Tower and Town, August 2023 (view the full edition)Ever-growing u3a in Kennetu3a in Kennet continues to grow and recruit more members from Marlborough and the surrounding villages. With around 670 members whose ages range from early 50s to mid 90s, u3a in Kennet is now in its 31st year. Following the pandemic we have continued to expand our Groups which now number 67 with several new Groups including creative writing, music maestros and family history. Our monthly meeting for all members in the Town Hall is becoming very popular often with more than 100 members joining us for coffee, chat and an interesting speaker. Recent topics have included the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust project at Bay Meadows, the Wiltshire Bobby Van Trust and Chalk as the bedrock of our lives here in Wiltshire. We hold our quarterly Kennet u3a Talks at Kennet Valley Hall with tea and cake and have been joined by speakers including Stuart Laing whose talk on 'The Messenger and the Minaret' outlined aspects of Arabic history drawing on his experiences as a diplomat in the British Foreign Service. More recently Commodore Ian Gibb spoke to us about his distinguished naval career 'From Cadet to Commodore and Beyond'. As an educational charity we are continuing to develop our links with Marlborough College and local schools to explore topics of interest and relevance to all generations. In 2021 we held a one day event on Climate Change and in April 2023 we focussed on the future of the media for which we were joined by a panel of distinguished national and local journalists to explore myriad issues including truth and the media, social media, the media revolution, local media and news stories and the future of print journalism. We have a very wide range of Groups now with topics including
 Local History Group member Eileen Hill giving a talk on the Wansdyke at the u3a in Kennet Coffee Exchange session on 24th November the Town Hall.Jill Turner, Chair |