Number 42 November 2020 ontactTHE NEWSLETTER OF CHINNOR & DISTRICT U3A

INC THIS ISSUE Art History 6 From the Chair Artificial Intellligence 22 Bus Services 19 I don’t know of anybody who thought that this Card Club 13 ‘Covid business’ would go on so long. When I Chinnor and PR Railway: A Brief History 26 very recently had my eyes tested the optician Christmas Crossword 32 had to seal the top of my obligatory mask with Churches 8 masking tape (aptly named) to stop the lenses Computers 9 and her apparatus from steaming up. The tail Creative Writing 24 Day out in Bury St Edmunds 2 is wagging the dog. French 7 To keep our pet u3a on its way we have had Gardening Group: Report 30 to learn new tricks, old dog or not. ‘I’ve got With Thanks 9 Handicrafts 8 a Zoom meeting’, I keep hearing myself say; words which had never Hempton Activities 21 crossed my lips before this spring. My whole being has had to have its Keeping out of Mischief 2020 vision realigned to keep up with the flow. During Lockdown 21 Members Memories: Clive Bray 10 Our thanks go out to our group coordinators who have been setting Play Reading 12 up Zoom meetings or group emails to keep us all in touch. We all do Poetry Reading and Writing 19 what we can and stretch ourselves as much as possible. But if it’s not Reading 14 proving possible then don’t feel inadequate, we are all only human and Rule of Six 23 Spectalcular Launch 4 volunteers. Time 28 But let’s remember that the u3a organisation is in essence ‘bottom Walking Groups: up’ and doesn’t just rely on the group leaders and the committee. Long Walks 13 Short Walks 20 I know a very few of you have taken the initiative and have started Short Walks Quiz 27 meeting with friends for coffee at the Village Centre now that it’s Walk During Lockdown 12 reopened. We tried to make Coffee Mornings happen again, but We’ll Keep it Going 27 unfortunately Covid restrictions have made this impracticable. Where Have They All Gone? 14 On the bright side, our Monthly Meetings are happening on-line via Zoom, but with no cup of tea to round off the presentation until you Chinnor u3a AGM 16 Interest Groups at a Glance 18 get up and get it for yourself. Read further for news of future talks (see Monthly Meetings 15 page 15). New u3a Logo 16 Just as the committee has been getting used to the Beacon New Members 16 Outings and Holidays 17 Management system, those of you with email will be getting used to Website Update 16 this system keeping you up to date. If you have a friend without this Welfare news 16 technology, please pass on the news by phone or, better still, when it’s news of an online presentation, share the Monthly Meetings with them Please send all correspondence in your home if possible. and contributions to: The Editor, Krystyna Hewitt, The committee has been doing its doggie paddle under the surface Tel: 01844 352396 keeping the body afloat. With three vital members stepping down at the Email: [email protected] AGM we are going to need new committee members. If you value your The Editor reserves the right to edit, shorten or omit any entries submitted. u3a, no matter how long you have been a member or if you have just I would like to point out that any views joined, please think long and hard about what you can do now to help expressed are not necessarily those of the organisation or of the Editor. it into the future. Your u3a needs you. DEADLINE FOR NEXT ISSUE: Janet Erskine 5 April 2021 Chairperson A Day Out in Bury St Edmunds

On 16 October 2020 a party of seventeen from Everyone was given maps of the town and Chinnor and Risborough u3as went on a coach information on the points of interest all packaged outing to this lovely Suffolk market town. This together in a walking route round the town to had been planned over a year ago and a sixty-three take in the architectural and scenic delights of seater coach was booked, along with tours of the the town, but which could always be shortened town led by local residents. We already knew that if needed. As instructed we all kept in very small the town had a lot to offer as the u3a holiday to groups and found our own way round. Constable Country had a brief stop there last year From the 12th century Abbot’s Bridge, which and it was always planned to return. originally had a portcullis, we proceeded to But Covid struck: we reduced the size of the the 14th century Abbey Gate passing through coach to a forty-two seater, and the Tourist Agency the grounds to reach the ruined buildings no longer could offer tours. In the end only of the original monastery. Here there is a seventeen members joined the trip and both Motts commemoration plaque on the spot where in and Chinnor u3a subsidised the outing. Chinnor 1214, the barons of England swore to compel King u3a have been loyal customers of Motts for well John to sign the document now known as the over ten years and Motts have helped us out Magna Carta. The Rose Garden is a permanent immensely, making full refunds for the holiday memorial to American Servicemen, many of which couldn’t go ahead to Northumberland whom were stationed around Suffolk in WWII. earlier this year and now giving financial support The Virginia creeper was in fine splendour and for this outing. there was still some colour in the borders plus a Our first impression was of the beautiful beautiful English rose. historic setting, the Cathedral, the Abbey Gardens The next part of our walk took us past the and also the shopping area on the hill. The town Norman Tower and the Martyrs’ Memorial erected is well looked after – there was no litter, waste to remember seventeen protestant martyrs killed bins are emptied every day, and the award-winning for their beliefs during the reign of the first Queen public toilets spotlessly clean! Residents and the Mary, also known as ‘Bloody Mary’. Through Town Council are proud of their surroundings and the cemetery, past Charnel House, we reached it shows. The town was relatively quiet and it was St Mary’s church where Mary Tudor, Queen of easy to maintain social distancing. France and sister to Henry VIII is buried.

Continued on next page 2 Contact November 2020 We noticed a plaque to Thomas Clarkson Canute proving that even a king could not hold who played a major part in the abolition of the back the tide. King Canute was responsible for English slave trade. His wife Catherine was the founding the original Benedictine Abbey in the daughter of William Buck, the founder of Greene town during the 11th century. King brewery which still produces its finest beers Moyse’s Hall, built in around 1180 as a town in the town. Resisting the temptation to sample house, has served as a tavern, workhouse, a police the wares, we continued to the Theatre Royal, station and, since 1899, a museum now housing a recently restored to its original 1819 Georgian Suffolk Regiment gallery. configuration. As we approached the end of the tour, past The 17th century timber framed Dog & The Pillar of Salt street sign – a lighthouse- Partridge is on the way to Guildhall Street shaped street sign built in 1935 and now a listed where – yes, you’ve guessed it – the 13th century monument – we came across The Athenaeum. Guildhall still stands, bearing the Borough of Bury Originally built in the 18th century as Assembly St Edmunds coat of arms depicting three crowns Rooms, it later played host to several readings with arrows below a wolf, given to the town from his works by Charles Dickens who stayed in 1606 when King James I granted it the first in the nearby Angel Hotel. Dickens’ connection Charter of Incorporation. Bury served as the area’s with Bury dates back to his first novel published centre for the marketing of corn and cattle. The in the 1830s The Pickwick Papers, in which he first Corn Exchange was built in 1836 but as trade immortalises the town, mentioning the hotel. quickly outgrew this building, a second was built Some of us visited the Cathedral with its beside it in 1862. I wonder how many other towns beautiful vaulted ceiling, nave, sanctuary and have two Corn Markets still intact? tower. Next to the Cathedral we found the ancient Reputedly the smallest public house in Britain, town walls into which are built some rather good we walked past the Nutshell to Cupola House looking houses. with its 17th century roof-top observatory built by It was a very rewarding morning, after which a three-times mayor of Bury. many of us went into town for refreshments. There is mention of Daniel Defoe who came to Having spent nearly five hours in town we the town in 1704 after serving a prison sentence returned to the coach, suitably tired, and were for publishing a pamphlet deemed to be critical of back in Chinnor by 18.10pm, having all enjoyed the Anglican Church. the day. We thanked our coach driver for taking Onwards to the famous façade above the the strain. W H Smith building, the top panel depicting King Peter Hetherington and Frances Wells

p a g e 2: l e f t : The Guildhall c e n t r e : The rose garden r i g h t : Abbey Gate p a g e 3: l e f t : The Theatre Royal r i g h t : A view of the Cathedral

Contact Novermber 2020 3 A Spectacular Launch The Shuttle Mission, number STS-41-B launch: the maiden flight of the Orbiter Challenger

It was early in my career with Vickers Medical basically pressure vessels, would craze and start in 1983 that the company received an enquiry to crack under certain conditions and were thus concerning the status of their Hyperbaric Oxygen costly to maintain for owners and also for us if System business from a Dr J R Maxwell of Dallas under warranty, especially if you had to travel to Texas – no, not the JR of TV Dallas fame, but the Soviet Union or the US to fix them! another person with the same name but also from As the Americans were up for exploiting fringe Dallas! medicine, our enquirer, Dr J R Maxwell, thought Delivering 100% oxygen in a special room or that to acquire Vickers’ hyperbaric medicine chamber above atmospheric pressure (hyperbaric business might be a good money making idea. oxygen) can be therapeutic to patients suffering It was as a result of his enquiry that I found with Arterial Gas Embolism, Decompression myself on my way to the US, to rendezvous with Sickness, Carbon Monoxide Poisoning, Gas a colleague from our New York office, to start the gangrene, Crush injuries, Compartment process of negotiating the sale. Syndrome and other Traumatic Ischaemia, Maxwell, in addition to being an MD, was Enhancement of Healing in Selected Problem also a bit of a NASA nut and was passionately Wounds, Necrotising Soft Tissue Infections, interested in the US Space Programme, and as a Compromised Skin Grafts & Flaps, Acute result of his connections, always attended all the Thermal Burns and several more. You get the idea major launches. To kill two birds with one stone – a pretty useful therapy but rarely occurring and he therefore arranged for us to stay and have our thus we were quite keen to sell the business! meetings in Orlando, where afterwards he invited Vickers had been persuaded to develop such a us to join him at Cape Canaveral, now Cape device because of its skill base in the moulding Kennedy, just fifty miles away, for the launch to of Plexiglas canopies when it was producing take place the next day on 3rd February, 1984! Spitfires. There had been limited sales in the Now in addition to being MD, a space nut UK around the world, for the reasons already and having the name that matches the TV series outlined, but the therapy was widely used in the Dallas and coming from Dallas, he was also a US and exclusively used in the USSR where they close friend of the Pritzker family, who were all- were used to “rejuvenate” the brain powers of the round good eggs, philanthropists and owners of leaders and members of the elite Polit Bureaux in the Hyatt hotel chain, so we had rooms in the a vast medical complex located in the Lenin Hills newly built and just opened Hyatt in Orlando just outside Moscow. which was, as most Hyatt were at that time, Although the product was reliable and worked stuffed full of the most sumptuous art and well it had become a side-line to the main medical sculptures. business to the manufacture and sale of infant I don’t remember too much about the incubators. The Plexiglas chambers, as they were discussions, but I certainly remember getting up well before sunrise and driving to the Cape and A Mono Place Hyperbaric Chamber. By courtesy of Alamy passing on our right hand side – in a tree about ten miles from the launch site – the nest of an enormous American Bald Eagle. We arrived at our launch location about half an hour before dawn, joining the throngs of other VIPs who had come to witness this spectacle of five humans being literally blasted into space. Our exact location was no nearer than three miles from the launch site for reasons that later became very obvious. We settled ourselves, and I prepared my camera to record a moment in my life that would never be repeated. As the count- down proceeded in its stops and starts, as they Continued on next page 4 Contact November 2020 always did, the silence over this vast area of land which appeared through the early dawn light was eerily stuffed full of humanity. At the moment of take-off it was the light from the rocket engines that was the first sensory thing to hit you well before any accompanying sound. The brightness was unbelievable, so much so, that my camera on its highest ‘f’ stop froze, so for a few seconds I failed to record the tentative movements of this huge and terrifying beast, containing five souls, off into the unknown. This feature of the launch reminded me later of the title of the book Brighter than a thousand Suns by J. Robert Oppenheimer the “father” of the H Bomb who chronicled the development of the atomic bomb and the brightness that accompanied their test detonations! My camera finally kicked-in and I was able to record the white exhaust of this firework-like twisting assent until within a few seconds the twin booster rockets fell away into the Atlantic leaving the much diminished main assembly to continue its fiery journey until it too would separate from Challenger. I’m not sure how long we were able to watch this alarming spectacle until it became invisible to the naked eye, but thirty seconds might be correct. Throughout this time the earth physically seemed to shake but this incredible experience was surely amplified by the sound which battered your very being until it too slowly decreased into a moment of Challenger’s Maiden Flight, 3rd February 1984. By courtesy of Alamy. memory. What an experience – another awesome power man has developed for Gibson; and fellow mission specialists: Captain the purposes of good or evil, but truly outstanding Bruce McCandless II, and Lt. Col. Robert L. in its ability to take you to the edge to witness Stewart. The flight accomplished the deployment genuine fear; thank you JR and Vickers Medical! of two Hughes 376 communications satellites, as This Shuttle Mission, Number STS-41-B, well as the flight testing of rendezvous sensors and launch was so special because it was the maiden computer programs. flight of the Challenger and the first ever landing Very sadly McNair was to die, in that very same of a shuttle at The Kennedy Space Centre in shuttle, in the disastrous launch of 28th January Florida, after a seven day and twenty-three hour 1986, just ten flights later than the maiden flight journey into space. Included in its crew was I had witnessed. I listened to this sad news sitting one Ronald Erwin McNair (21 October 1950 – in my car in a London street just a little over two 28 January 1986) who was a black American years later – such a sad end to seven brilliant lives physicist and NASA astronaut. Other members and a chilling reminder as what could go wrong. of the crew included spacecraft commander, Mr. Chris Kemp Vance Brand; the pilot, Commander Robert L. Chinnor u3a member

