Our Annual Dinner was held, as last year at the Renaissance Restaurant, Gloucester College. The restaurant is run by the catering department of Gloscat.

A 48 seater coach was laid on to 'drive us to drink' and the dinner was well attended The speech by our president Peter Harley was well received.

Our thanks go to Paul Sparkes who organised the event.

The Club was treated to a very enjoyable and witty talk on 19th November by Diane Hayman. The title of her talk was 'Life on the Wicked Stage'.

Diane started in repertory theatre after RADA and in her career spanned the stage, cinema and television.

Her talk traced the historical origins and fashions of the theatre starting with Greek tragedies, the rather blood thirsty Roman period , the passion plays in the Middle  Ages, Elizabethan and 18th and 19th centuries theatre.

Modern theatre including the advent of cinema and television was covered in her talk which included several very witty personal anecdotes and experiences.

We all very much enjoyed this most informative and interesting talk.'
 

We knew what to expect from Brigadier Ian Shapter who gave us a very interesting talk on 'The Long Bow' in March 2007. In this talk he turned his attention to the Battle of Crecy 1346.

This was a far better history lesson than I ever remember from my school days as Ian really brought the battle to life.

The long arduous march from Cherbourge, the brutal sacking of Caen, the burning of villages by the Black Prince within sight of Paris were all described in detail - then there was the crossing of of the Somme near Abbeville after a tip off by a prisoner about a particular crossing point, passable at low tide.

Then there was the description of the battlefield, sited between Crecy and Wadicourt and the position taken up by the King in a windmill on high ground - the sudden storm just prior to the battle and the fact that the Genoese crossbowmen were disadvantaged because their shields had not arrived leaving them vulnerable when reloading.

The outcome was, of course that the French army was trounced and the stars of the action were the English bowmen.

We learned that the blind King John of Bohemia who fought with the French and died in the battle. The Black Prince, impressed by the Kings courage adopted his insignia of three white plumes as his own and it is the insignia of the Prince of Wales to this day.

The title of this talk was self explanatory but we were not just looking at the 1st & 2nd World Wars but went back to the Boer, Crimean and Sudan wars as well. Mike Wallace did not make light of war but touched on some of the violence and pathos that came out of people's experience. Like the small boy, buried in rubble during the blitz, calling out to rescuers, "Can you do me now?"

The talk was punctuated by recordings of wartime songs. Many of the songs had worn well and, having been popular during more than one war, were instantly recognisable - some of our older members had to be restrained from dancing in the aisle! Much of the humour was about the typical hard done by British soldiers and civilians and, like the songs, the cartoonists styles were immediately recognisable.

Woven among the jokes and music there was also a thread of interesting wartime history and the talk was well received by all.

Aylwin Sampson has carved out a niche in producing fascinating books on a large proportion of the sporting venues in this country. His success lies to my mind in his skill in producing wonderful line drawings to illustrate his research.

Alwyn's talk was illustrated by slides of his line drawings and he was able to give us fascinating insights into the peculiarities of and historical anecdotes about many of the venues.

His first venture was County Cricket grounds where the historic venues originated as village greens, country house parks, pub grounds or even church land. We learned, for example that the Oval is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. His descriptions of these grounds made one want to go and visit every one!

His next venture - to keep his publisher happy - was to look at the many racecourses in the country (60 as against 30 county cricket grounds). Once again, his wonderful drawings brought these venues to life along with a sprinkling of anecdotes like the fact that spectators can't see the finish from the new Royal Ascot grandstand and that limited space at Chester means that horses must be stabled in the town and lead through the streets, past traffic lights to reach the parade ring.

Alwyn then went on to apply his unique treatment to Rowing Clubs. We learned that on one occasion on Loch Lomond an eight broke in half during a race and four continued to the finish!

Sadly his books are out of print but can still be found on Amazon secondhand.

Trevor Picken already had 'form' having given us a very good and informative talk in July 2007 on the history of the Austin 7.

The Hampton Car was a curiosity and really interesting due to the fact that, for most of its chequered career it was built in the Hampton Car works in Dudbridge, Stroud - where the remains of the administrative block still exist today, covered in ivy. One doesn't associate Stroud with producing the cutting edge in automotive engineering but the car did have its claims to fame.

