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Home , Frederick Temple, William Juxon

Local History: The Archbishop Oscars A full Baptist Church Hall attended a mock Oscar 7. The eagerly awaited News of the World ceremony, conducted by the erudite and witty Award for the most scandal came next. Easily won , author of many books pertaining to by , 1883. He had a large our city and its cathedral. The selection of these family who were eccentric but high-achieving 105 incumbents through the centuries seemed to characters. The scandal was attached to his wife, be a somewhat random affair with kings, popes, Mary, who took a number of female intimates into and the monks of Christ Church Priory all putting in Palace. And yet two family members do their bit. Undaunted, John set off for his own enlighten our lives when we sing a rip-roaring idiosyncratic list of Oscar winners. chorus of Land of Hope and Glory, composed by 1. The Cow and Gate Award for the youngest A. C. Benson, or enjoy those gloriously scatty Mapp archbishop at the time of his instalment, a little and Lucia books set in Rye, penned by E. F. Benson. tricky as the birth dates for most archbishops 8. The Kleenex Award for personal tragedy goes before about 1100 are unknown, while other to Archbishop Tate. A very sad little award this. nominees were sacked or died before they could When Tate was Dean of Carlisle he lost five of his take office. Subject to this, the youngest six daughters who succumbed to scarlet fever over archbishop was Boniface of Savoy, 1249, aged 32. the short period of five weeks. He was the first archbishop to live on the Lambeth 9. The Bible Society Award for the most Palace site, when he wasn’t away in France that is. influential theologian. Our own 2. The SAGA Award for the oldest archbishop at was seriously considered, but as he is still active the time of his instalment went to , and may rise to even greater heights, the award 1660, aged 78. This past bishop of had went to Saint Anselm, 1093, who, despite being accompanied Charles I to the scaffold in 1649. sent into exile by William Rufus, penned his 3. The Isaak Walton Award for the most unusual learned tome Why God Became Man, which is still hobby went to Tatwin the Monk, 735: an avid doer used and referred to today. of acrostics, a sort of early-day cryptic crossword, Nearly there. comprising a verse or poem where certain letters 10. The Royal Bank of Scotland Award for or syllables spelled out words and messages. educational benefactions was shared by two 4. The Grizzliest Death Award. No sponsors worthy gentlemen: Simon Islip, 1349, who took could be found to support this award. There were over after three of his predecessors had been seen a few contenders who had been dispatched in off by the Black Death. He endowed a college in pretty ghastly ways but for sheer, prolonged agony Oxford— College, which is now part of and bravery it went to —a Christ Church College and where the Canterbury Protestant, burned at the stake in The Broad, Quad still forms a part; and: , 1414, Oxford—for supporting Lady Jane Grey, and after a who founded All Souls College Oxford, ostensibly bit of shilly-shallying finally refusing to take up the because he was worried about the unsettled souls Roman Catholicism Mary Tudor demanded. of the slaughtered English archers at Agincourt, 5. The Cana of Gallilee Store Award for the who needed praying for, to help them into the best miracle goes to that son of a Danish invader, eternal life. Oda, 941. Oda set to on rebuilding the cathedral, AND NOW what we are all waiting for: which left it roofless for over three years. Tricky in The Award for the greatest the days before plastic sheeting and tarpaulins! No archbishop of all time: , 1207. He problem for our Oda. He summoned up a ‘No rain had the unenviable task of dealing with the until I get the roof back on please, God’ request— dreadful King John. Langton, with great courage and lo and behold, the storms skirted round the and despite being exiled, wouldn’t back down on cathedral and not a drop of the wet stuff fell into espousing liberty and freedom. He helped draft the the roofless building. Pretty amazing eh! Magna Carta and when, following its signing, John 6. The Plantagenet Award for far-reaching ordered him to excommunicate all the signatories, political repercussions had to go to the incumbent he refused and headed into exile again, but left us who was archbishop during the turbulent times of a world where these freedoms are valued and the murder of the princes in the tower and Richard cherished as a goal for all mankind. III’s death, which brought in the Tudor dynasty. A worthy winner indeed. This honour goes to Thomas Bourchier, 1454, Jocelyn Thomson our longest serving primate. — 14 — and her Archbishops

