Swaffham Newsletter

Wissey U3A
The University of the Third Age (U3A) was conceived
in France at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Toulouse
in 1973 as an extramural university activity and
later was significantly modified in the United
Kingdom where it was recognized that most people
of retirement age had something to contribute to
society and the emphasis was on sharing, without
formal links to traditional universities. The U3A is
now an international movement whose aims are
the education and stimulation of mainly retired
members of the community or those in their ‘Third
Age’ of life.
The Wissey U3A was founded in 1995 by Betty
Evans who, with other founding members, would
meet in Holme Hale’s Playing Field Pavilion. Since
1995 the Wissey U3A membership has grown to
over 330 members. Membership is open to any
individual who by definition is not in full-time
gainful employment, so anyone working ‘part-time’
can also apply for membership. The Wissey U3A
has 30 interest groups with subjects such as Art
and Book Appreciation through to Bird Watching
and Rambling. Sporting activities such as Indoor
and Ten-pin Bowling, Softball Tennis, Table Tennis
and Croquet are all represented. All groups have
a leader who organises their own activities and
arranges outings or trips as required. Leaders
do not have to have any formal qualifications for
their interest activity but enthusiasm and drive
to help and guide others is usually fairly high on
their agenda. There are still monthly meetings at
Holme Hale when members can meet friends and
chat over a cup of tea or coffee then listen to an
interesting presentation. Past presentations have
included ‘The Origins of Surnames’, ‘Overland to
China and Myanmar (formerly Burma)’, ‘Murder,
Sex and Mayhem in Norfolk Churches’ and ‘Weather
Quest’ which was presented by weather presenter
Chris Bell from BBC1’s Look East. Eight members
of the Wissey U3A recently visited Norwich Castle
to witness a re-enactment of the ‘Blood or Bread
Rioters’ trials of 1816. The Science and Technology
group met to hear Dr Fiona Barker give a fascinating
presentation on ‘The Use of Psychological Theory
in Behaviour Change’. The U3A table tennis group
helped to showcase a new table tennis facility as part
of the official opening of the new ‘Multi-Use-Games-
Area’ (MUGA) at Swaffham’s recreation ground. In
November, a number of U3A members will visit the
Sports Centre, Fakenham for a one day conference
on ‘True Crime’ when topics to be included are: ‘A
History of Poison Murder in the 19th Century’ and
‘Re-investigating the Mystery of Lord Lucan’. For
more information about the U3A movement, go
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to www.u3a.org.uk. To enquire about Wissey U3A
Membership contact Ian Clews on 01760 721247.
For information about group activities in the Wissey
U3A contact Dave Thorogood on 01760 622751 or
visit the Wissey Homepage at www.u3asites.org.uk/
wissey. If you are a ‘Third Ager’ and may have just
moved to the Swaffham area, come along as a guest
to a Monthly Meeting which is held in the Playing
Field Pavilion at Holme Hale on the first Thursday
of every month. Annual memberships cost £10
and renewals are £7 with a small charge of £1 for
admittance to each monthly meeting. November’s
meeting features an interesting presentation about
the North Walsham and Dilham Canal Trust.
Betty Evans (centre) and Committee Members (1995)
Swaffham Jazz Club
For our September session we welcomed back
Melody Brooker, this time with her own backing
group of Colin Borrill, guitar, Joel Humann, double
bass and Paul White, keyboard, who at one point
unexpectedly somersaulted backwards off the stage!
They all live and work around Cambridge and are a
fabulous trio. Melody as well as singing some great
jazz standards, such as Georgia, and Love for Sale,
included some pop numbers, the audience lustily
joining in for Down Town.
In October, for the first time, we had The Bays River
Jazz Group, a quartet plus vocalist Hugh Lynch.
Guitarist, Peter Pease from Norwich and tenor sax/
clarinet player John Temple from Gt.Yarmouth gave
us some inspired improvisations, both individually
and together. They have promised to come back next
year which is something to look forward to.
Our next events are on Tuesday 14th November
with the six-piece jazz band Swing That Thing,
and on Tuesday 12th December the Colin Mason
Quartet and Eleanora, vocals and keyboard, with Tap
Robinson, guitar.
7.30pm Swaffham Conservative Club, 23 London
Street, PE37 7DD. £6 on the door.
Geoff 01366 328 730 or Norman 01760 722 384.