The history of the car lurched from highs (exhibiting at stand No. 1 at Olympia) to numerous lows (insolvency and rebirths).

The Hampton name originated in Hampton-in Arden where a Hampton motorcycle was produced and sold for 45 guineas. The business was bought and moved to Stroud in 1914 where it basked in brief glory for its hill-climbing capabilities, climbing the Nailsworth Ladder to Minchinhamton. Later, after the war, a 3 Litre monster called the "Empire" wowed the visitors at the Olympia Motor Show.

Its fascinating history ended sadly in a back yard operation in Randwick where the then proprietor attempted to produce an 8 cylinder engined "New Empire" model with state-of-the-art fully independent suspension following a tie up with Nazi German engineering outfit.

Trevor, himself has fully restored the only genuine Hampton car and his enthusiasm for the old car was almost tangible.

Malcolm Lewis talked to us about Brum and the people who made it famous.

We learned that Birmingham travelled in the products of Longbridge, fired up by Lucas and running smoothly on Dunlop tyres. We also learned that the people of Birmingham were defended by the products of the BSA company and were sustained by the products of Cadbury, HP Sauce, Monks Custard (Birds to you and me) and Balti curry washed down with Typhoo tea and Amstell beer.

Seriously though, Malcolm contrived to bring to life some of Birmingham's past by playing selections of music of the day and interspersing his presentation with some of the city's history and cultural snippets for example, that Birmingham's Town Hall claims to be the first purpose built concert hall in Europe - being built for the Birmingham Triennial Festival in 1834.

The annual Ladies Summer Luncheon was held at The Hill in Stroud on 23rd July. It was a lovely warm and sunny day, quite a change from the weather we have had most of this summer.

Our ladies looked very smart and we all enjoyed the opportunity for a very pleasant social get together  accompanied by a well presented lunch. 

A special thanks is due to Ken Gibson who made the arrangements and to the staff of The Hill.

Ted Fellows is a member of our very own Painswick Probus Club and gave us a spell binding talk on 'The Bob Graham Round'.

Now, most of us did not have a clue at the outset what this was all about but Ted soon put us right with an eloquent description of one of the most gruelling feats of endurance that one could imagine. What can only be described as serious punishment is a 72 mile course starting and finishing at the Moot House Keswick, encompassing 44 serious peaks in the Lake District. The course has to be traversed by running, jogging, climbing, walking, staggering or slithering within a 24 hour timescale. Runners are accompanied by pacers whose job is to keep the runner moving, carry equipment and spare clothing as well as feeding and cajoling the runner.

Having described the round, its difficulties and its hazards in excruciating detail, Ted went on to describe the successful attempt by his veterinary surgeon son along with a team of pacers who were all vets except for a psychiatric nurse. Ted's son completed the round in 23 hours then finished off with fish and chips.

For those of us who find it difficult enough climbing Tibiwell, the prospect of the Bob Graham round was, indeed awe inspiring.

We welcomed Duncan Willougby who gave a talk to the members on Sue Ryder Care and Leckhampton Court Hospice.

He began his talk on Sue Ryder and her lifelong dedication starting at the end of the Second World War for the care of people in Poland and Eastern Europe and then her work in Britain.

This very interesting talk also covered the history of Leckhampton Court from 16th century to its present day as Leckhampton Court Hospice part of Sue Ryder Care.

The talk concluded with the services provided, how the hospice works with the NHS. Marie Curie Cancer and other local organisations. He made reference to the provision of specialist palliative care and support available at Leckhampton.'

On the 11th June we had a great day out organised by Peter Harley. Travelling by coach, we visited two contrasting and interesting venues.

In the morning we visited RAF Cosford Museum in Shropshire which has a wealth of exhibits bringing home to us the history and ongoing commitments of the Royal Air Force. At the entrance, there was an inspiring video of the work of the RAF as well as an interesting time-line montage outlining the history of the RAF, including fascinating snippets about what else was going on throughout the years. The futuristic building ominously named The Cold War housed more recent RAF history including three huge bombers and other weapons. Some of us who have not quite grown up yet spent some time in the interactive education section trying out a selection of educational working models, designed to provide an insight into the science of flight.