About twenty of us enjoyed a vivid account of Queen Victoria’s reign, led by the Rev’d Reeve and held in an upstairs room at Canterbury’s Baptist Church. Victoria was born in 1819, in Kensington Palace to Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Edward Duke of Kent. On the death of her uncle, William IV, in the early hours of the morning, the 18- year-old Victoria was woken and told she was now queen of the largest empire which had ever existed. She was a radiant young lady with huge blue eyes and a great sense of devotion to her people and countries. In 1840 Victoria married her cousin, Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. It was a great love match, resulting in nine children, all of whom survived into adulthood, a rarity in those days, and becoming the epitome of a model family for 1887 the nation and empire. £5 piece The Victorian Age was one of great prosperity and innovation. The Queen instigated the On the lighter side, showing the keen interest Victoria Cross, the first of which she presented of the lecturer in the subject, we looked at in Aldershot to a soldier who had fought in the Victorian sport and sports people, from Dr W. Crimean War. It was this war that saw the G. Grace, the famous cricketer and the Renshaw improvement in the whole of nursing care from twins, who not only won Wimbledon several that time to the present day as a result of the times, but excelled at golf, archery and work of both Florence Nightingale and Mary mountaineering, to the wonderful Lottie Dodd Seacole. who won Wimbledon at the age of 16 and lived As for her Archbishops, ’s well into the twentieth century. In 1877 youngest brother married Mary, the lady who played Australia for the first time, and the tutor founded the Mothers’ Union in 1861, and he brought the Ashes replica urn to show us. also officiated at the funeral of Prince Albert— There were many Jubilees in Victoria’s long after which Victoria plunged into years of reign. At her Golden Jubilee 3,000 children were depression, alleviated somewhat by her treated to buns and milk in Hyde Park, and friendships with John Brown and Abdul Karim. given commemorative mugs, which still turn up Archbishop founded the first in antique shops today, having little value as so and Archbishop Archibald many were issued. The writer has a medal from Campbell Tait, who strongly believed that the the 1897 Diamond Jubilee, bought by her church should be for everyone, worked tirelessly grandmother. to help the poor. Members of the eccentric Victoria’s reign also saw the introduction of family of Edward Benson wrote the Mapp and the Education Act, the formation of parish Lucia novels and the hymn ‘Onward Christian councils, the reintroduction of income tax (7d. Soldiers’. in the pound) and Prince Albert’s Great was the first archbishop to Exhibition in Hyde Park, the proceeds of which live with his family in Canterbury’s Old Palace built the Victoria and Albert Museum, the and when his son, William, succeeded to the Science Museum and the Natural History office they became the only father–son duo to Museum, all greatly valued and enjoyed to this serve. day. Elizabeth Richie

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Taking the Plunge Taking the Plunge in the Summer Programme drew lots of interest in 2017. Thirty brave souls signed up, some being fair-weather swimmers, turning up only on sweltering hot days. However, others returned every week throughout the summer from early June until the beginning of October, regardless of storms, thunder, hail and rain! We met mostly at Seasalter, where there is plenty of parking, public toilets and a cafe close to the beach, although it means that we can only swim at high tide, as the sea disappears to the horizon at low tide. There is an advantage in this, as when U3A Above: Bathers enjoying a dip at Seasalter. members lose things while swimming, it is only a short wait until the sea recedes and we can look for Below: Canterbury participants at the Singing for Pleasure Summer School at the Royal Agricultural University. [Article: p.11.] the item! This has worked well for pieces of jewellery and even—on one memorable occasion— car keys! And yes, the car still started afterwards. This year we established a system of spreading a large blue-and-white sheet on the pebbles, so that everyone knew where to come—and that worked well. There were fewer sad phone calls from lost people, who couldn’t locate us on the beach. On one warm day we celebrated having a dozen people in the sea at once. Most of us are looking forward to taking the plunge again next year. Sheila Miller

