U3As are self-help, self-managed lifelong learning co-operatives for older people no longer in full-time work, providing opportunities for members to share learning experiences in a wide range of interest groups and to pursue learning not for qualifications but for fun.

  

Welcome to the University of the Third Age, Southend-on-Sea

 

 

 

  

 

 

This busy U3A meets on Tuesdays at Westcliff Free Church, London Road, Westcliff, near the Library. Doors open at 2pm; notices are read at 2.20pm; speakers start at 2.30pm. We have a wide and expanding selection of study groups. To see our programme, click this link: Programme

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• To ask abut joining, call PETER ROTHWELL on 01702 715005 or PAT WILLIAMS on 01702 710232
• To contact this website, call Mike Eldridge-Doyle on 07591 393163

 

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Our busy group leaders meet at the Westcliff Hotel

 

These happy faces belong to U3A Southend group leaders, meeting at the Westcliff Hotel on Monday 30th April 2012.

There are 16 in this photo; the picture was taken by Mike Eldridge-Doyle; and three group leaders slipped away before

it was taken. Meetings are held regularly through the year so that the leaders can report on their groups' activities

and membership numbers. U3A chairman Jeanette Rothwell (pink jumper) said: "Our group leaders do a wonderful job

and I think we should be truly grateful to them."

 

Quizzes, questions and tea at our April social

 

 

Rainy weather failed to keep members away from the April social afternoon. Questions, quizzes and tea were the order

of the day. The hall was full and the fun was non-stop. Teas were served by members of the Playreading Group.

Quiz mistress Mavis Sipple provoked head-scratching and laughter. We can't wait for the next time!

 

  

 

Singers in good voice at Tuesday meeting 

 

 

A member of the Singing For Pleasure study group gives his all in the group's tuneful presentation

at the Tuesday meeting of 20th March 2012. There's a picture of the whole group in action on the

Singing For Pleasure page, here:  Singing for Pleasure                                             Picture by Pete Norman

 

Newsletter on the website

 

The Spring 2012 Newsletter is out. You can see it here: Newsletter

 

 

East Enders entertain with historic folk tales

 

 

Members of the East End Study Group entertained at the Tuesday meeting of 6th March 2012, telling

a series of tales of East End life from earlier days. Introduced by their leader, Pat Williams, they covered

such colourful characters as flower sellers, silk weavers, costermongers and prostitutes, and also office

workers, midwives, butchers and furniture makers. Pictured here from left are Barbara Redman, Peggy

Spicer, John Rule, Joan Bond, Margaret Saward, Roger Saward and Jeanette Rothwell. Barbara Crowe

also spoke. More pictures: East End Study Group

 

Talented painter Di captures Thames Estuary

 

  

These two delightful pictures are from a series created by Painting For Pleasure Group member Di Hamilton under the

heading Scenes from the Thames Estuary. They are all watercolours on paper and board.

 

Taking stock at the Annual General Meeting

 

 

Top table: Roger Saward, treasurer, Pat Williams, secretary and Jeanette Rothwell, at the AGM

held on Tuesday 14th February 2012.

 

Sixty-one members attended the Annual General Meeting held at Westcliff Free Church on Tuesday 14th

February 2012. The committee were re-elected with the addition of Diane Silverston and Margaret Saward,

who take the place of Eve Marks and her late husband, Howard.

 

In her annual report, chairman Jeanette Rothwell recalled the words of Eric Midwinter, a founder member

of the Third Age Trust: “Older age should be a time of vital self-enhancing activity and citizenship, not of

decay, deference and dependence.”  She said the message was slowly filtering through to our increasingly

older population that we needed to say: “I am an older citizen, not a social casualty, and collectively with

my friends, I am inventing my own destiny”.

 

Joining a local U3A could change older people’s lives and she was proud to be one of that number. Southend

U3A remained unusual in still getting together on a weekly basis and thanks were due to Betty Boote and Mavis

Sipple for making that possible in drawing up such a varied and stimulating programme of speakers and

presentations by groups.

 

She thanked Lois McClory, Groups Co-ordinator, for her untiring efforts in keeping in touch with the Group

Leaders and initiating the launch of new groups. We had continued to hold quarterly group leaders’ meetings

at the Westcliff Hotel.

 

Pete Norman had taken over the Newsletter from Mike Eldridge-Doyle, who was continuing to edit the

website, for both of which pictures and reports were always needed.

 

Coach outings had included the Lullingstone Roman Villa, in Eynsford, Kent, The Home of Charles Darwin

at Down House, Penshurst Place, Little Easton Manor, Thaxted, and Ightham Moat. Under the banner of the

Comparative Religions Group, Neville Peters had organised trips to The Patriarchal Stavropegic Monastery

of St. John the Baptist in Tolleshunt Knights, Malden, the Regents Park Mosque and the Jewish Museum in

Camden. All these trips had been very well attended and thoroughly enjoyed.

