When our scheduled speaker had to cancel at the last minute due to ill health, Ron Nott stepped manfully into the breach and gave us a stirring presentation on various forms of transport throughout history.

Ron is not unknown to us as he had given us a memorable presentation of his time as registrar for Stroud. As then, this talk was delivered with wit and good humour and was as much about nostalgia for bygone forms of transport as about the serious business of getting from A to B.

Our visit to Bletchley Park was a great success.

After an interesting coach trip, we arrived to a warm welcome from Bletchley Park staff with a coffee and biscuits. Our guide met us and outlined what we were going to see before we set out.

Among the areas visited were the famous 'Bombe' room where German cyphers were decoded as well as Colossus, the world's first programmable digital computer.

During the day our guide helped us to understand the nature of the German cyphers and the unbelievable problems facing the code breakers. It emerged that it was Polish code breakers in 1932 who were the first to decipher the complex code generated by the Enigma machine - passing details to the French and British when the volume of messages overwhelmed them.

We learned that Bletchley Park cracked codes in industrial volumes - employing around 10,000 people and deciphering thousands of messages a day. We also learned of the sad waste of know-how when Bletchley Park was decommissioned after the war - everything was destroyed even Colossus - losing the British lead in digital technology.

We were treated to an excellent account of life in occupied Norway during the war. Tore Fauske gave a 'living history' account of the story of the occupation from the perspective of his, and his family's experiences as the German forces occupied and oppressed their country.

The story of this time was told in a way that no dry history book could have told it. There were personal asides like throwing snowballs at a German officer who turned and told the children how he did not want to be in Norway and would have preferred to be back home with his own children.

From their home overlooking Bergen, the family had a grandstand seat overlooking bombings, explosions and dreadful violence which was brought to their town - from the sinking of the Konigsberg to British bombing of German naval installations which caused great civilian loss of life. This was contrasted with the everyday difficulties of life for a schoolboy and his family going about their lives amid shortages, administrative restrictions, reprisals and resistance.

We were enthralled by the story as it unfolded, illustrated by a remarkable collection of slides and bringing to life the realities of a history about which many of us had only a sketchy knowledge.
 

Susan Newton left us wanting to find out more about our the history of the town.

Having started out as a Saxon village, Cheltenham remained fairly obscure and agricultural but sported a grammar school as early as 1578. In the early 18th century it was discovered that the water from a spring south of the town had an effect on those who drank it and the Spa was born. In 1788 George III came to town and finally put Cheltenham Spa on the map.

The early spas were Montpellier, now Lloyds Bank and the Imperial, now Queens Hotel. One Joseph Pitt created a new town which he called Pittville as a rival to the Cheltenham. Pitville was incorporated into the town when Mr Pitt over-reached himself and went bankrupt.

We learned that the area at one time had been well known for tobacco growing and we also learned that the bus station was in its day one of the largest in the country, being the national hub of the famous Black & White coaches.

Nobody could have dreamed that the purgative nature of its bad tasting water would form the basis of a great town, now the home of the Cheltenham College and Ladies College, the renowned racecourse and GCHQ.
 

Our favourite history master Brigadier Ian Shapter entertained us once again with a blow by blow report on the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. The stars of the battle were, The Black Prince of course but particularly the English Archers.

The result was a decisive French defeat, and a catastrophe for France. Poitiers was a repeat of the battle of Crécy showing once again that tactics and strategy can overcome a disadvantage in numbers.

After the demise of the woollen industry in and around Uley, a weaver, Moses Garlick set off to the newly founded colony of South Australia in 1837. Tony Curnock from Uley has been researching the story of the Garlick family in Uley and in Adelaide.

His interesting presentation started with Moses' early life as a member of a Baptist family in Uley. How he joined the Royal North Gloucestershire Militia then the British Army, seeing service in the Penisular Wars then in Canada. Returning to settle down in Uley as a weaver, he married and raised a family before tearing up his roots once more and emigrating to Adelaide.

It was no coincidence that he went to Adelaide because some of the investors and promoters of the new colony were from this part of Gloucestershire and indeed Moses' former employer was one of them. It is for this reason that many of Adelaide's pioneers were from Gloucestershire and local place and street names attest to these origins, like the rural locality called Uleybury (pop. 543) founded by Moses near Adelaide.

Apart from a really interesting slice of social history, we also learned that there is a small town called Painswick in Australia, northwest of Melbourne.
 

Ann Dunn treated us to an interesting talk on Schubert which brought to life his character and the historical context of his time in Vienna where he was born and lived all his life up to his untimely death at the age of 31.

It appears that he was an unattractive child and as he grew up, was unable to settle to any career not even to profit from his musical genius. It was only due to his ability to develop a network of generous friends that he was able to survive. His one abiding passion was composing which he seemed able to achieve even while surrounded by noisy friends.

