u3a Newmarket E-News: Edition; 1 November 2021

The photograph on the left is of our recent Moving Forward BBQ — a celebration of our gradual return to some form of normality. The sun shone and the Five Bells Inn in Burwell did us proud. It was a great start to a new ‘u3a Year’. Since then groups have begun meeting face to face and, thanks to Barry Coles, we are able to include photographs of many of the activities. I hope you are all enjoying the return of real meetings.

Christmas at Newmarket u3a

We are already planning for the Christmas season and we have some great opportunities. Firstly, our trip to Thursford Christmas extravaganza, (postponed from last year because of Covid-19), now has two spare seats. These are wonderful shows, full of music, colour and the festive spirit: ‘the largest Christmas show in Britain’—a bargain at £56.00 each. This covers coach travel and admission and includes the non-refundable deposit of £10.

Coach pick up at 11.00am om High Street, Soham, opposite the Red Lion and 11.15am opposite George Lambton Field, Newmarket. Return by 7.00pm. There are two cafes and the show starts at 2.00pm

To book tickets contact Niddy Walpole on 01353 721144.

Speaker Meeting: 20 December: 2.30pm

For our Christmas meeting we bring you Toni Neobard and Kate Broad’s exhilarating presentation:

‘For Better or Far Worse’ A light-hearted, quirky look at marriage and

relationships through the eyes of the Victorians. What happened to the

unmarried and what if you made a bad choice? Bizarre goings-on showing wedded

bliss wasn’t always so.

PLUS…….

Digital entertainment from our own groups

PLUS……

Tea/Coffee and Mince pies

Christmas Tree Festivals 2021 Ashley: St Mary’s Church 4 & 5 December

Soham: St Andrew’s Church Wed 8—sun 12 December

Isleham: St Andrew’s Church 4 & 5 and 11 & 12 December

Please come to support our U3A

ANTIQUES HISTORY

September's Talk was by Zoom and presented to us

to us by Pam Whitfield. It was very entertaining,

describing her life and career, which began as a

teacher before developing into an antiques dealer.

Our meeting on 6 October was LIVE in Tesco

Community room and led by our regular auctioneer,

David Palmer.

David brought several interesting items for us to

look at and we had a very enjoyable time guessing

what they were or how much they were worth. Here

are some of the unusual items.

1. David collects match

strikers and Richard was

able to confirm that this

item was made by a

Newmarket firm for

Dunhill's, adding to its

provenance

2. Napoleonic

French prisoners of war

made items out of lamb

bones during their stay at

Norman Cross camp eg

this domino set.

3. Known as a life saver this item had a lead head

covered with cord to help you survive the press gang.

4. This WW1 Death Penny

to Charles Moisey who

David Soanes was able to

look up, much to David's

pleasure. This man had

been a policeman but died

fighting at Ypres.

Hope to see you on 3rd November at 2.30pm in

Tesco Community Room Niddy Walpole

We have held our first face to face meeting back at

Exning Rd Club. So much to say, so much to

remember in how to put equipment together but

very enjoyable to see you all again.

On 1 October we listened to the work done by some

for my summer challenge : to find a tomb locally or

while on holiday and write about the person or

people in it.

Chloe Cockerill is a heraldry expert and I contacted

her about my choice of tomb: a previous Bishop of

Ely. She very kindly gave seven of the History Group

a tour around Ely Cathedral on September 29th.

Niddy Walpole

For the second year, we have supported the

Shoebox Charity, which provides boxes of gifts for

those in this country and abroad who would

otherwise not receive any gifts. .

Thank you to everyone who took the time and

trouble to complete a shoebox, and to Niddy,

Grace and Di for organising the distribution and

collection.

CHARITY 2021

HISTORY GROUP SUMMER TOMB CHALLENGE

Chloe Cockerill gave seven of us a very enjoyable tour around Ely Cathedral on Wednesday 29th September. It

was full of anecdotes and “ did you know facts”, such as domestic cats are rarely seen on heraldic shields or the

little birds depicted without legs are called Martels.

Meeting on October 1st to discuss our finds for this rather “ dull “ topic. Comments from Rosemary “I found it

unexpectedly very interesting “

1.) LEFT: The Cadaver tomb from Arundel- as an example from Di of this popular

macabre tomb back in the Middle Ages. There is one in St. Mary’s Bury St.

Edmunds.

2.) RIGHT: On holiday in North Norfolk, Denise found the tomb of

Lady Bridget Coke with her 10 children. She was from the very

wealthy Paston Family and had married Lord Coke of Holkham

Hall, who described her as his BEST wife.