 

A joint group leaders’ meeting with Leigh-on-Sea U3A and Thorpe Bay U3A had been a successful event

and she was very proud of the excellent displays put together by our own group leaders. “I felt that we

represented our U3A extremely well,” she said.

 

In September our Open Afternoon had given our groups the chance to display their work. We had also

shown DVDs outlining the work of U3As countrywide.

 

Our Diners’ Club continued to flourish and Betty and John Boote had also organised two very large

events at the Parkview Suite in Chalkwell Park, the Summer Lunch and the Christmas Lunch. Our

Christmas Party had had to be limited to 88 members due to the capacity of the hall. We were sorry

to have to do this but safety rules had prevailed.

 

Subscriptions for 2012 were due. Group leaders must check that those who attended their meetings

were paid-up members.

 

Tea makers were thanked; and  Di Hamilton had ensured we always had a plentiful supply o

refreshments.

 

Thanking the outgoing committee for their unfailing support, Jeanette added: “Sadly I must mention

that at Christmas we lost one stalwart member, namely Howard Marks. He passed away quite

suddenly and his wife, Eve, has now, quite understandably, resigned from the committee. The

husband and wife team enlivened many of our committee meetings and they both worked tirelessly

at each Tuesday meeting to make members welcome. Howard is very much missed and we hope

that Eve will return to us in the fullness of time.”

 

We had lost another group leader, Natalie Slater, who ran the Classics at Home group. It was to be

hoped we wouldl be able to carry on her excellent  work eventually.

 

This year would see the 30^th anniversary of the Third Age Trust, the umbrella body for all U3As.

However, the Southend U3A was reaching its 25^th year and would be celebrating on Tuesday

10^th July at Porters.

 

Yes, it's the classic Ship In a Bottle!

 

This beautiful model ship in a bottle was one of a number of fascinating exhibits shown by speaker Ernest

Hankey, a member of Southend U3A, at the meeting of Tuesday 7th February 2012. Ernest, pictured

below, a skilled model maker, passed examples of his work around the audience. Betty Boote is pictured

admiring one of them.

  

 

For more pictures of recent speakers, click here: Speakers' Corner

 

Neville leads a U3A question time session

 

  

 

  

Neville Peters (top left), a long-standing member of Southend U3A, led a general discussion at the

meeting of Tuesday 17th January 2012. The session turned into our own local version of Question

Time. There was no shortage of responses to the topics Neville raised for discussion, including the

sinking of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, whether the Queen should be given a new Royal Yacht

and whether there should be a new airport in the Thames Estuary. Members of the audience also

raised a number of topics.

 

 

Social event brings a hall full of Christmas cheer

 

  

Kay Gardner (top left), who admits only to being "over ninety", was among guests at U3A Southend's Christmas Social

on Tuesday 20th December 2011. For the first time, we had to arrange the social as a ticket-only event to avoid the

possibility of members turning up only to be turned away for lack of space. After fancy food and a quiz, the guests sang

carols, with the words projected onto a screen to help them along.

 

 

Theatre group at the Palace

 

 

Members of our very active Theatre Appreciation Group are pictured at the Palace Theatre,

Westcliff, where they enjoyed a performance of Alan Bennett's play Habeas Corpus on Saturday

3rd December 2011. The play was first performed at the Lyric Theatre in London in 1973, with

Alec Guinness and Margaret Courtenay in the leading roles.

 

 

David describes Victorian-era misery

 

  

Speaker David Williams (pictured between Roger Saward and Irene Rogers after his talk) brought

the squalor of parts of Victorian London to life at the weekly meeting on Tuesday 29th November

2011. He showed slides, like the one depicting a cholera warning, and spoke with his customary

eloquence to a large and appreciative audience.

 

 

Vice-Chairman Mike talks about his newspaper days 

 

 

You recognise the old codger on the right, of course - it's Southend U3A Vice-Chairman Mike Eldridge-Doyle. But

who's the serious young man on the left? Well, believe it or not that's Mike as well, back in 1959, when he was a

trainee reporter on a weekly newspaper in Suffolk. At the meeting of Tuesday 8th November 2011 Mike gave a

talk, entitled Deadlines All My Life, about his career in newspapers and publishing.

 

 

 

 

Table shows when study groups meet

 

A timetable has been devised to show exactly when, during the month, the many study groups of U3A Southend meet. You can find the timetable here: Study Groups Table

 

 

Nostalgic postcards talk draws big attendance

 

David Harvey (left) had a big audience on Tuesday 25th October 2011 for his talk on

nostalgic postcards. He illustrated his talk with slides. Many of the cards he showed,

mostly from the period between 1902 and the end of the First World War, were from

Southend-on-Sea, including a number which were designed to attract visitors to the

seaside resort. David is pictured being fitted with his microphone by Southend U3A

treasurer Roger Saward.