Language in Infancy

For more than fifty years, since before the birth of make the appropriate sounds to form a word? We my eldest child, I have looked for a course in take it for granted. Did you know that the ‘language acquisition in babies and small children’. complexities of our mother-tongues are alleged to I watched and studied and wanted to know more. I be built into our innate development? So we can have always considered it a small miracle that our pick up on future, past and present tenses without infantile brains can correlate the learning of anybody teaching us. It is a fascinating subject, one English (or any) language with the alacrity that we that will hold at least an element of interest for do. Fifty years ago there was no separate course anybody, with or without children. After all, we available. Now, in 2017, there is one, which I have were all there once, ourselves. Miriam, who runs had the pleasure of attending. Too late for my own the course, is so delightful that she could render a children, but not too late for my grandchildren. I lecture on watching paint drying on the wall as loved every minute of it, five sessions, every something not to be missed. I have had the moment of every one a revelation. It has given me privilege of doing a generous number of courses a whole new insight into the language acquisition with the U3A. I am not an intellectual, or an of my own little grandchildren. academic, but I do have a curiosity about life, a Did you know, for instance, that children cannot constant desire to add to my knowledge, and this learn language from watching TV? They need to course I found to be just brilliant. have the interaction of language with those who Jos Mascarenhas are caring for them. Did you know that we have to Editors’ Note—Miriam has been invited to run her course learn to place our tongues around our mouths to at this year’s Summer School. — 16 — Ukulele Performance Group Instruments of Jazz

U3A certainly opens up your life! I originally I attended four of the six sessions of the Instruments of joined to learn Italian, then things evolved and I Jazz. I did this, in particular, because I have always liked found myself saying, ‘Oh, all right, I’ll join the jazz but never really understood why, or any of the Ukulele Group with spouse’ and ‘Oh, all right I’ll technicalities of jazz itself. I grew up, during the birth of ‘teenagers’ and ‘pop music’ in the 50s in Canada. My join the Performance Group’, and discovered a parents were into classical music, played on 78s or LPs whole new area of challenge and fun in my life! on our record player. The popular music of the day was Believe it or not, performing and trying to perfect never considered, so my musical background is sadly it is a challenge and gives great rewards. lacking. I only know that pieces like ‘Strangers on the No auditions required (of course—this is U3A!) Shore’ and ‘Take Five’ and ‘Midnight in Moscow’ sent We all have different attributes whether it is my every sense jangling, without my knowing what lay, voice or musical skill, and I, myself, will only ever technically, behind it. In these sessions, there were a have one ukulele, unlike Dave and Ian who have a few who knew a lot about jazz, but I felt no intimidation whole range of ukuleles and banjuleles to achieve from them. It was all very open and friendly. In a modest the right finishing touch. Just a few of us playing kind of example, I attended my granddaughters’ to a handful of people not much older than Christmas concert the other day, and noted that the ourselves; we have moved on to the dizzy heights saxophones being used were of different sizes and I was of amplified music, screen visuals and jazzy actually able to appreciate the difference between waistcoats, playing at prestigious venues like the soprano and baritone and everything in between. I could Westgate Gardens at the Summer Fair for the not have done that before this course, which makes me Hospice, churches, pub gardens and the Strode appear a real redneck when it comes to jazz. Hands up in Park amphitheatre. submission. But there were also true devotees on the course who accepted me as I accepted them. A positive. And Ian, our patient leader, has to keep us There is something in this course for any and everyone. under control in more ways than you could A true plus to Susan Le Touze who took the course. possibly imagine, ever ambitious to attain high Jos Mascarenhas standards. Bookings are filling our busy diaries but we have enough of us to allow the occasional Britain Since 1945 cruise or grandparent duty. With twenty-two It was a real pleasure to attend the seven-week discussion bookings taken for the year up until Christmas, group run by Keith Aikin. Having attended two previous we are very near a total of £1,000 in collections groups run by Keith, I sought out and chose to attend the for our chosen charities this year. We feel very one that I could not (not surprisingly) get a place on proud of that, whilst at the same time having fun previously. I chose, this term, to attend Britain since 1945. and giving a bit of enjoyment to people’s often I was so enthusiastic about the whole series of talks that I difficult lives. Tea and biccies, cake, strawberries cut short one of my travels to France during November by (depending on the season) in the break and several days in order to return in time for the Thursday interesting and unexpected conversations take 10:30 start! place. Music is a great leveller. So sun hat, Xmas Whilst the course included some topics we had covered tinsel, winter coat, i-pad (not obligatory but saves in British Prime Ministers since 1945, there were many carrying so much), music stands . . . ready for other subjects discussed in more detail, more especially action! What could be a more pleasant break relating to the NHS and Education, with input from other from everyday life than singing and playing your members of the group who had first-hand experience in heart out in a beautiful garden in the sun or specific fields. drinking cups of tea with someone who has an I learned a lot, not only from Keith, but also from the incredible story to tell? I’d better get back to the academics and others in the group who were enthusiastic Christmas songs! participants. I was impressed too, how Keith managed to keep the political aspect of the discussions low key, PS. Our first Christmas gig brought in another bearing in mind that the dozen or so participants would £250 and we managed to pull a request out of have had differing Party affiliations. the bag—there was a great atmosphere at the It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. A big thank Herne Bay Ex-Servicemen’s Club. you to Keith. Christine Cayley Donald Mascarenhas

