Witham, Lincolnshire

21 February 2019
(Report by Ian Young)
Jean Townsend’s talk was entitled “Royalty Revealed.” In it she explained some of the conspiracies, cover-ups and “air-brushing” surrounding English monarchs and their families and entourages over several centuries beginning with the Tudor king Henry VII.
Henry was an usurper and saw the need to justify himself by denigrating his predecessor Richard III who has come down to us in a distorted image of an evil misshapen hunchback, a cruel king who cared nothing for his people. Jean’s interpretation of him is markedly different. He had scoliosis, which gave him a curved spine, but he was otherwise of normal build. This has been confirmed by his skeleton, recently unearthed in Leicester. He was a good king, Jean affirmed, concerned for the welfare of his people like no other medieval king. His history was written by the Tudors to justify Henry’s rebellion.

Jean told us of her own investigations of the Albert Chapel at Windsor which was lavishly adorned by Queen Victoria as a tomb for her eldest son, Albert Duke of Clarence, who was said to have died of pneumonia, but who, Jean told us, was far from being an admirable figure, who was involved in several scandals and said to have been involved in more, and who died of syphilis. History largely ignores him, and the chapel is normally kept locked.
She went on to mention other instances where more recent members of royalty have had their stories doctored in order to protect their image or that of their family, and were it not for lack of time she would have told us many more of them.

21 March 2019
(Report by Ian Young)

Maureen Sutton, who last visited Witham U3A in March 2016, gave us a talk entitled “Lent to Easter” (which she was unable to give last March because she was indisposed). Maureen has made an extensive study of Lincolnshire folklore, and regaled us on this occasion with accounts of customs associated with the period between Shrove Tuesday and Easter Week.

She began with Brusting Saturday, the Saturday before Shrove Tuesday, with a dubiously appetising description of the fish pancakes with which some people celebrated this day. This was followed by Shrove Tuesday itself which was the occasion for traditional playthings like marbles and skipping ropes came into play. After that she described Clerk Thursday, the Thursday after Ash Wednesday, on which at some schools it was the custom for children to barricade the classroom against their teacher for the morning in order to gain an afternoon free from lessons - a custom encouraged by their teacher who gained not only a free afternoon but a free morning as well!

Maureen went on the describe other delights such as Flitting Day (Lady Day), Mothering Sunday (with customs additional to the ones with which we are familiar), Palm Sunday, Spy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. On Easter Day there was the games of Egg Rolling and Jarping (a useful Scrabble word!), and on Easter Monday it was the custom in some places to hold a Hare Pie Supper (hare being considered an aphrodisiac).

18th April 2019

After the business of our Annual General Meeting was over, we sat back to listen to a talk, illustrated with slides, about a visit to North Korea five or six years ago made by Paul Stafford in company with a group of other British people - a visit which was structured, organized and supervised by their North Korean hosts, as are all such visits. Paul described it as the world’s most secretive country, cut off by choice from most of the rest of the world, and led since the Second World War by members of the same ruling family, firstly by Kim Il-sung, then by his son Kim Jong-il and then in turn by his son Kim Jong-un who leads it at present.

Paul then initiated us into the three rules of any such visit: first, visitors must be accompanied by an official guide when they leave their hotel, secondly no members of the military may be photographed, and thirdly any picture of Kim Jong-il must be treated with the utmost respect and a newspaper with his photo must not be scrunched.

He went on to describe the various locations to which they were taken. These included the Mansudae Grand Monument with its gigantic statues of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, to which everyone is expected to bow and show great respect. They also visited the Grand People’s Study House, where they tried out the retrieval system and discovered it limitations; the huge Kim Il-sung Square; the Juche Tower, said to be the world’s largest stone tower and named after the regime’s philosophy of self-reliance; the world’s largest sports stadium; and the world’s largest hotel.

The Victorious Fatherland Liberation Museum, with its panorama of the battle of Taejon during the Korean War, as well as a display of captured American hardware and the usual other exhibits in such a museum. The Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, being the mausoleum of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, was a place where great respect had to be shown. The Pyongyang metro was “astonishing” and reminded Paul of the Moscow metro in its splendour.

