Tower and Town, December 2021

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Coffee Exchange

What are you doing on the last Thursday of the month at 10.30? Come along and be part of our Coffee Exchange, at Wesley Hall in Oxford Street behind the Town Hall, or on Zoom.

There is coffee, good company, lots of friends, and an interesting talk every last Thursday of the month. It is also an opportunity to come and find out about u3a and its groups.

The talks are 20 to 30 minutes, short and punchy. Coffee at 10.30, talk at 11, out by 11.45. For example, in September we had a talk from Belinda Richardson, Tourism Officer for Marlborough Town Council, which aroused a lot of interest on how she was working to promote Marlborough. We hope to have a talk on how St Peter’s Church is going to be developed. So these are talks about local issues which are important to us, good to know about when we vote in Council Elections.

Also there are talks giving information about the local area. enriching our experience of the town and surrounding countryside. We will be having a talk on the archaeology hiding in Savernake Forest and the West Woods. There is a talk about Larkhill Airfield, a first world war airfield which is beside Woodhenge. We hope the walking groups can visit the area and maybe have a guided tour of what was perhaps a precursor to Stonehenge.

Then there are talks about topical issues. So there is a talk on the Biology of Extinction and Evolution to follow on from the magnificent day we had on Climate Change. We hope to have a talk on the F35 aeroplane which will be on the two new aircraft carriers. A highlight of the year will be the talk by Michael Hart on the ‘Structural Issues in Education’. This is something which will be dear to the heart of anyone with children and grandchildren.

There are also talks from the groups, sometimes the leaders, sometimes one or two members of the groups. We may hear what others find interesting, and perhaps branch out and join another group. Even later in life, it is good to develop skill and knowledge.

The audience plays a key part in these talks. Yes, the talks are prepared, but they can become quite dramatic when the questioning starts. A lady giving a recent talk on strokes was saying how she wanted to start a local group for Stroke Rehabilitation in the area, and a questioner asked for times and dates, and you could see, happening right in the room, the very beginning of this crucial group in Marlborough.

Asking questions is an art, it requires practice, but it can make a good talk into a great one. Come and join in. You will be most welcome.

David Lacey