SEE THE EVENTS PAGE FOR 'DATES FOR YOUR DIARY'
LETTER FROM THE CHAIR
Greetings and welcome to our October Newsletter
The nights are drawing in and the last of the tomatoes are off the vine. My wife is putting the garden “to bed”, which means I have to clean many ornaments and put them into hibernation!
Latest news from the Third Age Trust is that Sheila Crawley from the Ashbourne u3a has been elected Vice Chair and will officially take the role at the AGM on 15th October.
Our membership is strong and steady, and over the summer there has been much interest in members wishing to join groups that may be over-subscribed or temporarily non-active. Consider starting one yourself, perhaps with a friend or two. The Committee would be delighted to help with advice and possible financial support. Just come up to any Committee member at the Monthly Meeting, for example, for a chat!
See you soon,
Richard Lewis Chair Furness u3a
Silver Sunday at the Coro: 19th October
Yes: Silver Sunday is back!
Silver Sunday is a "national day where people of all generations can come together by hosting fun and free activities for older people". Last year, the Coro held its first Silver Sunday event, and following lots of good feedback, the event is being held again this year.
Furness u3a will again be well represented, with: performances on the stage from the Uke Troupe, the String Chickens and members of the Folk Club; dancing led by the English Country Dancing Group; a rolling display of photos from Digital Photography on the big screen; and stalls staffed by members of the Craft and Drawing Groups. The Committee will be on hand to talk to guests and sign up new members!
There will be other activities too, together with scrumptious cakes etc provided by Vintage Bakes.
The event is FREE, from 2.00pm to 4.30pm in the Coro on Sunday 19th October. See you there!!
If you have any queries about the event, please contact our secretary, Neil McLaughlin Cook
Charter Festival Fun Day
Furness u3a had a stand at the Charter Festival Fun Day on the 6th September. We had a decent amount of interest in what we had to offer and raised the profile of Furness u3a.
We also hopefully gained some new members. The weather was good unlike the dreadful weather for the Lantern Procession a couple of weeks later.
Harry Knowles
Interim Publicity Officer
MEMBER NEWS
Linda's Geordie Jog
One of our members, Linda Croud, set herself a challenge last year. She took up running, starting with the Barrow and Ulverston Park Runs, and then rashly signed up for the Great North Run. She joined the Parkvale Panthers Running Club in February, who gave her lots of support and encouragement. She was finally ready for the Great North Run which was held in Newcastle on 7th September with around 60,000 runners. The run is a Half Marathon so a taxing 13 miles. We're pleased to report that Linda completed it with ease in 2 hrs 54 minutes, and then went on to join the Friday Walkers walking holiday in Yorkshire! She related many anecdotes to us - from the steel bands, spectator support, inspiring competitors, the contents of the goodie bag, to the medal with the wrong river on it, and made it sound almost fun, but I don't think any of us felt tempted to follow her example!
Here's what Linda said, “The Great North Run is a fantastic event. It's incredibly well organised, with a huge amount of public support along the way.
I found the training hard, especially in wet and cold weather. It was all worthwhile; such a brilliant day, and one that I will never forget. Thank you to everyone who sponsored me.”
As well as the physical achievement of the run, Linda ran on behalf of St Mary's Hospice, and raised over £1200. Huge congratulations on both counts, Linda!
Dawn Elsworth
U3A NORTH WEST SUMMER SCHOOL 2025
With a change of venue from previous years the August Summer School was another success. Held at Manchester Metropolitan University the venue was easily accessible either by car (on site multistorey car park) or by public transport and, as in previous years, around eight different subjects, from Uzbekistan to Ukulele were on offer. As the summer school is very popular – with ‘students’ travelling from all over the country- some subjects were full quite early on, and some applicants were disappointed. The course fees, whilst at first sight seemed slightly expensive for a 4-day course, did include full-board and very modern en-suite rooms in student flats with kitchen/lounge facilities and the tuition was also included.
The tutors were very accomplished, and our archaeology tutor was a very knowledgeable and experienced retired university lecturer who made the teaching sessions very interesting and enjoyable.
The picture above shows the "Neolithic to Iron Age Archaeology" group on a site visit to Arbor Low Stone Circle.
In the evening a range of activities had been organised with a quiz on the first night, a magician entertaining people on the second evening and a lecture on astronomy and a gala dinner - with wine and waiters – on the final evening. Members were also treated to a performance by the Ukulele group.