16 May 2019

Don Chiswell, historian and lecturer, gave a talk about the First World War martyr Nurse Edith Cavell. She was a clergyman’s daughter, born and brought up near Norwich. She studied languages at school and became fluent in French. She entered nursing in 1895 at the age of thirty, and rose to become assistant matron at Shoreditch Infirmary. When a training school for nurses was established by Dr Antoine Depage in Belgium she was appointed matron, having earlier served as head nurse at the Berkendael surgical institute which he had founded in 1903.

20 June 2019
(Report by Ian Young)
John Robinson gave an illustrated talk about Ladakh, Land of High Passes, or more specifically about a trekking trip he undertook in a party of a dozen or so through Ladakh.

For the benefit of his audience who might not have known where Ladakh is, he explained its position in the mountainous north of India bordering Tibet and Pakistan. It was once quite a thriving area, being on the road between India and Tibet, but now that the border is closed trade and the flow of traffic through the area has largely stopped. The Indian government are encouraging tourism in the area, and it is this, together with the military occupation which are the mainstays of the local economy. In past times silversmithing was a useful occupation, but this has dwindled in recent years. The trekking group passed evidence of it, but no-one undertaking the work.

John explained that the area is one of climatic extremes, which was evident from his photographs. The summers are short, and the winters very long, and is sometimes known as Little Tibet.

15 August 2019
(Report by Ian Young)

“Can you hear me, mother?” was the title of David Skillen’s talk to the Witham U3A in August. It was a slightly misleading title for a talk which was devoted to the art of monologue, as he admitted, as it was the catchphrase of Sandy Powell, the famous radio and stage comedian of the 1930s, 40s and 50s, rather than actually part of a monologue.

David spoke of the origins of the monologue in the American “tree stump” political meetings in the nineteenth century when candidates for office gave their speeches standing on a tree stump. He quoted the cynical explanation by David Crockett, the early 19th century politician and member of the House of Representatives from Tennessee (better known as Davy Crockett “King of the Wild Frontier) of how to give a stump speech, an explanation which seems to have been well learnt by more recent politicians. Another inspiration was the “snake oil” salesman who sold his fake elixir from a wagon on market days and similar occasions. Also Thomas Dartmouth Rice who popularised the minstrel show.

David went on the give examples of modern monologues, mentioning those of Bob Newhart and Stan Freberg, and quoting others such as Tony Capstick’s “Capstick Comes Home” sketch, based on the old Hovis advert, Stanley Holloway’s “Sam and his musket” (“Sam, Sam, Pick Oop Tha' Musket”), and referring to Marriott Edgar, who wrote many of Holloway’s monologues, reciting “Three Ha’Pence a Foot,” “The Battle of Hastings” and “The Magna Charter”. This last was recited in response to a question from the audience, and he regretted that time did not allow him to recite any of the monologues of Robb Wilton (beginning “The day war broke out, my missus said to me.....”)

Pete Buttigieg, the American politician, is reviving the stump speech in his campaign for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 presidential election. President Trump, David suggested, has succeeded in condensing the monologue to a couple of sentences! 15 August 2019
(Report by Ian Young)

“Can you hear me, mother?” was the title of David Skillen’s talk to the Witham U3A in August. It was a slightly misleading title for a talk which was devoted to the art of monologue, as he admitted, as it was the catchphrase of Sandy Powell, the famous radio and stage comedian of the 1930s, 40s and 50s, rather than actually part of a monologue.

David spoke of the origins of the monologue in the American “tree stump” political meetings in the nineteenth century when candidates for office gave their speeches standing on a tree stump. He quoted the cynical explanation by David Crockett, the early 19th century politician and member of the House of Representatives from Tennessee (better known as Davy Crockett “King of the Wild Frontier) of how to give a stump speech, an explanation which seems to have been well learnt by more recent politicians. Another inspiration was the “snake oil” salesman who sold his fake elixir from a wagon on market days and similar occasions. Also Thomas Dartmouth Rice who popularised the minstrel show.