We learned that Schubert was a prolific composer and left a large body of work - most of which was unpublished. After Schubert's death, it was due to the work of two Englishmen, Arthur Sullivan and Sir George Grove that his vast catalogue of music was collected and published. His work included over 600 songs, 9 symphonies and a huge body of work including operas, religious, chamber and piano solos.

On the 22nd July some 35 Painswick Probus members and their ladies attended the annual Ladies Luncheon held at the Hill in Stroud. An attractive cold buffet was prepared and presented by the Hill's Catering Team and much appreciated by all.

The President highlighted a growing membership up to 60 members and a strong financial position which he felt reflected the excellent array of speakers and the warm fellowship shown to all new members. He thanked the committee members for all their support during his term of office and it was with some sadness that he reported the loss of some old friends.

As it was the 40th anniversary of "Man landing on the Moon" the President finished with report about the astronaut Neil Armstrong muttering the words " Good luck Mr Gorski" immediately after his immortal phrase" one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" . Having heard the Presidents story all were left wondering about the validity of Armstong's extra words!

Eric Williams gave us an excellent talk on the life and works of the famous engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Insights into his lifestyle, his London office, his management style and his health were woven around of his various projects including the Great Western Railway, Shipbuilding, Tunnels and Bridges. We ended with the ill-fated Great Eastern steamship, the money worries and the health problems that finally ended his life.

We were particularly interested in the story of the Great Britain which we visited as a Probus day out in 2007.

On the 1st July one of our newer members, Glynn Nixon gave a very good talk entitled 'A Visit to the Web'

Glynn explained how the web developed into what it is to-day. He also described the setting up of a web page with particular reference to the Painswick Probus Website, which he set up when he joined the Club. We have received many complements on the quality of the Club's web page and requests from other Probus Clubs for assistance.Many thanks to Glynn.

The talk was very well balanced and skilfully presented to an audience of both regular computer users and some unbelievers. Glynn successfully avoided frightning too many of us with the technicalities of the IT world and concluded by giving encouragement to some unbelievers that now is the time to embrace the computer age.

Bronco Lane gave as a fascinating account of how men can get hooked on mountaineering and subject themselves to the most severe hardship to achieve their ambitions.

Having given us a history of his career starting out as a bit of a tearaway in Manchester then joining the army in the Junior Leaders Royal Artillery. He then progressed to the 7th Parachute Regiment in 1964 and to the SAS in 1967. Then, already a trained and hardened soldier, he joined the Army Mountaineering Association climbing in the Canadian Arctic where he was able to name a mountain. He then progressed to the Himalayas and Nuptse in Nepal.

In 1976 he was selected for a joint British-Nepalese Army expedition to Everest and it was this experience that he illustrated with excellent colour slides. They walked from Kathmandu to Everest where, after setting up a series of camps up the slopes, he and his colleague Brummie Stokes were selected for the attempt on the summit.

After reaching the summit they were caught by bad weather and were forced to bivouac just below the summit in temperatures of around -40c. Both men were rescued the following morning but suffered severe frostbite resulting in the amputation of fingers and toes.

The graphic talk was delivered with army jargon and humour. His respect for the Sherpas and their Yaks shone through as well as regard for his comrades.

We welcomed back Leslie Dalton to our Club on Wednesday 6th May.

Leslie's talk was on  railway journeys he made a number of years ago on the Swiss Railways. The photographic slides of the scenery in the Alps and the surrounding countryside were quite outstanding.

A feature of the journey was the efficiency,cleanliness and punctuality of the trains. Even in heavy snow the trains were still were on schedule. No problems with wrong type of snow..

The AGM passed without a hitch and saw Jim McNamara installed as our new president - taking over from Peter Harley after another successful year. David Linsell was appointed as Vice President and other committee members retained their positions.

Following the formal proceedings, we adjourned to the bar to toast the coming year.

David Achard has a huge archive of historic photographs of Painswick which he has collected from numerous sources over the years. Using this valuable collection of slides, he presented a fascinating illustrated talk charting Painswick's history with images from the dawn of photography to recent times.

We were treated to fascinating pictures showing old-time fashions, Painswick before tarmac roads, a policeman up a ladder easing a huge load into New Street, wartime bomb damage, ancient busses and above all the wonderful old buildings - many of which are still here today. David was able to draw on his encyclopaedic memory of people and places to weave a story of Painswick which was sprinkled with humour and intriguing information.

We came away to look at the old town in a new light.

Billed as a 'fun' look at wills, this talk by Cameron Petrie was also a salutary reminder about some of the things that can go wrong. There was a lot of humour as we looked at some of the elephant traps that many famous people had fallen into and many of the wise and interesting decisions they had made.

We learned among other snippets that the Queen Mother gave away everything she owned just within 7 years of her death to avoid all inheritance tax. She survived for that time on a huge overdraft!

