Caterham & District

Previous Events

Outing

Coach Trip to Rochester Dickensian Festival & Christmas Market

Saturday 2nd December 2023

Step back in time and start the festive season in Dickensian style at the popular Rochester Dickensian Festival. This will include street entertainment, readings, song and dance. You will be captivated by the Dickens characters as you explore the literary journey that was the great writer's life. There will also be a Christmas Market which is set in Rochester Castle Gardens. This is an ideal place to search for that special gift and stocking fillers and there will also be food and drink stalls.

The cost of the event will be £16 per person. Details of visit and payment instructions will be sent once your place has been confirmed.

Important

This event requires members to be fit enough to walk a reasonable distance and to get on and off the coach without assistance or with the help of a carer.

This event is for members only (carers exempt).

Guidelines and Advice

Please note that the u3a and its event partners accept no responsibility for any loss, damage or personal injury during events. Participants are requested to wear appropriate clothing and footwear and take due care and attention.

The u3a uses members' photographs on social media and on our website. If you are not happy to have you photo taken during the event, please notify us in writing prior to the event and make the event organiser aware on the day.

Talks

25th March 2024

‘The Dregs of the People Remain’ - The Black Death and its aftermath - Imogen Corrigan

It is possible to see a shift in artistic tastes following the plague years which began in the mid fourteenth century. This is understandable considering that we now know that at least 50% (probably more) of the population of Europe and beyond perished in the first wave and that the disease recurred over the next 130 years. Naturally, there were social changes as people adjusted to this shocking change in their communities, but there was also an understandable and distinct increase in the macabre. Reactions to this disaster can be seen all over parish churches, some in the form of explorations of what will happen in the next life; some are surprisingly optimistic and amusing. We see more interest in ex-pagan images and specific demands for spiritual protection and so what might be seen as a dust-to-dust mentality also becomes one of no tragedy, no triumph.

• 31st July 2023 - Live Talk at the United Reform Church Imogen Corrigan - The Power Behind the Thrones Many think that it was only in the twentieth century that women came into their own. the truth is that our Anglo-Saxom sisters had a surprising freedom in law, they could own land, make wills, sue and be sued. Whilst Anglo-Saxon England led the way in the first millennium other countries were not far behind. In this lecture we discover the influencial women of the first thousand years AD. Whilst we will meet saintly and worthy women who led with a firm, guiding hand, perhaps the more interesting ones are those who go down in history for their cruelty and monstrous behaviour, although it is also one or two of these who helped spread Christianity. what is plain is that these women had a voice, sometimes ruling those who ruled with surprising authority: down trodden and marriage chattels they were not!

• 26th June - Live Talk at the United Reform Church Helen Matthews - Bastard Feudalism It starts with an overview of some popular misconceptions, particularly about heraldry. This is followed by an overview of the evolving legal position. As legitimacy was a matter of church law, whilst inheritance was a matter of common law, a divergence between the two from the 13th century onwards le3d to some interesting cases and opportunities for clever lawyers. It is no accident that many of the upwardly mobile families of the fifteenth century owed their original rise to a lawyer. Finally, I cover some actual examples, which shows that the lawlessness of the fifteenth century in particular meant that those with the strongest claim did not always win.

• 22nd May - Live Talk at the United Reform Church Peter Connelly - Curator - The East Surrey Museum Our own museum - right on our doorstep in Caterham! Come and hear Peter describe how the East Surrey Museum was first thought of and how it was created from the initial aspirations of the Bourne Society Archeological Group through to the small but highly attractive museum it is today, dedicated to the preservation and display of artefacts and documents relating to the social history, archaeology and geology of East Surrey from the earliest times to the more recent past.

• 24th April - Live Talk at the United Reform Church The Life and Times of Alex Soyer Long before Gordon Ramsey and Jamie Oliver, London had its own celebrity chef, Alexis Soyer. Rising from poverty, Soyer became the most famous chef of the 19th century. He cooked for Queen Victoria, worked alongside Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War, fed the Irish in the potato famine and invented a way to feed the British Army that lasted over 100 years. Discover the life and work of London’s forgotten celebrity chef.

• 28th September - Live Talk at the United Reform Church - John Field on the fascinating character Ching Ling Soo. A little known name today but in his heyday a world sensation. A Scots/American who had the nerve to call himself the ONLY genuine Chinese Magician in the world!. He gambled with the most dangerous tricks in magic - one which the great Houdini would not attempt. He alse perpetrated and unheard of deception on the world which is revealed in this presentation. This talk encompasses the 13 other magicians who tried this trick and met with grizzly ends

• 25th July - Live Talk at the United Reform Church - Julie Chandler on ‘The Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens’. Before the days of amusement parks and fairgrounds, Londoners enjoyed an evening in a pleasure garden.  Famous for their entertainment and notorious for the fun and frolics that went on there, these gardens were the places to see and be seen.  We took a virtual stroll through the most famous of London’s pleasure gardens, Vauxhall and heard about its history, the people who frequented it, the scandals and the stories – and enjoyed what goes on after dark!

• 7th June 2022 - We enjoyed a well attended 3 course Summer Lunch at Bletchingley Golf Club, a lovely meal with wine for those who wanted and a quiz and raffle to add to the entertainment. Thanks to Sheila and Keith for their help organising.

• 23rd May 2022 - Live Talk at the United Reform Church Paul Wheeler on ‘London Search and Rescue’. LonSAR was established in 2017 (following the Glenfell Tower tragedy) to assist the police with searches for vulnerable missing persons within London and the M25.

• 28th February 2022 - Live Talk at the United Reform Church - Sheds - Mike King Having tried and failed in his attempt to be an accountant or to race motorcycles as a career, Mike left Southampton University with a Modern History, Politics and Philosophy degree to join Ogilvy and Mather as a graduate trainee. He spent the rest of his working life with that advertising agency, the last twenty years as board director responsible for the agency’s people, culture and development across Europe, Middle East and Africa. There is so much more to sheds than storage space. In this brief and amiable discourse, Mike looks beyond the wonky door on rusty hinges and seeks to reveal both the cultural dimensions of Sheds and the creative and spiritual impact they have on their occupants.