Contact Novermber 2020 5 Art History

Despite the lockdown restrictions from March we sensitive and subtle works of art. have managed to stay ‘connected’ with each other Although The Goldfinch is perhaps his best by various means in order to keep our love and known painting (thanks to Donna Tart!), Ray interest in the history of art alive. demonstrated that perhaps Fabritius’ greatest To start with up until the end June, we began skill was in his portrait and figure work in which sharing periodic bulletins by email which we he gently, rather than ostentatiously, portrayed called ‘Snipp’Arts, typically featuring interesting the character and movement of his subjects with facts about artists, paintings and exhibitions, as nuance and dramatic treatment of light. well as quizzes, with questions like…. Ray showed how paintings such as The Head of … which Austrian painted Portrait of a Lady in John The Baptist, Girl With A Broom and Portrait 1917 which went ‘missing’ for over twenty years of a Seated Woman with a Handkerchief, bear and rediscovered in the garden building of an witness to this talent cut short too early. Italian art gallery? (Answer: Gustav Klimt) At our most recent meeting in October, Janet … and, what was the title of David Hockney’s Erskine enchanted us with the works of the swimming pool painting which was sold for £23m most accomplished female impressionist painter, in early 2020? (Answer: The Splash) Berthe Morisot (1841-1895). Morisot, the sister From July we have been reverting to our in law (and muse) of Edouard Manet, had her monthly meetings with the help of Zoom. This own distinctive impressionist style. As well as has involved us all in getting to grips with this figure work, she painted coastal scenes (including technology, including learning how to present and Isle of Wight) and interiors. Her delicate use and view Powerpoint type presentations (still learning, treatment of light in watercolours could project an with a great deal of admirable group patience and almost translucent feel.She could even make net co-operation!). lace curtains look dramatic! In July, Rob Holdaway gave a presentation Despite exhibiting frequently at impressionist entitled Travels Around My Art in which he exhibitions in Paris and selling more paintings recounted how his travels around the world over than painters such as Renoir and Sisley, she was fifty years had inspired his interest in art. This relatively unknown compared to contemporary zoomed between countries as close as Spain, male artists until retrospective exhibitions later France and Austria and as far apart as Australia in the twentieth century revived interest in her and Canada. achievements. In August we were fortunate to receive a ‘guest’ At our November 20th meeting we are really (or even, ‘celebrity’!) presentation from Elan looking forward to a presentation from Frances Preston-Whyte which outlined the special talents Wells on Artemisia Gentileschi, the great of Swiss artist Felix Vallotton. seventeenth century Baroque female artist, and in Apart from his mainly Parisian artistic life December Dorothea Dunn is going to surprise us as an impressive ‘realist’ painter, we learned with a Christmas themed presentation. how Vallotton was particularly well known for Despite a few distinct advantages of Zoom woodblock carving and printing, influenced by meetings (e.g. Elan has been able to ‘virtually’ the Japanese art of ukiyo-e (the floating world). rejoin us) we do miss the company of several Vallotton used only black and white ‘colours’ to valued group members and friends who do not produce starker, more impactful imagery. have ready access to internet or Zoom. We have Using these skills, Vallotton mercilessly sent managed to keep in touch with them periodically up the hypocrisy of the Paris bourgeoise, especially by mail but we do feel there is something missing with his greatest woodcut series, ‘Intimacies’ in the ‘group’ from their absence. (1897), a series of ten graphic woodcuts depicting We welcome any new members who wish to ‘fly-on-the-wall’ stories, such as ‘The Lie’ (1897). even just try out our group during these difficult At our mid-September meeting Ray Barnett times (new u3a member Jackie Khouri has done gave a fascinating presentation titled The Delft just that after being ‘locked-down’ in Jamaica Thunderclap 1654 and Carel Fabritius. In the for many months!). We are ready to offer any midst of the Dutch Golden Age of painting help whatsoever, including one-on-one Zoom Fabritius a talented painter who had developed familiarisation to those who wish to try joining in! his skills under Rembrandt, was killed when the Contact the Group Co-ordinators Rob gunpowder armoury under his studio exploded. Holdaway and Sian Stevens. For Fabritius, a contemporary of Vermeer, it Rob Holdaway abruptly ended a burgeoning portfolio of very Joint Group Co-ordinator

6 Contact November 2020 J’ai une sœur qui est plus jeune que moi. French Mon père a été chef de gare donc nous vivions à la gare. The three French groups have been meeting Quand j’avais six ans, nous avons déménagé virtually using Google Meet and Zoom. aux environs de Hull. It’s not as good as meeting up in person, but we Je suis partie de chez-moi quand j’avais have managed to still laugh and learn. dix-huit ans et je suis allée à Londres. Je The Beginners began again, as some joined the suis devenue infirmière. Ensuite je suis allée last beginners group late so there’s just a small l’Université. J’ai étudié le psychologie. group of four. J’ai rencontré mon mari et nous sommes The Improvers have been meeting weekly as mariés depuis quarante deux ans. well as the ‘Conversationists’ but it’s been getting Nous avons deux enfants, une fille et un fils. a bit too busy so we’re cutting back a bit now. Nous avons déménagé plusieurs fois. We’ve even managed to meet in my garden as Maintenant, nous vivons à Chinnor. the groups are all small. It was OK last month but this week it was fine but rather nippy at 14 Je suis née à Nuneaton dans le Warwickshire. degrees centigrade. Social distancing added to Quand j'avais dix huit ans j'ai quitté ma the cold as we weren’t allowed to huddle up for famille pour aller à l'université. J'ai étudié le warmth like sheep! biochimie aux universités de Manchester et Warwick. J'ai rencontré mon marie à Warwick Three members of the Improvers group have et après nous nous sommes mariés et nous written these short autobiographical pieces in avons déménagé à Buckinghamshire. J'ai French. commencé à travailler dans une société à High Wycombe où j'ai fait des recherches Je suis née à Cardiff. Quand j’avais treize ans, scientifiques. j’ai déménagé à Cheshire où j’ai rencontré J'ai deux fils et une fille et cinq petits enfants mon mari. Nous nous somme mariés en dix- dont maintenant je m’en occupe beaucoup. neuf soixante-cinq. Nous habitions près de Mon passe-temps favori est la généalogie et Derby. Maintenant nous habitons à K.B. aussi l'histoire locale. J'ai écrit avec une amie J’ai trois fils et j’ai quatre petits-enfants. Ils deux livres sur l'histoire de Kingston Blount et ont vingt trois ans, vingt deux ans, vingt-et-un Aston Rowant où j'habite maintenant. ans, et vingt ans. Janet Erskine Je suis née en Castleford en Yorkshire. Group Co-ordinator

Photograph © Diane Carver

Contact Novermber 2020 7 Churches

Despite these strange times, it seems such a short most affluent place in England by The Guardian, time since writing my last report. During that and The Daily Telegraph). However, we again period we have attempted to keep in touch by left that church on the list for the future, and email, once a month, on the date on which we looked, instead, at St. Lawrence, South Weston, would have visited one of our fine churches. These another of Peter’s churches, also a building with include Great Milton, Thame, Hambleden and an interesting history. In our enforced leisure Ewelme. time we have also looked at the Prebendal House It’s been difficult to present items of interest, in Thame, home to the late Robin Gibb, and the since there have been no visits since February. ‘cartoons’ in our own St. Andrews – pictures you Optimistically, no details of the churches we will all have seen at one time or another . were due to visit are included – in the profound Our members, thank the Lord, have, by and hope that we will be visiting them in the large, stayed safe and well. I am very grateful to foreseeable future. So, instead, the contents have all of them for their forbearance and their support. been somewhat anecdotal, with bits and pieces Members often respond to the monthly emails regarding some perhaps obscure facts regarding with some fascinating details of their own, which the church in particular, or, a feature on a church is great, it is lovely to see the memories inspired known to us but not on our immediate list. by something mentioned in the message. I realise For example, in April we were scheduled to that all the above is somewhat nebulous so make visit St Mary’s in Thame. Rather than research of it what you will. Please stay safe and well . and write about it, we have scheduled that visit as Some church notices for you; our first outing when we are permitted to gather ‘The class on prophecy has been cancelled due again. Instead we looked at St. Giles, Tetsworth to unforeseen circumstances.’ because it comes under the remit of our friend ‘Announcement to the Moms’ Who Care Reverend Peter Waterson, whose church in Group; there will be no Moms’ Who Care this Lewknor we visited last year. The church itself is week.’ something of an architectural nonentity but the history behind it was very interesting. We won’t, ‘Great news! Doctors have performed a CAT however, be visiting it! scan on Pastor McLaren’s head and report that Similarly, in August we were hoping to call at they have found nothing!’. SS. Peter and Paul in Great Missenden. (By the David Fahey way, in 2019 Great Missenden was named the Group Coordinator

Handicrafts

‘Life goes on but not as we know it’. Was it Dr away’ during lockdown to put together some kits, Spock who originally quoted this? Little did he ready for an event such as the one which we now know about Covid. face. Thank you again Judy for saving our sanity. Three of our usual Wednesday meetings have It was clear from the September social meetings had to be cancelled, but in September we did that we were all in need of some structure to manage to have a social meeting of each group to encourage us back into activity. discuss how we will proceed in the future, though This way we shall be able to keep in touch and it was hard to make any firm decisions, bearing in continue the social aspect which we all missed mind we do not know when any kind of normality over the past six months. will return. Soon it will be time for us to get busy making In the meantime we think we shall be able our Christmas cards. I expect they will contain to possibly manage to undertake a few simple more wishes than ever as the family Christmas projects which we can work on individually on a could regrettably be one of the many consequences lap tray but in smaller numbers than our usual of further restrictions. seven or eight at a session. Initially, this will be Janet Roebuck thanks to Judy who has been quietly ‘slaving Group Co-ordinator

