The first Easy Walkers group took place in June with Group A going to Bestwood Lakes, Group B to Titchfield Park and Group C to Highfields Park. It was a lovely day for a gentle stroll.
On the visit to Highfields we managed to cross the lake, via the Stepping Stones, without anyone falling in!
We are already planning our July Walks, do come and join us.
Our visit last month was to Wellow for a history-based walk around the village. We met in the village schoolroom and had a brief early overview talk from Denis Hill, a historian who is always good value and has an ancestral connection with Wellow. Everyone was given a booklet of local area walks and a leaflet describing the village walk we were soon to take.
We enjoyed the stroll with our guide who explained what was important to see regarding the buildings, dam, gorge dyke which was along North Dark Lane (guess where next) South Dark Lane, and eventually on to the Green and the Maypole. It was good to see members with walkers managing to do the ‘off roading’ part of the walk. The weather (as ordered) was perfect, and a church warden kindly opened the church of St. Swithins which was unexpected – wonderful. Some members even said they would like to go back.
New Members
All u3a members are welcome to History Group meetings and there is plenty of room. There is no meeting in July or August as I, and the helpers, need holidays. Our next indoor meeting is at Central Methodist Church on Wednesday 18th September when Robert Mee, a speaker we have had several times before, will be coming to tell us about ‘The History Along the Erewash Valley Trail’.
Due to holidays and illness June has been a little slow for litter picking. Nevertheless 19 bags of litter have been collected by members of our group in an endeavour to help make our area a better place to live. Well done litter pickers, your time and effort are much appreciated!
At our June meeting Terry Hill summarised the importance of the work of the late Sir Peter Higgs of Higgs Boson fame.
He made a fantastic job of explaining the very challenging concept of how the Higgs boson was proposed in 1964 by Peter Higgs, François Englert, and four other theorists to explain why certain particles have mass.
Scientists confirmed its existence in 2012 through experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland. This discovery led to the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics being awarded to Higgs and Englert.
After Terry’s talk we had an attempt to produce a cyanotype image using light sensitive paper. Members were given their own paper to try this at home; the resulting images will be displayed at a later date.
Last year a topic we covered was about sustainability in fashion. Much of today’s ‘fast fashion’ ends in landfill rather than being recycled. Science member Christine Vincent has a particular interest in this field and modelled a very creative colourful dress she has made from old ties.
Next Meeting
Friday 19th July 10.00am – 11.45am, JGC- please bring your cyanotype results.
16th August – No meeting as we are away.
We will reconvene on Friday 20th September.
Our June walk started at Linby Village.
The route was across the meadow to Papplewick, into Moor Pond Woods following the footpaths by the River Leen to Grange Farm and Grange Mill.
Some of us could remember that once upon a time this used to be the location of Papplewick Lido. This was built on the site of the former Papplewick Grange, the home of Nottingham solicitor Jesse Hind, which was pulled down in 1932. The lido itself was built in the mid 1930s and demolished in 1995, with houses now built on the site.
Our return route took us via Papplewick Dam and the fishing pond back to Linby where we made good use of the facilities at Brooke farm.
July Walk
On Thursday 18th July we are meeting at the large lay-by car park at Greasley Church. Church Road Greasley NG16 2AB
Meet at 9.45am for a 10.00am start