Future Programme includes:

Cream Teas on Friday 20th June, Tuesday 8th July and Tuesday 22nd July All at Wick Farm Lympsham time 4.00 pm Cost £5.50.

“Away Day” to Bournemouth on 19th June has 3 seats available.

Tenby on 17th July—sold out.

Tintern Abbey & Chepstow on 11th September has seats available.

Salisbury on 27th November—-sold out.

Visit to Houses of Parliament now scheduled for early 2015 because they (H of P) are overwhelmed with requests for visits by organisations and are unable to fit us in. A replacement has to be decided and arranged—more to follow.

Roger Ouston’s booklet entitled “In memory of the men of Huntspill who fell in the Great War” is now available for purchase for £2.00. Please see the earlier news item (link below) for more details.

Please contact Roger Ouston 01278 795007, Ken Burston 01278 782529, or Ros Thomson (West Huntspill W.I.) for your copy.

Alternatively come along to the Wednesday Coffee Morning and buy there.

Link to original article

Please be advised that this GROUP’s activities have moved from the “King Alfred’s Boxing Club Gym” to ROOM 2 at the Highbridge Community Hall. The Group still meets on a Wednesday at the same time of day.

This change of environment allows its members to park their cars adjacent to the building, avoiding the need to walk over 200 yards to the Gym before starting their exercises.

The Great War

August 1914 until November 1918

At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 this country urgently needed young men to join the armed forces to boost the British Expeditionary Forces; whereupon young men from East and West Huntspill joined with thousands of others to fight for King and Country.

In order to commemorate the lives of these young men, Roger Ouston, Genealogy Group Leader of the U3A of Highbridge, has published a biography of their young lives. The publication also gives a brief history of the circumstances that led up to this conflict that, over the four years, cost over 8,000,000 lives and resulted in nearly 30,000,000 casualties.

The publication entitled:

“ln memory of the men of East and West Huntspill who fell in the Great War”

will be on sale by the end of May, it will cost £2.00.

The U3A of Highbridge is financing the publication.

#############

At the outbreak of the war young men from all over the United Kingdom and the Empire rushed to join the forces, in the early days it was said it would be over by Christmas. This proved not to be so and a vast number of young men, and civilians, were killed, mutilated or wounded, both in mind and body.

At that time the British regular army comprised a small force of professional soldiers; this consisted of approximately 250,000 regular troops in four Guards and 68 Infantry regiments, 31 cavalry, artillery and other support arms.

The Royal Flying Corps was, until 1918, part of the Army; and at the outbreak of hostilities had 84 aircraft.

The Territorial Army Force and reservists that supported the regular Army, did in theory, provide almost another 700,000 men that could be made available, given the time. However, to form the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.) of six infantry and one cavalry divisions there was immediately available 150,000 men.

There will be, during the coming months, many reminders of this conflict and the terrible affect it had on those that took part, the U3A of Highbridge felt that Roger’s research into the lives of these local men deserved to be brought to the attention of a wider audience.

Two new photos (ball and sequin head) have been added to the Mosaics Group page. These are images of creations by Linda Knight-Rees who is a member of the Mosaics Group.

https://www.u3ahighbridge.org.uk/mosaics-group/#gallery/1188/160/0

A U3A of Highbridge’s Social Evening that was held at the Ritz Club in Burnham-on-Sea on Saturday 1^st March and was a great success. This new ‘activity’, billed as “Dining and Dancing at the Ritz”, was organised by popular demand following a members’ BIG “O” Birthday celebration at the end of last year.

The earlier event, attended by a number of members, had been so enjoyable that they had asked the lady concerned to organise a similar one for the U3A. Over 60 attended and following an excellent supper the D J soon had the members dancing, in their various styles, to music from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.

As the evening wore on, age began to tell with a few, but the ‘young at heart– and body’, jived away until they ran out of puff.  It was obviously a success because requests were made for a repeat performance later in the year.