8 Contact November 2020 Computers With Thanks

The group has been able to hold its regular This article is not a u3a Garden Group report. It monthly meeting throughout the pandemic, is an acknowledgement to one person’s dedication thanks to Zoom. Each meeting has been well to our group. This person is our coordinator, Ann supported, typically attracting about a dozen Hine. Ann has gone the extra mile during this members on each occasion. We have managed lockdown due to the pandemic. to run a varied programme. From the start of lockdown at the end of In May Peter Brook gave a talk on ‘Digital March, Ann has written and sent out an email to Control of Model Railways’. In June Mike Price the Garden Group EVERY DAY with the exception gave us a very interesting talk covering 30,000 of two days when she and Bob celebrated their years of the history of photography, taking us Golden Wedding. These emails have kept our up to present day digital photography. group connected. Chas Large’s talk at July’s meeting took Right back in March, Ann told us that she had us through the ins and outs of VPNs (Virtual cancelled the gardening programme for the whole Private Networks). For those not familiar year. Much to our amazement, her foresight was with the term, a VPN allows you to create a correct. secure connection to another network over the As the emails progressed daily, members sent Internet. VPNs can provide a way to access photographs of their gardens to Ann to incorporate region-restricted websites in other countries into her news. that otherwise would not be accessible to the During the months over spring and summer we UK user. have enjoyed the changes in our gardens, and the The August and September meetings many photos demonstrated this. Questions have covered further technical topics. In August we been asked about plant identification and answers had a round-table discussion via Zoom sharing have never failed to be forthcoming. experiences and problems about broadband, Ann, ably assisted by Bob, has demonstrated internet and email and in September we methods of propagation, in particular fuschias and discussed computing security. geraniums, and how to grow potatoes. We have October’s talk, given by Richard Allan and been encouraged to save seed for a ‘seed swop’ at Frank Metcalf took us through an overview sometime in the future when we are allowed to of the features and attractions of Apple’s iPad meet as a group. range. The uses that the iPad could be put to As we have been slowly released from lockdown were discussed and comparisons made with some members have sent photos of National Trust the competing Android system. It came as no and RHS Gardens that they have visited. Together surprise that there are merits and demerits to with these photos Ann has incorporated all of our each system. Chosing which one to use is by comments into her no means clear cut. daily email. The group, being the only u3a computer A small group group in the area, has proved popular and of members of the includes u3a members from Thame and Garden Group were Haddenham. The group will continue to meet able to meet at Correen via Zoom until further notice whilst Covid-19 and Mike Gorton’s restrictions remain in place, meeting on the garden in September first Friday of every month starting at 2.30pm as a token gesture to until 4pm. If you are interested in joining us the return to ‘garden please contact Peter Brook or Molly Milner. It visits’. During this well would be of benefit if you already have some received visit we were working knowledge of Windows, Android, able to acknowledge Apple or Linux operating systems as you would our thanks to Ann and Bob. probably get more out of the meetings than if Ann’s emails continue to arrive daily, and we, you were a complete novice. as u3a Garden Group members, enjoy reading Peter Brook them. Thank you Ann! Joint Group Co-ordinator Rosemary W and Mary T

Contact Novermber 2020 9 MEMBER MEMORIES Life in the RAF 1952-54

When asked to write, in effect, an autobiography, I requiring lesser skills. was faced with a dilemma. I was born in 1933 and I was required to know about all types of radio people tell me I have had an interesting life. One communication. The practical side involved night I woke very early: I had a ‘eureka’ moment. I soldering, rewiring and basic repairs to signals would write it in chapters! This is Chapter 3. equipment. Major repairs were done in specialist Like all fit young men I would be conscripted into workshops. I passed with 99% over all. the services at age 18 years. I could choose betwen The officer in charge of training invited me the Army or RAF. The latter appealed to me, although to consider becoming an instructor, at first as a I knew that, as my sight in one eye had been temporary corporal but if I was successful there weakened by measles, aircrew was not an option. would be further promotions. He had an ulterior My best two subjects at school had been English motive. I was competing for RAF Yatesbury at 440 and maths. In the sixth form I studied science, and 880 yards. maths, chemistry, applied maths and pure maths. From Yatesbury I was posted to RAF Upwood. I There was no careers advice then. I chose chemistry was appointed to 7 Squadron; the other squadrons and found a job as a laboratory assistant with British were 204 and 218; there was also a small unit Glues and Chemicals in the Old Kent Road. They gave training overseas airmen to be air crew. The Polish me day release to study for a degree. were the most flamboyant, flying low over Upwood, I could perhaps have tried for deferment from bombing us with toilet rolls! national service but I opted to be called up. On a 7 Squadron was formed on 1st May 1914. It was cold, misty day I travelled by train to Padgate. I sat active in WW1, gaining many awards, including at a table with three other conscripts. One suggested a Victoria Cross. Following the outbreak of WW2, that we play whist for money. I have never been a in 1940 they were equipped with Stirlings. The gambler but I actually won a small sum. Perhaps I squadron was involved in the first one thousand was the type of man mothers told their sons to avoid! bombing raids. In 1942 they were re-equipped with At Padgate we were weighed, measured and Lancasters. They played a massive role in ‘Operation fitted out with best blue and working blue and Overlord’, undertaking daylight raids in support of other basic essentials for life in the RAF. Finding the the invading Allied Armies. various issuing centres was not easy. The place was After the war the squadron resumed peace time swarming with officers and NCOs; I passed an officer training, re-equipped with Lincolns (a modification and did not salute. ‘You there,’ barked an NCO. ‘Why of the Lancaster). There were many overseas did you not salute? You are in trouble.’ I apologised. operations, including a ‘Sunray’ attachment to Egypt, I told the officer that I had thought he was too young and I was one of the ground crew who went. to be one, and commended him for doing so well. I was privileged to take part in the presentation That did the trick! It was not the last time that my and consecration of the Squadron Standard on 9th quick wit and good manners got me out of a scrape. October 1953. It was presented by Sir John Salmond, We were divided into groups of 110 and posted to Marshall of the RAF, and its first commanding officer a camp for square bashing. I went to RAF Melksham, in May 1914. I was in ‘B’ flight, commanded by actually an instrument training school. Those with Flight-Lieutenant D. H. Tew. He was one of our pilots, the qualifications required to be an officer could a Highland Scot who spoke with a poetic lilt. apply to be one. Three in my intake had. Why not I was in a Lincoln that flew past Odium in 1953 try? I chose RAF accounts. The interviewing panel to mark the Queen’s coronation. My photographic rightly pointed out that I had no experience. They record shows serried ranks of aircraft and gliders suggested the RAF regiment. My response was that parked below, according to type. if I had wanted to be a soldier I would have chosen At RAF Upwood I continued my athletics. I the Army. Turning me down for accounts was ironic. was reasonably successful, representing Bomber The pinnacle of my career in HM Customs and Excise Command against the USAF in Europe. With tongue was my appointment to Accountant and Controller in cheek I can claim to have been an international General. I was responsible for all income and athlete! It was not all sport but I was often flown expenditure and producing annual accounts for the to fixtures in the Station Commander’s Anson. Treasury. The facilities for training were excellent and the On completion of square bashing we were given gymnasium was on a par with todays sports centres. an aptitude test. I was offered a number of trades; We had to work hard, as the aircraft flew night I chose wireless mechanic. The training school was and day. Some periods of duty lasted 36 hours. We at RAF Yatesbury. During the long course, probably had ‘War Games’, when everyone was given specific 5-6 months, we were tested every six weeks and if tasks. These usually took place over 24 hours. On we failed were regraded and employed in a trade one occasion my job, armed with a loaded rifle, 10 Contact November 2020 Continued on next page was to prevent unauthorised access to the Officers’ mid point to the Red Sea. There was an impressive Quarters. A Military Policeman demanded to be monument flanked by two lions. Ismailia, by let through – it was a short cut to the main gate. I contrast, was a bustling city. The mansions were refused. I said ‘If I let you through you will put me on grand. I assume that it was built for the French a charge for disobeying orders.’ He about turned. because there was a French Square and French One other occasion when I stood my ground was Gardens. The occupants were probably rich Arabs when, exceptionally, the other ranks were required and other Middle Eastern potentates. The bazaars to undertake manual duties. I was assigned to clean were bustling and we were pestered by gully gully an officer’s room. It was straight forward except for men. They were accompanied by young children his bath. He did not clean it, leaving a grime marked who would pick your pockets or steal your forage rim when he pulled the plug out. My Mother had cap. A stipulation of these visits was that other ranks always insisted that we clean the bath. Afterwards should wear uniform and we were accompanied by the officer summoned me to his room and accused armed guards – regular NCOs, stationed at the base. me of dereliction of duty; he intended to put me on My eyes were opened to the poverty of some a charge. ‘That’s your right, Sir, but if you do when Egyptians. Children were suffering from diseases of I am marched in before the C.O., escorted by two the eyes. Flies gathered round the infection. They NCOs, this will be my defence: I will explain that I reminded me of cattle, swishing their tails to scatter was trained at home, even as a bolshy teenager, to tiresome flies in a lush English meadow. There was leave the bath as I found it. If you charge me your evidence of malnutrition. On camp there was an dirty habit will soon be known throughout the camp.’ Arab, Abdul, who was employed to shine our boots He climbed down ungraciously with a warning that and polish our buttons. When I protested, I was told he would look out for me. I never saw him again. that he valued this trusted status. We paid him a few Although I was promoted, I supplemented my pay ackers. They would help him support his family. He at Upwood by babysitting for NCOs. I was in demand, smiled all the time, bowed when one spoke to him as I neither smoked nor drank. I must have been one and replied in pidgin English. of the few national service men who was demobbed In both Shallufa and the UK I noticed the courtesy with a bigger bank balance than when recruited. of most officers to other ranks. There was an ‘espirit On 31st January 1953 I flew out of RAF Shallufa de corps’. We were a team, and without diligent on the aforementioned ‘Operation Sunray’. The servicing their lives might be in danger. I only ground crew used York transport aircraft, leased from witnessed two crashes, both at RAF Upwood. A gale- the Lancashire Aircraft Corporation. This was for force east wind blew a plane off the runway; and a reasons of security. We arrived at RAF Valetta, Malta pilot misjudged the end of the runway and ploughed and spent two days there for routine servicing and into a hedge. refuelling. In retrospect I suspect that our presence All camps had an Education Officer. Attendance at was a warning to the coup by General Muhammed lectures was compulsory. At one the class was asked Naguib not to overstep the mark. He made an uneasy if any one knew the principle of an atomic bomb. My alliance with King Farouk, 1920-65. hand shot up and I explained how to make one. Was RAF Shallufa was closely guarded against he impressed, or did he think that I was a show-off? sabotage by the various Egyptian freedom The camp's libraries offered quiet spaces to movements. The Suez Canal was built in 1869 by a read. The armed services knew that recruits had Frenchman, Ferdinand de Lessops. Benjamin Disraeli to return to ‘Civvy Street’. We were offered free bought a controlling shareholding in the company. correspondence courses – I chose one to prepare for The canal is about 100 miles long. It obviates the employment in H M Customs and Excise, which was need to sail westwards round the Cape of Good Hope my chosen career. The other unplanned benefit was and along the coast of Africa to Europe and other that I met my future wife when I competed as a guest countries. There were appeciable economic benefits. for Epsom and Ewell Harriers, We married later at St The eastern journey remains unchanged. Martin’s, Epsom and spent over fifty years together Shallufa was an impenetrable base. Food was until she sadly passed away nearly eleven years ago. imported. I contracted the notorious gippy tummy I made a promise to myself on conscription: just once; it was embarrassing but of short duration. on joining the forces I would have no romantic After sundown the gate to the control tower was attachments, I would enjoy myself and I would leave locked. When on guard duty, alone, we scanned the a better person. I discovered that all bullies will desert for possible saboteurs when shipping was climb down, but best not to humiliate them. on the canal. We doused the light. Navigation, by My parents taught me to be polite and Jean and I today’s standards, was primitive. Vessels shone a passed that lesson on to our three sons. As William light onto both banks, allowing the pilot to steer a of Wykeham (1324-1404) wrote: ‘Manners maketh safe course. We were armed, with orders to shoot to man.’ He was a prelate and statesman. Current kill. I never fired a shot in anger, either in Suez or in political correctness would require …‘Manners the UK. maketh a person.’. As my brother Norman points out, Off duty those of us from the UK explored as if we he should now be Norperson! were ordinary tourists. We visited Port Tewfik, the Clive Bray

