Please give us your opinions.

Every August your committee meet to start planning the events for the following year using suggestions from members, plus ideas submitted by committee members. However, each year we end up with events that are heavily oversubscribed and others that are under subscribed to the extent that they are not viable.

In order to get a better view of what our members want, we will be sending out a short survey by email within the next few weeks, asking for your opinions as to what types of event you would like us to consider.

The email will contain a link to an on-line survey using the free SurveyMonkey software and will ask just a few questions about your preferences. It should only take a very few minutes to complete and all answers will be anonymous.

Please look out for it and respond as soon as possible so that we have the results in time for the August planning meeting.

Event Report: Laskett Gardens — 6 May 2014

On Tuesday, 6th May a group of us set off by coach to South Herefordshire to visit two rather different places of interest.

Our first destination was the Church of St Mary and St David at Kilpeck where we were greeted by the churchwarden, James Bailley. Mr Bailley is passionate about the church and gave us a most informative talk about the corbels on the exterior of the church, after a detailed description of the South Door.

The Church was built around 1140, and almost certainly before 1143 when it was given to the Abbey of Gloucester. It may have replaced an earlier Saxon church at the same site and the oval raised form of the churchyard is typical of even older Celtic foundations. The plan of the church, with a nave, chancel and semicircular apse, is typical for the time of its construction, the Norman period. It was originally dedicated to Mary from the chapel at Kilpeck Castle after it had fallen into disrepair.

The carvings in the local sandstone are remarkable for the number and fine preservation, particularly round the south door, west window and a row of corbels which run right around the exterior of the church under the eaves.

After our visit to the Church, a warm welcome awaited us at the Kilpeck Inn, a few minutes walk away. The friendly and efficient staff served us with a delicious two-course lunch sourced by local suppliers.

Our final destination was The Laskett Gardens purchased in 1973 by Sir Roy Strong and his wife Julia Trevelyan. Sir Roy was appointed Director of the National Portrait Gallery in 1967 and a director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1973. Julia was a designer for the Royal Ballet. Together they purchased The Laskett, an early Victorian house midway between Hereford and Ross-on-Wye, set in the corner of a four acre triangle of land. Garden fever seized them early on and with little money and labour at their disposal, but with a cornucopia of ideas, they set out to make the garden you see today. As a result strong architecture structure abounds, underpinned by the emphasis on dramatic vistas and on surprise as a central concept. Their career in the Arts is reflected everywhere. The many and varied benches situated around the garden offered a chance to sit in the sun and enjoy the peace and tranquillity of this unusual garden.

Johnsons coaches again provided us with a friendly and efficient service and we were blessed with good weather.

Janice Kirkwood.

Click on any of the images below to see a larger photo.

Event Report: West Sussex — 15-19 May 2014

Sightseeing Programme

Our first full day, Friday, was a very busy one. The coach dropped us off at Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard at 10:00am. After picking up the individual tickets we all went round the new Mary Rose Museum, which was only opened last year. Then everyone went off to explore the other six attractions, to which their tickets entitled them. Only one couple, as far as I know, managed to complete ALL the attractions in the day! The coach returned with the ramblers and picked us up at 5:30pm.

On Saturday we had the smallest number of sightseers to visit Chichester Cathedral, then lunch at the Bulls Head pub at Fishbourne, and finally a tour of the Fishbourne Roman Palace in the afternoon.

Sunday saw us heading for the town of Arundel. We explored the town in the morning before meeting together at the Swan Hotel for lunch. In the afternoon we were booked for a visit to Arundel Castle. The castle amazed me! It was more like a palace than an English castle — no cannon-ball damage anywhere! It is still a private property, owned by the Duke of Norfolk.

Our last visit was on Monday, on our way back to IBM Warwick, at a small National Trust property, Uppark house and garden. Small but perfectly formed, with a very unusual feature of underground tunnels linking the house with the Cafeteria building and the Stable block. Perhaps the owners did not want to see any of the lower orders wandering about in the grounds?!

I would like to express my thanks to our coach driver, Jason, for working very hard to pick up and drop off many different groups in many different places at many and varied times. The weather was the best I can remember for any of our recent trips, and many of the ramblers and sightseers underwent a distinct colour change during the trip!

Alan Bridgman
Sightseeing Organiser

Rambling

While the sightseers were sightseeing, the ramblers were rambling. We mostly split into two groups with the more energetic spending most of their time up in the Downs (as it were) while the amblers were mostly by canals, rivers and harbours. Our coach driver Jason (ex teacher and prison officer(!) maintained good order and managed to find most of the walkers at the end of each day. Weather and pubs were all we could have hoped.

Barry Wiggins

Click on any of the images below to see a larger photo. There are more photos on Dropbox.