FALMOUTH - MONTHLY MEETINGS

U3A Carrick Group cover a wide ranging area, embracing both Truro and Falmouth centres. Since there is a lack of large meeting places within the district, the U3A determined a need to provide three separate locations for our monthly gatherings.

A monthly general meeting is held in Falmouth every third Wednesday morning at St Mary's Church Room, Killigrew Street, Falmouth (TR11 3PR), commencing at 10.00 for 10.30am start. Tea and Coffee is available from 10.00am. A list of future speakers follows below, all subject to confirmation. Jean Yeomans mans the Welcome Desk and welcomes newcomers!

Marion Tapp is now managing Speaker Bookings for this venue (01209) 820301.

Recent Meeting Reports:

16th November 2011:

It hardly seems possible that a year has passed since members enjoyed an illustrated talk by Russell Holt. In spite of the inclement weather there was once again a large turnout in St Mary’s Church Hall, Falmouth to listen to his talk entitled ‘World Heritage Sites’. As he started by saying there are about 1,000 Heritage sites throughout the world and he was only able to give us a taste of those getting this label. He started with mining sites in Cornwall and moved onto industrial sites, such as Ironbridge in Staffordshire.

From there he moved onto such diverse places as castles in Wales, Bath with its Crescent, Hadrian’s Wall and the Dorset coast. He then went further afield moving from Belgium to Venice to Australia and New Zealand, to the Great Wall of China and the Terracotta Army. He finally ended up in North America at Pueblo Bonito, New Mexico, showing places that few of us had heard about, let alone seen. Russell has a vast library of slides from his travels over the years and with each one that he showed he demonstrated his wide knowledge of the area concerned. It was a thoroughly interesting talk that was enjoyed by all members.  The Vote of Thanks was given by John Harris.

21st December 2011:

It was a full house at this month's meeting held at St Mary's Church Hall, Falmouth for an illustrated talk given by Brian Sherriff. His talk was entitled 'Shipwrecks around the Lizard' and as a uniformed member of the National Coastwatch Institution he was more than able to cover the subject.

He started by giving a brief history of the NCI being particularly relevant to the Lizard as this was where the first lookout station was established at Bass Point in 1994 after the deaths of two local fishermen below the point. From then on other stations were established in the Westcountry and then further afield with over 40 stations currently operational. The Institute is a registered charity with all the stations manned by trained but voluntary unpaid Watchkeepers. They work closely with the HM Coastguard and other emergency organisations giving a listening watch in all weather, monitoring marine radio channels, sea conditions etc and reporting any relevant information to the coastguards etc. They log not only movements at sea but also walkers etc in case of accidents.

Brian then gave an illustrated talk in a rather unusual way using two projectors and two overlapping screens. By this means he was able to show panoramic scenes of the Lizard coastline showing many of the areas that have brought ships to grief over the years. At the same time he showed slides of many of the wrecks that had taken place often accompanied by a potted history of the ship and details of how the tragedy happened. There were few questions after such a comprehensive talk and Marion Tapp gave the Vote of Thanks.

18th January:

With Peter Robinson giving one of his ever popular illustrated slide presentations it was a ‘full house’. His talk this month was entitled ‘Holiday in Virginia and Washington’. It was as always a very professional presentation enhanced by his new found proficiency with a computer and digital photography.

This talk was about a trip he and his wife made in October 2009 with most of the time spent in and around the Shenandoah Valley. From scenic views along the Skyline Drive in the Blue Ridge Mountains with autumn colours creeping in, to visits to various historical places commemorating the American Civil War he gave a constant stream of interesting comments as each slide came on screen. Added to this was the gentle and non invasive music track playing in the background. Their journey ended in Washington DC and although they only spent a day there, we were shown a wide range of buildings and views to finish the presentation. With such a comprehensive show there were few questions to ask at the end and the Vote of Thanks was given by John Harris with the hope that we will see more from Peter in the future.  

Future Speakers:

15th February - No meeting, due Spring Lunch at Greenlawns Hotel - Bill Brown for menu/bookings (01872) 273411

21st March - Gill Joyce "St Michael's Mount, My Island Home"

18th April - Brian Sherriff "The Tiger Trail in Central India"

16th May - Roy Hubbard (Member) "Concorde"

20th June - Clive Benny "Around Blackwater"

 

For all activities, please check our Google Calendar to confirm dates, times and location

Groups Coordinator - Duncan Tribute or (01872) 260792