In this newsletter:
- Dates for your diary
- Please renew your membership
- General information/notices
- Group news
- Hever gardens visit - retrospective
- Betty Withers celebrates her 100th birthday
- Other information
Dates for your diary
Next monthly meeting: Thursday 17th April, 2pm HICCA. Birds of Chichester Harbour by Kerry Jackson who is the Chichester RSPB group leader, based in the greater Portsmouth Area. She will talk about the winter visitors that we might have seen and the ones that we missed.
Visit to Oxford: Tuesday 10th June. There's plenty to see and do in Oxford so the cost (£31 per member) covers the coach and driver's gratuity. It's up to you what you do when you get there. Some suggestions and a booking form here.
Please renew your membership
We currently have 615 members.
Your membership became due for renewal on April 1st. If you have renewed already, thank you. As last year, the fee is £15 for full members and £10 for associate members.
Ways to renew:
- Online via the front page of the Hayling u3a web site (you might need to scroll down when using devices with narrow screens) - or use this link to go direct to the renewal page. Follow the simple instructions you find there. You can pay online by bank transfer or card. You can make a single payment covering two members if that's appropriate.
- In person at the monthly meeting on Thursday April 17th by card, cash or cheque.
- By post. Sent a cheque payable to 'Hayling Island u3a' or cash, with member name and SAE to:
The Membership Secretary
c/o 18 St Mary's Road
Hayling Island
PO11 9BY
Online or in-person renewals save the treasurer and membership secretary time. Your early attention is always appreciated.
General information/notices
Carole Burton – We are sad to report that Carole died suddenly on the 17th March. We don't currently have details of her funeral.
Volunteers required – for tea and coffee monitors at our monthly meetings
Group news
Group leaders meeting - This meeting was well attended and the minutes circulated. Ideas, suggestions and issues were discussed. It was agreed that a full Open Day would be organised for the Summer of 2026, which would coincide with our 20th Birthday. This would take the form similar to our previous Open Day with stalls, outside activities and music and open to the public.
Julie Taylor
Science and technology - Our meetings are held in St Patricks Church Hall at 2pm for tea and biscuits, presentation starts at 2.30pm. These presentations are open to everyone in the u3a, so if you are free then please come along, you do not have to be a boffin and it is good value for a £2 donation towards refreshments and the hall hire.
Topics for the future:
- 23rd April: How air crashes improve Safety, by Rod Wing, Fishbourne Science Group
- 26th May: Artificial Intelligence, by Alan Freeland, external speaker
Robert Hornby
Philosophy 1 – The following topics were discussed in our group recently:
- Medical Ethics, February 2025. This topic generated a lot of discussion as nearly everyone had some history of treatment by the NHS, some good, some less so.
- Philosophy of Religion, January 2025. It was an interesting discussion on how religions are used to control the population.
- Quality of Judicial and Policing Systems, November 2024. Two-tier policing was inevitably fully explored.
In March both Philosophy 1 and 2 met together to discuss the Philosophy of Immigration. Next month they will stay combined and discuss ‘The Nature of Power’ – a relevant topic given the changes in the USA.
Chris Skerry
Painting and drawing 2 – Our group continues to thrive, we enjoy working
together to our varied programme of ‘Challenges’. So far this year we have attempted to create Pantomime characters, and Butterflies!
Our next challenge is bluebell woods.
We chat and laugh a lot and have a good time!
Lesley Vincent
Play reading group - Following the recent retirement of three of our original stalwarts due to mobility problems, the Play Reading group is now open to new members.
We meet at 1pm on the last Thursday of each month at the Station Theatre where we read plays ranging from well-known classics to situation comedies and murder mysteries. Play sets are provided and group members participate by assuming and acting out a character role. No acting experience required but who knows... the West End may be beckoning!
The sessions are very sociable and normally last 2 to 2½ hours with a break for refreshments half way through. No joining fee but we ask for a £2 donation per session for Theatre funds.
If interested, please contact John Cushion.
John Cushion
Fives and threes dominoes group - If you can divide by five and/or three then this is the game for you. Join us and have a bit of fun at 7pm every Tuesday evening at the Newtown House Hotel. "Rules" are very straightforward, and all equipment is provided. A very sociable group meeting in the friendly atmosphere of this great hotel.
If interested, please please contact John Cushion.