David went on the give examples of modern monologues, mentioning those of Bob Newhart and Stan Freberg, and quoting others such as Tony Capstick’s “Capstick Comes Home” sketch, based on the old Hovis advert, Stanley Holloway’s “Sam and his musket” (“Sam, Sam, Pick Oop Tha' Musket”), and referring to Marriott Edgar, who wrote many of Holloway’s monologues, reciting “Three Ha’Pence a Foot,” “The Battle of Hastings” and “The Magna Charter”. This last was recited in response to a question from the audience, and he regretted that time did not allow him to recite any of the monologues of Robb Wilton (beginning “The day war broke out, my missus said to me.....”)

19 September 2019
(Report by Ian Young)

Paul Ellis has been a stone carver and mason for over thirty years and is known in the trade and around Lincoln as “The Stone Monkey”. He gave us a fascinating and very well illustrated talk about his work with many pictures of his work specifically on Lincoln Cathedral where he has been working for the past seventeen years. Previously he worked as a journeyman at several cathedrals.

He began by explaining the difference between a stone carver and a mason - how a mason works to a template to create the geometric patterns so common in stonework, and a stone carver sculpts the intricate designs and embellishments such as the leaves on the capitals of the pillars in the Cathedral. He spoke of his philosophy that a cathedral is “a living building,” and how he has tried to reflect this in his sculpture.

He explained how the “Dean’s Eye” window in the north transept of Lincoln Cathedral was restored at the beginning of this century, a task which took two years to complete. He showed with photographs of the process how a rigid structure was created with the use of stainless steel as well as stone, and how this differed from the original work which managed to last eight hundred years with a more flexible structure without steel reinforcement. He wondered how well it would survive an earthquake such as the one that destroyed the Cathedral in 1186.

----- He ended by showing us the “grotesques” he has carved using his colleagues as models, and how these have been incorporated into the fabric of the Cathedral.

17 October 2019
(report by Ian Young)

Terry Nowell gave a talk on the life of the poet William Wordsworth, beginning with the early loss of his parents and his schooling away from home. We were given some details of his family, and of his closeness particularly to his sister Dorothy. Immediately after the French Revolution he travelled in France, and Terry made mention of the notion that William was an agent of the British government there, and of his radical sympathies, which mellowed in later years. He told of his love for Annette Vallon, by whom he had a daughter.

21 November 2019
(Report by Ian Young)

Wildlife in the Garden was the title of Steve Lovell’s talk to a large audience at our November meeting. Steve himself is a landscaper and gardener who regularly gives talks and workshops on related subjects. After a general introduction he gave advice, illustrated with a wealth of excellent photographs, on planting shrubs and trees and other plants to encourage wildlife in our gardens. He explained the value of hedges and the advantages of different types of hedging plants.

He moved on to consider the value of lawns that are not trimmed too close, of wildflower meadows and even patches of nettles to attract butterflies. He gave advice on “nectar borders” to attract insects, and drew our attention to the wealth of beneficial garden insects and the plants to attract them.

19 December 2019
(Report by IY)

Mark Walsh, billed by Danny la Rue for his own show in Bournemouth as “The Ukulele Sensation” spoke to us about his early career on the stage, and gave lively renditions of some music hall songs. His presentation was brilliantly clear and entertaining, and his playing on the ukulele and the ukulele-banjo (or banjolele) was exceptionally lively and the audience was enthralled. Mark explained that the hybrid instrument was developed to be able to make a louder sound that could be heard above a theatre orchestra a hundred years ago. Mark himself hardly needed the microphone we gave him.

Mark began on the stage as a protégé of the flamboyant entertainer Danny la Rue, with whom he became good friends. He explained that one of his first songs was a rendition of the Marie Lloyd song “My old man said follow the van,” which he played and sang for us, and which, in the music hall tradition, the audience joined in.