Contact Novermber 2020 11 A Walk During Lockdown Walking towards Crowell by Ros Noy

© Ros Noy Play Reading

I started the group in September 2011 so we Reading Room is large. No acting is required as we celebrated our 9th Anniversary this year. Sadly I simply take it in turns to read the parts. am now unable to continue but I’m very pleased Do get in contact with Janet if you would like to say that the group will continue. There will be to join. a break until March 2021 when Janet Roebuck has Pam Clark kindly agreed to start it up again. Group Co-ordinator The Group is still well attended and enthusiastic. We are keeping to plays lasting about I know I speak for the whole group when I say 2 hours as the people attending vary each month. a big ‘thank you’ to Pam for her hard work in It is also difficult to remember from one month to keeping things going in the circumstances of her the next where we stopped if we don’t finish it. health and Covid. Since March this year we have only been able She found out herself that they could start to to meet in September and October. use the Meeting Room again, and then when the Since starting the group we have read 114 ‘Rule of six’ came in she checked that having two plays. This selection has given us a variety well-separated tables of six met the requirements of styles of writing which suits many tastes. so that the meetings could carry on. Recent examples are Snake in The Grass by Alan She’s run the Play Reading group for nineteen Ayckbourne, Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin years and has been an inspiration to us all. and Hay Fever by Noel Coward. Janet Erskine There is always room for more people as the Group Member

12 Contact November 2020 Long Walks

I took over leading the group from the experienced leader Ray Barnett after the final walk of the winter programme in early March. Little did I know at that time that my first communication with the group members on the 18th March would be to cancel the April walk due to the government's Covid restrictions. I kept in touch with all the group members over the coming months, but I'm afraid only to cancel the planned walks in May, June and July. Then as the level of infections declined the regulations changed allowing groups of a maximum of 6 people to meet outside. On contacting the group members it soon became clear that there was plenty of interest in restarting the group with a planned 6 mile walk on 4th August. The walk was from Bledlow, along the Ridgeway over Lodge Hill to Saunderton church and back to Bledlow. In order to operate the group under the various restrictions it was necessary to produce and circulate new risk assessments and detailed instructions on how the walk must be run. There were eighteen members who planned to undertake the walk in three groups of six Members on the first walk enjoying a break socially distanced walkers. The walk was eventually undertaken by 16 walkers, proved extremely successful with everybody abiding by the guidance and has been Card Club followed by a 6.7 mile walk in September. It started from the Wheatsheaf pub, around Kiln Ah, the good old days... who knew that lakes up Crowell Hill, along the Ridgeway and meeting up, playing games and laughing with back to the pub. friends would ever be something we were The planned 6 mile walk in October from West unable to do. Wycombe to Bradenham and back via Piper’s There’s not a lot I can say about the Card Hanging Wood and Cockshoots Wood back to Group. We either play or we don’t play. I miss West Wycombe, had to sadly be cancelled for it very much, as it was such fun. safety reasons due to the horrendous rain we I have not done what Jean did with the recently experienced. Since the group restarted 23 Canasta group, which was to meet up, sit in different members have walked. the shade and just talk – even that has come Subject to no changes in the regulations further to a halt now, of course, with the change in walks are already planned for November and the weather. December. Let’s hope it won’t be too long before If you would like to join us on walks in the we can get back to our normal Wednesday future please contact me about joining the group. afternoon meetings twice a month! Nigel Conradi Dorrie Oliver Group Co-ordinator Group Co-ordinator

Contact Novermber 2020 13 Reading

How have our group overcome the lock down? quite with the vision you found. It’s sometimes What has Covid 19 done for us? difficult to emphasise how difficult (even hateful) What have we missed? you found a book knowing someone round the table had suggested it. With email reports being We are the lucky ones. So many books and not ‘pinged’ round our group no inhibitions exist! Our enough time to read them! With social activities comments have benefited by being more free and restricted we can enjoy totally ‘guilt free’ reading! frank. Hopefully our outlook has become more Fortunately for us by the end of 2019 we robust, never be afraid to suggest a book because had suggested, discussed and agreed the books others might not like it. We are often amazed to we would be reading in 2020. Our programme find how much we enjoy books we would never issued in December (in time to include books on have thought we would like; by contrast, how Christmas lists) began in January, so we were only interesting to find that others have found meaning two books into the year when March arrived – we and delight in books we have found difficult – were reading The Last Continent (Terry Pratchett). perhaps it’s worth another look? Unable to meet, Janet, the host that month, Both The Last Continent (Terry Pratchett) and suggested that everyone write their reports/ The Improbability of Love (Hannah Rothschild) thoughts and email them to other members. brought vastly opposite views; but everyone was This has proved an excellent method. Yes, a few enthusiastic about Conclave (Robert Harris). little hiccups just to make sure everyone had But we have missed seeing each other and correct email addresses but otherwise, a new next month we are going to try Zoom. We will be and refreshing way to find out what others really discussing Cider with Rosie (Laurie Lee), and the thought. Refreshing, because we each gave a following month Girl Woman Other (Bernardine totally frank evaluation of the book. During a Evaristo), as well as making suggestions and meeting taking views individually, someone in the voting for our 2021 programme. group is always last to give their opinion, often Ann Goold your view has already been expressed but not Group Co-ordinator Where have they all gone?

In years gone by there were fourteen public houses Icknield Way, The Chairmakers Arms and The and coaching inns in Chinnor and nearby. In line Lord Nelson in the High Street, and The Pheasant with the national trend this figure has reduced (which was at the top of Chinnor Hill on the road dramatically – there are now only three existing to Bledlow Ridge) have all become private houses, within the village: The Red Lion at the bottom likewise The Leathern Bottle in Wain Hill. The of the High Street; The Crown at the junction of Royal Oak on Lower Road is now four flats and Station Road, Church Road and Oakley Road, and the site of The King’s Arms in Station Road has The Wheatsheaf in Oakley Road, on the corner also been sold for housing. of Oakley Lane. All three have moved with the The Bird in Hand , which was at the junction times, with food offered, and quizzes and musical of Station Road and Lower Road is now offices and events laid on to draw in the clientele. The Red The Black Boy in Station Road is now an antique Lion and The Crown were both once coaching restoration business. inns but the days when coach passengers and There used to be a pub called The Plough and horses needed a bed for the night are long gone. Harrow at Chinnor Stert – but Chinnor Stert The Peacock at Henton itself – between Chinnor and is still in business as a pub, Sydenham – no longer exists hotel and restaurant. but is in a wood on the farm So what is the fate of all in Mill Lane! the others? Richard Carver The Unicorn, which was The Red Lion, one of the three situated at the junction of survivng pubs, has recently been the High Street and Lower acquired new owners. 14 Contact November 2020 Information section Information you may wish to keep can be found on the next four pages Monthly Meetings 2020-21 All these speakers will be brought to us via Zoom

19th NOVEMBER 2020 Bagels & Bacon Part 2. Second helpings Jeff Rozelar Further anecdotes about growing up in the East End in the 1940s and 50s. All the characters will hopefully engage and amuse the audience with their Jewish and Cockney humour. Jeff has been an entertaining speaker at the Chinnor u3a on several occasions. I am sure he will not disappoint on ZOOM. 17th DECEMBER 2020 The Lost Forest of Bernwod John Tyler The Lost Forest of Berwood existed for over a thousand years, but few people know where it was. Yet much of its ancient landscape and wildlife still survive, and in this talk we explore what it was like to live and work in the Forest in mediaeval times and look at some of the plants and animals that would have been familiar to the people of the Forest. John, worked for many years in nature conservation, most recently as a warden of a nature reserve in Kent. He has a particular fondness for glow-worms and his other interests include photography, woodcarving and coracles. 21st JANUARY 2021 Rages to Riches to Giving it all away – Andrew Carnegie, the world’s richest man Jeremy Holmes Andrew Carnegie came from a slum in Dunfermline, Scotland, made his fortune in America as a ruthless steel magnate, then at the start of the 20th century gave it all away by setting up philanthropic foundations all over the world. In his day he was worth more than Bill Gates and earned so much so much interest on his wealth that he couldn’t give it away fast enough. This talk explains his rise, his motivations and his unique personal story, in the context of the dramatic industrialisation of America. Jeremy had a career as a management consultant, as CEO of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and then in higher education. The speaker’s interest in Andrew Carnegie was stimulated by being a trustee of the Carnegie UK Trust for twelve years and also living in New York in the 1980s. Now semi-retired, he enjoys other trustee and non-executive work, and giving talks such as this 18th FEBRUARY 2021 T B A 25th FEBRUARY 2021 ANNUAL LECTURE Try to do the right thing Alex Hetherington The ins and outs of recycling and recyclability. 18th MARCH 2021 Harold MacMillan Martin Holmes COFFEE MORNINGS are still suspended, unfortunately.

Contact Novermber 2020 15 Website Update We welcome these new members

Chris Kemp Keith Webley and welcome back: Pat Hearmon

Welfare News

I do hope that you have all been keeping well during the difficult times we are going through right now. Do remember to have your flu injection soon – you need to book an appointment this year not just turn up. I have tried to telephone all those who live alone during the restrictions and at the last count I had chatted with 140 of you. If you haven’t had a call from me and would like to chat please do give me a call, I would be very pleased to know how Chinnor u3a’s website has been revamped and you are coping. will be the place to go whilst we cannot hold the Just two items this time – one of my crafty Monthly Meetings in the Village Hall, to keep ladies, Maureen Packer, who helps to make the up with changes to our u3a, Interest Groups, the cards I send out has moved into a Nursing Home committee and outings. and sadly Yvonne Kemp has passed away and our If you have any queries about anything to do sympathies go out to her husband Chris, who has with our u3a the website should be the place recently joined our u3a. Otherwise our members to go to look for answers if you can. Do try it – have seemed to keep quite well under trying hopefully you will find it very useful. circumstances. We’d be grateful if members could please send Please do let me know if you hear of anyone in their photographs of Chinnor to go on the new who is unwell or in need of cheering up right now. website – there‘s going to be a competition to find Take care and stay safe the best ones. Please send them to Pete Way. Diane Carver Search on line for Chinnor and district u3a Welfare Officer or Chinnor & District u3a Our URL is https://u3asites.org.uk/chinnor Chinnor u3a AGM

The AGM, having been delayed due to Covid restrictions, took place via Zoom on You may have noticed that throughout this Thursday, 15th October. Approximately fifty latest newsletter our organisation is no members took part. longer ‘U3A’ but has become ‘u3a’. This is to The meeting went smoothly; presentations reflect the new logo designed for the national by the Chairperson and Treasurer, as well as organisation, as shown here. questions and answers from various people were all clearly heard by everyone. The eight people nominated for the committee were accepted in a block vote, but more members are needed. Please consider offering your services.

