Speaker: Max Keen. Well, was Nelson our greatest mariner? Make your own mind up as the facts, figures, battles, personalities and good old derring-do are presented by Max dressed as a French admiral?? Hmm……..come and find out why! It’s time to take on Napoleon’s fleet with the armaments of humour, tongue-in-cheekiness, all wrapped up in an attempt to put the record straight about his lordship!

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Entry is free to u3a members. Non-members are welcome for a nominal charge of £1

Crich Tramway Village, set in beautiful Derbyshire countryside, is a unique open air museum that combines a recreated period village with a working tramway where visitors can enjoy a memorable journey. 

Cost: £44 per person - (coach, coffee/cake stop and entrance}

Speaker: Christine Green worked as a graphic designer at the BBC for 13 years creating opening title sequences for many popular TV programmes including the Queen’s Speech, ‘Our Friends in the North’, ‘Island Race’ and ‘Foyles  War’. Her talk includes many show reels, story boards and art work. She is both a designer and maker, passionate about textiles, graphics, typography, moving image, paper cutting, etc. Christine has received several international awards including a BAFTA nomination.

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Entry is free to u3a members. Non-members are welcome for a nominal charge of £1

We are holding our AGM just prior to this Month's Open Meeting. It will take about 20 minutes.

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Our AGM, about 20 mins, then Speaker: Roger Browne on Fats Waller who was a superb entertainer with his fabulous piano playing, wonderful songs and his larger-than-life personality. He led a riotous life, some hilarious, some shocking, some Mafia related and some moving. Hear his story and his awesome music through Roger Browne who we are delighted to welcome back to entertain us.

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Entry is free to u3a members. Non-members are welcome for a nominal charge of £1

Speaker: Amelia Perkins, The British Divers Marine Life Rescue provide specialist help to marine mammals, 24/7, whether it be a full-blown environmental disaster or a single seal needing help. As a marine mammal medic, she explains how the charity helps whales, dolphins, porpoises and seals, whether they are stranded or in need of urgent medical help.

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Entry is free to u3a members. Non-members are welcome for a nominal charge of £1

Cambridge, famous for its colleges, grew from small settlements in the bronze and iron ages to today’s university city with its many museums including the most famous being the Fitzwilliam Museum. There are walking tours, a hop-on bus to take you around the major sights, plus a large variety of shops and a Christmas Market.

Cost: £20 pp

It’s time to book a place at this year’s Christmas Lunch. Once again it’s at the Kenilworth Golf Club where we had such a successful Summer Lunch in August. There are tables of eight places, why not make up a table for your group?

Venue: Kenilworth Golf Club

Cost: £32.50 for 2 courses, £35.50 for 3 courses (includes a staff tip - but not drinks)

Speaker: Martin Lloyd. Three passports have played an influential role in the course of history: an attempted assassination, which altered the regulations for issuing passports; the capture of a spy that caused a worldwide modification to the design of the document; and for one person, the passport itself that turned into a killer. Author and former immigration officer Martin Lloyd has made the study of passports his passion and reveals their role in the course of history in this talk.

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Entry is free to u3a members. Non-members are welcome for a nominal charge of £1

We will be holding an Open Afternoon at the Kenilworth Methodist Church on the afternoon of Saturday October 18th. The aim is to showcase the wide range of interesting and fun things that Kenilworth u3a has to offer, both to members of the public and to our own members. It is the only time that there is the chance to see all of our activities together in one place.

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Free entrance

Speaker: Ray Sturdy. The 60s... …a defining decade with flourishing art, music and fashion. In 10 years much of Britain was transformed from the bleak 1950s into a time full of freedom, hope and promise with new cars, motorways, miniskirts, the Twist, Twiggy and Concorde plus scandals, a royal wedding, a moon walk and nearly a nuclear war! Join us, as Ray Sturdy takes back to a time when petrol was only five shillings a gallon!

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Entry is free to u3a members. Non-members are welcome for a nominal charge of £1

A visit to Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, a National Trust property featuring Italian Renaissance architecture and valuable collections.