The onsite restaurant provided sustenance for the second half of the day...

In the afternoon we visited Moseley Old Hall near Wolverhampton where we were split into two groups and given a guided tour of the property. Although quite a small country house, the old place is steeped in history. Once owned by a catholic family it was at one time a haven of the fugitive King Charles II. The bed slept in by the king and priest holes were among the interesting items that we were able to see. We learned that the house is actually a traditional timber-frame building but had been clad in brick to keep it standing.

As well as the usual National Trust Shop, there was an exhibition of Charles II's great escape to France following his defeat at the Battle of Worcester

At the end of our visit, we partook of an old-fashioned high tea in the restaurant and staggered out to the bus having consumed a lot of calories.

Jim McNamara, a member of Painswick Probus gave a very well presented and interesting talk on the creation of the National Lottery. His talk covered how Camelot prepared the original bid as well as the strict terms and conditions and the many of the facets involved in getting the National Lottery off the ground.

We learned about the staggering amount of work that had to be done within a very short time-scale during and following the bid including the recruiting and training of 10,000 sales outlets and the procurement of all the computer equipment.

We had a very good attendance and Jim did an excellent job in answering many questions. We were however, disappointed that he was unable to give us the lucky numbers!

Judy Clinton gave a very lively and thought provoking talk to a well attended meeting on Wednesday 14th May entitled 'Living Creatively'.

We were taken aback at first when  Judy distributed pencil paper and told us we were expected to do some introspective thinking. Some felt they were back at school.

Her talk was very lively and witty and we soon entered into the spirit. It certainly gave us food for thought!

Celia Hargrave who has lived locally in Sheepscombe for more than 15 years gave us a challenging and interesting talk on the role of magistrates in this country. She gave us an insight into the selection and training of magistrates in Britain, past and present.

We learned that magistrates do not need legal training but do go through a rigorous training and mentoring period. We also learned that, although many criminal cases go before higher courts, all cases start at a magistrates court and are either dealt with by the magistrates or are referred up to a higher court.

We had initially thought that this talk was entitled 'The History of Junk' and were expecting perhaps antiques, ancient middens or even oriental shipping but in the event we were thoroughly entertained by Roger Hennesey in what can be described as a sideways look at history.

We learned that history was often coloured by ones point of view and images of England as seen by foreigners revealed that London was the vice capital of Europe and that its banks were more interested in moving money around than in helping business, industry and society - nothing much has changed there then!

We were all impressed and fascinated by this talk given by Richard Cann. As a tour de force it was not just about the art of stained glass but also presented a fascinating picture of Gloucester Cathedral.

Richard's presentation was professionally prepared and eloquently delivered using PowerPoint to illustrate the subject with clear enthusiasm. Starting with an interesting presentation of how glass was made through the ages we moved on to the craftsmanship involved in producing stained glass windows as well as a masterclass in the jargon and components involved.

The real star of the presentation however, was Gloucester Cathedral. We were treated to a feast of detailed information ranging from the images and stories depicted by the stained glass, as well as a look at the fascinating history of the cathedral. We were able to pick out the details that a casual observer wouldn't even see - like little animals, heraldry and even mistakes made by the original craftsmen and restorers over the centuries. Some of the high level photographs inside the cathedral had been taken from a camera suspended from a balloon.

We were left with much of Richard's enthusiasm rubbing off on us. His final advice was to take binoculars for any visit to a stately home or church - the only way to really appreciate the art of stained glass.

Our speaker, Leslie Dalton gave an insight into the Moguls, their Indian Empire and their architecture.

We learned that the Moguls were in fact Mongols who had converted to Mohammedanism and that they ruled over a large part of India as well as other parts of Asia. His talk was illustrated by some excellent slides showing the progression of architecture from the early Hindu buildings when arches had not been discovered through to the pinnacle of Mogul achievement epitomised by the Taj Mahal.

We also learned the interesting fact that the word 'paradise' comes from the Mogul language and means 'tomb in a garden' and other information from the fact that many of the buildings were built from red and white stone which is abundant in the Indian subcontinent.

We were interested to learn that the builders of the Taj Mahal had not yet learned to use scaffolding and that the builders had used earth ramps to reach the structure.

