Watercress Line October 2025

Visits

Watercress Line, 8th October 2025

We had a nearly full coach (51 people) and a quiet early Autumn day for our visit to the Watercress Line.

We got out of Nigel’s coach at Alton and crossed the tracks of the mainline to arrive at the Watercress Line platform. The two volunteers didn’t seem to be expecting us but cheerfully took our booking confirmation and, when we returned after getting a cup of coffee from the nearby Waitrose, handed over a carnet of tickets which luckily they did not expect the group leader to hand out.

Most of us took the first train to Alresford, and spent a couple of hours browsing in the shops and having lunch. Some of our party found their way down to the river Alre, where they were able to wander by the side of the delightful chalk stream.

We got back on the train at 3 p.m. where (courtesy of the Hayling U3A committee) we were served a cream tea with unlimited refills of tea and coffee. We spotted deer and hares in the fields by the track, and the trainspotters amongst us were pleased to catch a glimpse of the sleek engine, “Sir Nigel Greasley”, which is one of the few surviving examples of the same class of locomotives as “Mallard”.

 

The sun had come out by this time and we stayed on the train to steam back to Alresford. Miraculously, all 51 of us had been able to follow the day’s itinerary and get back to the right place! Nigel drove us home.

 

 

How to improve your phone service and save money

Hayling Island u3a

I explain how you can save money and get a better service by switching to a different telephone provider...

As I hope you're aware, BT's Open Reach subsidiary has decided to switch off dedicated phone lines, known as the Public Switched Telephone Network. You should have received instructions for reinstating your telephone(s) because your socket in the wall no longer works.

Back in July 2021 when I wrote an article explaining a change was coming I said:

There's no indication of how new voice services will be charged. Given the way internet phones work, you'll be able to choose from a huge range of different providers offering their own blend of services - and costs.

That's not quite how it's worked out. Instead your internet provider has switched you over to its Digital Voice service 'for free'. I don't think that's good enough. BT is saving a lot of money by switching off PSTN, but is not passing those savings on to us.

Worse, if you're a BT customer, you're not being given the option to move to a different Digital Voice provider. Instead, you are committed to your current contract for the rest of your term! I'm going to guess that's true for most (all) broadband providers. You might want to challenge that - it seems unfair to me.

My BT contract expired last month. Margaret and I want to keep our home telephone number (if you don't need a home phone number, make sure you remove that service when your contract expires or you'll be paying for something you don't use). I was offered a Digital Voice service by my new broadband provider (which charged me a lot less for a faster connection) but Phonely has a cheaper and better offering. I'm not saying they're the best, there are other competing providers, but I was attracted by:

  • Retention of our existing phone number. If you cancel your existing service, you have at least a month during which you can take your number to a new provider. Otherwise, your new provider should be able to take over your existing number with at most one day of down time. There was no need to talk to BT, I had to fill in a form, send it to Phonely, and it did the rest.
  • Lower, and simpler charges. Phonely currently charges £9.97 a month for its basic service which includes:
    • 800 minutes a month to UK landlines and mobiles
    • No limit on call duration
    • International calling
    • Voicemail
  • The big one for me: put the Phonely app on your mobile and, if you are connected to the internet, you will get any incoming call on your mobile simulateously with the phone ringing at home. The first to pick up takes the call. That means, if there's no-one home, you can still pick up calls to your home number!

Phonely also offers some additional services designed to protect people from scams, which I've not seen anywhere else.

To get Phonely to work you need to plug your phone into an adapter, connect the adapter's power supply, and plug the adapter into your router. The Phonely adapter costs £50 (or nothing if you pay annually) and arrives set up ready to be plugged in. On the other hand, you can put your phone anywhere you have an internet socket - it doesn't have to connect directly to your router.

As required by OFCOM, BT refunded a portion of the charge it had made in advance.

If you'd like some help or advice switching to a cheaper, better phone service, let me know.

Since writing the original article, I've found a couple more Digital Voice providers for the home:

Note you'll see references to Voice Over IP (VOIP) - that's the same thing as Digital Voice.

Walking routes

Hayling Island u3a, Walking

The following pages contain maps of some of the walks done by the Walking group since September 2015. You'll see a button to show the route towards the bottom of each linked page. You will also see a button to download a 'GPX' and/or 'KMZ' file that you can use with:

  • a GPS device
  • a smart phone with a suitable app (such as Osmand)
  • a PC with suitable software (such as Google Earth)
  • a web site that can work with route files (such as Mapometer or GPS Visualizer)

You can use the maps to plan another walk for the Walking group, or to walk the route yourself.

Available maps:

Save 4% on your Tesco bill - other outlets are available

Hayling Island u3a

The u3a Trust has created a discount scheme called u3a Friends Extra for u3a members that have subscribed to its u3a Friends newsletter.

The scheme is free and gives you money off a range of different outlets. To try it out, I explored getting the promised 4% from Tesco. By using it for all our Tesco shopping, I'll be able to make a profit on my HIU3A subscription!