— 17 — Birthday Disco Sutton Quaker Steel Band Event

On a balmy late spring evening at the end of last On 9 August, everyone turned up very punctually April, U3A members and their friends gathered for the coach to take us to Sutton for the Quaker together at Chartham Village Hall for the first of Steel Band Concert, tea and cakes. As we were our 30th anniversary celebrations. The event was a driven along the M25 the weather deteriorated disco dance organised by disco diva, Margaret rapidly; we arrived at the Friends’ Meeting House Scott, who runs the U3A disco sessions. Everyone in pouring rain but the welcome was, as always, brought along their own food and drink to share; very warm and friendly. attire was dance-worthy and chic casual. How to describe the concert? There were nine Contrary to popular rumour St John’s ambulance women, ranging in age from about 25 to 80 years, had not been contacted to provide support during all of whom clearly loved playing the drums and the evening! With a professional DJ to spin the they managed to convey their energy and discs the floor of the hall was very soon a blur of enthusiasm to us throughout the programme. The dancers stomping, strutting and singing their stuff tunes played during the concert ranged from all from 7.30 right on till the very end at 11 p.m. The DJ had to firmly close his ears to numerous last over the world, covering South America, Barbados, song requests from the floor. The music was so England, Spain, Austria, Cuba, USA, Switzerland, loud that on a couple of occasions the sensors in China, Russia and Jamaica. There was popular the wall censored the DJ and cut off the sound, to music such as El Condor Pasa, On the Street Where the groans of the dancers. You Live as well as the William Tell Overture and a modern Chinese Tune: Story of a Little City. The versatility of the drums was truly amazing. Half- way through the concert the founder of the group, Carol Contant, told us how the drums had come into being, how they were made and tuned. We were encouraged to hum along and sing if we wished to join in at any stage. We were very firmly told that we had to join in She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain; we did as we were told and a rousing rendition followed. After the concert had Photo: Ursula Steiger finished tea, home-made cakes and biscuits were What joy to be grooving away to Abba’s Dancing available to all who were there. The journey home Queen and the Stones Can’t Get no Satisfaction took longer; the weather was still atrocious, which and what satisfaction to be singing the words of meant that several times we slowed to a crawl on the Who’s My Generation and Hope I Die before I the motorway. However, our driver, Nicky, was get Old! In fact, how strange it is that all the lyrics of so many songs, including pretty minor ones, are superb and delivered us back safely to the Park all safely stored in the brain and quickly recalled, and Ride. whereas the name of the person you were We all had a marvellously enjoyable day with introduced to five minutes ago is not. Maybe we wonderful music from all over the world, warm ought to mentally sing the names of people when hospitality and an opportunity to join in and hum we are introduced to them (and add a line or two or sing. What more could one ask for on a wet to make a lyric). summer’s afternoon?—a wonderful way to forget Wendy Williams won the prize for the best what was happening outside, and life in general, dancer that night, Keith Watson had the lucky for a short while. A huge thank you to Ursula for draw ticket and Andrew Mayland hit the jackpot organising the trip and to the Friends for when he scooped the winnings from the heads- entertaining us so well and so warmly. Here’s to and-tails game. All in all everyone seemed to have the 2018 Steel Band Event! had a really great evening and the only question Mary May left at the end from many of those present was ‘When’s the next one?’ Christine de Caires [For photographs, see page 21.]

