Wetherby & District U3A

Groups, topics & activities

THIS PAGE IS UPDATED REGULARLY - please excuse any typos and errors- and come back again soon, because we add more information on a regular basis.
Please email me (Roger) if you want to add information or point out an error. THX !
greendrift@gmail.com

Rhythm & Movement

Do you like to move to the beat? Do you need to improve your fitness?
Can you help to put routines together?

Lorraine formed the group because she believed in getting members together to exercise in a fun way. She is not an expert but had the initiative to get this group started. Please sign up.

The group meets in Boston Spa Village Hall on the first and third Thursdays of each month at 11.00 to 12.00 am
Group Contact : Lorraine Wilsdon 845424 ericwilsdon@msn.com

Folk Dancing

Are you interested in a fun, sociable and easy form of exercise?
No partner needed, as anyone can dance with anyone.
All dances will be walked through beforehand.
Can you play the accordion, fiddle or guitar for us to dance to? Have you any folk dance music? Can you call for dances?

This group meets on the 4th Friday of each month at 10am, in Clifford Village Hall. Members welcomed to join us. Please telephone or email Lesley Newnham for more information on 845773 , l.newnham@talktalk.net

Family History

Do you watch TV programmes such as ‘Who do you think you are?'
Are you interested in unravelling the secrets of your own family?

There is a lot of interest in this subject. The group is a co-operative group with 30 members, where ideas and experiences are shared, with help available from the leader who has had experience but who is not an expert. Additional members welcomed.

The group meets on the first Friday of each month in the St James Church Hall, start time 10 am.
Susan Dyke Tel: 574541 susandyke100@googlemail.com or Dilys Rhodes 520128 dilysrhodes@ntlworld.com

Coffee Morning

Several members have expressed an interest in a midweek coffee session, where members can chat informally over a cup of coffee (or tea) and biscuits. I'm delighted to tell you that members and friends can now do this and are welcome to call in at the Methodist Hall on Wednesday mornings. Coffee, tea and biscuits are served for a modest charge to U3A members and guests as well as church members. No need to book or join a group - just drop in and say hello on Wednesday mornings..

The Sunday Lunch group

Do Sundays seem a bit long?
Do you miss having someone to share a meal with?
Do you like to go out and try new places?
Do you like a chat and meeting new people?
The Sunday Lunch group will be meeting once per month initially on the second Sunday in the month, at 12.00 for 12.30pm. Venues will be discussed after each meeting and booking arrangement responsibilities will be shared by group members. The first few lunch meetings were a great success and enjoyed by all. Join us!

Lifts to venues may be possible by prior arrangement. Join us and have fun. Contact:- Velma Lazenby Tel 844304 velmalazenby@tiscali.co.uk

TRAVEL TALKS

This is a group for anyone who is interested in independent travel and wishes to share their experiences and pass on useful tips and information or discover what others have found.
Members' travels cover most parts of the world and some fascinating places. Meetings take place at 10am on the second Thursday of each month in the Wetherby Tennis Club room.

<<< Click the icon to download a review of recent meetings.

Group leaders: Glenys Pengilley & Rob Sharpe
Tel: 587522 email: alan-glenys@virginmedia.com or rob.sharpe@ntlworld.com

CREATIVE WRITING

pen and paperEver dreamed of being a successful author – of seeing your name on magazine articles or novels? The creative writing group will help you towards this goal by exploring a range of topics like:

  • creative writing styles,
  • approaching publishers and finding an agent,
  • improving one's written style and grammar,
  • writing articles for magazines,
  • writing a novel step by step
  • reading and examining short stories

The group will work on an assignment each week, writing perhaps 1500 to 2500 words on an agreed topic. The following week we can examine and critique the written work The group will initially meet to get to know each other, chat about what we want to achieve and explore ways of meeting these goals.
Thereafter the group will meet fortnightly on Wednesday mornings.

