70 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.  Travelling by coach enabled a very relaxed atmosphere!!

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

On Saturday 17th December we were expecting our daughter to arrive from Henley-on-Thames and then for her to drive us to Gillingham, North Dorset, to spend the day with our son’s family. The mucky drive down from Henley had made rather a mess of her windscreen so we decided to top up the screen-washer reservoir. She had parked her car just outside our front door, just short of our steps.

She had already walked down to her car; I was about to follow in my size 10s when, not believing my eyes, I froze (literally and metaphorically I may say) before joining her. I couldn’t decide what I almost stepped on at our bottom step. Was it a plastic Christmas decoration or………… no, it moved, the tiniest bird I’d ever seen?

It stood there, shivering and quivering, beak slowly opening and closing in the freezing cold. Our bird book identified our unexpected visitor as a goldcrest. It is even smaller than a wren and in fact is Europe’s smallest bird, weighing the same as a 20p coin. They’re not uncommon and arrive in large numbers from Scandinavia in winter. I think it had perhaps flown into a window or something else solid. It seemed stunned, standing unsteadily.

Unsure quite what to do for the best, we pressed a discarded Amazon cardboard box into use, grabbed an old towel, lined the box, carefully picked up the bird, placed it in the box and took it inside in the warm. After 10 minutes or so it stopped shivering and opening and closing its beak. We decided we couldn’t keep it inside since as a resident of northern climes it ought to be able to cope with the cold having recovered its mojo. We put the box outside in the back garden (too many cats at the front!). Very shortly it stirred, shook itself, pooed on the towel and made a beeline for our moribund clematis. And that was it. Off it went, fully recovered and leaving us feeling very happy that we’d helped such a sweet little creature.

Malcolm Gill

18/12/2022

Click on the image to enlarge

CHAIRMAN BOB REEVE WRITES 

It is a privilege – and a pleasure – for me to be the latest Chairman of Ferndown U3A to stand up on this sort of occasion and say   Well Done – and Thank You.

There have been 12 Fu3a Chairmen so far.  The first of them was Angela Dennett, who we hoped would be able to be with us here today.  Sadly, she is not well, but she has sent this message of congratulation:

I am sorry that I can’t be with you today, but I was so pleased to hear that Ferndown U3A is flourishing.

In 1997 I was a member of Bournemouth U3A, and we were being encouraged to set up new U3As and ‘spread the word’.  My daughter knew the young lady who ran the Ferndown Youth Club, and when she said the premises were only used in the evenings it seemed too good a chance to miss.  So, we stood in the Ferndown pedestrian precinct handing out leaflets offering a new U3A. 

I think there were about 20 people at the first meeting, and they were all very enthusiastic about the idea.  From that first meeting our numbers grew weekly, and many offers came from people willing to join in.  I led a group called ‘Discovering Ancient Egypt’, and my daughter ran a very successful group studying Shakespeare. Very soon we had a debating society, dance groups, bridge, of course, and many more.  I have many happy memories of those early years.

How Ferndown U3A has grown since that time!

Long may you continue to bring pleasure and learning to all third agers.

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Ferndown u3a is acknowledged to be one the most successful U3As in the area.  Why should this be?  I think there are three reasons:

1. CONTINUITY:  Fu3a members make a long-term commitment

Think for a moment about your membership number, which was allocated sequentially according to the date you joined.  108 people  – around 20% of our membership –  have three-digit membership numbers, which shows they joined around 10 years ago.  They are still here.   (I should add that one member’s number has only two digits.  This deserves pride of place – especially as that member only stood down as a Group Leader this year…….)

So you should congratulate yourselves on your longevity……

2. COLLECTIVE ENDEAVOUR – we work together.  The most recent example is the Cascade of Poppies in front of you.  Some 80 members were involved.  Congratulations to Anne Hutton for co-ordinating it all so successfully.  Well Done – and Thank You.

Our Charity of the Year raised over £3000 for the Fletcher Foundation last year…….  I’m anticipating something comparable for Lewis-Manning Hospice Care our current charity ( – so come back here on Friday morning to help us swell the coffers!……..).

3. RESILIENCE.  Over the years there have been real challenges which your support has helped us resolve.  The Covid pandemic is the obvious recent example –  but you stayed with us, and our membership numbers are fast returning to the level we achieved before Covid.

We continue this long tradition of planning the future as well as celebrating the past.  In January we shall start to invite offers to run Groups in 2023-24: and the other day I heard someone mention 2025…….

Richard Tucker’s ‘Memory Lane’ video presentation covered our first 25 years.  There was much there that will have prompted very happy memories, and I want to thank him personally for that.

For this event itself we must thank our Visits and Events group led by Richard, and I especially want to mention its other members, Jo Brearley and Angela Larcombe who co-ordinated the tea, and of course we must include our lovely ‘waitresses’ and others working behind the scenes.  You know who you are.

Finally, I thank you, our current members, for supporting us today.   In doing that, I am remembering all those who have gone before us, and established the firm foundation on which our current success is based.

WELL DONE – AND THANK YOU

BOB REEVE

As the proposal began to take shape, we were asked if we would participate in what seemed to be, let’s face it, a hare-brained scheme! But youth will out and soon the group took shape; four pupils from the school, nine students from Bulmershe and three young nurses from the school staff. So far so good. Hmmm – how are we going to get there?