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Seasonal Concert

Sensing that it was time for a change from the The Madrigal Singers then took to the stage, entertainment format of our Christmas lunches, under their conductor, Rob Potter, singing two the committee considered a proposal for a seventeenth century pieces and accompanied December meeting to celebrate the start of the quite beautifully by Anthea Cook on her flute. holiday season and to give the opportunity for the Most U3A members don’t realise that you don’t musical activities of our U3A to be shared with the have to be a skilled musician to join the Ukulele rest of our members, in a concert, followed by Players and Finger Pickers. Christine Osborne mince-pies and mulled wine. appeared at one of our joining days six years ago Anthea Cook, our hard-working Music and wondered if anyone might be interested in Coordinator thought it was great and worked with playing the ukulele—a hobby that I’m sure helped Ursula Steiger to grow the fledgling idea. to keep her own fingers working nimbly when she So on 8 December, in front of a huge audience, was a practising dentist. The result of that St Mary Bredin rang to the rafters with elderly tentative enquiry is that fifty players now ‘jam’ music-makers strutting their stuff, ably compered together, sixteen of whom make up the by our vice-chair, Lilias Adamson. Performance Group and about a dozen making up First to play was the Scratch Orchestra, a group The Pickers. who came together via John Perfect’s Summer The Performers, led by Ian Davidson, took to the Programme. Maybe John will find time in his busy floor next, they were concert-ready having life to offer a regular course some time in the performed some eighteen gigs over the year and future! Initially he wondered just who might turn gave us a really jolly rendering of such songs as up at Dunkirk Village Hall on that summer day, but Friday in Love, with Ian as a soloist, to a great turn up they did. Violins, cellos, double bass, Country and Western carol with Dave Cayley on his clarinets, oboes, flutes and saxophones, and not harmonica. forgetting the bass recorders, who hoped to creep All their concerts are free, but the groups have in under the radar and sound a bit like bassoons. raised around £1000 this year from voluntary They had such a fun time that they agreed to get contributions, half of which goes to Pilgrims together again for this concert. They played Desert Hospice and half to Guide Dogs. Island Discs’ Sleepy Lagoon, an eighteenth century Their other branch, The Finger Pickers, were up piece by Boyce and ended up, appropriately, with next. The technique they use produces a much Sleigh Ride, sporting Santa hats and reindeer sweeter more gentle sound from their antlers. instruments.

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The Recorder Players with all sizes of support each leader. On the theme of volunteers instruments were next, a huge group conducted all the bowers and blowers, chirrupers and by Ursula and Rob. Their pieces varied from audiences in our U3A wanted to thank our music O Jesulein Süß to Ding Dong Merrily, with the coordinator, Anthea Cook, who has worked audience joining in. quietly and tirelessly behind the scenes for eight Finally came the Singing for Pleasure Ensemble. years, with an input into everything we Sixty voices out of around a hundred who meet performed that afternoon. She was presented each week at the Sally Army Hall, under the with flowers and tokens for the Marlowe, from us guidance of Ursula, who conducts, teaches and all. drags performances out of us disparate lot, which Then we headed for the mince pies and wine. I find nothing short of miraculous. We sang Play a Thank you, caterers, and everyone involved—a Simple Melody, Baboushka’s Carol, All Through really lovely afternoon in a wonderful the Night (performed beautifully by the men), atmosphere of friendship and warm pleasure! Singing in the Rain, Angel’s Song and Rutter’s As Ursula said when she wrapped up the Christmas Lullaby. proceedings, ‘This was our first December We would be lost without the marvellous meeting and on the strength of today, it certainly Margaret Harrison at the piano and all the other won’t be our last.’ volunteers who help with each group and who Jocelyn Thomson

Gigs, Gigs, and More Gigs Rob Fisk

Madrigals The Choir Once a year a group of local Canterbury musicians come On Tuesday 16 May twelve of Ursula’s together to perform a charity concert. Singing for Pleasure Group were invited This year’s concert took place on 23 March to along to the L’Arche Community in support the Porchlight Charity and took place in the Old Wincheap to entertain them. It was a Synagogue in King’s Street. Porchlight helps homeless fine sunny evening and we congregated adults, children and families in the Canterbury area, in the garden. We, the singers, lined who have nowhere to live. Last year they reached out ourselves up on the fire escape so that to over 5,000 people. the audience could see us and hear us clearly. It was a lovely setting The venue was splendid as the building is of noted surrounded by tall trees. architectural importance, being a very fine example of The evening was a great success with an Egyptian Revival Synagogue. members of L’Arche joining in with the The Canterbury U3A Madrigals Group were invited to singing and one couple dancing a tango take part in this event. A dozen of us attended and we to our rendition of Hernando’s sang three madrigals. Hideaway. It was a lovely evening of diverse music and two of The International Federation of our group performed independent solos: Lansdell L’Arche Communities is a global on the piano and Diana Norman singing. organisation that supports people with learning difficulties. There are ten L’Arche (The Ark) Communities in the UK where people with and without learning difficulties share life together. We were made very welcome with tea and cake after our performance and felt the lovely atmosphere of the community. We hope to return again The Madgrigal Group at the Seasonal Concert later in the year.