Practically half way into the year and we are once again en plein air. The roses perfume the terrace, vying with the young birds who eat with insouciance alongside members’ feet as they read their stories. (The members that is, not the birds!) Due to illness we are seeking two more new members to join up. This could still get them involved in the book we are putting together for publication later this year and might see them in print in a professional volume of short stories and poems.
There are no pressures to perform, no homework to do unless you wish...and the biscuits are pretty good as well. Richard Newman. Sometime Chairman and certainly not Chairperson.
Group leader: Richard Newman Tel:845675
havelock.newman@btinternet.com

POETRY APPRECIATION

This is a group for anybody who enjoys reading poetry and also for those who perhaps didn't enjoy poetry at school but feel they may be missing out on something good and want to find out more.
The format of the sessions will be informal and discursive. We shall dip into a wide variety of poets from the whole cannon of English literature, being led by the specific interests of the group.
The poetry group has made a lively start. Although it was originally envisaged that we would start in September, in fact we decided to begin immediately with three informal meetings in which we are simply sharing and discussing some of our favourite poems.
icon more information<< Members clearly have wide-ranging poetic tastes which should mean that we can look forward to a very varied programme. See the download for details.
We plan to keep numbers down to around fifteen so that we can meet comfortably in each other's homes, which we feel is more conducive to enjoying poetry together.
Meetings are held on 1st Tuesday of each month from 2.30 Group Leader: Gill Dowlman gillian.dowlman@btinternet.com

CYCLING (BELO = bicycle essential, lycra optional)

They say its always good to have an acronym – so why not BELO?
We want to start a cycling group within Wetherby U3A because its such a great place to be out in the fresh air and countryside. Some lovely highways and byways, not to mention cycle paths and bridle ways for the ambitious.
So if walking's too slow for you then it's BELO for you!

We accept that cycling means many different things to
U3 Agers and we want to be as inclusive as possible – hence the questionnaire you will be asked to complete. We want to know what most people will be comfortable with and organise events accordingly. But you probably want some ideas to start with.
Who is it for? Everyone with a bike and helmet!
How often will it meet? Monthly on a weekday afternoon as a minimum (exact day chosen to meet the desires of the majority)
How far will it go? Don't think in terms of miles, but in terms of time. We would expect to be out for a couple of hours
Will it be continuous cycling? No. We would want to cycle for no more than 45 minutes; have a break at a pub/café; then return
Will it be on main roads? Where possible, not. We would want to use back roads and maybe good cycle paths.

Members are encouraged to suggest their favourite rides
Group Leader: Mike Hopkins
Tel: 587407 mikehopkins07@gmail.com

LITERATURE STUDY GROUP

The Literature Group has had a very successful first year. We have read a series of books, - so far all fiction, by authors of different nationalities and different decades. Starting with groups of French and African authors we have finished the year with four novels published within a 15 year period by four very different British authors; Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad, Arnold Bennet and E.M.Forster.

We are about to embark on our next series; novels by American authors, including William Falkener, Toni Morrison, Philip Roth and F Scott Fitzgerald. We read one book a month and so far have been able to bulk borrow all our titles from the library.

We meet on the second Monday of every month in St James' Church Rooms, Wetherby, at 2.30pm . New members are welcome and warmly invited to attend a ‘taster session' of our lively, friendly and informative meetings.
More information contact Ann Lister at: elister@tiscali.co.uk or Tel: 584336.

THE HISTORICAL WALKING GROUP

This is a group for those who like to walk in places where there are things of historical interest to see or hear along the way. Planned length of walk – typically 6 to 8 miles in the local area.
Summer Programme -
May 11th Middlesmoor & Scar House Reservoir a 7/8 mile walk
June 8th Middleham & Coverdale 7 miles (led by Alison Smith)
July 13th Buckden & Hubberholme 7 miles
August a holiday break see you all in September

We meet at the Wetherby Leisure Centre car park when we leave at 9.30am. This is a very friendly group. You are welcome to bring your dogs if you wish & we usually take a packed lunch. We also car share and make a contribution towards the petrol. New members are welcome to join us.

