RAYLEIGH GRANGE u3a Newsletter - Edition No. 126 2021 Welcome to the March Newsletter MONTHLY MEETING AND ALL GROUPS CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE FROM THE CHAIRMAN It has been a very long and dark tunnel, but hopefully there is some light at the end of it. We obviously will update you as and when we receive guidance from the Association, but for now we will continue with our monthly Zoom talks. There was an excellent attendance for our last session and I look forward to your continued support. Let’s hope that we have seen the last of the snow and ice and, with the weather being a little brighter, we are able to take our exercise safely. If you have not yet done so, can I ask you to visit the Member Link Programme looking for ideas to rebuild the u3a community in 2021. (There is Member Link dedicated page on the u3a website.) I hope by now that the vast majority of us will have received our first COVID-19 jab and are looking forward to the second dose. Take care and keep safe and well. Bob Farrow MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS 2021 Hello everyone, After a very difficult year for all of us we find ourselves coming to the end of the membership year for Rayleigh Grange u3a and the time for renewal notices to be sent out. Whilst we acknowledge that, because of Covid, nothing much has happened since the first lockdown in March last year, we do sincerely hope that you will re-join for the coming year, ready for when we are up and running as best we can in the coming months. As an incentive to do so we have drastically reduced the membership fees for 2021 from £12 to only £5 (and only £1.50 for an Associate member). By the time you read this I will have sent out renewal letters to all those on email. All you have to do is check your details and send me the fee of £5 for the year. If you have problems with your details or have not received your renewal letter please contact me via the Contacts page on the website and I will be able to help. If you are not on email you will receive a letter with your newsletter. Kind regards Susan Neil Membership Secretary 2 EMAIL ADDRESSES If any member has either recently obtained an email address or just changed it, can they please forward details to us so our membership records can be updated. We are conscious that some people may have gone online for the first time during the pandemic, but we are unaware of their email address. If we are not updated members will be missing out on a lot of information that we are sending out regularly to all members who do have email addresses. Also we are aware that some members who do have current email addresses don't view their emails regularly and some, hardly ever. It would be useful if we all did so just to keep abreast of what is going on. The membership renewal process for 2021 will be starting very soon. If you have given us an email address that is how you will receive your renewal notice. If you wish to notify us of a change in your email address or mobile phone number please contact Susan or John via email or the Rayleigh Grange website: Rayleigh Grange u3a: Contact (u3asites.org.uk) or else ensure you do so in your membership renewal email. Susan Neil – Membership Secretary John Meggison – Website Editor QUIZ – GENERAL KNOWLEDGE 1. To what did Burma change its name in 2. Who wrote King Solomon’s Mines in 1989? 1885? 3. Which animal was once called a Foul 4. Within which group of islands is Scapa Marten? Flow? 5. Which clergyman is Primate of 6. Which comedian co-wrote the book England? “Life and How to Survive it”? 7. What sort of creature is a Loon? 8. What is the Severn Bore? 9. What is the imaginary country in “The 10. What is the length of a cricket pitch Prisoner of Zenda”? from wicket to wicket? Answers on page 9 3 LIFE IN LOCKDOWN WHITE HORSES A month or so ago I was sorting out questions for the newsletter quizzes from the many pages of quiz questions which have been provided by Cyril. I included the following question: In which county would you find a horse cut in the chalk of a hillside? The answer I had provided was Oxfordshire (formerly Berkshire). However, my fellow committee member Carol Bright, who knows the area well, challenged this answer – there is a White Horse in Westbury in Wiltshire. On checking the whereabouts of White Horses in England I discovered that there are in fact 16 of them and 8 in Wiltshire. I decided to put in another question! This gave Carol and I an idea for a little lockdown project – researching the White Horses of England (or geoglyphs to give them their correct name) so here goes with the results of one of the 8 in Wiltshire and of the Oxfordshire/Berkshire White Horse. Westbury White Horse – by Carol Bright The image of the White Horse, said to be Wiltshire’s best known hill figure, is carved into the chalk below Bratton Castle and is visible for miles around – but its true origins are unknown. It is one of the best situated of the Wiltshire white horses being high on a very steep slope and overlooking a marvellous panoramic view. 4 The horse stands 108 feet from nose to tail and stands 182 feet high. It has been adopted as a symbol, not only for the town of Westbury, but Wiltshire as a whole. Curiously it is the only horse figure in the county to be shown standing still rather than galloping. Although local legend tells that it commemorates the Battle of Ethandum in 878 when King Alfred the Great defeated the Danes, there is no trace of such a legend before the second half of the eighteenth century when, it is argued by some scholars, that the Westbury White Horse may have been first carved in the early 18th century as a symbol of loyalty to the New Protestant Hanoverian reigning house. The horse was restored in 1778, an action which may have obliterated another horse that had occupied the same slope. A contemporary engraving from the 1760’s appears to show a horse facing in the opposite direction that was rather smaller than the present figure. There is, however, no documentation or other evidence for the existence of a chalk horse at Westbury before 1742. By 1873 the horse had become somewhat mis-shapen and it was restored according to the directions of a committee appointed for the purpose. Edging stones were added to help hold the chalk in place. The shape of the present horse dates from this restoration. In the early twentieth century concrete was added to hold the edging stones in place. In the 1950’s the horse was concreted over by the local district council, apparently as a way to save on long-term maintenance costs. The horse was thoroughly cleaned in 1993. In 2003 the horse was vandalised when “Stop this War” was written in yellow in protest of the Iraq War. In 2006 the horse was repainted and the 1950’s damage was fully repaired and illuminated by Second World War searchlights. However the neck of the horse was vandalised again in 2010 when the word “wonkey” was written across it. The neck had to be re- whitened leading to the horse having a whiter neck than the rest of the body. In 2012 work began on cleaning the horse and this work was completed in 2012 and coincided with the Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. To celebrate the completion of the work the horse was again illuminated with searchlights. The horse is also illuminated at night with a tinted spotlight which changes colour during the Village Pump Festival which is held in the White Horse Country Park. The horse was again cleaned with high pressure water jets by up to 18 volunteer abseillers and financed by the local town council in 2018. Wiltshire folklore has it that when the nearby Bratton church clock strikes midnight, the White Horse goes down to the Bridewell Springs, below the hill, to drink. 5 The Uffington White Horse – by Ann Rawlinson The Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire is the oldest chalk cut hill figure in Britain and thought to be over 3,000 years old. Measuring 111 metres from the tip of its tail to its ear it was dated by “silt dating” in 1990 from the late Bronze Age. Its size and abstract flowing style set it apart from all other White Horse geoglyphs. It is notable that similar representations of horses appear on coins found in the area dating back to the early Iron Age. The horse was cut into the hill up to 3ft deep and not scratched into the chalk surface. It was formed from deep trenches filled with crushed white chalk. The horse may have been a territorial marker or a fertility symbol – its function is uncertain. Near to the Uffington horse is a flat-topped hill known as Dragon Hill and the Uffington horse is sometimes said to represent a dragon, not a horse. There is a story that St. George killed the dragon on Dragon Hill and the patch of bare chalk on the flat summit is the spot where the dragon’s blood fell.