 

Southend U3A Newsletter is now under new editorship

 

  

 

Pete Norman, leader of the Writing For Fun study group, is pictured at the general meeting on Tuesday 11th October

with the first issue of the Newsletter to appear under his editorship. The Front page is pictured right. Pete's first effort

was praised by committee members. He enjoyed a good response to his calls for news and pictures and hopes to

have similar support for the next issue.

 

Classics group make us feel at home 

 

Members of the Classics At Home study group introduced an entertaining programme

of recorded lmusic at the meeting of Tuesday 4th October 2011. Led by Natalie Slater

(right) they kept a large audience enthralled.

 

Groups lay out their Open Day stalls

 

 

Study Group leaders and their teams laid out an impressive display of stalls illustrating their activities when the U3A

Southend Open Day was held on Tuesday 27th September 2011. Above, left and right, the Local History Group stall

concentrates on the group's Blue Plaques project, listing visits and showing plaques inspected. Below left: Pete

Norman, leader of the Writing For Fun Group, and new Editor of the Newsletter, at his group's stall. Below right:

Kathy Down sets out illustrations on the Art Appreciation Group stall.

 

 

                                                                                                                          More pictures: Open Day  

 

Photography Group meet with new leader

 

 

Betty Sullivan and Margaret Hayday discuss camera points with Southend U3A Vice-Chairman Mike Eldridge-Doyle, who has taken over as leader of the Photography Group. The former leader, chairman Jeanette Rothwell, is taking over the Family History Group. More Photography Group pictures here: Photography

 

Fun in the park for new Weekenders group

  

 

The new Weekenders group met in Priory Park and spent an enjoyable afternoon sitting in the sunshine listening to The Dreamweavers. For news of the new group, click here: Weekenders

 

Summer Lunch event is well attended

 

The 2011 Summer Lunch (pictures above and below), held as usual at the suite in Chalkwell Park,  was thoroughly enjoyed by 58 Diners’ Club members. Jeanettte Rothwell made the opening and closing speeches because the joint group leader, John Boote, was unwell. Betty Boote did a splendid job on the layout of the lunch from start to finish.

 

 

 

Shelling out for a day of heritage discoveries

 

Members of Southend U3A's Aviation Group cluster around a mysterious shell or bomb outside the Purfleet Heritage Centre during a visit on 21st July 2011. Even the centre's voluntary staff don't know the origins of the orange monster; though they know that the metal object nearby is part of a V2 rocket. Military memorabilia, including weapons and uniforms, from the two world wars are on display at the centre. Its latest attraction is a Dracula corner, celebrating the wicked Count's purchase of Carfax House in Purfleet.

 

What are we bid for this handsome lamp?

 

Joan Bond and Mavis Sipple seek offers for donated items during the auction held during the Tuesday meeting of 19th July 2011. The event raised around £100, as well as a lot of laughter. 

 

Mavis helps bring artist Les Shaw to us

 

Mavis Sipple, who with Betty Boote arranges the fascinating speakers who entertain and instruct us, is pictured with well-known local artist Les Shaw, who was the speaker at the meeting of Tuesday 7th June 2011. Using our projector and his own easel, Les Shaw gave a wide-ranging talk aimed at encouraging members to use their "third eye" in the search for artistic qualities in everyday scenes. "Keep a sketch book with you and fill it up," he told them. For a look at some of his pictures, go to his new website, here:    http://www.lesshaw.com

 

 

Just what is going on here...? 

 

 

These happy folk are part of one of U3A Southend's liveliest groups. What are they up to? Find out by clicking here:  Line Dancing

 

What's John looking up at now?

 

 

Long-time Southend U3A member John Smart had fellow members guessing at the meeting of Tuesday 17th May 2011. On the big screen he showed pictures of unfamiliar turrets, bow windows, carvings, chimneys and shields, asking his audience to identify each picture. It wasn't easy. How often do you look up above the level of the shops and other buildings you visit around the town? After each set of guesses, John showed a picture setting the first picture in context - and familiar landmarks sprang into view. It left us all with a resolve to be more curious about our surroundings in future.

 

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Check out recent speakers here: Speakers' Corner

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Our hard-working tea makers...

 

If your study group is due to make tea at the

next meeting, check out this page: Tea Makers

 

To go to the National website, click this link: U3A National Website

 

 

 

This is a link to the U3A International Website

To learn more about U3A Southend please call Peter Rothwell on 01702 715005

 

To ask for technnical support, call Mike Eldridge-Doyle on 07591 393163

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