Holiday 8th to 12th July 2013

As Local History Group Organisers for the Rayleigh U3A, we have used Kirby’s Coaches for several of our visits. Kirby’s have now invited us to arrange a group of minimum 25 persons on the 8^th to 12^th July inclusive to stay at the Auckland Hotel, Morecambe, visiting the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales. The special rate of £229 per person includes half board accommodation, coach outings and evening entertainment.

 

We will leave Rayleigh on the morning of Monday the 8^th July, have a comfort stop at Cambridge Services 14 miles north of Cambridge on the A14, make a lunch stop at Dobbies and arrive at our hotel at 04.00pm. You will be greeted at the Auckland Hotel with a warm and friendly welcome at this family run hotel, ideally situated on Morecambe Bay’s promenade. All bedrooms are en suite with TV, hairdryer and tea/coffee making facilities. The Auckland is renowned for its high standard of cuisine, served in the spacious and inviting restaurant. There is a lift to all floors. This hotel has been fully refurbished to a high standard. During these tours there will be some excursions to: a tour of the Lake District visiting Bowness and the Kirkstone Pass, Ullswater, Thirlmere and Grasmere. A Yorkshire Dales tour including Hawes with opportunity to visit the Wensleydale Creamery and the Butter Tubs Pass or of your choosing. These trips are included in the holiday price but any extra visits to historic buildings, boat trips, meals etc would be at your own cost.

We leave Morecambe on the return journey on the morning of Friday 12^th, making a lunch stop at Boundary Mills, Grantham. Just off the A1within Downtown Superstore. Plenty of opportunity to shop and two coffee shops.

 

This is not a U3A holiday and is open to all. We will need your names as soon as possible so that we can confirm the booking with Kirby’s. Contact David Fryer-Kelsey on davefk@lineone.net or 01702 203455 or Heather Flemmings on heatherfl@lineone.net or 01702 203455. We will arrange for payment to Kirby’s later when the booking is confirmed.

 

July visit to Gravesend

On Wednesday 17^th July 2013 we visit Gravesend via Tilbury. Drive past the docks to the ferry landing stage and park there. The ferry runs every 30 minutes and costs £2.00 for an off-peak return. Walk up the High Street towards the St. George’s shopping centre and look out for the Information Centre. There we will meet our guide and start the tour.

The River Thames has been important to Gravesend since Roman times. Chalk also played an important part being quarried for agricultural and building purposes.

Pocahontas, the native American Indian princess, was buried in St George’s church and there is a statue of her in the churchyard. The riverside has several old pubs with smuggling associations. The Town Pier has a restaurant and a viewing platform with a great view of the busy Thames. The Blockhouse is an old fort overlooking the river and contains the oldest building in Gravesend, the Milton Chantry with many displays and artifacts. The Riverside Leisure area gives an excellent point to view shipping.

There has been a large Sikh community here since the turn of the 20^th century and they have built a magnificent new temple, The Gurdwara, which non-Sikhs are allowed to visit, with due respect regarding covering the head and removing footware.

There are large covered shopping areas in the town centre along with traditional shops and many fine eating places. Enjoy a leisurely exploration before returning to the ferry.

The cost of the guide is £2.50

 

June coach trip to Stowmarket

For our June visit we take a coach to Stowmarket  to see the Museum of East Anglian Life. The coach will deliver us to the museum in the centre of Stowmarket where tea/coffee and other refreshments are available in the Osier cafe. (Not included in price).

Discover the history and natural world of East Anglia on a beautiful 75 acre site. Learn about fascinating East Anglian crafts and traditional Gypsy culture, get steamed up with the powerful engines, meet friendly animals including rare breeds of cattle and sheep. Explore 15 splendidly restored historic buildings including Abbots Hall, built in 1709 and containing a number of rooms illustrating life through the ages.As you walk out of the gates of the Hall, you are in the centre of Stowmarket, an ancient Suffolk market town. Visit the market place, the ancient buildings and the beautiful church and try one of the many drinking and eating establishments.

The cost is £19.00 per person which covers the coach fare, a gratuity for the coach driver and entrance to the museum. Wednesday 19^th June 2013 at 09.00am from Kirbys Coaches depot. Also picking up at Webster’s Way and Rayleigh railway station.

 

Book and pay at our table by the bar at the monthly U3A meetings in the Mill Hall.

Cheques made payable to Rayleigh U3A.

Short itinerary for 2013 dated Oct 2012

Our next meeting will be a slide show and talk about the Local and Surrounding Area given by Paul Taylor. He gave us a fascinating slide show in 2012. He has a fantastic fount of knowledge about the history of our area and will be sharing with us even more of his extensive collection of slides.

Thursday 21^st March 2013 at the Rayleigh WI hall, 10.00 to 12.00.

Tea/coffee/biscuits will be provided. Cost is £2.00 per person.