3.) LEFT: While Joanne was working on the Cemetery Project in

Newmarket she found a grave to the racing Nat Flatman’s

family. Nancy and Phillis, two of his daughters, are

commemorated here too but they had drowned on a fateful

river cruise of the paddle steamer Princess Alice in 1878.

4.) RIGHT: Stephen is an admirer of all

things Oliver Cromwell and had been on a tour to Sidney Sussex

College Cambridge to hear of all the rumours about where his head is

now buried. His head had been removed as he was a traitor and had

been purchased by two or three people over the centuries, but it is still

controversial so Sidney Sussex are keeping it secret. There is a plaque

near the chapel.

5.) RIGHT: Margaret has been studying her family history which goes back to

Scarborough. In the house on Sarony Square, where her great grandparents had lived a

young photographer from Quebec was mentioned, Oliver Sarony . He became very

famous in Scarborough, building a huge house with photographic studios in 1860s.

6.) LEFT: Niddy researched

Bishop Richard Redman,

originally from near Penrith, and

ultimately Bishops of Asaph

then Exeter and finally Ely. He

had supported the upstart

Lambert Simnel in the rebellion

of 1487 but very cleverly,

managed to keep his head. The

photo shows all the heraldic

shields of his career.

HISTORY: Friday 5

November

Guest speaker, David

Soanes, will be talking

on the Lodging Houses

of Southwark.

7.) Joan, who has visited

many churches over the

years, submitted the tomb

of Richard Beauchamp of

Warwick as one of the very

highly decorated tombs,

intricately carved and

finished with gold leaf.

8.) Ann who had enjoyed her tour around Ely sent the

photo she took in the graveyard of the Catholic Church –

the Church of Our Lady Immaculate and Sir Philip Neri,

in Kirtling. It is dedicated to the Belgian Resistance

fighter Gilberte Brunsdon nee Lenaerts OBE. Born in

Antwerp in 1920, she was outraged at the German

treatment of her country and particularly her father.

The family fled to France but when that country

capitulated returned to Belgium where she became

increasingly active. She survived the war and died

peacefully in 2012 at her home in Newmarket. Her

resistance code name was Papillion.

HISTORY GROUP SUMMER TOMB CHALLENGE (Continued)

FRIDAY COOK-OFF

Our winner for Yorkshire Parkin

on October 15th was Stephanie

Ellington. It was good fun

sampling everyone's efforts,

good and bad, (mine), and, as

we all used the same recipe, it

was interesting that they were

all so different.

We cooked Welsh Cakes in September, a

recipe chosen by Grace. These were actually

quite difficult to cook without a griddle pan,

as they tended to burn too quickly in a frying

pan, which most of us had used.

We chose Grace’s for their accurate and

good-looking appearance and Kath’s for a

new flavour. She had added juice of a lemon

and we all liked it.

Grace has suggested that for 17 DECEMBER

we all cook a different Xmas recipe and have

a party. So far we have sausage pinwheels;

our last year’s mince pies; Perogies ( a Polish

savoury)

November 19th will be Anne Mary’s recipe

for Choux pastry, sweet or savoury.

MUSIC APPRECIATION

A reminder for Friday 15th October.

The programme is titled:

”Romantic and Lyrical”.

Easy listening music in a variety of styles;

orchestral plus soloists,

Friday 19th November: Richard's programme:

"The Music of Tchaikovsky including

Act 1 of The Nutcracker Ballet”

DRAMA

Drama was really difficult on Zoom and in the end we gave up trying to achieve anything, having had some interesting experiments with radio plays.

Here we are back in Tesco Community Room, getting used to working in each other’s company again. Unfortunately, the group has fallen to its lowest membership and the group members reluctantly agreed to, at least, take a sabbatical until September 2022, when we will try again. Meanwhile if you would be interested in joining the Drama Group please contact me.

Tim Young

MOTO: Members On Their Own

Members of the MOTO group enjoyed a visit to Chippenham Park Gardens on 17 October. We were very lucky with the weather, having a mild, dry day for our outing. The gardens were lovely, still with quite a display of flowers and shrubs in bloom, and the Potting Shed Café provided a very welcome rest and most enjoyable refreshments.

Our next visits are to:

Elveden Courtyard: 18 November

St Mary’s Church, Bury St Edmunds: 7 December for the Selwyn College Choir’s Christmas Concert. If you would like to know more about this new group, contact me.