The walks normally take place on the 2nd Friday of each month. We leave the Wetherby Leisure centre/swimming baths car park at 9.30am. Maeve Curtis Tel:573212
muther@mjwoodall.freeserve.co.uk

GARDENING & GARDEN VISITS

GARDENING 1

Leaders Meg Ledgard and Maggie Kitson.
Maggie and Meg are, in their own words, not gardening experts but are enthusiasts. They work in close co-operation with Gail Cownden who has agreed to help to arrange Garden Visits (See below). The first gardening group is so popular and hence oversubscribed that we have opened a second group to cope with the waiting list. See below.

We meet in either a member's garden or in Collingham Memorial Hall on:
the second Monday of each month April to SEptember OR
the first Monday of each month from October to March.
Contact person at present is Meg Ledgard on 572046 email gemdrag@gmail.com

GARDENING 2

Our second U3A garden group meets the first Monday of each month in either a member's garden or in Collingham Memorial Hall. Meeting in a garden has given us the chance to talk about how it has developed, focal plants which are growing well and any problem areas or plans for future development. We also enjoy plant swaps and sharing our propagation successes.

Meetings in the Memorial Hall have included looking at soil analysis, structure and the impact this has on plant choices. The planned programme through to next summer includes making a winter hanging basket and colourful displays of container grown spring bulbs.

Visits from various guest speakers have been organised and also visits to a rhubarb farm and later a local nursery and garden which opens within the National Garden Scheme. This group, in the true spirit of U3A, is very much self-help with many members taking an active part. There are now over 20 members and thus this group is now full.

Click the icon for a review of recent activity.
Contact Sue Cooper Tel: 583831 susanecooper@talktalk.net

GARDEN VISITS

Garden visits last year included-

  • York Gate, Adel,
  • Stillingfleet Garden, York,
  • Breezy Knees, York
  • Scampston Walled Garden, Hall and grounds.

Not wanting to tempt fate but we have been very lucky with the weather! In a couple of the gardens, brollies were needed to provide much needed shade rather than protection from the elements. We meet once each month from Spring through to Autumn and the day of the week chosen varies according to when garden owners can open. Usually about 20 to 30 members are able to make each visit but there are about 45 in the group and more are very welcome. The garden visit concludes with much needed refreshments and perhaps the chance to purchase one or two plants!
This Autumn we are going to visit Cold Cotes, Harrogate and in October we have the opportunity to meet a member of staff at Harlow Carr in one of the classrooms in the new learning centre. We will find out about energy use in this "green" building - which has everything from windows opening automatically to adjust carbon dioxide levels in the classrooms, use of "grey" water and electricity provided by the wind turbine across the field.

The programme for 2011 started in February with a visit to the famous rhubarb sheds near Rothwell. Click the icon on the left for a more recent update.
We meet on Mondays or Fridays from Spring to Autumn.
Contact Gail Cownden gailhc@virginmedia.com
Tel 07548926602

CHURCHES

David Watts has, in his own words, 'an encyclopaedic knowledge of mediaeval churches' and has done a survey of them in Yorkshire.
The group could do a mixture of learning about various churches and then follow it up with a visit. Visits to Cathedrals and Abbeys might also be included - there are plenty in Yorkshire.
Meetings every 3rd. Tuesday in the month.
<< More information here.
The group will assemble in the Wetherby Leisure Centre car park at 9.30am to share transport.
New members warmly welcomed.
David Watts 842317 or email via bob.dibben@hotmail.com

SINGING FOR FUN

‘Oh! But I can't sing.'
Would you like to sing?
Do you want to sing just for fun with no pressure of performance?
Janet Stoney, who is very well known and respected as a Music Teacher and Musical Director, says,
‘If you can speak you can sing – what could be simpler? Everyone has the necessary bits but the physical proportions will differ for all of us, just like our body shapes. So, our voices are unique. Singing is an extension of speech and we can all move from the security of speech to a new way of using the voice which is singing. Our voice is an instrument which can be used by a group of people to have fun.'
Janet is looking forward to trying a very wide range of types of music and is planning to have fun herself.

