Lectures 2023 - 2024

Thursdays at 2.00pm in St Barnabas Church Hall, Main Street, Swanland.   Click on image for directions

Lecture meetings are held at 2.00pm on the first and third Thursdays in each month from September to July. Admission is sent by flyer to each member, there can tea/coffee during but sadly you have to supply your own.

To read a Speakers Biography please click on Speakers Name if link available. We have a few recordings of the Lectures done during the covid crisis, you can check 2020 / 2921 lecture pages for them by goimg on the menu and clicking the Lectures Tab.


Date: Speaker: Subject: About:
07th September 2.00pm Paul Mann The Hull Shells World War 1 Armament Industry in Hull
21st September 2.00pm Mike Powell ‘My favourite Antique finds’ But my talk is not a history lecture as I also look at how sentiment, the search for a bargain and an appreciation of craftsmanship has influenced my hoarding instincts.
05th October 2.00pm Pam Waddington Muse & Peter Sproston For National Poetry Day: CANCELLED Due to Covid infection!
19th October 2.00pm Malcolm Brooke What happens behind the scenes of a World Athletics Championship meeting?
02nd November 2.00pm Colin Bradshaw Flight over Beverley Colin Bradshaw gave an excellent Zoom lecture on 'A Flight Over East Yorkshire' during lockdown ( was it really 3 years ago???) and now returns to the skies to give us an aerial perspective of Beverley. As well as an unfamiliar view of many familiar buildings Colin will show us both how the town has developed and how it is spreading out into the countryside. Colin is also a 'Beverley expert' and I am confident he will be be able to answer all your questions!
16th November 2.00pm Malcolm Lawrenson The Curacoa Accident and Swanland The sinking of The HMS Curacoa in WW2
07th December 2.00pm  Bryan Burton  The History Of Fenners  J. H. Fenner & Co. was founded 162 years ago in the "old town" of Hull. The original products were of leather, for use with horses, but expertise with this material was later applied to transmission belting for all areas of industry, followed by woven textiles for similar and other applications. After 100 years, the Company was a world leader in power transmission, perhaps most famously by vee belt drives but also by many other means, boasting that "Fenner keeps the wheels of industry turning". Cut to the present day and that world leadership is in heavy conveyor belting for mines and quarries, with Fenner now being part of a large multi-national conglomerate. This presentation illustrates that 162 year history and includes some personal anecdotes from the speaker's 50+ years working for the Company and with the Fenner brand.
21st December 2.00pm Choir Christmas Concert
04th January 2024 2.00pm Mike Grey  The Birds In Your Garden  
18th January 2.00pm Wendy Maslin Tales from The Family Archives  Reflections on Bees and Bee Keeping
01st February 2.00pm Tina Cerutti  ‘A Recipe For Life - the role of High Sheriff.’  As well as running the popular ‘Cerutti 2’ restaurant in Beverley, Tina is also the High Sheriff of East Yorkshire for this year. She has just published a book entitled ‘ A Recipe For Life’ that features not only her favourite recipes but also those of her friends, colleagues and customers together with anecdotes from her life as a chef.
Tina is a noted fund raiser and is donating the proceeds from this book to ‘The Tribune Trust.’

Tina is a well known local figure and many of us have enjoyed meals at ‘Cerutti 2’; she also supported our ‘Event Days’. I am looking forward to an excellent talk!
15th February 2.00pm  John Wilson  'Soap.'  Have you ever wondered how it is made? Or more fundamentally, where it comes from?
On February 15th we welcome Swanland u3a member John Wilson who will talk on how this common yet vital product is made and the improvements that came about with the industrialisation of the manufacturing process. This leads on to how modern detergents wash our laundry and the development of the modern washing machine.
John gave us a very entertaining talk on 'The Queens Bank Notes' and I am sure that 'Soap' will both inform and make us smile!
07th March 2.00pm  Neil Hanson  'Ghost Writer.'  Author and Unique After Dinner Speaker.
21st March 2.00pm Chair John Munson Annual General Meeting  Swanland u3a AGM please attend so we will meet our quorum.
04th April 2.00pm Sue Hickson-Marsay The Storm Tossed lady  Sue Hickson-Marsay is Hornsea Lifeboat's station manager, began her career in lifeguarding at Hull's Woodford Leisure Centre in 1991 while also serving as a coastguard in Hornsea.
18th April 2.00pm Stuart Atkins Sammy Cahn - The Man Who Put Words Into The Mouth Of Sinatra. Born Samuel Cohen on 18th June, 1913, in New York City. Changed his last name twice from Cohen to Kahn and again from Khan to Cohn to avoid confusion with two other celebrities, he married twice, Gloria Delson (1946 - 1964) (divorced, 2 children), Tita Curtis (August 2, 1970 - January 15, 1993). Songwriter Sammy Cohn wrote many of the songs that Frank Sinatra recorded, which included ,Come Fly With Me, Teach Me Tonight and High Hopes. Sammy Cahn died 15th January 1993 in Los Angeles. Wrote over 50 songs and olds the record for most Oscars for Best Song alone.
02nd May 2.00pm Patti Gold 'My Life with Laughs' Patti is an entertainer, her acting career includes Heartbeat, Russ Abbot Madhouse, Jimmy Cricket's TV show and Punchlines.
16th May 2.00pm Paul Mann The Beeton Family of Hull and Barrow Victorian larger-than-life eccentric characters
06th June 2.00pm Prof. Brad K. Gibson Will we ever live on Mars…and should we?  Living on Mars??? It is very cold, low as -100 degrees Centigrade, No atmosphere, food or water. Soil toxic with Perchlorates. Live underground or in pressurised domes.
20th June 2.00pm Pam Muse. For National Poetry Day:  A Garland of Poetry Set in Song.
04th July 2.00pm Phil Walker 'Four Weddings and a funeral.'  
18th July 2.00pm Michele Lewis From Hull to Heversham - a war-time story of evacuees. "We heard the sound of a German bomber. It got louder and louder. We were all wearing our horrible red berets - what a target!"
Baths once a week, grey mince. Chemical toilets and fleece-lined knickers - Heaven!
For the girls of Hull High School these deprivations were a small price to pay when they were evacuated from the war-torn city to a rural paradise. Interviewing two of the old girls provided many vivid memories of their war-time home.
August 2.00pm NO MEETINGS!