks to Lynda and Steve for a really super afternoon. Wine details and soup recipe are available!

Janet Moody

A recent visit for two of our wine group members Nikki and Mike helping with the harvesting some of those grapes.

Derek Morley

20

OPERA AND CLASSICAL SONG Our 2021 – 22 season commenced in September with Pietro Mascagni’s one act opera, Cavalleria rusticana. In July 1888 the Milanese music publisher Edoardo Sonzogno announced a competition for a one act opera composed by a young Italian composer who had not yet had an opera performed on stage. Mascagni heard about the competition only two months before the closing date. Cavalleria rusticana, a popular short story by Giovanni Verga, was chosen as the literary source. The score was sent to Puccini, who, along with the music publisher Ricordi, thought it had no chance of winning. Wrong! Altogether, 73 operas were submitted to the competition with Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana winning the first prize, becoming one of the most popular operas every written.

At age 26, hitherto unknown, Mascagni became famous overnight and by his death in 1945, the opera had been performed more than 14,000 times in Italy alone. It is by far the best known of Mascagni’s 15 operas.

A tale of love, passion, vendetta and death in Sicily, Cavalleria is regarded as the first verismo opera (from the Italian vero or truth), a movement which sought to portray the everyday lives of ordinary people with greater realism. Verismo operas abandoned conventional opera structure in order to achieve better integration of the music and drama.

Moment by moment emotional expressiveness was the key and singers responded to the more declamatory style required by beefing up the timbre of their voices, leading to a new generation of great singers.

Cavalleria is full of wonderful tunes and has been recorded more than a hundred times. With the right performers it has huge emotional impact.

This was certainly true of the classic production we saw, magnificently filmed at the correct Sicilian location by Franco Zeffirelli, with the orchestra of La Scala conducted by Herbert von Karajan, with a young Placido Domingo and Elena Obratsova (both pictured) as the central lovers. It doesn’t get better than that!

Back in January, Opera Group had looked at the origin of opera in the late renaissance / early baroque period, using Monteverdi’s Orfeo as the example. We followed this up in October with the topic of opera seria as illustrated by Handel’s opera Giulio Cesare. Opera seria refers to the

21

noble and serious style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to around 1770. Essentially the opera of the court, it was a reaction against the impure (i.e., naughty) libretti of some early operas, such as Monterverdi’s Coronation of Poppea. In opera seria, virtue must triumph while villains should suffer. Key to this was the influential poet Metastasio, who wrote around 800 libretti, drawing on dramas featuring classical characters from antiquity bestowed with princely values and morality, struggling with conflicts between love, honour and duty. The potentate would watch his counterparts from the ancient world and see their benevolent autocracy redound to his own credit. In England, however, the Civil War had weakened the power of the Court so Handel was free to write for a much broader audience. The age of opera seria corresponded with the rise to prominence of the castrati, gifted male singers who were castrated before puberty in order to retain a high, powerful, soprano or alto voice. The Opera Group were played the only known recording of a castrato singer, dating from 1902.

Castrati were cast in heroic male roles, alongside a new breed of operatic female, the prima donna. Star singers spurred composers to write increasingly complex vocal music. After 1750 opera seria declined due to rising equality and socio-economic change. Handel turned to writing oratorios. However, it has become popular again thanks to innovative productions and improved, historically informed performance technique. These days operas like Giulio Cesare, which contains some of Handel’s finest music, are major box office successes.

The story of Giulio Cesare is historically based on Julius Caesar’s romance with Cleopatra, who defeated her brother to become Queen Cleopatra V of Egypt and later gave birth to Caesar’s only son, Caesarion. For the opera premiere, Handel assembled a magnificent but difficult cast. The alto castrato Senesino, who sang Julius Caesar, was a brilliant singer but a vain and arrogant man who Handel called "a damned fool". At a public rehearsal, Senesino insulted a fellow singer, for which he was allegedly caned backstage by her lover Lord Peterborough. Francesca Cuzzoni, who sang Cleopatra was another technically brilliant singer, but her infamous rivalry with the soprano Faustina Bordoni led to a fight between the two divas during a performance. She refused to sing one of Handel's arias, demanding a fresh ayre, which Handel allegedly provided by dangling her out of a window by her ankles. She sang the aria, and it made her famous. The

22

social history of opera is fascinating! Opera is not quite as lively these days, but the group were treated to highlights from a magnificent performance at Glyndebourne in 2005. Both pictured right, Sarah Connolly was a magnificent Julius Caesar while the ravishing Danielle de Niese, making her debut in a stunning performance as Cleopatra, enamoured not only Caesar but also Gus Christie, the owner of Glyndebourne, who she later married.

The remainder of the Opera and Classical Song Group season for 2021 – 22 is below. We meet on Zoom on the second Monday of each month.

Various members of the group present their favourite operas. After each opera we have friendly, lively, well-researched discussion, followed by a summary handout. All handouts are available for download from our web page found here.

Our membership ranges from opera newcomers, via enthusiasts, to a former professional opera singer. We welcome new members and the festive operas we have chosen for December and January are a particularly good introduction.

13 December 10am Puccini: La Bohème 10 January 10am Operetta: J Strauss: Die Fledermaus

RB MW

14 February

10am French Opera: Gounod: Roméo et Juliette

RB

14 March

10am Verdi: La Traviata

DL

11 April

10am Romantic Opera: R Strauss: Arabella

RB

9 May

11am Expressionism and metaphor:

Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle 13 June

MW

10am Czech Opera: Janacek: The Cunning little Vixen

MW

Presenters: MW - Michael Ward; RB - Robert Bideleux; DL - David Llewellyn Michael Ward

23

100 years of Remembrance - Royal British Legion

On Remembrance Sunday, our Chair, Kay Lovell, in the company of Steve George, Chair of Archway u3a, had the honour and privilege to lay a wreath at the War Memorial in Romsey’s Memorial Park.

24