The Crochet & Knitting Group has, from 1^st Feb, ceased to operate because, apparently, there is no longer any new interest, the Tutor says she has not received any requests to continue teaching and her existing ‘pupils’ are now sufficiently confident to ‘go it  alone’ although she will be available for refresher courses should they be needed.

If you have been following the Winter Olympics in Sochi and have had your appetite whetted for a bit of Kurling and fancy having a go yourself, the U3A of Highbridge have had their own “New Age Kurling” group for some years now.

Please visit the New Age Kurling Group page for more details if you are interested in joining.

The Third Age Trust’s magazine “Third Age Matters” which was issued recently, has an article relating to the U3A of Highbridge–

“Highbridge U3A’s photographic and creative writing groups took part in a “Talking Communities” project funded by the Big Lottery Fund’s Awards for All. Photographs were exhibited in the gallery at the Princess Theatre, Burnham-on-Sea; whilst the creative writers wrote and produced a play “Male members wanted” that was broadcast on 10Radio.”

The latest magazine for Mar/April 2014 has been published on this website. To access the magazines, either go to the Magazine page using the main menu, or click this link.

A few events have been added to the Events List.

You can now subscribe to this web site to receive an email automatically when a new news item is posted.

All you need to do is enter your email address on the Subscribe page. The Subscribe page can be accessed using the link just shown, or from the main menu.

The Skittle Group held their end of term Christmas Party on the 20^th December at their ‘headquarters’ The Crossways Inn, West Huntspill.

This last meeting of the year includes a celebration of the member’s ‘skills’, when the silver ware is presented, followed by a sumptuous Christmas lunch.

The award for ‘Best Overall Player’ for 2013 went to the Club’s Vice Chairman Bernard Martin and that for the ‘Best Lady Player’ for 2013 to Betty Worthy. Prior to taking lunch, and to build up an appetite, the members have a competition to see who can get the highest score and Billy Conibeer won the ‘Best on the Day’ cup.

The Group meets at the Crossways Inn on the first and third Fridays of every month from 11.30 am until about 01.00 pm when everything stops for a pub lunch.  The playing of skittles is not taken too seriously because the group comprises a jolly socialable crowd and one thing you can be sure of is a good laugh. If you are interested in playing skittles and perhaps having a few ‘jars’ why not drop in ; there is a good car park, it is also easily accessible by bus.

U3A of Highbridge are pleased to support the Highbridge Festival of the Arts for 2014. A fundraising film “Quartet” will be shown on January 27th at the Ritz Theatre in Burnham-on-Sea (see image below for more details).

More details on all the upcoming activities of the Highbridge Festival of the Arts can be found by visiting the official web site at http://www.highbridgefestival.org.uk.

We wish to thank all the members who braved the atrocious weather conditions we experienced on New Year’s Day in order to attend the usual  Coffee Morning; it was great to have the support from so many brave souls. This was the first time, in 10 years, that we have had to cancel a Coffee Morning because it clashed with Christmas Day, we will need to make alternative arrangements should it happen again, it upsets our routine?

This trip is on Saturday 26th April at the Weston Playhouse.

The musical is based on the story of a refined Cockney gentleman named Bill Snibson who learns that he is the heir to the 14th Earl of Hareford. The action is set in Hampshire, Mayfair and Lambeth.

Diane (781009) and Brenda (787963) are accepting provisional bookings, so if you are interested, please contact them soon.

Joy Daine, a member of the Thursday Art Group has an exhibition of her work in the Art Centre at the Princess Theatre in Burnham-on-Sea. It starts on the 24th December and runs until 11th January.

On Wednesday 15th January we will receive a visit from David Hill of Somerset Road Safety. He will be giving advise on how we, who are considered to be the elderly, can keep ourselves safe on the roads. The theme of the talk deals with those of us that are still able to drive; tips on how to be prepared for any unforeseen problem.