General Meetings

General meetings of Haddenham u3a usually have a guest speaker and are held on the second Tuesday of the month.   Members arrive from 2.15 for a 2.30 start.  Meetings usually last for an hour and a half, including time to socialise over a cup of tea.

Guest speakers cover a wide variety of topics of general interest to enable an increased awareness of our locality and our world, embracing history, travel, nature, science and culture, with a balanced programme to meet u3a aims.

We hope you will enjoy our meetings, learn something new, get to know other members, and occasionally volunteer to help out.

Venue

The normal monthly meetings take place at:

Haddenham Village Hall
Banks Park,
Banks Rd,
Haddenham
HP17 8EE

There is parking at the venue.

Costs

General meetings are free to members of Haddenham u3a.

Joining the Meetings

The General Meetings are open to all members of Haddenham u3a.

Angela Hart, on behalf of the u3a Committee, organises the speaker programme. If you have any suggestions of good speakers who would be suitable for the u3a General Meetings, please contact Angela on 01844 292070 or speakers@haddenhamu3a.co.uk

The committee organises the rota of volunteers for the preparation of the venue.

 

Date|: Tuesday 14^th October
Speaker: Roger Butler

Talk:  Canal History, Heritage and Architecture

A colourful introduction to the history and heritage of our 2000 mile canal network, with remarkable engineering, architecture and landscapes. The talk looks at locks, bridges, cottages, warehouses, aqueducts, tunnels and, of course, a few boats too – plus quirky features such as canal lighthouses, old boatyards and even tiny towpath bollards. There are plenty of interesting anecdotes as well as a selection of archive pictures and eye-catching images of the waterways through the seasons.

Roger is an experienced lecturer who speaks to groups and societies throughout the UK. He also an established writer/photographer and regularly contributes to a wide range of magazines covering the outdoors, countryside, canals, heritage and travel.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society and a Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute. He is also a member of the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild.

 

Date:  Tuesday 11^th November 2025
Speaker:  Hugh Granger

Talk:         Amazing Frauds and Swindles

While nowadays we worry about scams,  mainly via our computers or from telephone call centres abroad, in the past some unbelievable frauds were carried out without IT, but still through persuasion.

Haddenham resident Hugh will talk about the man who sold the Eiffel Tower, the phantom bus passengers, the invisible pig farm, and more.

 

Date:  Tuesday 9^th December 2025
Speaker: Dr Jill Eyers

Talk:  Christmas Celebrations through History Revealed

Discover Christmas of the past from celebrations of the Neolithic Midwinter to the Roman festival and Tudor games, to its reinvention by the Victorians.  Which of these Christmases will reflect yours?

Jill Eyers was born in London, with an early childhood in Australia, and studied geology and achieved her doctorate with the Department of Earth Sciences, Open University in 1992. Since that time she has lectured for several universities including Reading, Oxford and the Open University.

Her geological career has taken her to many parts of the world with projects in the Caribbean, Brazil and Turkey being particularly exciting. She has worked in Turkey on archaeological sites and led many field tours to both archaeological and geological locations.

Dr Eyers is the author of numerous books and will bring some along.
.

Date: Tuesday 13^th January 2026
Talk: Two Men in a Boat Rowing Two Rivers

Speaker: Martin Andrew

Fans of CS Forester’s novels and Ioan Gruffudd’s portrayal of Horatio Hornblower on TV will be in their element with this engaging true-life tale of a jaunt down the rivers Severn and Loire, the first a trial run and the latter a re-enactment of Hornblower’s escape from the French in 1811.

Martin Andrew and his oldest friend, Richard, first undertake a training voyage from Wales to Deerhurst. Training completed, the tale moves to France, to the start point near Nevers, from where Hornblower himself set off. Historic towns and châteaux, impressive bridges and a wealth of fish and birdlife punctuate the account of a journey which is not without incident.  Two Men in a Boat Rowing Two Rivers has all the makings of a classic. Watery it may be, but colourless it is not!