If you’re keen not to miss out on the 2026 Summer Schools keep an eye out for publicity in the Third Age Matters magazine or in the national u3a monthly newsletter. You can apply to any courses in the country.
Linda Marshall and Simon Baxter
GROUP NEWS
We are fortunate to have several book clubs in Furness u3a but such is the demand that they are full to overflowing resulting in some cases to waiting lists. We are consulting with these groups to see if we can form a new group to cater for this overflow.
We would also like to appeal to those keen readers who are not book club members to let us know if they would be interested in joining a new club especially anyone who has experience in leading literary groups.
I have also had an enquiry from Carol Green who is interested in starting a new Creative Writing Group.
In the first instance for both of these ideas please contact Groups Liason Duncan Platts
LOCAL HISTORY
LOCAL HISTORY GROUP MEETING 8TH SEPTEMBER 2025 - THE DIARIES OF WILLIAM FLEMING – A YEOMAN FARMER
Susan Benson Barrows Archivist gave a detailed account of the 19th century diaries of William Fleming who’s farming family appear in the Pennington parish registers from 1613.
A yeoman farmer could be described as an independent owner occupier or manorial customary tenant who is secure in his land holdings. They were not of great wealth or social standing in the Furness area. They did however play an important part in the economic and social life in the community. The diaries were contained in 10 leather bound volumes but 3 are missing and cover a period 1798 to 1821 and include a wide area of interests of William Flemings life which include botany, natural history, weather, social comment, and agriculture. Comments made of Fleming’s work, handwriting at best legible and fine. His spelling and punctuation are not of the same excellence.
He was born in June 1770 the son of William and Mary who lived at Greenmoor House, Pennington. William married Sarah Hodgson of Ulverston in April 1805, and they had 10 children. William owned tenanted farms in the area and property in Ulverston. His land holdings not exceeding 300 acres. In his will of 1829, he is described as a gentleman and his home as a mansion house. Fleming worked as an Overseer of the Poor in local government but had many criticisms including the magistery. He was a Surveyor of the Highways and supervision of statute labour.
He was not keen on the clergy and there were many disputes recorded. There are many recordings of travel in and around the locality. Blood sports are covered particularly cock fighting and fox hunting which he disapproved along with all the vices attributed. There is much social comment and the culture of the times. Never received in the great houses of the neighbourhood Fleming had the tastes and cultivation of a gentleman. His diaries contain comment on medicine prevailing at the time and folk remedies.
William attended Urswick Free School receiving a strong foundation in the classics but never went to university. William was full of admiration of Thomas Fisher a successful self-made businessman and there is an account of William Close.
Fleming was a keen botanist, and he makes much comment on local industry including from his sound knowledge of agricultural activities including National events taking place. There is comment on the weather and a section on the life of George Romney
A thoroughly absorbing talk from Susan Benson appreciated by all those members present.
Chris Wright, supporting Group Leader
ENVIRONMENT MATTERS
Style it Out
This month the Environment Group had a talk from Gail from the Cumbria Clothing Collective, an organisation she founded to reduce the volume of clothing waste going to landfill. She told us she was inspired by a Simon Reeve documentary about the huge pile of discarded clothing lying in the Atacama Desert in Chile, which is visible from Space.
This is an environmental disaster in itself. However, in this country we tend to send unused clothing to Ghana, where again anything not re-sold just becomes a pile of rubbish. Did you know that most clothing returned to on-line shops is just thrown away (and probably ends up in Ghana) because it is uneconomical to prepare it for resale? As people often buy several outfits to try on in this way, this quickly becomes a huge problem.
Gail did have suggestions about what we could do:
- Pass on unwanted clothing by donating to charity – the Salvation Army is a good place as they can resell, reuse or recycle clothing saving 99% from landfill.
- Organise or take part in a clothing swap.
- Repair Clothes
A good place to look is clothing app “Good on You” which can tell you about ethical and sustainable clothing and beauty products, as well as shops which will re-cycle certain types of clothing.
Then Carole from Wardrobe Wake Up told us how to search within our own wardrobes and encouraged us to use clothes we don’t normally wear. She told us most people wear 20% of our wardrobe contents 80% of the time. She gave us ideas on how to dress up clothes we don’t normally wear and make them suitable for a variety of occasions.