Rosemary Foreman

Editor’s comment:

If you haven’t yet watched Mike Jocelyn’s

presentation entitled Midsummer Music go to the

Music Appreciation Group page and click on the link.

It highlights many images taken from the Camera

Group web page, The music is Mendelssohn's

incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream.

MONTHLY SPEAKER MEETINGS at ERC

A t the heart of our U3A is the programme of monthly meetings. Held at Exning road Club, the

Speakers Meetings are designed to be an interesting and varied series of presentations on the

widest range of topics. There is no charge to attend these afternoons which include tea and coffee

free of charge. For over a year the talks have been on Zoom but we are now meeting in person

again.

NEXT MEETING: Monday 29 November at 2.30pm

Nigel MacKnight talks on “Adventures of a dyslexic author”. Nigel is an author who will be describing how he has

overcome the difficulty of dyslexia and gone on to a successful career in theatre, television, the movie industry

and aviation. He will also be including anecdotes that illustrate some of the people he has worked with like

Tommy Cooper, Steven Spielberg and Sebastian Coe.

CAMERA GROUP

'Taking off at Newmarket Skate Park' was taken by Judy

Herridge who recruited a lad named Forest who rode

backwards and forwards for two spells of ten minutes, which

made him quite out of breath! Judy selected her best

composition from over 70 shots she took. 'Bygone Days' was taken by Pam

Melbourne at the Lakeland Motor Museum These two members are clearly on a roll and we look forward

to their next offerings. John Herring

REALM OF BOOKS

September’s book was Music & Silence by Rose Tremain . We

have had some very thoughtful and detailed reviews which will

be shared with the group members in due course. Here, to whet

everyone’s appetite, are some brief comments from our reviews.

William:

I must acknowledge that this book is beautifully written, but the

plot wanders and I was relieved when I had finished reading.

Margaret:

The end of the novel was most disappointing, almost as if Tremain

was desperately trying to finish it to a deadline having spent so long

on the rest of it. Although at least it did end well as I had began to

think that there would be a Romeo and Juliet ending due to the

couples’ despair.

Jean:

Although Rose Tremain is a gifted writer, I found this novel difficult

to read and, for me, the narrative is distracting, changing, as it

does, from one scenario to another. Tremain, however, is versatile,

and ‘Music and Silence’ has a fairytale quality.

Chris:

I enjoyed discovering the royal family characters are from real life,

even Kirsten’s lover Otto Ludwig. This is an intriguing and

atmospheric story, a good read and I enjoyed it very much. I would

like to try other books by this author.

Angela:

I have read and enjoyed several of Rose Tremain's novels and this

one did not disappoint. It is an interesting romantic historical novel

made especially atmospheric by the details about the weather. So

much snow and chill wrapped us around in 1620's Denmark, it

really gave a realistic feel for this story which is really a tale about

relationships, desires and motivations. A beguiling world, a novel

of darkness and light, mystery and magic; I really loved it.

Anna:

What a bewildering, topsy-turvy mixture of fantasy and historical

fact! I think Rose Tremain writes about her grotesques with the

same relish she brings to her uninhibited descriptions of sadistic

and extreme sexual behaviour. However, I did become enthralled

eventually, and was relieved that Emilia and Peter Claire were

happily united.

Ann:

I feel this story owes a great deal to

Hans Christian Andersen.

Set in and around the court of King

Christian IV in the 17th century, Peter

Claire, English lutenist is summoned to

Denmark to keep the King happy by

playing to him. It is a bizarre story,

sometimes bawdy and at times comic;

it is a number of tales of loyalty and

deception woven together and

amazingly fitted into one year from

1629 to 1630.

It is all like a comic opera and has a

quite unbelievable, fairy-tale quality.

However, looking up King Christian IV

of Denmark online, it seems an awful

lot of these tales are founded on fact. I

found this book a long and wearisome

read, but having finished it, with its

happy endings, I felt rewarded for my

constancy

WALKING GROUP

The Walking Group will be meeting at 10.00 am in

Maypole Lane, Woodditton (near the church) for a

walk in the Woodditton/Cheveley area – lunch

afterwards at the New Wellington.

Calling all walkers!

As I am no longer able to take part in the walks, we

need more volunteers to suggest different walks and

to lead them – even once a year would help. As

regulars will know, it’s not an onerous task – you just

have to be there and point the walkers in the right

direction, making sure you don’t lose anyone on the

way!

There will be no walk in November as several

members will be on holiday with the carpet bowls

group.

Rosemary Foreman

LUNCH GROUP

Our lunch on 10th November is at

The Bull, Burrough Green.