Martin Andrew is a travel writer and architectural historian who trained at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London in the 1970s. For twenty years he taught for the university of London’s Extra-Mural Department and for Oxford’s Department for External Studies while pursuing a career in heritage conservation with four local authorities.

In 2008 he set up a heritage and outdoor writing consultancy and he now has over fifty books to his name, ranging from Discovering the English Lowlands (1991) to Roaming Midsomer (2016) with Buckinghamshire Privies (1998) and Collins Ramblers Guide: Chilterns and Ridgway (2001) and many others in between. He is a member of the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild and has had many articles published in newspapers and magazines such as The Great Outdoors.

 

Date: Tuesday 10th February 2026
Speaker: Katrina van Grouw

Talk: Art, Science and the Unfeathered Bird

When Charles Darwin contemplated how best to introduce his controversial new theory of evolution to the general public, he chose to compare it with the selective breeding of domesticated animals. In her book, Unnatural Selection, marking the 150th anniversary year of Darwin’s great work on domesticated animals Variation under Domestication, author and illustrator Katrina van Grouw explains why this analogy was more appropriate than even Darwin had realised.

Katrina is a science author, illustrator and fine artist, best known for her illustrated natural science books The Unfeathered Bird and Unnatural Selection.  She has degrees in Fine Art and Natural History Illustration.  She is a self-taught ornithologist with an interest in comparative anatomy, evolution, and the history of the natural

She gained a BA in Fine Art, specialising in printmaking, from the University of Plymouth in 1990, and an MA in Natural History Illustration from the Royal College of Art in 1992 with a research thesis on bird anatomy.

She was an elected member of the Society of Wildlife Artists, held numerous open and solo exhibitions, and won several awards including the Birdwatch Artist of the Year Award in 1997 and 1998,  the Wildlife Art Gallery Award in 1993 and 1996, and the PJC Drawing Award in 2014.

Fine Art was put aside during the final push to write and illustrate The Unfeathered Bird, and after its completion Katrina found that producing illustrated books now “ticked all creative and intellectual boxes”.

Date:  Tuesday 10^th March 2026
Speaker: Jon Woodhouse

Talk: The Saxophone and my life as an Army Musician

 Jon started playing the Clarinet from the age of fourteen, and quickly demonstrated an aptitude for music, joining the Army as a Musician at the age of sixteen.  Jon served in Her Majesty’s Lifeguards Band for 25 years.  During his time with the Lifeguards, Jon has enjoyed a long and varied musical career in the band playing Clarinet (even on the back of a horse!), Bass Clarinet, and Saxophone at many high-profile events.  He has also participated in concert tours across Europe, America and Japan.

In 1999 Jon retired from the Army, and is now semi-retired, but still teaches, and can be seen playing in various local bands. Outside of music, Jon enjoys swimming, gardening and travelling the world!

Jon`s Talk will include a little background information about the Saxophone, and of course the experiences, and the people he met during his long career. He will also bring with him various Instruments, and demonstrate them for you.

 

Date: Tuesday 14th April 2026
Speaker: Alison Bailey

Subject: MODERNISM IN METROLAND

Metro-Land architecture was typically conservative rather than revolutionary with a strong leaning to so called “Tudorbethan” styling for housing and shops. Towns such as Harrow, Pinner and Wembley are all Metroland developments though now greatly expanded.

An exception is “High and Over” a Grade II* modernist building in Amersham, it was started in 1929 and completed in 1931 by Amyas D Connell (1901-1980) for Bernard Ashmole (1898-1988).

Marketing went into full gear with annual Metro-land magazines, promoting an idyllic country lifestyle with beautiful homes within easy reach of London. From the end of World War One through to the 1920s, Metroland boomed, as London’s new middle class taking advantage of affordable mortgages fell for the companies advertising. The “Live in Metro-land” slogan was even engraved on the carriage door plates!

Alison comes from the Amersham Museum and is one of their experienced presenters on historical aspects of the town.