On Friday 28th January – 33 intrepid explorers from the Discovering Wessex Group went on guided tours of Romsey Abbey and the King John’s House Museum, Romsey.

Despite being the end of January, the weather was bright, dry and mild. This was a car sharing visit and all members stopped off for a coffee in Romsey town, before splitting into two group. One group went to the Abbey first led by Keith. The other group went straight to the museum led by Richard. After a pleasant lunch break the trip continued with the two groups swopping over.  Both locations supplied us with excellent tour guides who showed both groups around the premises and were very knowledgeable, pointing out multiple items of interest.

The visit was voted a success and was much appreciated by all the group members, with many thanks to Richard Tucker for an excellent job of leading the Romsey topic – talk and walk.

Keith Banks – Leader – J1 Discovering Wessex Group.

On Friday 28^th January – 33 intrepid explorers from the Discovering Wessex Group went on guided tours of Romsey Abbey and the King John’s House Museum, Romsey.

Despite being the end of January, the weather was bright, dry and mild. This was a car sharing visit and all members stopped off for a coffee in Romsey town, before splitting into two group. One group went to the Abbey first led by Keith. The other group went straight to the museum led by Richard. After a pleasant lunch break the trip continued with the two groups swopping over.  Both locations supplied us with excellent tour guides who showed both groups around the premises and were very knowledgeable, pointing out multiple items of interest.

The visit was voted a success and was much appreciated by all the group members, with many thanks to Richard Tucker for an excellent job of leading the Romsey topic – talk and walk.

Keith Banks – Leader – J1 Discovering Wessex Group.

Thanks to a generous donation by the The Woodland Trust, the  West Moors Town Council organised a ‘Community Tree Planting’ session, that took place on Saturday 8th January.

This is the first stage in the development of a Woodland Copse, to commemorate the Queen’s 70 Jubilee in 2022 and enhance the general environment around West Moors.

Armed with their own spades and boundless enthusiasm, 25 volunteers met our Councillors and Dorset Council (DC) Open Spaces team members – Daryl Pearce and Sam Traynor, just before 10am, in the not so pleasant weather!

Those present included local residents of all ages, 7 members of the Ferndown U3A (led by Bob Reeves) West Moors Town Council’s Chairman Keith Wilkes and Cllrs Mrs Carol Holmes (Chair of the Climate Emergency Working Party), Mrs Penny Yeo, Alex Clarke, Steve Linford and Mike Hawkes.

Despite the persistent rain, spirits were high and sapling planting was in full swing very quickly. Supervised by DC and the Grandson of one of the Ferndown U3A members, trees planted included hawthorn, dogwood, silver birch, rowan and hazel.

The final tree to be planted was a Flowering Cherry tree, a ‘Prunus Snow Goose’. This will mark the Queen’s 70-year reign, a milestone she will have reached on 6 February 2022, becoming the first British Monarch to do so.

The support from both the local community and Dorset Council has been overwhelming. Tree planting is so important because it helps to fight the effects of climate change, helps us to replace trees lost to ash die back and planting a mixture of species throughout the woodland helps to increase diversity.

Friday the 7th of January saw the first event of the new FU3A term. 100 members came to the Barrington Hall to hear an interesting talk by Crown Court barrister Nick Tucker. His topic on this occasion was “Is the British Justice System broken?”

He outlined some of the problems being faced by the courts today including the shortage of new staff joining the profession and the crippling backlog of cases still awaiting trial – which stands at 60 thousand at this time. His talk prompted many diverse questions from the large audience and was much appreciated by all.

Nick has spoken to the FU3A several times before and is always an excellent speaker and we look forward to hearing him again in the future

80 members  attend the lunch at the Remedy Oak Golf Club. After a pre-lunch Bucks Fizz we were treated to a excellent lunch which catered for all appetites. The conversation flowed and laughter could be  heard all round the room.

Thanks goes to the events and Social committee for this fabulous day out.

 

 

At our meeting on Dec 1^st we discussed a number of investment possibilities, looking at the share price graphs and the fundamental accounts figures. We looked at investments giving a good income return, but found like Royal Dutch Shell, there was no long term growth. We looked at a number of investments giving none or little income, and here one would expect long term rapid growth. Those we looked at did not grow to beat inflation.

TUI was a possibility, will it recover after Covid? Even before Covid it had been a going nowhere investment. They had paid out profit in dividends and not invested, now having no net asset value, and the share price had fallen in real terms before Covid despite booming holiday markets.

Wetherspoons is a surprise as despite rapid expansion the turnover had only doubled in 18 years, and the profit hardly keeping up with inflation. The share price had increased and even now is 4 times what it was. Despite opening all these pubs and hotels the asset value is only a quarter of the share price. The dividend yield is less than 1%. The directors however have taken out many millions by share sales. Tim Martin, campaigner for Brexit, having taken out £60 million this way in the last twelve months. Share options for directors are a very easy way for directors to get rich at the expense of investors. Several more companies did not satisfy as investments, but the group is keen on TESLA, the problem being a lack of information.

We looked at City of London investment trust. Gives a dividend of about 5% which has increased a little every year for a very long time. The earnings per share have not increased much, but the net profit is such that they are likely to continue giving increased dividends for the years to come. The income seems to be safer than the building societies!

We looked at Kenmare mining, one member wondered about selling to a company offering to buy at about the current price. You have to ask why they want to buy and only at the current price. Maybe we should also buy.

Next meetings are Dec 8 and Jan 12. Let Cornelius know if you plan to be there. mandu@mandu.co.uk. Masks please and do not come if you have any infection. There could be space for a new member, please ask.