We were joined by the Probus Ladies in the Church Rooms for a much anticipated wine tasting. Paul Sparkes selected and introduced the wines which were all Beaujolais.

Following the serious business, we were treated to an excellent buffet which had been prepared by the ladies' team led by Joan Hardwidge. The buffet was, in turn washed down with further quantities of excellent Beaujolais.

Brian Wollaston is a volunteer on the restoration of Woodchester Mansion which is described as an architectural masterpiece of the Victorian age abandoned by its builders before it could be completed. It has been virtually untouched by time since the mid-1870s, and today offers a unique opportunity to tour and explore a Gothic building in mid-assembly.

It is the third stately home on the site to have been abandoned by various owners and is being retored to the point where it was left by the builders. The house is unusual because, firstly it is in a state to show how the Victorians set about building a house of this importance and secondly because of the spectacular use of stone in its construction.

It is a gothic building complete with butresses and fan vaulted ceilings. The stone, which was quarried on the estate was used for guttering, gargoyle water spouts and even pipes and a full sized bath which had been hewn from a single block of stone.

His talk, illustrated with slides gave us an insight into the difficulties facing the team when they commenced restoration of the progress they have made.

David Norfolk works for British Energy and his talk covered the present struggle to ensure that our lights stay on. His involvement in the nuclear programme shed light on the progress that is being made to bring the next generation of nuclear power stations on line.

The government protracted indecision with regard to the timing for the replacement of generation capacity both nuclear and fossil is increasingly posing a serious threat to our future prosperity in view of the aging existing generation plant and the long lead time for the design, construct and commissioning of new capacity.

David and his talk informed us all and we welcomed this insight into the solutions to a problem which faces us all.

Ron Nott delivered a splendid talk on poetry - not a serious appraisal of the classical poets nor a learned dissertation on the merits of iambic pentameters. This talk consisted of an amusing trawl through some of the funnier doggerell, limericks and song lyrics that have made us laugh over the years. Some of the language bordered on the 'colourful'.

Ron had previously given us a very witty talk on his experiences as the Registrar for Stroud. He was the Registrar for 12 years.

Philip Moss gave us a fascinating talk covering the history and stories of some of the very old inns in Gloucester. The talk was illustrated with slides, some showing historic images of the pubs and street scenes of Gloucester and others showing surviving pubs as they appear today.

The outstanding impression gained from this talk was the gritty, down-to-earth life of the city through the ages. Drunken debauchery was not unknown in the city as well as crime, executions and ladies of ill-repute.

Philip's talk also gave us an insight into the commercial life which revolved around the old inns. We learned that they served as estate agents and as termini for stage coaches as well as warehousing and bases for carters. Much of the commercial life of the city was transacted in inns.

It was interesting to learn how coaching Inns were designed so that a coach and six could turn around in the courtyard and that the ground floor served as stabling - providing warmth to the upper floors which were the drinking, dining and sleeping areas. Philip also identified architectural features of the New Inn which had been sketched by Beatrix Potter when preparing her book 'The Tailor of Gloucester'.

A tour-de-force which lead the thoughts of some of us towards visiting all those establishments which still survive.
 

Our own Geoff Clark gave as a talk about his career in the field of electronic controls.

Having started out at school with no scientific inclination - a lucky break landed him with an engineering place at Imperial College, London. Further lucky breaks lead him to an enjoyable and thoroughly rewarding career working throughout the world and getting to the top of his field.

It became clear however, that Geoff's claim that all this was down to luck was belied by the fact that his luck was sustained by liberal sprinklings of hard work and talent!

Marion Beagley's love of Japan and all things Japanese started in 1972 when she met a visitor to the UK from Japan.

Over the years she has made several visits there and has made many friends out there. To enhance her appreciation of the country she has taught herself Japanese.

Marion arrived dressed as a Japanese lady and was able to give us some insight into Japanese dress - like the fact that ladies sandals appear to be too small until one realises that they kneel down a lot and the shoe should not produde beyond the heel to avoid snagging the kimono when standing. Also the fact that the kimono should always wrap from left to right as right to left signifies that the wearer is dead!

Her very informative talk was given with a great deal of humour and touched on the way of life and customs of in this fascinating country. She spoke about an experience when she and friends dressed casually as tourists - complete with shorts and baseball cap - were befriended by a Japanese member of parliament and invited to lunch then and there in an exclusive dining room in the parliament building.

Her talk touched on many aspects of Japanese life including hi-tech loos and trains which really do run on time as the backbone of an excellent public transport system.

The proceeds of Marion's talk went to a charity Chernobyl Child Lifeline which brings children from Chernobyl to Britain for holidays, staying with local families. Her description of the plight of these children and their families - living with the radioactive fallout from the nuclear disaster - was heart rending.

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 speach 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 ardous 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 Corwall. 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 excrutiating 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!

Click Here to see Older News