 

On Wednesday 10^th April 2013 we will visit the Combined Military Services Museum in Maldon from 10.30 onwards.  This is a hidden gem of a museum holding an amazingly large and diverse collection including firearms, spy equipment, Special Forces weapons including a Cockleshell Heroes canoe, English Civil War arms and armour plus more fantastic displays. They have recently opened a new display on military surgery through the ages. They have acquired a set of documents, plans and photographs used by the Germans to plan their invasion of Britain and items belonging to the Auxiliary Battalions who were to fight behind the lines after an invasion. Staff are on hand to answer questions throughout visit.

Free parking, gift shop. Introductory talk and unlimited tea/coffee. £6.00 per person.

 

We go to Beeleigh Abbey near Maldon on Wednesday 15^th May 2013. The grounds include three acres of spacious and peaceful gardens in an historic and rural setting. The backdrop has the remains of a 12^th century abbey incorporated into a mainly 17^th century private residence. The gardens lead down to the River Chelmer. Tour of the house followed by your own time to explore the gardens. Tea/coffee/cakes and biscuits included.

Wheelchair access to the ground floor only. £16.50 per person.

 

Due to the large number of new members of the Rayleigh U3A we have a lot of interest in the Local History Group. As the numbers of visitors allowed at these venues is limited, it is advisable to book early or you may miss the boat.

Book for these visits at our table at the next monthly U3A meeting on 1^st November 2012. Pay when booking or at the next U3A meeting on 03^rd January 2013.  Cheques made out to U3A Rayleigh please.

Meeting on 18 October 2012

We regret that the Local History Group meeting on 18th October has been cancelled owing to a mixup by the WEA and the WI over dates. Therefore our next meeting will be on 21st March 2013. We shall of course have a table at the monthly U3A meetings as usual to take bookings and help with your queries.

Lavenham and Sudbury 19 September 2012

We took a Kirby’s coach to the Suffolk medieval wool town of Lavenham.

It was a lovely ride through the gently rolling landscape of Suffolk, lanes and paths winding between fields, high hedgerows, scattered ancient woodlands, isolated farmsteads and historic villages.

Lavenham was the prosperous centre of the wool trade and the 14^th most wealthy town in medieval England. When the type of cloth made there went out of fashion, people could no longer afford to build or repair houses and so the town’s architecture today remains much as it was then, with a wealth of fine timbered buildings.

With no local stone for building, Lavenham’s medieval houses were built on an oak frame with gaps between beams filled with wattle (slender sticks) and daub (clay, chalk and straw). The buildings were limewashed, a practice still used today to allow moisture to evaporate and let the building ‘breathe’.

You may be surprised that the buildings are not the traditional black and white but the experts have found that they were not originally like that – it was a Victorian fad.

Wood does tend to flex much more than we are used to with brick. Some of the buildings look positively dangerous as they lean on their neighbours but they have stood the test of time.

We started our tour at the magnificent church of St Peter and St Paul, whose very high tower can be seen from the coach long before you reach the village. It was built at the accession of the Tudors and paid for mostly by the Spryng family, rich clothiers and the Earl of Oxford, John de Vere.

A steady walk down the High Street, lined with timber houses, brings you to the market place and the Guildhall of Corpus Christi. Originally built as a meeting place it has remained at the heart of village life for almost five hundred years through many different uses, a town hall, a prison, a workhouse and ARP centre in the Second World War. We had tea and cake there when we first arrived.

After the tour we dispersed to the many shops, galleries, pubs and restaurants before taking the coach to Sudbury.

Sudbury is an old market town with many old buildings of its own dating back to the wool and silk trades. It still has a lively market and many shops. It’s most famous man is Gainsborough the artist. His house is a museum and there is a statue in the market.

 

 

Mersea Island 15th August 2012

The Mersea Island Museum is an independent museum established in 1976 and occupying purpose-built premises in the centre of West Mersea, just to the east of the Parish Church. The traditional local activities of fishing, oystering, wild fowling and boat building are represented. The reconstruction within the museum of a typical weather-boarded fisherman’s cottage provides an interior display centred on a Victorian coal-fired kitchen range, with adjoining facilities for washing clothes using old-fashioned manual equipment.

They currently have an exhibition of the contents of the Roman Barrow on Mersea. It contained the remains of  a cremation in a glass urn which had been placed in a lead casket, a brick enclosure built round it and the whole thing covered in earth to make a sizeable mound which is still visible near the entry to the island.

We then moved to the church of St Peter and St Paul in the High Street. It is very ancient and it is believed that the first church was built on Roman foundations in the 7^th or 8^th century. The interior is very beautiful with some modern coloured window glass.

Our guide then took us along the promenade pointing out the various buildings of interest, the boats and the fishing sheds finishing up at the west end of the island which is a small village in its own right.

After lunch some of us visited the Roman barrow and went inside by the passage left by the excavation.