To get the discount:

  • Sign up to the u3a Friends newsletter. You just need to provide your email address and first name. You will get regular monthly 'Friends' emails letting you know something about what is happening in the UK-wide u3a. You will also get an email containing a link to the Friends Extra web site...
  • Click the Friends Extra link - for me that meant clicking the 'u3a Friends Extra' banner in the email. The link is specific to your email address; I can't provide a direct link here, sorry.
  • Make a note of the Friends Extra link so you can get back to it. It's a long one with several codes so the easiest way to do that is to either:
    • Keep the email somewhere you can get back to it; or
    • Copy the link to Notepad, Evernote, or similar; or
    • Store it in a password manager such as Lastpass.
  • Register with the Friends Extra web site. You will need to provide a password (that you'll also need to remember) and provide:
    • Your email preferences
    • Some limited personal information (not all of which is mandatory - I provided title, name and year of birth)
    • Your address - the site says it must match your credit card address but I omitted it and there was no problem
  • Select the outlet that you want a discount for - for me, that was Tesco - click the AZ button in the toolbar to see a full list of outlets. What happens next might vary by outlet but the broad principle is that you purchase a gift card for a value you specify. I ordered a £200 gift card and, because of the 4% discount, I paid just £192 for it. The outlet sends you a gift card - I chose the option to get a digital one, that included a link to add the card to my Google wallet (there was a similar option for Apple phones).
  • When shopping, present your gift card when making your payment. Either let the cashier scan it, or use the 'Gift card' option on the self-service payment screen. Tesco tracks how much of the gift card you've used so you don't have to use it all at once. You also get your Tesco clubcard points and discounts. That might not be the case for all outlets, so check the terms carefully.
  • Because the gift card I bought was issued by Tesco I'm not reliant on the u3a scheme to redeem the card - just as long as Tesco doesn't go bust!

At the time of writing there are loads of outlets offering discounts. Here's some of the more widely-known ones (actual discounts will vary over time):

  • Argos 5%
  • Caffè Nero 10.5%
  • Costa 10%
  • Currys 5.5%
  • Greggs 9%
  • Halfords 7%
  • Hobbycraft 9%
  • IOW ferry 15% for cars 20% for foot/bike travellers
  • John Lewis 6%
  • M&S 6%
  • Morrisons 3%
  • National Trust 10%
  • Sainsbury's 4%

River Hamble Cruise

Visits

RIVER HAMBLE CRUISE REPORT, 25th June 2025

We enjoyed our Visit using a Gosport Ferry cruise to Solent Forts last August and so we were looking forward to a different and much longer cruise. The Solent Forts cruise lasted two and a half hours but this one would be twice the duration.

We started taking bookings for this very late because we had originally planned to go to Oxford this June. Unfortunately that was not to be. We sold only 8 tickets for this cruise before the deadline when we had to hand the unsold tickets back to the ferry operators. However, 6 other people got tickets direct from the Gosport Ferry later, so 14 of us (a number which included one grandchild) made the trip.

For once, all the bus connections worked like a dream and we arrived at Gosport ahead of schedule. It was a cool and cloudy morning and some of us started the cruise in jackets, or added layers as the ferry pulled into the cool breezes of the Solent.

It started to feel warmer as we moved into the Hamble. I think many of us were amazed at just how many boats are moored in the river, and also how luxurious many of them looked.

The ferry turned tightly at The Jolly Sailor, and returned to the Solent. We sailed close to the Isle of Wight shore and returned to Portsmouth having enjoyed views of Cowes, Osborne House and Ryde.  Bythis time, the sun had burned through the clouds and we started to bask in the sunshine.

 

We finished with a run round Portsmouth Harbour, with just one aircraft carrier on view this time.

 

 

Hever Castle March 2025

Visits

HEVER CASTLE VISIT REPORT, 19th March 2025

We were so lucky that our visit to Hever Castle coincided with the first really warm day of Spring.

38 of us joined the coach and set off up the A3. There were a few traffic delays on the way and we reached the car park (next to the King Henry VIII pub) for Hever just before 11 a.m., giving us four and a half hours to look round.

We soon saw the first crowds of daffodils – the gardener estimated that they have a quarter of a million of them. Some of us joined a walk around the park to be shown and instructed on the blooms by knowledgeable staff.

Hever Castle is famous in history as the ancestral home of Anne Boleyn – hence the King Henry connection. The castle was renovated in 1903 by William Waldorf Astor, and the ground floor retains an Edwardian splendour. The first floor, however, has been decorated as far as possible to look as it would have done in Anne’s day.

 

There was plenty more to see, with vistas across the lake, and the castle forming part of many of the views. The rose garden looks lovely though of course it was much too early for roses – maybe another time?

 

 

Wakehurst September 2024

Visits

The last wet day of this very wet September saw 24 brave souls join the coach to Wakehurst.

Because we realised in August that we would not be able to fill our usual 57-seater coach, we ordered a 29-seater coach from Starline in Chichester. Mark, our driver, soon proved that he knew his way round Hayling and looked after us well.

We arrived at Wakehurst just before 11 a.m. with the rain – which had been forecast to stop at 10.30 – still falling. Most of us lingered in the coffee shop at the entrance and (with the rain still falling), many of us then ventured outside just long enough to reach fresh shelter in the Millennium Seed Bank.