16 Contact November 2020 Outings and Holidays

Firstly a big thank you to Sheila Tunstall, who organised a New Year’s Night at the Swan in January and a Warner’s holiday at Alvaston Hall, Nantwich, Cheshire in March. Also to Peter and Janet Lambert, who organised an excellent historical tour of the Albert Hall in February. What a good time we had before lockdown put a stop to our activities. It is such a shame, and I almost feel a personal responsibility for cancelling all our activities since! But we had no choice. Looking forward to 2021, we hope to reinstate some of the outings we were due to do this summer. These are to Highclere Castle, Compton Verney House near Stratford to enjoy some art collections, and Brooklands Aviation Museum in Weybridge where we can see Concorde on display. Details will follow later. Last year several members asked us to organise an outing to the National Forest in the Midlands, so we will research that before proposing a visit. But please tell me again where you would like to visit on a day coach outing. It should be within a radius of 100 miles of Chinnor. Each year Sheila Tunstall has organised a Warner’s Holiday and she has taken large groups by coach to most of the Warner’s Hotels within relative easy reach of Chinnor, setting up interesting visits every day. Next year Sheila wants to take a break from organising u3a holidays but your committee thought it might be an idea to revisit Warners Holme Lacey Hotel near Hereford next Autumn. If one of our members, particularly someone who has joined the Warners holidays in the past, would volunteer to organise next year’s holiday, I would be very happy to support them and to join the holiday. Please contact me if you can help and thanks for everyones support. Looking forward to 2021! Peter Hetherington Holidays and Outings Secretary

A statue of St Edmund, taken during the recent outing to Bury St. Edmunds

Contact Novermber 2020 17 Interest Groups at a Glance Please contact the Co-ordinator before attending a group for the first time.

On the website version of this table all co-ordinators’ phone numbers have been removed. If you wish to call a Group Co-ordinator please refer to your Programme Card or contact Ann Long, the Interest Group Secretary for the number.

Group Co-ordinator/s Day of Month Venue Times Archaeology and Christine Prior 4th Monday Village Centre 10.30-12.00 Geology Nick Marriner-Kyle Not May, Aug, Dec Art History Sian Stevens 3rd Friday Village Centre 10.30-12.00 Rob Holdaway Not December Bridge Jean Wadsworth 2nd & 4th Thursdays Village Centre 2.00–4.00 Not July, August, Canasta Jean Wadsworth 2nd & 4th Tuesdays ’Phone 2.00-4.00 Cards Dorrie Oliver 1st & 3rd Wednesdays Village Centre 2.00-4.00 Churches David Fahey 4th Friday ’Phone am Computers Peter Brook 1st Friday Village Centre 2.30–4.00 Molly Milner Not August Creative Writing Ann Long 2nd Monday ’Phone 10.15-12.00 Family History George Hunter 1st Thursday Village Centre 10.15-11.45 French: Beginners Janet Erskine 1st and 3rd Monday ’Phone 1.30pm Experienced ‘Phone ’Phone Gardening M & A Ann Hine 3rd Wednesday Various 10.30-12.00 M (am) & A (pm) 2.00-3.30 Handicrafts Janet Roebuck 1st, 2nd & 3rd ’Phone 2.00– Groups 1, 2 & 3 Wednesdays Hempton Activities Diane Carver 2nd Friday Hempton Fields 2-3.30pm Jan, Mar, May, Jul, Sep, Nov History Hilary Goodchild 3rd Friday Reading Room 2.30–4.00 Holidays & Outings Peter Hetherington Various Various Various Music Group 1 Bill Parkinson 3rd Friday ’Phone 2.00-4.30 Music Group 3 Jim Trimmer Last Friday ’Phone 2.00-4.30 Music Group 5 Janet Williams 2nd Thursday ’Phone 2.00-4.00 Music Group 6 Pam Buckingham 2nd Monday ’Phone 2.30-4.30 Poetry Mavis Rimmer 2nd Monday ’Phone 2.00-4.30 Poetry Reading Vicci Bentley 1st Thursday ’Phone 2.00-4.00 and Writing Play Reading Janet Roebuck Ist Friday Reading Room 2.00-4.00 Reading Ann Goold 4th Thursday ’Phone 10.30– Not December Singles/Dining Valerie Welford Three weekly Various Walks: Long Walks Nigel Conradi 1st Tuesday Various 10.00-1.00 Walks: Medium Walks Chris Melbourne 3rd Tuesday Various 10.00– Walks: Short Walks Graham Stone 2nd Wednesday Various Summer 2– Not December Winter 1-3 Walks: Strollers Rita Archer 1st Friday ’Phone 11.00 Linda Piggott

Amendments since the last issue of this list are shown shaded

18 Contact November 2020 If you’re a poet and don’t yet know it…

A new u3a Chinnor Poetry Reading and Writing Group NEW! encourages you find the right words.

Births, weddings, funerals – poetry accompanies each meeting (currently via Zoom, but hopefully them all. The tradition’s an ancient one. It’s face-to-face when we can finally lose those masks) believed that rhythmic, rhyming structures were we’ll discuss work by published poets suggested devised as prompt mechanisms for memorising by group members as well as members’ own work. significant events in family and social history. No pressure, we promise! Instead, we aim to If the words flow and echo, the story’s not only give constructive criticism, encouragement and easier on the ear, but easier to remember too. support to overcome blocks, refine your work and Think of the Bardic tradition of the Eisteddfod, above all, enjoy the creative process. Whether the narrative poetry of Virgil and Homer and you write for fun or publication, thoughts Snorri Sturluson’s Icelandic Sagas. Chaucer and emotions however obscure find form and added satire to his own bawdy road trip saga, expression in poetry. The joy is in realising you’ve The Canterbury Tales. The trauma and loss of captured the moment and, in my experience, a the First World War found poignant expression little objective critique goes a long way to help you in the poetry of Wilfred Owen, Laurence Binyon get there. and Siegfried Sassoon; while Seamus Heaney Whatever your aims or experience, everyone analogised The Troubles in his gentle, yet incisive who appreciates poetry is welcome to join our Irish way. Meanwhile, women poets such as group. Interested? The details are below. We look Sylvia Plath and our previous Laureate, Carol forward to exchanging words with you. Ann Duffy have forensically and wryly examined Chinnor u3a Poetry Reading and Writing takes life’s gamut of pleasures and perversities. For place via Zoom on the first Thursday of each every emotion, every occasion there’s a poem that month from 2-4pm. Please get in touch with me, captures the zeitgeist. Vicci, if you are interested in joining. From haiku to epic, sestina to sonnet, Vicci Bentley versification to freeform, rhyming or not, poetry Group Co-ordinator takes many shapes. Marvellously adaptable, it crafts itself to reflect subject and style. Poetry is where you really get to play with words and even Changes to local invent new ones, and break rules. Because what characterises genuinely memorable poetry is bus services that it strikes a universal chord in a style that is entirely the poet’s own. At a time when we are being advised NOT to use ‘I believe that everyone in the world has one public transport it seems strange to make changes poem that is their soulmate,’ wrote 19th century to our local bus services – especially as they come American poet Emily Dickinson, pinpointing the with the usual ‘use it or lose it’ message. essence of poetry as a potent soul language that The changes are good news for Chinnor, goes beyond prose in its ability to express the though, as they include increased services on the human condition. Personally, I believe that there’s three routes which serve the village. a poem in all of us waiting to inherit its voice. It’s The 40, which runs from Thame to High a fair bet that most of us will already have turned Wycombe now runs on a Sunday. to tried and trusted poems to mark significant The 275 bus to Oxford from High Wycombe events in our lives. Profound experiences – has added journeys on a Saturday. whether poignant, insightful, infuriating or The 320 – the bus which runs to Princes downright hilarious – may also have inspired us to Risborough Station – now runs all day on write poems ourselves. weekdays, as well as stopping in Princes The aim of our new u3a Chinnor Poetry Risborough High Street during the day. Reading and Writing group then, is to encourage Timetables can be collected from The Chinnor everyone who enjoys reading and listening to Parish Council offfice in the Pavilion. poetry to experiment with crafting their own. At Krystyna Hewitt

Contact Novermber 2020 19 Short Walks

This time last year none of us knew what was activities for some time due to Covid19. However, going to hit the world. I suppose we shouldn’t be I am pleased to say that, like the other walking surprised – the main forms of life on this planet groups, we have restarted the group in a small and are viruses. They are much smaller than bacteria restricted way. We had our first walk in September but there are countless trillions and trillions of (a month after the Long Walks group). We had them in the air, sea and ground. I know it’s un- to form small groups of up to six people, each believable but, apparently, the total mass of all group with a leader. The idea was that the person the viruses in the world weighs more than the devising the walk would lead the front group, with total mass of all other forms of life on our planet other groups following at a distance. Before we all (including plants, animals and bacteria). Luckily met for the walk, of course, the groups had to be most viruses don’t do us any harm and many are set up so that when people turned up for the walk essential for our bodies. they could go straight to their allocated group. Indeed, scientists believe that if they find life Our September walk was at Chinnor’s Old on other planets it will probably be similar to Kiln Lakes, with me leading. People kept roughly viruses and possibly bacteria – something else to to their groups, but sometimes groups lost track worry about in the future? of where the groups in front were going and so The last seven or eight months have indeed ended up doing their own different walk – not an been strange. In a sense when total lockdown was ideal situation but at least everyone managed to imposed, although a little boring and disturbing get back to the car park (I think, I don’t know of as regards no social life, no holidays, no meetings anyone still missing!). We all enjoyed the walk and with our families and so on, at least it gave us all we were all so happy to see each other after such a some sense of relief from everyday stresses and long ‘lockdown/isolation’ period). tensions. The few occasions when I drove, I found Our October walk was by the Thames at it quite relaxing driving on empty roads and I’m Marlow led by Mavis and Tony Shortman. Ten of sure most of us went for more walks than usual. us met up at the riverside park and we separated That was particularly pleasant in that there was into two groups of five, because at the time of no noise of traffic, the sky seemed bluer than writing no more than six people could meet either usual with no pollution, we noticed the wildlife inside or outside under any circumstances except more than usual and it was nice just listening for official organised events. Although a dull to the birds. It was just lovely looking at all the cloudy day, the walk was splendid, the scenery butterflies and, although at the back of our minds beautiful and, again, it was so nice to see our u3a we had the dreaded virus looming over us, we had friends again. lovely spring weather and even the summer wasn’t As regards the future of our Short Walks Group, too bad weather-wise. our November walk will start from Crowell However, I’m sure we’d all love the world to be church car park and walk from there. We don’t back the way it was so we could mingle without usually have a walk in December. Instead we worrying. OK, we all got colds and other nasty have a Christmas Lunch at The Crown which is things but in retrospect that’s almost preferable usually attended by around forty people. However, to what we have now. Perhaps when we are all I’m not sure whether this will be happening this vaccinated against Covid19 we may have some year (I haven’t contacted The Crown yet). No sort of normality. walks for next year have been arranged as yet – we I’m sure we all found things to do that we’d are proceeding roughly month by month (only been avoiding forever. I hired a skip and took thinking about the next two months at a time). down my very old (falling apart) ‘ramshackle’ shed Graham Stone and cleared out our conservatory. It all went in Group Co-ordinator the skip together with other things that we never use. We also arranged to have our conservatory On page 27 you will find a little quiz I renewed, so it is now habitable. None of this devised, based on some of the places we have would otherwise have been done, so Covid19 has visited on our walks. Have a go and see if you had some sort of silver lining I suppose. can recognise the places. The Short Walks Group had to suspend their