The school owned a former London Transport Leyland Tiger half-cab, a more or less universal style of buses and coaches where the driver had his own cabin to one side to allow access to the engine the other side. An already fitted electric wheelchair hoist replaced the passenger steps thus enabling wheelchair access.

Various contacts known to the school proprietors worked absolute wonders to prepare the 1949-built bus for the mammoth excursion; BOAC donated 7 banks of 3 airline seats; the local garage overhauled the engine and provided replacement tyres. Many, many others provided practical and financial assistance.

One of the pupils required a portable iron lung to assist with overnight breathing. Electronics wizards found the solution by linking together a series of commercial vehicle batteries behind the rearmost row of seats. If our overnight stops had no mains electricity, we could run the iron lung from the on-board battery bank.

To minimise the costs of the adventure, we decided to camp our way across Europe. The local army garrison loaned enough tents in the form of two-man bivvies. Not exactly the height of luxury but we were young! The local garage mounted a huge roofrack on top with a canvas tarpaulin cover filled to overflowing with a month’s worth of provisions and the tents.

We quickly named the bus Jessica in honour of her vehicle registration plate. I’ve written up the story of the adventure and called it By Wheelchair to Greece. The story itself is too long to set out here. Suffice to say we achieved our aim and the bus never once let us down!

November 2022

About four years ago, seated at my computer, I idly typed in the bus registration. To my total amazement Google found several hits! I couldn’t believe it. Not only had the bus survived but Timebus, the current owners, had undertaken the restoration of the bus to her former LT glory. I wrote to the company, explained my connection with the bus and asked to visit the works. This I did along with my wife and daughter.

Time had been unkind to the old lady. Her bodywork comprised inner and outer aluminium skins fixed to a wooden frame. The wood had rotted. After carefully removing the skins and windows, the restorers hand-built a whole new wooden frame, then reinstalled the windows and skins. After respraying the outside in LT livery, the inside in LT cream, ordering and installing all new LT style seating she took her place amongst Timebus’s fleet for special occasions hire.

Earlier this month I received an email from Timebus to say that Jessica would participate in the Hendon Vintage Bus Running Day. Would I like to be a VIP passenger? You bet! She would retrace her former route on Sunday 21 November linking two termini of the Northern Line, Edgware and Mill Hill East. I couldn’t believe how many turned up to try and get a ride. Those who couldn’t chased the bus to photograph it en route.

Deb, my wife, and my daughter Lisa shared the day with me.

Malcolm Gill 22/11/22

 COMMUNITY POPPY CASCADE

A huge thank you to everyone who has supported our Community Poppy Cascade. We have had wonderful help, contributing around 1500 items!! These have included knitting, crocheting, painting, felting and stone painting. It has been inspiring to see what we can achieve when we come together.

There are so many people to thank, too many to mention individually, but a special thanks must go to those who helped sew poppies and create the final display.

The exhibits are now on display in the Beacon Centre at St Mary’s church and will remain there until Wednesday 16th November.  There will be a second change to see the items as they will be on display at the 25th Anniversary Afternoon Tea on the 26th November.

This month the Tea at the Museum group visited Wimborne to tour the refurbished Museum of East Dorset and the Chained Library in the Minster.

The Museum of East Dorset

This historic building dates back to the 1500s. For more than 400 years, many different families owned and occupied the building. They added, demolished, altered and extended it as fashions changed and to meet their needs.

Hilda Coles inherited the ironmonger’s business from her father, Tom Frank Coles, following his death in 1953. Seven years later, she took the decision to close the shop and fulfil his long-held wish to turn the building, known as the Priest’s House, into a museum. Hilda opened the museum in July 1962 and ran it until her death in 1987.

During the 1990’s The Priest’s House Museum Trust restored the building and extended the display area to ten rooms.

Thanks to a fundraising campaign in 2012 – 2014, and a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the museum expanded its facilities to include the Hilda Coles Open Learning Centre as well as storage facilities for the collections and a Tea-room.

Most recently, in 2020 following a major fundraising campaign and a further grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the building was restored and refurbished as the Museum of East Dorset.

Over the afternoon we were shown round by excellent volunteer guides. We enjoyed reminiscing of days gone by in the kitchen and at the collection of unique Victorian Valentine cards which were an interesting read!! Roman artifacts, the collection of toys and interactive displays also were our interest.

At the end of our tour, we were able to access the walled garden with its heritage fruit trees and enjoy tea and cake in the Tearoom

The Chained Library Wimborne Minster

The Chained Library, founded in 1686. It was one of the first public libraries in the country and is the second largest chained library.

The first donation of books came from Revd William Stone, who had seen many religious books like his being burnt by the authorities and wanted to ensure that part of his collection would be kept safe in Wimborne. These theological books were in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and so must have been used mainly by the clergy. They were not chained.

When another local donor, Roger Gillingham, gave another 90 books in 1695, he insisted that the books be chained up, but also that the library should be opened and free for the people of the town, providing they were ‘shopkeepers or the better class of person’.

The library’s collection includes early books on gardening, medicine, law, etiquette, and building, as well as Walton’s great Polyglott Bible of 1657 (in nine languages). The display case in the library shows some of the most interesting and entertaining works.

A big thanks to Pam Small and Kay Weeks for arranging a lovely afternoon.