The rain finally stopped after one o’clock, and we were then able to walk outside in more comfort, and admire the mature trees and horticultural displays in the Wakehurst grounds. However, the sun failed to appear and a gusty wind got up, making the indoor delights of lunch, afternoon tea and shopping for plants and gardening implements appear a more attractive proposition for many of us.

The Visits team is now looking forward to planning for 2025, with the next excursion pencilled in for March/April 2025.

Visits team

Sue Vincent has agreed to join the existing team of Catherine Britton and Jan and Richard North. We will meet next in November 2024, to start work on a schedule for 2025. If there is a venue you would like us to visit, do let us know!

Solent Forts August 2024

Visits

The day before the Solent Forts Cruise, the organisers received this message from one of the passengers:-

“Having sailed a lot on the Solent waters, I am keeping an eye on the weather for tomorrow, if I don't appear at the right time I will have opted out, don't worry about my payment.”

The words evoked a distant memory of a famous poem:-

It is an ancient mariner
And he stoppeth one of three….
He holds him with his skinny hand,
"There was a ship," quoth he…

The day of the visit dawned fair and 45 of us (but not the previous day’s correspondent) met up at Portsmouth Hard to take the short crossing to Gosport where we boarded a spare ferry for the trip. We followed a Brittany Ferries vessel out into the Solent and observed some of the old buildings on the Gosport shore as far as Fort Gilicker before heading for No Mans Land Fort. The captain circled it twice, once clockwise and once anti-clockwise, so everybody on board got a good view. This proved to be the biggest of the three forts we visited, and quite the commercial enterprise by all accounts.

We then moved on to visit the forts of Horse Sand and Spitbank before returning to Portsmouth Harbour viewing the Southsea shore and Spice Island.

We still had an hour left before the advertised landing time and we wondered how the time would be spent. The answer was that we were taken on a very enjoyable tour of Portsmouth Harbour. Both aircraft carriers were in port and a close view of both vessels was the highlight of the day for many of us.

We docked at Gosport on schedule, caught the next ferry back to Portsmouth and dispersed, having been careful to not endanger any passing seabird!

Arundel April 2024

Visits

We had a record number of cancellations, mainly due to illness unfortunately, from this visit.

Nevertheless, 41 of us were met by Phil, our regular driver, and embarked on a coach trip to Arundel.

Some of us had decided to join a guided tour and others opted for a walk through Arundel Park, so the coach wound its way through Arundel to park first by the Cathedral, where over half of us got out. The rest of us drove down to a crowded coach park and headed for the Castle Gardens.

Unfortunately the Tulip Festival has ended early this year, but there were still plenty of tulips on show, along with a fine display of camassias and emerging alliums. There was also a good array of fruits and vegetables for those of us who, like Napoleon’s armies, garden on our stomachs. A few of us took the opportunity, on a day with little brightness and a keen northerly wind, to spend some time examining the treasures in the castle. Shopping also featured in many visitors’ day and we rejoined the coach clutching bags with plants and other treasures from the Craft Market and other outlets.

Restarting the coach gave the signal for the rain, which had threatened all afternoon, to descend so we were all grateful it had held off till we were safely in the dry.

Winchester Christmas Market December 2023

Visits

The day started with a minor crisis. The coach company had had a breakdown and our coach would be delayed as a result! In the end Phil arrived on time, and we were only 15 minutes late leaving Hayling.

We got out of the coach at the King Alfred statue into light rain and some of us were immediately distracted by the regular street market. When we eventually crossed the Cathedral green to reach the Christmas market, there were plenty of stalls to tempt the jaded Christmas shopper. Peanut butter flavoured with sea salt and black pepper – who knew?

There was also a variety of temptations for snacks, lunch and liquid refreshment, both at the Christmas market and back in the city centre.

Some of us took the opportunity to swerve the crowds, and find peace inside the Cathedral.

The rain finally stopped in early afternoon, but the weather was still a long way from the bright but cold conditions which the forecasters had originally promised.

We all managed to get our bags of shopping back to the coach by 4 p.m.as it was getting dark, and were back in Hayling by 5 p.m.

Swanage September 2023

Visits

Swanage Visit Thursday 7 September

The weather over the schools’ summer holidays this year was distinctly average, with quite a lot of rain and middling temperatures.

Mediterranean temperatures of course descended just as the children returned to school, and just in time for our visit to Swanage. The coach was nicely air-conditioned, and temperatures of 26 degrees greeted us as 54 members got off the coach at Swanage station around 11 a.m.

The more determined took the steam train to Corfe Castle to admire its iconic skyline and sample its teashops. The rest of us stayed by the seaside engaging in traditional pursuits such as taking a boat trip, walking on the pier and enjoying a lunch of fish and chips. The town centre was close to the station and some of us spent a happy hour or more browsing in Swanage’s independent shops.

Phil varied the route a little on our return home, and we drove past a Purbeck stone quarry and diverted through the centre of historic Wareham. We were buzzed by a swarm of mororbikes in the queue back onto the island, which is apparently a regular Thursday evening treat for Hayling’s motorists.