20 Contact November 2020 Keeping out of mischief during lockdown

It’s been tough, I’ll admit that, but we are a channel distorted. I found a supplier of service determined pair here in the Large household. manuals, and spent a few hours fixing those Patricia has had her fair share of physical problems. Great stuff, a fully restored tuner amp problems, what with a fall back in August 2018 with RDS radio and multiple inputs. where she broke both her arms, and then a knee Next: what to connect it to? Some nice replacement in 2019. Couple that with my cancer Technics speakers for £25. A little rough around diagnosis, operation, and recovery during 2018/19. the woodwork but they sound fine. Finally the Now to have Covid-19 come and scare us in 2020 rest of the ‘stack system’: CD player, minidisc has meant we’ve not been out much these past player/recorder and cassette deck. All arrived with three years. various faults, but all repaired without the need to As some of you may know I became heavily spend a bucket of cash on spare parts. Most fixes involved in the community radio station Red Kite were down to lack of maintenance and repair of Radio but sadly I could not continue with that so poorly contacting switches. I now have a complete when lockdown began earlier this year, I set up Denon stack system hi-fi, which when new would my own little on-line radio station which garnered have cost in excess of £1500, for just over £100. quite a lot of early local support. However, that Lovely! support died, and it faded away, gone but not A few friends have since learned of my need forgotten. So, what to do during those long days? to ‘keep my hand in’ as it were, so I’ve been busy Patricia is the gardener in the family but could fixing their audio equipment too, but the most not do much other than supervise my efforts enquiries I get are about computers. What with to keep the garden in reasonable shape. I know the need for them more than ever these days, how to prune roses now and how to cut back getting them working well and keeping them overgrown hedging and bushes and I’ve got the going when they fail has become even more scars to prove it. Our kindly neighbours gave us important! Thankfully, many spares for these are some runner bean plants which we potted, and readily available and upgrading older machines to they grew well so we have plenty in the freezer work with the newer operating systems is not hard now. I’ve managed to keep the front hedge from to do. overgrowing the pavement so all in all, the garden Well, there you have it – the garage has been is tidy-ish. buzzing with activity on the repair front and So, what else to do? Well, as my trade was filled with sweet music too. If you have a skill, electronic engineering, first on TV and radio, then keep using it as best you can, keep busy, keep well, moving through hi-fi and video and ending the keep safe. first part teaching others how to do it, I moved on Chas Large to computers and communications before retiring in 2017. Many folk have asked over the years since if I could help fix their equipment which I’ve always been happy to do. I thought to myself, surely, I can use these skills to my advantage. Hempton Activities Loving music as I do, especially jazz, what I needed was a good hi-fi system. Now in the Unfortunately we have not been able to meet past I’ve drooled over some lovely kit: Denon, with the residents since February and some of Technics, Quad being a few of the brands I’ve us, because of age and vulnerability, are wary both worked on and admired but could not afford of visiting when it is declared safe to do so. to own. A search of e-bay was on the cards to see However, I am exploring the possibility of what I could find. Yes, there they were and still using Zoom to enable us to meet together. quite expensive, even for sometimes 30-year old This would help to lighten the winter months kit. But… there was a lot of that kit being offered for the residents. At the moment we will have as “Not working or for parts” however these were to play it by ear and see how it goes. quite cheap. I thought ‘Let’s see what I can get’. Diane Carver First off, a Denon tuner amp was nabbed at Group Co-ordinator £30. Fault? Volume control not working, and one

Contact Novermber 2020 21 Artificial Intelligence, Robots and the Future A u3a monthly meeting via Zoom

It seems appropriate that the subject for our first high-tech monthly meeting should be the very high- tech and topical subject of Artificial Intelligence! I hadn’t used Zoom before, so I imported the app, set it up, read the instructions and hoped that everything would go smoothly, which it did on the whole! It’s interesting being able to see all participants at home, rather than in neat rows in the Village Hall. I’ll remember to put my lipstick on next time! Zoom was developed some years ago as a tool for business meetings and was generally considered to be a failure in computer circles. Coronavirus changed all that – it has been used by millions of people, for both business and social meetings: Zoom dinner parties are quite the thing, I believe! The software Rebecca used the two slides above to illustrate a situation allows groups of people where moral judgement is needed to arrive at a decision. to meet and chat to each other, allowing large groups to ‘meet’– to see each other and converse whilst being in many different locations – distance is no object as long as you have a computer or tablet and an internet connection. The talk and presentation itself summarised various aspects of AI, its development to date and how it is likely to be used in the future, with the possible benefits and pitfalls that come along with it. It was illustrated This slide explains the tests that are sometimes applied to try with informative slides and videos. The speaker, to determine whether robots can be considered ‘moral’.

22 Contact November 2020 Continued on next page Rebecca Raper, is a PhD Candidate in Computing and Mathematics at Oxford Brookes University The Rule of Six and a Senior Consultant for the institute for Ethical AI. Five digits on one hand with just an extra one One hand complete and an extra Tom thumb Probably most of us immediately think of A papier-maché carton with six eggs brown or white robots if ‘artificial intelligence’ is mentioned. Laid by a busy hen, does just right We may immediately think of film characters, For grandma, granddad, daughter, son-in-law and such as R2D2 in Star Wars. However they are grandkids two also used in many practical situations, including That makes six so nicely. That carton will do. machines building cars in factories and driverless cars. The applications of artificial intelligence A dozen is twelve so we’ll make it half encompasses many areas, including learning, Production’s shown clearly on the graph defence, manufacturing, business and the arts. All Boys Should Come Home Promptly recalls Henry’s It is often portrayed by the media as something wives to fear – people worry that robots may take over Some were divorced, some lost their heads and lives. Henry had a problem that was hard to fix their jobs, or that computers may begin to have But even a king kept to the rule of six. the power to dictate our lives, for example. In the case of algorithms our prejudices are exaggerated, Think of a table; two chairs on each long side perhaps due to the recent exam debacle. With one at each end if the table is wide. With a BA and MA in Philosophy, for her Are you more often at sixes or sevens? PhD Rebecca is researching ‘autonomous moral I shouldn’t need to know, my good heavens. artificial intelligence’ ie, how to design GOOD The Treaty of Rome: six countries for economic robots. Her talk certainly made me think that communities if robots were to become so intelligent that they From which they got their economic opportunities. are capable of working alone then they may have Even the French had their special Les Six some difficult decisions to make. To help modern musicians write their next piece She explained and illustrated some of the Court of Chancery, the Six Clerks Office was called terms we might hear in relation to AI. She gave Six Points of Ritualism kept the Oxford Movement a number of examples where the use of AI raises enthralled ethical and practical questions. Peterloo and rioting brought in The Six Acts She went on to talk about ‘Artificial General These examples of sixes are all hard facts Intelligence’, which is AI that has the capacity to understand or learn any intellectual tasks Ulster has its Six Counties so green and fair that a human being can. It raises questions as A six-hooped pot holds plenty to share to whether robots can be deemed conscious, More than enough for Oz’s six o’clock swill Which here is ten o’clock. Much against the will. and have emotions, morals and be creative. I Six of one or half a dozen of the other, think this is the aspect that worries us most! It’s six people now in groups. Better tell your mother! Rebecca’s research addresses these questions, in Janet Erskine particular those relating to morals. She gave an 28 September 2020 example called ‘The Moral Machine Experiment’, to illustrate what kind of situation uses moral Christmas Crossword Answers judgement to arrive at a decision. Finally she questioned what we would want to ACROSS 32 Okra 10 Ill 1 Mary 33 Bone 14 Do find in a moral robot, and if those expectations 3 Chris 36 Heather 16 Debts would differ from human moral judgements, why 6 Mass 37 Grew 17 Table that should be. She explained how children learn 11 Trowell 38 Daddy 19 Ash morals, and explained that she has been applying 12 Hour 39 Root 20 Cos 21 Swansong those processes when trying to make moral robots. 13 Reed 15 Errs DOWN 22 Beanpole There are some tests, she explained, that can 18 Pea 1 Murphy 27 Do be used to determine whether a robot is ‘moral’. 20 Caesar 2 Ragout 28 Orchid This was a well presented talk on a very 23 BSE 4 Hooter 29 Potato interesting, if challenging, subject, that certainly 24 Cob 5 Ice 30 Cement 25 Wreath 7 Afforest 34 RHS left me with a lot to think about. 26 Sly 8 Scissors 35 Try Krystyna Hewitt 31 Nine 9 Ate