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Ukuleles and singers Christmas A glorious sunny afternoon in May saw U3A ukulele Christmas brought its usual batch of concerts players and singers providing the Sunday concert in the with some members from the Singing for outdoor theatre at Strode Park, a charitable Pleasure group visiting the L’Arche community foundation in Herne for mentally and physically in Wincheap on 12 December and Dean’s Mill disabled adults and children. The Friends of Strode run Court retirement homes on the 13th. We sang a series of entertainments to raise funds for the home, some of the usual popular carols by request and we were delighted to help. along with some other songs we had been practising. One lovely new one was a ‘West Gallery Quire’ song called ‘Rolling Downward’ which we sang with gusto. Another was the gentle ‘Christmas Lullaby’ by John Rutter. The number of singers had to be restricted at these two popular events as space was limited but we fitted in as many as we could and there was little space between singers and audience! We received a very warm welcome at both venues and look forward to returning in due course. There was of course a new experience this year, that of our own U3A concert held in St Mary Bredin Church on Friday 8 December which is described in a separate article. Rob Fisk Ukulear Power soon had the audience clapping and singing along with their widely varied pieces and the Singing for Pleasure group got them all joining in with their choruses. The thing that delighted me most was to see the pleasure on the faces of the residents and especially to watch the younger ones dancing in front of the stage, in their electric wheelchairs. A happy and successful day all round.

Music and Memory Our U3A, due to pioneering work and commitment by Rona Hodges and her team has been involved with some ground-breaking research, in conjunction with the Members of the Steel Band (see page 18) University of Kent (see pages 12–13), which we hope Photos by Ursula Steiger will impact on the lives of people in our age group throughout the world. Part of this involved our Singing for Pleasure choir giving their last performance of the term, as a small part of a full day’s programme, organised by Ben Marsh and supported by a Public Engagement Grant, where both we and the university presented our work. As Ursula pointed out to the large audience, our endeavours fulfilled some of the criteria that our expert speakers had suggested would delay the onset of memory loss within our age group, namely, learning new things; our music and words increased our confidence as we performed in public and gave the opportunity for social interaction between singers and the groups we sang to.

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Gliding—to Fly like a Bird

Our member, Julie Garside, a pilot with over thirty-six years’ experience, organised four flying events over the summer for our members at the Kent Gliding Club near Ashford, with thirty- two members taking up the challenge. This is the first time this course has been offered in our branch and possibly the first time in any branch of the U3A throughout the UK. Here, Julie tells us about it, followed by participants’ own feedback. There are few things that compare with the gentle and graceful sensation of floating high above the Kent countryside. I originally organised the afternoon event for a maximum of ten people but the response was so great that I added three more afternoons so that no-one would be disappointed. Each afternoon started with a Meet and Greet at the airfield with myself and my husband, Alan, who was in charge of the flying that day. Following a short briefing on safety and what each flight would entail, the group walked down to the launch-point to start the afternoon’s flying. With an instructor at the controls of one of Kent Gliding Club’s two-seater training aircraft, members were able to experience being towed into the sky by either a launch behind a tow-plane or by winch-cable. At the top of the launch, the instructor

released the cable and they were free to soar silently below the clouds with patchwork fields below and views across the channel to France. With a gentle series of turns each member was shown how to control the glider and then had the opportunity to have a go themselves. The instructor then took back the controls to land the glider safely back at the Gliding Club. The response from everyone after they had landed was lovely to see. Everyone had big grins on their faces and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Many have asked me to arrange it again next year, which I am happy to do. So keep an eye out in the forthcoming publications for details. Juliet Challis in the cockpit Julie Garside — 22 —

