U3A CARRICK - SOME USEFUL BACKGROUND ON OUR ACTIVITIES:
U3A Carrick Group covers a wide-ranging area, so therefore general meetings are held in four locations.
VENUE |
December | January |
Athenaeum Club |
December 19th - Athenaeum Club Feeling festive? Whether you are or not, join us for Carrick bells, mince pies and a Christmassy quiz. Everyone welcome. |
January 16th at the Athenaeum Club Sue Swinchatt will give an illustrated talk about the early days of European settlement in Tasmania through the experiences of one female convict transported there for life in 1831. Sue has a personal interest - the convict was a member of her family. |
| TRURO: Conservative Club 2pm | Tuesday 17th December – please note the date for this meeting as our usual 4th Tuesday clashes with the Christmas period. |
A visit to Shelterbox at 2.00pm |
U3A Meeting, Falmouth
October meeting
The well attended talk opened with Russell showing canals across England with the aid of maps, and photographs. Some of the photographs were taken in the seventies, and depicted views of locks, lifts, and even very old, crumbling wooden barges.
After setting the scene he ventured into Cornwall. The first photo showed Beer Barrel Rock in Bude. Formerly a very small lighthouse, this landmark showed the start of the journey. On a previous occasion Russell had dug the sand from around a turntable. He then proceeded to show us an ancient barge with wheels! We found out why a little later when he showed us an engine house which would have housed a stationery traction engine to pull the barges up a sharp incline to the next stretch of canal. It was not only traction engines that were used to get barges up hills, but on one occasion a counter weight was used by dropping a large rock down a hole. Must have been hard getting the rock out again, but as Russell rightly said Labour was cheap! It was not just the Bude canal found here in Cornwall, but Hayle, Par, and the Liskeard to Looe canal were mentioned.
Although harder now to spot the canals, and their paths we gained a greater insight into our Cornish history.
Angie Attwood. Iangieattwood@hotmail.com
Truro Meeting –
Truro Meeting – 26th November
We had a fascinating talk by Elizabeth Reeves about the setting up and continuing work of the War Graves Commission.. The commission is responsible for the upkeep of not only the cemeteries we have all heard of in the Somme and other conflict zones but individual war graves too. One which may interest our members is in Falmouth cemetery which is the grave of a brave sailor awarded the Victoria Cross, an image of which is engraved on his headstone for ever to mark his sacrifice.
We learned that Fabian Ware a civilian travelled to France and initiated the burial of the soldiers killed in action.
He teamed up with the Red Cross to organise and mark the graves.
1915 - Red Cross working with French civilians planting graves.
1916 - 50,000 graves by the end of the year.
1917 - Imperial War Graves Commission was formed and started working with F. Ware.
1919 - British gardeners sent to France to prepare cemeteries and war grave.
1939 - Agreements arranged with Germany to honour, respect and maintain war graves throughout Europe.
In between the two World Wars gardeners from Britain had gone to Europe for work and careers on the cemeteries, and made a life for themselves involving marrying into the local community and bringing up families.
With the advent of the second world war many of the gardeners were forced to return to Britain which proved very disrupting for their families.
Julia.holme@outlook.com Carol Waters 01872 727951
TRURO: Conservative Club 4th Tuesday of the month at 2.00p.m.
Carol Waters 01872 272951
Constitution:
U3A Carrick operates under a formal constitution, which sets out our philosophy and operational practices under which we manage our various activities and groups on a day-to-day basis across our neighbourhood districts. We operate with a formal committee structure, which includes financial management. U3A Carrick Group is registered with The UK Charity Commissioners under charity number: 1034910.
Angela Shields Webmaster