Cost: £18pp (National Trust Members) £38 (non members)

Speaker: Kenilworth u3a member Clive Sutton who tells the story of how as a boy he dreamed of piloting his own aircraft. Following a long career in aviation and automotive engineering, including seven years in the RAF, he eventually did so

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Entry is free to u3a members. Non-members are welcome for a nominal charge of £1

After such a successful Christmas Lunch last December we are returning to Kenilworth Golf Club for our Summer Lunch. Ther are tables of eight places, why not make up a table for your group? All menu Choices and payment must be in by 12th August

Venue: Kenilworth Golf Club

Cost: £35 for 2 courses, £37.50 for 3 courses. This includes a tip but not drinks

The morning will start with a visit to the town of Hungerford, a historic market town and civil parish in Berkshire. The afternoon is a two hour horse drawn canal cruise with choice of drink and Cake

Cost: Cost £44pp

Speaker: Alan Cutler. An Edwardian murder trial from over 100 years ago dramatised by our speaker who plays judge, prosecuting and defence counsels using transcriptions of the trial. The Audience – The Jury - will hear the evidence. What will you decide in weighing the arguments presented by the prosecuting and defending counsels?

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Entry is free to u3a members. Non-members are welcome for a nominal charge of £1

Speaker: Alex Harvey. Two brothers, Alex and Jon Harvey co-founders and creative directors at a local virtual reality studio, decided to look deeper into the legend. Join us to hear the story of how the tunnels were found and see the images of the tunnels discovered by Alex, Jon and their team. Learn what historians now think they were for!

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Entry is free to u3a members. Non-members are welcome for a nominal charge of £1

Speaker: Martin Woolston. Unexplained aerial phenomena, flying saucers and ball lightning, is not a jolly subject but a down to earth description of vehicles, beings and some of the unpleasant happenings. Also countering the conventional view that UFOs come from other worlds, when the evidence is that they have always been here, but may have connections with other worlds or realms

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Entry is free to u3a members. Non-members are welcome for a nominal charge of £1

Morning visit to Trentham Gardens in Staffordshire with an afternoon visit to Gladstone Pottery, a working museum exploring the history and heritage of pottery making.

Cost: cost £38 – includes guided tour & hot drink and cake at the Pottery

Speaker: Steve Dimmer. Why are so many of the most memorable comedy characters the grumpy ones? There is a direct line from Pa Glum, Tony Hancock, Albert Steptoe, Alf Garnet, Rigsby, Basil Fawlty and Victor Meldrew among many others… the list goes on and on of the bad tempered and irritable. Steve Dimmer takes a hilarious journey examining the thread, with lots of clips, laughs and grumbles along the way. Prepare to be rocking in your seat…

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Entry is free to u3a members. Non-members are welcome for a nominal charge of £1

Speaker: Max Keen. Alfred the Great was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. How much did Alfred owe his 'Greatness' to ‘lads luck’… And did he burn his cakes or is that merely a myth? In full costume, Max will attempt to answer this and other important questions, complete with chain mail, helmet, spear, shield, sword and the most fearsome double handed axe!

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Entry is free to u3a members. Non-members are welcome for a nominal charge of £1

Speaker Fran Sandham. Critically acclaimed author and public speaker Fran Sandham took on the challenge of a lifetime by walking coast-to-coast across Africa, from the Atlantic on Namibia’s Skeleton Coast to the Indian Ocean near Zanzibar This was the first time on record anyone has crossed Africa solo entirely on foot by this route - or at least solo apart from a disastrous donkey! He undertook this 3,500-mile journey with no backup, no support team, no sponsors, no film crew, and no strings attached.

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Entry is free to members. Non-members are welcome for a nominal charge of £1.

Speaker: Roger Browne. raconteur, historian and musician entertains us brilliantly once again, with live music… …on the history of jazz… how it came to UK from the United States in the 1920s and its impact on British Society… Life was never the same again drugs, drink, scantily dressed women, wild behaviour and much more!

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Entry is free to members (non-members welcome for a £1 donation)

After such a successful Summer Lunch in August we are returning to Kenilworth Golf Club for our Christmas Lunch. Ther are tables of eight places, why not make up a table for your group?

Venue: Kenilworth Golf Club

Cost: Two Courses £24, Three Courses £30. This includes a tip, but not drinks

Waddesdon Manor is a country house just over an hour away from Kenilworth set in the village of Waddesdon, in Buckinghamshire, England. Owned by the National Trust and managed by the Rothschild Foundation, it is one of the National Trust's most visited properties.