She also encouraged us when buying new clothes to buy good quality and to check for The Rule of 3 and ask yourself…
1. Does this piece go with 3 other items I already have in my wardrobe?
2. Can I layer it for 3 different seasons?
3. Can I accessorize it for 3 different occasions?
We can also buy from charity shops or vintage shops and look after our clothes by repairing them ourselves or at a repair cafe.
We had a very enjoyable meeting and learnt a lot from Gail and Carole. Now we just have to put all their good ideas into practice!
Rosie Kyles
WORLD HISTORY
German History , Religion and Culture
As a crucial part of our study of German History we had an overview presentation of the Holy Roman Empire. It was also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512. It was a complex political entity in Central and Western Europe usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It lasted for over a millennium from 800 AD to its dissolution in 1806. Its roots trace back to the early medieval Frankish kingdom of Charlemagne who was crowned emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III in 800 symbolising a revival of the Western Roman Empire’s legacy. After Charlemagne’s empire fragmented, the German king Otto I revived the imperial title in 962 creating what became known as the Holy Roman Empire -a federation of territories.
At its peak the empire encompassed modern-day Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Northern Italy and parts of the Low Countries operating under an elective monarchy where emperors were chosen by prince-electors. Throughout the Middle Ages it was closely tied to the Catholic Church with emperors seeking papal approval and many struggles over secular and religious authority. From the 16th Century the Empire became increasingly a patchwork of independent states especially after the Protestant Reformation and the devastating Thirty Years War. It persisted as a loose confederation under the Habsburg dynasty but increasingly lost relevance with the rise of centralised nation states like France and Prussia rose. It was dissolved in 1806 under pressure from Napoleon. It had though played a crucial role in shaping European politics, law and culture bridging antiquity and modernity.
We will continue our fascinating study into German History , Religion and Culture and any member is welcome to join our group.
(Picture of Holy Roman Emperor-Frederick 111)
If you would like to join us, please contact Rosie Kyles
QUESTERS
The Quester's group visit for September was to Windermere Library where we learned about the 300 Jewish children who had survived the holocaust at the end of the Second World War and were brought from the concentration camps to Windermere for some recuperation and rehabilitation. We had a fascinating talk highlighting some of the unimaginable problems these children had to overcome and also the incredible kindness of the local community towards them. We heard of them hoarding food as they didn't know if there would be any more, of bicycles being left for them to borrow and cigarettes where they could be found and used for payment in shops (the children were used to bartering cigarettes in the camps) We also saw a film which had interviews with some of the survivors recording their impressions of coming from the horrors of the camps to the beauty of the Lake District, their overriding first impression seemed to be "clean sheets". An exhibition well worth a visit if you're in Windermere with some time to spare. I think without exception, we were all moved by the stories we heard and thank Janet Kelly and Joan Bush for organising this visit.
Our Next Questers Visit
Now, as always, we must look forward to our October visit which will be to Pure Lakes Toiletries and Candle factory in Far Sawry. Hazel Smith and Christine Stuart-Woodburn are organising this and already have a long list of names. Numbers are limited so if you would like to go on this trip and haven't already put your name down, please email Christine Stuart-Woodburn as soon as you can. This is a free trip and we will have a tour of the workshop, a demonstration of candle making and an opportunity to purchase their products at the end. All sounds very interesting, thank you Christine and Hazel.
The Questers Christmas meal will be on Wednesday 17th December this year and Sheila Slack will be taking names and payment for this at the monthly meeting. Details have been sent out to members already, so please have your menu choices and the correct money ready at the meeting. This is an enormous task for Sheila, so this year we are taking full payment in advance to try and save her some work. Thanks very much Sheila.
Please see the Questers Group page for details, or contact Tim Evans or Sue Whibley
VISITING GARDENS
Last month we had a very enjoyable day out to Holehird Gardens which are run by the Lakeland Horticultural Society. As usual the gardens were full of colour. It really is a treat at any time of year.
This month we are going to Beetham Nurseries on Tuesday 21st October. We will be meeting in Victoria Road Cul-de-sac for carsharing at 9.45am and leaving at 10am. The cost is £4.50 for a lift. Please book your place by 17th October saying whether you are willing to drive or need a lift, by emailing Diane Hill
SOME OTHER SOURCES OF WIDER U3A NEWS
There are several places where you can catch up on U3A news from further afield.
There is a U3A Friends Group who send out a regular newsletter. You can see the September edition here, and if you would like to subscribe there is a link at the bottom of their newsletter.
There is a U3A YouTube channel U3A
The North West Region of the U3A have their own website, and a quarterly newsletter.