Contact Novermber 2020 23 Creative Writing An example of our writing: “Hello, come in and have a seat”. Thankfullly the Corona plague has not stopped us I was surprised at the affability in the voice, writing! At first we just sent our writings by email everything up to now had been more in the nature to each other, but since so much enjoyment comes of a command, and not very friendly at that. I from getting feedback when we read our efforts to looked at the row of moulded blue plastic chairs, each other we soon moved to meeting on Zoom. all as yet unoccupied. Which would be least Each of us did write about our experiences presumptuous? I decided that the one at the far during lockdown, which should be an interesting end would at least mean I was not sandwiched document for our families in years to come, but between two less than welcoming neighbours. As we have also needed to think, and write, about I settled myself a slightly built, sandy-haired man other things. So subjects we’ve tackled have of about fifty received the same greeting, and, like included Bridges; How can we put this right?; me, opted for the end of the row. Next a rather “Hello, come in and have a seat.”; An accident plump young woman in a too-tight, too-short – writing both from our point of view and then skirt appeared, looked at me, and at the sandy- our mother’s. Then, because some of us had haired man, and presumably thought I was less used all those titles to write purely from our own threatening as she took the chair beside me. As experience we needed the challenge of “I intensely she pushed her over-large handbag under her seat, disliked my father’s fifth wife, but not to the point a business-suited young man marched in and took of murder.”, which was definitely not going to the chair by the sandy-haired man. After a few come from our own lives! more minutes an elderly man with an old raincoat We also write short pieces during our meetings, over his arm entered, and was rather reluctantly and in September we wrote about the first time we ushered to the centre chair. saw a television programme. For many that was Only at this point did I really start to take the Queen’s coronation, but here is my effort: notice of the people at the front. At first I’d seen I was eight and we were living in a Nissen hut only the man at the door and then been trying to on Hothfield Common while we waited for a assess the other interviewees. Now I realised that council house to become available. After being two women in dark clothes were seated behind demobbed, my Dad had to take a not very a long table, and a third woman who now spoke lucrative job as a hospital boilerman, and with from the back of the room was similarly garbed – four children there were few luxuries. One a navy skirt with a navy jerkin over a cream day a girl from school invited me to play at her blouse. One of them had a navy scarf covering house. In the middle of a game her mother most of her hair too. “Thank you, Maurice, that called us to come in for the programme. We seems to be all for now.” The man at the door left were given milk and a biscuit and then Muffin and she joined the other women behind the table. the Mule came on. Now I’d been to the cinema I wondered what the uniform meant. The advert a number of times – usually for the childrens had not given much information. “Self-contained showings on Saturday mornings on the army flat available from September in exchange for light base – and I’d seen cowboy films and a few caretaking duties at St. Margaret’s Hall. Apply in comic shows. But to have such a treat in ones writing. Suitable applicants will be interviewed in own home was almost unbelievable. I think I late July.“ sat with my biscuit halfway to my mouth for St. Margaret’s Hall had been most recently an the whole programme. accommodation block for some of the university Afterwards, rushing home in excitement, students, though before that I thought it had it was hard not to be jealous of my friend catered mostly for small conferences. I’d passed it in her big double-fronted house on the hill. often enough but never taken much notice of it till Mum just told me I was lucky to have seen now, when I was looking for accommodation for it. The next time I really saw television was myself for the first time in many years. at the coronation. We ourselves didn’t have a The woman with the scarf was addressing us television until I was fifteen – when Emergency now. “Thank you all for coming. I know you have Ward 10 was my favourite programme. not been given much information but I want to Ann Long give you some idea of what we are looking for. Group Co-ordinator St. Margaret’s Hall is to be our new convent. Continued on next page 24 Contact November 2020 We are a small sisterhood of nuns who will be in your application..” To start with I didn’t want working: nurses, both district nursing and mental to read any further, but later in the day I decided health nursing, and one will be a chaplain at the I would read the whole thing before putting the women’s prison. What we will need first of all is letter into the recycling bin. Anyway, I wanted to someone who is in sympathy with our way of life, find out which of the men had been selected. To who will understand that poverty, chastity and my astonishment it was the young man in the obedience are important to us. Having someone business suit. Whatever did they see in him that on hand for a good part of the time is what we are fitted him for the flat, and the job, above the rest looking for, someone who will be able to answer of us? the door, relay messages accurately and generally Eventually I read to the end of the letter and keep an eye on things. Though it might be useful was bemused to find that a note had been stapled to have some practical skills, that is not essential to the back of it. as we do have a handyman who will do most basic “We noticed your interest in our way of life running repairs. So, if you are a person who will and wonder if you would like to spend a little be out most of the time, or who has a hectic social time with us, seeing more of what we are about. life, then this is probably not for you. Do feel free Every Thursday from 7pm to 8.30pm we have a to indicate that now and we’ll take up no more of fellowship meeting and you are warmly invited to your time.” join us for that if you would like to do so. No need I had rather expected the man in the business to let us know in advance, just come to the front suit to be most likely to go, but no, it was the door and someone will be there to welcome you.” plump young woman next to me who said rather So, here we are, eighteen months later, and my petulantly, “I don’t want anyone criticising life has changed dramatically. Instead of living a my way of life”, which I thought was rather rather self-contained life, and spending much of unnecessarily negative. But anyway, she bent my time writing to support myself, I have now down, retrieved her bag, said “I’m glad not to become a postulant in the order. I am learning waste any more of my time on this” and left. from the nuns how much more satisfying it is After giving us a little more information and to work not just for oneself but for the good of asking if we had any immediate questions, we others. I’ve been back to the University of East were taken to see the flat. It was on the left front Anglia, where I did my degree, and am just at the corner of the building, and its entrance was just end of their PGCE course. Now, after spending the inside the main front door and there was a small next year at the Mother house, I hope to join the window at head height looking out onto the nuns at St. Margaret’s Hall as a teacher. I’m also hallway. It reminded me at once of the concierge’s looking forward to seeing how wise they were to quarters in my student building in Paris. It was appoint that man, rather than me, to live in that not large, but had three moderate sized rooms corner flat. beside a bathroom and small kitchen. I knew it Ann Long was exactly what I was looking for. After that we were given a cup of tea and then each of us was taken into another room for an Oh dear! individual interview. When it was my turn I felt Six year old Annie returns home from school and as if I was asking more questions than I was says that today she had her first family planning lesson. answering. I wanted to know more about these Her mother, very interested, asks ‘Oh, how nuns, who didn’t seem like any others I’d met, did it go?’ and they seemed very happy to tell me more about ‘I nearly died of shame!’ she answers. ‘Sam their lives. As I left I was given what I’m sure was from down the street says the stork brings the standard farewell to each of us “you will be babies. Sally next door said that you can buy contacted by the end of the week to let you know babies at the orphanage. Pete in my class says who has been appointed”. you can buy babies at the hospital.’ I had longed for it to be me, as the only Her mother answers laughingly, ‘But that’s no woman. Surely I’d be more suitable than one of reason to be ashamed!’ the men in that exclusively female environment. ‘No… but I can’t tell them that we were So it felt like a great slap in the face when I so poor that you and daddy had to make me opened the letter to find it beginning “ We are yourselves!” sorry to tell you that you have not been successful Janet Williams

Contact Novermber 2020 25 Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway: A Brief History

In 1869 a group of landowners and businessmen were pulled together by an article in The Pump, in Watlington, following the examples set by and held their first meeting in a local pub (that’s similar groups across the country, succeeded in where most heritage railways were born!), and by getting the necessary Act through Parliament to August 1989 the Chinnor and Princes Risborough initiate permission for a railway line to be laid Railway Association (CPRR) was formed, with connecting Watlington to Princes Risborough. In the aim of preserving the line and eventually 1872 the line opened with stations at Chinnor running trains. By 1994 the Association members and Aston Rowant, but ran at a loss. In 1883 the had raised the funds to purchase the track bed landowners sold the line to GWR for less than and establish rudimentary facilities at Chinnor 50% of what it had cost to build, but Chinnor Station, based on an old carriage mounted on was then connected to London. Halts at Lewknor concrete blocks – the original building had been Bridge, Kingston Crossing, Bledlow Bridge and flattened once the line was no longer operational. Wainhill were added progressively between then Like the landowners in 1869, the Association and 1925, to try and gain more options for members had to apply for a Transport and Works passengers or freight to use the line, to try and Act Order in Parliament to get permission to make make it a paying concern. it a line to take passenger trains. This was granted As with many country railway lines, their in 1994 and they started work to re-lay the track heyday was between 1939 and 1945, when the bed (fully compliant with all the necessary railway transport of soldiers and war-time freight were regulations that governed the main lines as well) the bulk of the business for the line, and things and on 20 August 1994 the first passenger train were really busy with vegetables and farm produce ran from Chinnor to Wainhill, moving passengers being taken up to London. A family in Kingston for the first time for thirty-seven years. Blount took over three allotments just for growing Work on extending the line and the facilities onions, which were sent up weekly to London on at Chinnor station, continued as fast as the the train from Chinnor, to supply ‘tripe and onion’ volunteers could manage in their spare time and kitchens, the delicacy so beloved of Londoners. with their limited financial resources, but by 1998 After the war things did not get any better and the track had been upgraded to passenger carrying on 29 June 1957 (pre-Dr Beeching’s axe falling) standards all the way to Thame Junction, where the last passenger train ran from Watlington, they had points and a ‘run round loop’, which through Chinnor, to Princes Risborough. However, meant that a loco could pull a train out to the end the line remained open for freight traffic until of the line, then run around to the other end of January 1961, when the line from Watlington the train to pull it back to Chinnor again. to Chinnor was closed and the line lifted. The Over time the greater the services that were presence of the timber yard and cement works in offered the larger the number of members of the Chinnor kept the Chinnor to Princes Risborough Association and the increase in the number of line open for freight for another 29 years, active volunteers. Santa Specials across every especially the cement works which had their own weekend in December became a major money dedicated siding with track running from Chinnor earner, as did Thomas the Tank Engine weekends Station into the heart of the cement works. in the Spring and Summer. By 2002 the station At the end of 1989 British Rail declared building at Chinnor had been completely re-built obsolete the hopper wagons used to carry the to the original GWR design, by a dedicated army cement works fuel, which meant that they would of volunteers who enhanced their skills in building need to be scrapped or major upgrades performed. brick and flint walls, laying slate roofs and the It was decided that it would be cheaper to buy necessary carpentry for the internal structures. new lorries than bring the railway wagons up to The building was faithful to the original design the new specification so the last train from the in the presence of an open fire place in the back cement works ran on 20 December 1989, and the office, but does include modern telephone and line was closed. internet connectivity. A group of mostly local railway enthusiasts By 2007 the old cement works were no longer Continued on next page 26 Contact November 2020 active and for a while CPRR had access to some completed negotiations with Network Rail (a ‘spare land’ and the railway lines running from it long process) to get track access from Thame up to the station. Eventually, the whole cement Junction into Platform 4 and on 15 August 2018 works site was sold to a developer for creation the first Heritage train ran from Chinnor all the of a housing estate. The land west of the station way into Princes Risborough Platform 4. At last was given to the railway by the developer in 2014 the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway was and work commenced on building an Engineering living up to its name. Shed, where maintenance work could be done all Please visit www.chinnorrailway.co.uk to book year round out of the weather, and the associated a ticket to travel – and don’t forget that local points and sidings to allow carriage stock and Chinnor residents (OX39) can ride at HALF the locos to be housed and shunted ready for use. Adult price until 1 November 2020; or maybe you During 2017-18 CPRR purchased a 99-year might even decide you want to become a Member lease on land at Princes Risborough and re- of the Association and get involved. built Princes Risborough Platform 4. They also Jane Tucker

Where is this? Can you identify these locations, visited by the Short Walks group? Answers below. 1 2

3 4

6

5

Wainhill towards The Lions at Bledlow at Lions The towards Wainhill

4 Cowleaze Woods; 5 Old Kiln Lakes, Chinnor; 6 Looking from from Looking 6 Chinnor; Lakes, Kiln Old 5 Woods; Cowleaze 4

Rowant Nature reserve; 3 Entrance to Watlington Nature Reserve; Reserve; Nature Watlington to Entrance 3 reserve; Nature Rowant 1 Aston Rowant Nature Reserve; 2 A view of Chinnor from Aston Aston from Chinnor of view A 2 Reserve; Nature Rowant Aston 1