Cost: £33 for NT members, Non-NT members £50

Speaker: Sheila Robinson. Warwickshire is steeped in the supernatural with castles, houses, churches, theatres, inns and many other places having mind numbing tales of ghostly presences. Come and be chilled by tales of haunted places, eerie happenings and shadowy presences

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Entry is free to members (non-members welcome for a £1 donation)

Speaker: Alan Deeley. Alan is a keen part time Beekeeper who lives locally in Burton Green. His talk is about the fascinating world of Bees, their lives , hives, and their honey production

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Entry is free to members (non-members welcome for a £1 donation)

This open-air museum offers visitors the opportunity to step back in time to experience the sights, sounds and aromas of the Black Country during 1850-1950.  The tour is self-guided so visitors can do as much or as little as they want to. There are over 80 reconstructed shops, pubs, houses, workshops and a school, many of them interactive, where you meet characters who will tell you what it was really like to live during that time.

Cost: £35pp

Speaker Adrian James. Adrian has previously given a talk at our Open Meeting – ‘Gardens of Paradise’. It was very well received so we are delighted he has agreed to join us again. He will takes us through the year with stories & folklore associated with plants and trees, the turning of the seasons, seasonal festivities & celebrations etc.

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Entry is free to members (non-members welcome for a £1 donation)

The trip is now fully booked but there may be late cancellations. Contact the booking team to find out.

Cost: Cost £31 including Garden Entrance (reduction of £2 for wheelchair users)

Speaker: Dr. Gillian White This talk examines the portraiture of ‘Good Queen Bess’ and traces the development of an English icon from tentative beginnings to the triumph of royal propaganda. […]

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Entry is free to members (non-members welcome for a £1 donation)

Graham Sutherland, author of Warwick - Bloody British History sheds light on some of the less savoury aspects of the town’s history. Hundreds of dark and scandalous events have happened in Warwick over the centuries, from the murder of Piers Gaveston, the king's lover to the incredible histories of the Earls of Warwick. The Gunpowder Plot started here and the castle's horses stolen when the plotters tried to escape. Come and hear about martyrs, murderers and corrupt officials, crimes, ghosts, prize-fighters and eccentrics, you'll never see the town in the same way again!

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Entry is free to members (non-members welcome for a £1 donation)

The Outing to Sunnycroft and Shrewsbury was fully booked and looked at their best on the sunny much warmer day we had.

Speaker: Max Keen has previously entertained us with his lively and animated talks in full period costume. Max likes to be controversial at times to stimulate historical thought and debate.

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Cost: Entry is free to members (non-members welcome for a £1 donation)

A.G.M. (Annual General Meeting) is being held at 2.15pm and should take about 15 mins. Please do support us by email, post or in person so that we are quorate. - followed by The History of Jazz Piano - Speaker: Roger Browne

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

A Talk by Graham Short The subject of this talk was one of the most bizarre we have ever booked. It may have been a strange topic but Graham Short […]

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

A talk by Fran Sandham Most people know about the meeting in Africa in 1871 between the explorer Doctor David Livingstone and the journalist Henry Morton Stanley and the famous […]

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

The last trip of the year was a pre-Christmas trip to the City of Nottingham. Members were free to explore wherever they fancied – and finally to visit the City […]

A talk by Dr Gillian White Most people have, or have had, a Teddy Bear, so it was of considerable interest for our speaker, Dr Gillian White, to enlighten us […]

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

A Talk by Georgie Hale Georgie Hale gave us a masterclass in presenting a dramatic sea rescue with no notes or visual aids. It was in 2001 that Georgie’s husband, […]

Venue: Kenilworth Methodist Church

Ickworth’s origins can be traced back to the Domesday Book of 1086, when it was recorded as a settlement of 16 households belonging to the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds. Nearly 200 years later, in 1254, the Crown granted Thomas de Ickworth land here to create a deer park. It’s also thought that he might have been responsible for founding the 13th-century church, sections of which form part of the existing St Mary’s Church.

Thursday 6th July - Price £33.00ppRHS members and one guest £24.50 **RHS members must give their membership number on the booking form and the name of any guest accompanying them. […]

A party of 34 members spent a very enjoyable day visiting Derbyshire. Our first stop was the spa town of Buxton, the joint highest town in England. For most of us the first place to visit was the Pavilion Gardens, beautifully laid out with plants and trees, with a small lake and paths to walk around. The café with coffee and cakes was also very welcome.