Please contact me if you would like to go but have

not already ordered.

There will be no lunch on 8th December as this

clashes with the Gredley Christmas lunch at

Tattersalls.

Rosemary Foreman: 01638 730072

rofore22@gmail.com

VILLAGE LIFE

The next meeting of this new group will be on

Tuesday 2 November at 10.30am

at Burwell Museum.

The topic will be ‘Housework’

At the first meeting, we were a small but highly

enthusiastic group. Now we look forward to more

members joining us as we look back at the

development of society in East Anglian villages, and

particularly those at the edge of the Fens.

No need to book: just turn up!

THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE

After our practical visits to the Whipple Museum at the start of

face to face meetings, The History of Science group returns to

Zoom as, despite the enthusiasm and commitment of the

members of the group, visiting the museum is very difficult,

due to transport and parking issues. Here we feature photos

taken on the recent visits.

AND FINALLY… The final page of this E-NEWS is the booking form for our annual Festive meal in January. It will take place on Friday, 14 January 2022. I do hope you will join me there.

Again, my apologies for the lateness of this E-NEWS. I hope

now it is here it is useful and interesting, reflecting the many

activities our U3A provides. Tim Young

DISCUSSION ARTS APPRECIATION

We got together for our first discussion since

lockdown on September 21st, the 3rd Tuesday of the

month. We were not able to meet at our usual

venue of Newmarket day centre but returned there

in October on the 19th at 2:30pm.

It was lovely to see our friends again after such a long

time and we had an engaging chat about a number of

topical issues including the effects of the driver

shortage and the expected rise in world gas and

energy prices here at a time when the UK is leading

UN discussions on emission targets to combat the

climate emergency.

Our discussion was modestly attended and we would

welcome more participants at future meetings.

For more information please contact:

Ann Lay 01638 732520 or

John Herring 01638 744332

The next meeting of the group will take place on

Tuesday, 2nd November, 2.30-4.00 p.m. in the

Moller Room of the Newmarket Racing Centre - tea

and coffee on offer!

This time, Andy Webb is going to make a

presentation on Turner - continuing the theme of

talks on pictures we specially like. He has been

doing battle with the tech which is available in the

room, so we should have excellent viewing of the

pictures he has chosen.

Hope to see as many of you as possible on the day.

Anna Smith 01638 731116

BOWLS

A busy Bowls Group

meeting at Ashley

Pavilion. The group is

delighted to be able to

meet and play again

after such a long break.

Circumstances dictated a

change of venue for this

meeting but a sizeable

group gathered to blow

the dust off the bowls

and revisited slightly

rusty skills.

Copyright © Barry Coles 2021

The Bowls Group traditionally has an annual stay in Norfolk to indulge in a week’s bowls competitions with other

like-minded groups. After a forced rest last year, we are delighted to be able to participate again in 2021.

BOOKING FORM FOR THE U3A LUNCH TO BE HELD AT

THE ROSERY HOTEL NEWMARKET ON FRIDAY, 14th JANUARY 2022: 12.30 for 1.00pm

Please tick individual choices

Member 1 Member 2

To Start Broccoli & Cheese Soup ____ ____

Prawn Cocktail with brown bread ___ ___

Fresh fanned melon with raspberry fruit coulis ___ ___

***

Main Course Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding ___ ___

Salmon fillet served with Hollandaise sauce and new

potatoes ___ ___

Creamy mushroom stroganoff served with rice ___ ___

***

Desserts Peach and raspberry Cheesecake ___ ___

Sticky toffee pudding ___ ___

Ice cream ___ ___

***

Please reserve for me ______________ place/s at £ each. = £__________

Annual Subscription (£10.00) for year July.2021 – July.2022

(If not already paid.) = £__________

I enclose a total of £__________

Signed_____________________ Name _______________________ Membership No _________ Name _______________________ Membership No _________ E-mail: ____________________________________________________________________________

Booking form with remittance to be returned no later than 18th December 2021 to Mrs Rosemary Foreman, 22 Holland Park, Cheveley, Newmarket, Suffolk, CB8 9DL. Cheques to be made payable to ‘Newmarket u3a’.

( Please note that we have to give final numbers for the lunch to the Rosery Hotel by Friday 31st December . Refunds therefore can only be given for a cancellation received before this date.)

IF YOU WISH TO SIT AT A TABLE WITH YOUR FRIENDS OR HAVE ANY SPECIAL DIETARY REQUIREMENTS, PLEASE INDICATE HERE.