This group will meet on the 2nd and 4th Monday of each month, from 1.30pm - 3,00pm in the Town Hall.

Tel: 520801 Janet.stoney1@ntlworld.com or Lesley Newnham on 845773 or groupsu3aWAD@hotmail.co.uk

ART HISTORY

This group uses group member shared knowledge and research, visits to Art galleries with talks arranged by staff and occasional talks by a guest speaker.
The group already has lots of members, but there is space for a few more. The group meets on the fourth Thursday afternoon of each month at the Tennis Club at 2pm.

For further information about the group please contact either Lesley Gordon on 01937 585793 or Aileen Plummer on 01937 591531 New members welcome.
Please park in the Wilderness carpark and walk across.

Cost: £2 per meeting to cover the cost of the room hire and refreshments. andrewandlesley@talktalk.net

DAYS OF SPECIAL INTEREST

  • Do you like to explore?
  • Are unfamiliar places and unknown topics fascinating to you?
  • Do you want to broaden your mind?

    • special posterThere is a great wealth of diversity in terms of places, buildings, industrial heritage, countryside and culture, available within easy reach.


    Wed 13 June -     we have an evening visit to Ripon for a talk on the civic silver in the Town Hall and to hear the Hornblower in the Market Place.
    20th July     - Visit to Thwaites Mill, Leeds.
    August - Robert Thompson "Mouseman" Visitors Centre September - YTV Calendar Studio
    October - Drax Power Station
    The group meets on various days at different locations.
    If you are interested in joining us, please contact Pat Baron on 520165 baron.wetherby@btinternet.com

    Table Tennis

    table tennis tableThe table tennis group meets in the Methodist Church Hall every Monday morning between 10.30am and 11.30am.
    This Group continues to prosper, with now 18 active members registered, which is really as many as we can take, at the moment. Around 12 members will usually attend each Monday at the Methodist Hall, between 10.30am and 11.30am. Two tables are now operated.

    As members have gained experience, there is no doubt that the general standard of play has been raised considerably.
    A charge of £2 per person, each meeting, is collected, towards the Hall & Equipment costs. Every member is expected to help in putting up & dismantling the tables.

    Richard Thraves on 01937-587883, or e mail
    richard.thraves@btinternet.com

    Walking with Lunch

    walking groupThis active, friendly & informal Group meet on either the first Tuesday or Thursday of each month ( except January).

    Each walk is usually between 3 to 4.5 miles long, lasting approximately 2 hours and the location is always within a 10 mile radius of Wetherby. The walk commences at 10.30am, usually from a Pub Car Park and afterwards all group members lunch at the Pub, to continue the friendship which has been established.

    The walks are always interesting and relatively easy, with few stiles or steep inclines. Most walking is on bridlepaths and footpaths. During the last 12 months, different members have volunteered to lead/organise a walk & lunch.

    The object all along has been involvement & to establish a friendly informal & sociable group, to meet new friends & discover new places in the Wetherby area. This has successfully been achieved, evidenced by the fact that there are now 50 active group members – although this does mean at present, that there are no vacancies to join the Group and a waiting list is operating.”

    There are two more walking groups - one for those members who don't feel able or willing to cover the 5-6 miles that the main group prefer for their walks and a third group (see further below) for the energetic who prefer longer walks.

    In the course of the last 4 months, the group have successfully walked around Woodhall, Thorp Arch, Golden Acre Park/Breary Marsh Nature Reserve & Spofforth. After each walk, all members have continued their fellowship with lunch & a welcome drink. Lunches have been held at the Scotts Arms, Sicklinghall, the Pax Inn, Thorp Arch, the Lawnswood Arms, Adel & the Castle Inn Spofforth.