John Cushion
Walking group - continues to offer a monthly 3 to 6 mile walk and also a monthly 6 to 10-mile walk, and most of these walks attract 6 to 12 people. We aim to start walking at 10am. and take the opportunity to lunch together afterwards in a pub or café, or, occasionally in summer, a picnic.
We have noticed that our occasional “bus walks” are usually even more popular, sometimes attracting more than a dozen walkers. We catch the first 31 of the day on which we can use our bus passes, then generally catch the 700 Coastliner from Havant to the start point of the walk. Because we are by the coast, these walks rarely involve hills! Unfortunately, we only specified one bus walk at our annual Walks Planning Meeting in January, and that walk went ahead in February.
We have therefore decided to add an extra monthly walk, which will be a bus walk, to our schedule for May, June, August and September. Each walk will be on the second Monday of the month, and the first one will be from Emsworth to Westbourne on the 12th May.
Richard North
Hever gardens visit - retrospective
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 11am, 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?
Thank you to Jan Barrett for suggesting Hever Castle as a venue for us.
Jan and Richard North
Betty Withers celebrates her 100th birthday
Wren Betty Withers nee Boulter, stationed on Hayling Island during WW2 celebrates her 100th Birthday on 1st May 2025.
Betty was the Cook for the Sergeants and Petty Officers mess which was housed in the former Grotto Cafe opposite the funfair on the seafront. The mess was for personnel stationed at HMS Dragonfly in the Royal Hotel.
Betty kindly shared her experience with me while we were preparing the second book, Hayling Island years of Change 1919 - 1946. In the section she wrote, she recalls the day when during exercise Fabius, the prelude to D Day, they were instructed to blackout all the windows. Peeping through the blackout blinds she and the PO of the mess saw General Montgomery and Eisenhower standing outside surveying the surrounding area.
She also recalls how devastating it was the morning of D Day when no one came into the mess for breakfast and the realisation that they would not see many of the men again. Suddenly Hayling was empty, all the boats and men were gone.
Betty has always had fond memories of Hayling when she was courting her husband (stationed with The Fleet Air Arm at Lee-on-Solent) They married in 1944 and rented accommodation at The Moorings in Park Road. Following the loss of her husband, she comes to Hayling to remember those early days of their marriage.
Betty has always been a keen and active member of the Wrens Association, and attends the Cenotaph Service each year.
Betty was introduced to us by U3A member Janet James who was a career Officer in the Wrens who was also involved with the Wrens Association.
This year, in honour of the 80th year of VE day, the Wrens Association have arranged to take Betty to the Royal Albert Hall for the Special Concert to be held in May.
Jill and I have had the pleasure of maintaining links with Betty over the last 6 years meeting up with her each year when she made her annual visit to Hayling. Each year she requests more copies of our book. She has sold approximately 30 copies.
Mike Burnham
Other information
How will the changes in landlines impact you? We are working with BT Digital Voice on an online event, taking place on Monday 28th April, sharing everything you need to know about landlines going digital and how this will impact / has impacted you. There will also be the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the talk. Here's what we said in 2021.
Save on Easter days out - If you're looking for something to do over the long Easter weekend, you might be interested in some of the offers available through u3a Friends Extra. As part of the scheme, you can get up to 20% off the Wightlink ferry and 25% off English Heritage memberships - perfect day trips as we move into Spring. Terms and conditions apply. Sign up for u3a friends extra.
South East u3a’s summer school 1-4 September 2025 University of Chichester. u3a summer schools are organised by individual regions and nations, giving you the opportunity to spend a couple of days getting to know other members, learning new things and exploring topics we might not offer. If you are interested further details here.
Holiday to Chatham Kent – Last year Bill Biggs organised a successful group holiday to Cornwall. This year Bill is planning a holiday to the Kent, the Garden of England in September 2025. Staying in Bridgewood Manor Hotel in Chatham, the plan is to visit: Chartwell, Faversham, Chatham Dockyard, East Sussex Railway and Canterbury. The cost of 2 sharing will be £707 for NT members and £727 for non NT members. Further details contact Bill Biggs.
HICCA Spring Fair Fundraiser – The community centre will be running a fundraising event on the Spring bank holiday weekend May 2025. They will be needing volunteers to help run stalls, sell programmes, etc. As a user of the community centre it is in our interest to help keep it financially viable. If you are interested in helping then please let me know so that I can start building a potential team of volunteers.
Julie Taylor