A Gliding Experience

To fly, to fly, high up in the sky resembled a very snug canoe (with wings rather To achieve a dream than oars). This meant swinging your leg up and That’s just what I mean over, not the easiest of manoeuvres to do And it all came to fruition gracefully or easily. Having already been issued With Kent Gliding Club tuition. with a parachute you then had to be securely A big thank you must go to new U3A member, strapped into the very cosy seat, which felt a bit Julie Garside, an experienced glider of 36 years, like what happens to children when they are who offered on the summer programme taster strapped into car seats. gliding days for the first time. She was surprised by Then suddenly you were on your way up! the enthusiastic response from members, meaning For me it felt like going from 0–60 mph in a few she had to double the number of days on offer. seconds or like being on an extreme fairground Experienced Kent Gliding Club pilots, volunteers ride. My breath disappeared. all, offered to help, and so 36 of our members The pilot, seated behind me, managed all the were each given a taste of being in a glider. controls as I could hardly remember what lever The smiles of everyone crossing the field after went where or did what, so busy was I, up in the their flight said it all—what a great experience! clouds, looking all around. We circled the gliding There were two ways of getting the glider up in the club field at Charing but could see well over the air—by aero-tow (being pulled up by a small plane) county as far as Whitstable and, apparently, or by winch-launch (being catapulted up). First, even France on a fine day. But it was all over though, you had to get into the glider, which much too quickly—I could have stayed up for hours and was beginning to understand how addictive gliding might become. So many thanks to Julie and all those volunteers at Kent Gliding Club who organised this unique and exhilarating experience for U3A members so brilliantly. A very much recommended trip indeed! Or, in modern parlance, LIKE!! Christine de Caires

Comments from our ‘high flyers’ ‘I first flew, aged 81, in July, under Julie’s U3A scheme. To say I was thrilled by it is an understatement.’ Elizabeth Webb ‘What a super afternoon. I never got to pull that lever I was warned not to touch. Perhaps next time!’ Len Hunksman ‘WOW, what an amazing experience. I can’t wait to do it again. It seemed as if the whole of East Kent just opened up under us.’ Penelope Tugwell ‘Zoom and float and slide and drift and twist Penny enjoying the experience above the tumult.’ Anthony Epps — 23 — Churches and Pubs The programme gives an historical context to There is something distinctive about the Summer the area we live in and introduces members to Programme; it allows individuals to dream up some of the treasures that we could easily by-pass. events, courses and interest groups and offer them We can only imagine the organisation and forward to Canterbury members in their own unique way planning such a series of outings requires: the to see if they garner an audience. It’s a game of diarising of the visits, the guides, the discovery chance, perhaps nobody will sign up, perhaps all and booking of the lunchtime venues, the sending the hard work you have invested in planning and round of maps and itineraries to members. I salute creating a new offering for the programme will be Roger and Margaret for the vision and hard work somehow ill-judged. Not so ‘Churches and Pubs’ it takes to provide lucky participants with these offered by Roger and Margaret Lansdell. opportunities. Last year this new series of outings appeared in This year we visited: St Mary of Charity, Faversham the 2016 Summer Programme and was flooded and St Mary, Chartham; the Abbey Church of with enquiries, which encouraged the Lansdells to Waltham Holy Cross (Waltham Abbey) and once again set about putting together a com- Greensted church; and St Mary at Elham and prehensive programme of four visits for 2017. St Leonard’s, Hythe. Each visit introduces the group to two churches Sarah O’Donnell separated by a delicious lunch. At each church an experienced and well-informed guide meets Canterbury members, taking the group on a detailed tour, sometimes even offering a welcome hot cup of tea as we enter the church. Lunches are organised at a suitable distance, and the group enjoys the chance to meet old friends or make new ones, before setting out for the second church in the afternoon. The Ossuary in the Crypt at St Leonard’s Church, Hythe.

Photo: Janet Livermore

Above: St. Andrew’s Church, Greensted, Essex, visited in July. This is claimed to be the oldest wooden church in the world, and the oldest ‘stave built’ timber building in Europe. The 51 timber planks forming the walls of the nave date from about 1060, although excavations undertaken in the chancel in 1960 revealed the existence of two earlier timber structures dating from the sixth, and seventh centuries, around the The group at St Mary’s of Charity, Faversham time that St began his work of converting the Saxons Photo: Sarah O’Donnell to Christianity. Photo: Sarah O’Donnell — 24 —