Contact Novermber 2020 27 Time

Jack woke with a start and automatically turned But still he wanted to savour what time he had off the radio alarm. It had interrupted a vivid left and fill it with activity, as much as possible in dream that he was half consciously trying to the circumstances, and perhaps slow it down. It recall. All he was left with was a feeling of anxiety was certainly worth a try. and seeking the illusive. Gradually he reassessed His reverie was interrupted by the door bell. his situation. Of course, in isolation. The sudden The floor mop and bucket were in the way and confirmed diagnosis meant that a fairly free reminding him of a chore he’d been putting off. lockdown had become more stringent for him. Surely his slippers had left no dirt to wash off the The familiar quip about bonus time after three floor. As he fumbled with the lock and chain he score years and ten was no solace. He could detect remembered it was Wednesday. Groceries delivery no real bonus. day. “OK. I’m coming,” he croaked. The tea hadn’t What was going to happen today, then? What lubricated his throat, mainly because half the cup new delights to pass the time? No need to check still remained engineering its hard water finish on his empty planner, just the usual: get up, make its surface. a pot of tea (why still a pot after all these years Eddie, his 16 year old Street Friend, had alone?) eat a light breakfast, wash up, clean teeth, volunteered to help out with shopping. He wasn’t get dressed. He flicked the egg timer round as at school but in between GCSEs and perhaps his egg came to the boil. It was mounted on a 6th form. He stood back as Jim opened the door painted wooden square, a faded souvenir of their wide and glanced down at his cardboard box of honeymoon. Watching the sandy grains of time groceries. slither through its slender waist made him feel “How are you keeping, Mr Kent?” melancholic. “Fine thanks, just fine. No worries,” came the Time was hanging limply, not even the automatic reply, just like answering the doctor’s slightest tug from a helpful breeze of activity. At enquiring greeting. But then he found himself the beginning of the lockdown, he’s heard wise asking after Eddie and his family. Jack had known words about getting a routine to make the time Eddie’s family for as long as he’d lived there and pass quickly, but a regular plan of doing not had seen the family expand although his wife had much and speaking to nobody did little to resolve been the main supplier of news. the issue. He’d always thought that time was As he stood on the doorstep listening to this like a landscape painting where the foreground smiling young person, he felt his mind open out was in sharp detail and jumped out eagerly to from his own narrow world. It had been some be appreciated. Then the middle ground was time since he’d spoken to the family. Time was recognisable but less clear and merged into a getting on for this busy youngster and Jim’s next vague grey blue of indefinite dreaming hills or order wasn’t ready so he said he’d phone him looming clouds. But since the diagnosis, the about the next week’s delivery. background was clearer and his allowed time had How did he come out with the excuse that he been more closely defined so his landscape had hadn’t had time to think about groceries when shrunk in his head. time was all he had these days.? Inclination Perhaps now he wasn’t seeking for time to pass was more the problem. He looked around him. more quickly, perhaps he should be damming its Unread books were stacked in the turning on the flow as best he could. How did those 18th century staircase, and envelopes waiting to be opened were citizens feel when eleven days were snatched from on the hall table. He clicked his tongue at himself, their calendar from their new Gregorian calendar? determined to be busy. Procrastinating meant The voice of a great aunt from many years ago he had jobs to do some other time, a ludicrously came to him. “Never mind my dear, the older comforting backlog of work in retirement. An you get, the faster time passes.” Certainly his empty and aimless future had normally panicked junior school years had seemed longer than his him. But the thought that his past was much secondary ones but he’d always put that down to longer than his future had given him a jolt. All he a greater input of learning into a more receptive could really do was make the most of his present, brain before hormones joined the race. Learning a gift. His future was beyond him and anyway, about a new environment generally meant that tomorrow never comes. the first week of a holiday passed more slowly When he did call Eddie’s home number he than the second. heard an older voice cautiously enquiring as

28 Contact November 2020 Continued on next page to who he was. He felt disappointed not to be talking to a keen youthful person and resented We’ll keep it going finding himself being by chance slotted into his own generation. Strangely enough, it was the first They asked us all to write a piece time he’d even thought that Eddie might have To go in Contact’s news grandparents. It needn’t be too long “Are you Eddie’s granddad?” The subject we could choose. “Yes, is that Jim from down the road? How’s your son?” I scratched my head, I thought and thought Well, that was opening a can of worms. Because Of what’s been going on. both were grieving, there had been bitter words But what with Covid holding forth between them at his mother’s funeral. Since then Our ‘get up and go’ has gone. neither of them had had the time or inclination to What can I say of what we’ve done communicate except for Christmas cards. His son and his children were the future When life has been put on hold? of his genes. Their souvenirs of him as a real There’s nothing happened in u3a, and meaningful person were his guarantee of I feared that groups would fold. extending his time through their lives. If they had But no – of course they will not fold nothing to say about him when his time was up, it Of better stuff we’re made would be as if he and his wife had never been. We’ll keep it going through thick and thin He was resolved. When he phoned his son And never, never fade. that evening, he wasn’t even going to mention his Janet Roebuck diagnosis. September 2020 Janet Erskine

A beautiful photograph of a heron © Diane Carver

Contact Novermber 2020 29 Gardening The summer of ‘Lockdown’

In March 2020, ‘lockdown’ began, and once the became a popular feature. The amazing knowledge Summer Programme of visits had been postponed of our members soon became apparent, as the ‘en bloc’ until 2021, the enormity of the situation Latin names came flying back by return email suddenly struck home. We were stranded in our within minutes, and identification problems were own homes and gardens for as long as it would solved overnight. take! We didn’t know how long it would take, and We had ‘themed’ weeks, for example ‘What can it was ‘not knowing’ that made everyone anxious. you see from your kitchen window?’ or ‘Which Tell a gardener that he is not allowed to leave plant in your garden gives you the most pleasure?’ his own garden for the entire summer, and he Or ‘Your favourite garden plant’. will not be unhappy. Add to that the fact that the We had weather related pictures: dark clouds, weather was exceptional – very mild, very dry, day rainbows, sunshine, raindrops on leaves; and after day of pleasant temperatures, we were on nature photos: butterflies, bees, and caterpillars! course for a lot of very happy gardeners. However, Then one day, there were no pictures! I had make him a prisoner in his own garden, take away already shared numerous pictures of my own the freedom to visit other gardens, take away the garden, so how was I going to fill an email when possibility of going to the garden centre, close there were no photos? That day, I happened to down all the retail outlets that normally sell the be planting some begonias into pots and stacking plants, the seeds, the compost, and suddenly all them up to make a tall planter, so I took photos of the gardeners are stressed. the process, and sent out the pictures as a project As Gardening Group Coordinator, I suggested for the day. Success – some people tried it out, and that if we couldn’t visit other gardens, then we were delighted with their results. Other projects should share the beauty of our own garden with followed… how to take fuchsia cuttings, and, by the rest of the group, taking photos and sending popular demand… how to take geranium cuttings. them for all to see. None of the photo-sharing ‘You make it look so easy’, came back the reply. programs I investigated were up to the task, and When the weather broke, we had a week of only a few of our members view our u3a Facebook what seemed like continuous rain. After the initial page, so I decided we could do the whole thing by euphoria because the water butts were full, (very email. Members could send their pictures to me, important), there was a concern: what photos I would collate them into a single email, and send were people going to send when gardening was out that to everyone, on a daily basis. of the question? A The power of the email! new theme emerged People quickly embraced this new method of – pictures of the communication and confidence grew. It was a creative projects learning curve for everyone. There were people that people were who had never sent a photo by email before, but working on began as the weeks progressed, they soon got into the to arrive; they routine – a little practice goes a long way. When included beautiful members realised that it was the supply of photos cross-stitch, that was key, they made a huge effort to take artistic creations, and send some pictures every day, whatever the macramé, sewing weather, and their input and help was absolutely projects, and one crucial. I can’t thank them enough. member’s husband Information as to how to obtain the essentials had been in the that were so necessary was soon circulated shed creating fantastic bird-boxes! Another between us – which nurseries were delivering member revealed that she had been using the compost, where to order seeds, how to obtain the time and her sewing machine to make PPE for things we needed. the NHS! Cue the photo of her sitting at her Members were a mine of information, too, on sewing machine in the lovely summer sunshine… our ‘mystery plant identification’ section. ‘What amazing! is this plant that has sprung up in my garden?’ Once lockdown eased, people started to get out Continued on next page 30 Contact November 2020 to National Gardens that had reopened and sent gardens are very photogenic in autumn, but come in photos of the places they were visiting, together the long, dark days of winter, we are going to need with truthful assessments as to whether it was something else, and meetings are not allowed. worth the trouble to actually go there. Some NT So it is time to embrace Zoom for our winter gardens had been somewhat neglected over the meetings. Having canvassed the opinion of the lockdown period, with only a skeleton staff, and members, and received a resounding ‘Yes’, the few volunteer gardeners – and it showed! Others speaker for the November meeting is booked to were much better and worth visiting. Gardening give his talk via Zoom. I intend to have a few group members make good garden critics! Photos practice goes with Zoom, to get our members were duly circulated to all. For those members familiar with it, as some of them haven’t used it who weren’t able to go out, due to health reasons before, and together we will learn. If only the few or their circumstances, this connection with the members who don’t have email would come on outside world kept them in touch. I began to board, they too could access these meetings. receive emails saying ‘Your email is the highlight For us, the world of the email now seems like of my day’, or ‘It gives me something to look the comfortable ‘normal’. Where would we be forward to every day’ and began to realise what an without it? It has seen us through so far, and important part of people’s lives this had become. hopefully will continue to do so, even as we move forward into winter, when normally the gardening Our September meeting goes quiet. In the old days they used to ‘put the We had one very important date in September garden to bed’ for the winter, but the garden never when we had a get-together of thirty of us, strictly really goes to sleep, it just rests a while, to come within social distancing guidelines, in a beautiful back stronger next year, and hopefully, we can do garden in Aston Rowant, at the home of two of the same. our members, Correen and Mike. The garden Ann Hine looked spectacular and Mike’s model railway was Group Co-ordinator admired by all. It was so lovely to see each other, to socialise, to chat and just to be ‘normal’. It Some comments from members who have been on was then that I became aware of the impact that the ‘receiving end’….. six months of daily emails from me had had on everyone. They had all made a contribution and “What a delight it has been to receive all the kindly presented me with two beautiful new pots, emails. The photos, messages and comments have and bulbs to plant in them. I was completely been so welcome and inspiring. Thank you” shocked! How lovely, what an amazing surprise, and my thanks to everyone. “Even on the worst days of lockdown, the The following week, the Rule of Six started, and newsletter cheers me up and gives me something more restrictions look set to follow. As summer to look forward to each day. It is a sheer pleasure turns to autumn, more regulations can only to keep in touch with fellow u3a Gardeners, and make things harder. We can still go out, still visit see what they are doing in their gardens, and hear gardens. In the short term we can still keep taking about the gardens they have visited. Thank you for photos, the theme is set – Autumn Colour. Most keeping us in touch.”

Contact Novermber 2020 31 Christmas Crossword

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Compiled by Bryan Roebuck Answers on page 23 DOWN 1 Irish 29 down. ACROSS 2 Get this to make your vegetable dish annoyed. 1 Was her garden contrary? 4 Owl’s nose? 3 Mum’s first flowery son. 5 No point to being pleasant before cream for desert. 6 I’m last, but still starting big. 7 To plant trees will get you this. 11 Digger which gets left at the M1 service area. 8 Dresser uses these to shorten what keeps the gate closed. 12 Sounds possessive in 60 minutes. 9 Sounds like the number before. 13 Antelope going back to the water grass. 10 This wind blows no-one any good. 15 Makes a mistake. 14 Action, but with 27 down it makes the bird extinct. 18 Sweet or green? 16 Are these what I owe you? 20 Salad for the Romans? 17 In maths there is singularly more than two kind. 23 Did it make the cows mad? 19 It is the same tree even after you have burnt it down. 24 Where the male swan gets his corn from. 20 Is this lettuce used in Greek salads? 25 Dead flowers. 21 Last time from 23 across. 26 Cunning parts of King’s Lynn. 22 The runner who goes north and south and is so thin. 31 Sounds like the German say no before ten. 27 See 14 down. 32 Indian ladies fingers. 28 The exotic flowery sounding brother from Liverpool. 33 With a dog it makes a cockney mobile. 29 Hot or roast for royal Ted. 36 Erica’s sister. 30 Comes at the end of 35 down but no longer in Chinnor 37 It thrived in big rewards. 34 Initially really strong hops mixed up to be found at 38 Father could have long spidery legs. Wisley. 39 Cheer for this type of vegetable. 35 The attempt you make when you play the game before Chinnor’s old Portland. 32 Contact November 2020