John Storer treated us to a great tasting, guiding us through a varied selection of affordable red and three white wines. Each wine was sampled then we scored each wine on nose, flavour and colour while John described the origin and attributes of each offering.

It was noticed that the small samples of wine at the start of proceedings gradually became larger portions and considerably more from the latter bottles was consumed.

The ladies accompanied us and after the business of the day we enjoyed an excellent spread prepared for us by the ladies' team led by Joan Hardwidge. This was, of course, washed down with further 'samples' of excellent wine.

An enjoyable meeting!
 

We welcomed back Norman Brown who gave us a talk on entitled 'Air Force Blunders'. Having assured us that he was open handed in his choice of 'victims', he proceeded to recount a number of stories about the 2nd World War in which things went badly wrong. Many were amusing - in hindsight - and others were salutary. To illustrate his lack of bias, he even recounted anecdotes against himself.

We learnt some interesting facts about WW2 including the precarious nature of bomber navigation and also about a German "goodwill" flight by the Graaf Zeppelin before the war - the purpose of which was to photograph installations throughout Britain.

Norman was a Lancaster bomber pilot and he flew thirty missions during WW2. After the war he returned to ICI where he worked for 42 years until retirement.

Our speaker, Peter Petrie gave an excellent educational discourse on the Building of Medieval Cathedrals.

We learned a lot including how the masons were organised, how patterns for features like stone windows were scratched out in wet lime on the floor of the pattern house, so that stone could be cut to fit. We also learned why cathedrals were only built during a relatively short period of history, why they were built and why the building came to an end.

Our regular Wednesday meeting was very well attended and we were treated to a very interesting and excellent talk on the Cotswold Canals by Bruce Hall.

Bruce has a new role as Ambassador of the Partnership which is working to restore these historical waterways. The work done so far and the work to be carried out over the next few years was presented to us and we can only admire the tenacity and determination of the Trust and its many volunteers to fully restore the waterways in this part of England for future generations.

Members and friends of The Painswick Probus Club enjoyed their annual Christmas Dinner at the Renaissance Restaurant in Cheltenham.  The restaurant is run by the lecturers and students at Gloscat.

The dinner was very well attended. The 48 seater coach was filled to capacity with other members travelling by car.

Nigel Burt, (President), said in his speech that the club now has 56 members, the highest it had been for several years.  He particularly welcomed the many new members who had joined in the last two years.  During the year the members had enjoyed a visit to Westminster and in November a combined visit to the SS Great Britain and Gatcombe Court.

Although it has come as a shock to some of the older members he was pleased to announce that the Club was moving into the electronic age with the creation of its own web site.  The site contains information about the Club, details of future meetings and forthcoming events.

On the 24th October 2007 we had a most enjoyable day, travelling by coach to two really interesting venues.

In the morning we visited the SS Great Britain in Bristol. On first sight, we were amazed to see, what appeared to be the old ship floating in the harbour; it was in fact a glass roof over the dry dock, surrounding the lower part of the hull. The roof was covered with water - creating the illusion.

We assembled in the bottom of the dry dock next to the ships great screw and rudder and heard a most interesting talk from a dedicated volunteer about the ship and it's history. After that we visited the old shed adjacent to the ship, which is a most interesting museum. The star of the visit was, of course the ship herself, which has been beautifully restored as a museum with furniture and even people to provide a fascinating insight into life on board in the ship's heyday. An audio guide added a commentary as well as sounds of life on board and we were even treated to the smells adding a further touch of realism.

Most of us had a bite of lunch in the onsite restaurant although this was under a bit of a strain due to half-term visitors.

After lunch we boarded our coach to cover the short journey to Gatcombe Court - a charming old house that is still a family home. We were warmly greeted by Mrs Charles Clarke, the owner who, with her daughter gave us a comprehensive, entertaining and extremely interesting tour of the old house - relating its history from Roman times (there is a Roman well by the kitchen door) to the present day.

Following the tour we all enjoyed a wonderful tea served up to us by Mrs Clarke and her family. Some of us then toured the large and mature garden with its topiary, lawns and interesting planting.

We left Gatcombe Court feeling that we had been treated most graciously as guests of the Clarke family.

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