    You can see more details about the group, the schedule of future walks and a diary covering previous waks, here (or click the image). More information
    Tel 01937-587883- richard.thraves@btinternet.com

    Walkers Extra (7-10 miles)

    For those who prefer to cover a bit more mileage - typically 7 to 9 miles. We align our walks so that they do not clash with the other walking groups in order to make it possible to do as many walks in the same month as you wish. We normally walk in the last week of the month on a rolling weekday basis, so the walks are never on the same weekday in consecutive months.

    Check the walks diary on the link for details of all planned walks.

    The 25 April walk was led by Carol Pettifar. It took in Bolton Abbey and Beamsley Beacon on what were good walking conditions initially, but which deteriorated on reaching the summit. See the News Link on the website for a full report.

    The 31 May walk will be led by led by Sue Howard at Jervaulx Abbey in Coverdale. It will be 8½ miles moderate.

    Meet at Wetherby Leisure centre for car share at 0915 & prompt departure at 0930. If you are interested in joining the group please contact: David Mills on 541325 or (preferably) by email at dhvmills@btinternet.com , David Corns on 843027 or david.corns@talktalk.net , or Lynn Wallis on lynnwallis@btinternet.com or 07877 227545.

    << You can download a schedule of planned walks here.

    icon news pageNEWS PAGE. To see a record and pictures from some of our previous walks please click the image >>>>

    Walkers Ultra (10-15 miles)

    A new group has now been formed which covers walks of 10 to 15 miles.

    For further details and to register an interest in joining please contact Sue Howard on 520123

    or email sehowarduk@ntlworld.com
    < More information

    Computer Basics

    (GETTING COMFORTABLE WITH YOUR COMPUTER)

    laptop computer Numbers are limited and we already have a waiting list for the next sessions so book in advance.
    The course is ideal for those who have recently bought a laptop computer and an internet connection (your own home computer / the local library / relation or friend) and who want to become more comfortable with sending and receiving emails and with using the internet.
    Each participant will set up an email account with Googlemail and we will use this to make you comfortable with sending and receiving emails, changing fonts, colours, adding or opening attachments, forwarding emails, deleting, saving and moving emails to and from folders – and with building a contacts list.
    Then we move on to the internet – accessing web sites, using search engines, refining searches, saving useful sites, copying information from websites to Word documents for printing. Also covered will be filling in forms online and looking at some popular and useful web sites.
    Six weekly sessions, held at WISE in Wetherby
    If you are interested in joining, please contact me to reserve your place, as this is a small group with 1 to 2 tuition, so places are limited.
    Alan Pengilley Tel:587522 alaneston@gmail.com

    Theatre Goers

    The Theatre Goers Initial meeting took place recently and it was decided that they would plan for four trips per year initially.
    Two of these trips will be to more distant theatres such as Manchester, Newcastle, Stratford or London. There will be a small planning group assisted by other members. The range of productions will include, drama, musicals, opera, ballet, orchestral and perhaps the occasional comedy entertainer, together with some amateur dramatic performances so there should be something for everyone's taste and pocket.
    If there is enough support both in arranging the visits and in the attendance at performances then the number of productions may increase.
    Travel arrangements will be co-ordinated so that people share cars or coach and the group will meet up before the performance begins so that the group get to know each other and each trip becomes a social event.
    The contact for this Group is Velma Lazenby Tel: 844304 email velmalazenby@tiscali.co.uk

    HISTORIC HOUSES

    If you enjoy visiting historic houses, admiring the architecture, furniture and paintings and learning all about the family history, this group could be just what you are looking for.

    We are a friendly group who visit some of the many interesting historic houses within easy driving distance of Wetherby during the summer months. In the winter months we forsake the great outdoors and go indoors for four monthly meetings with relevant activities. Plans for next year are already on-going. As our programme has got so popular we have been obliged to close our contact list for the time being but will be reviewing the situation from time to time.
    To go on the waiting list please contact Joyce Bale tel: 01937 520180 or joyce.bale@ntlworld.com