West Wolds U3A

If you want to see the answers to the Crossword Puzzle in the June Newsletter, click here…..

On Tuesday 3^rd July, thirty-three enquiring minds arrived at the head office of EH Thorne (Beehives) Ltd in Rand near Wragby for a conducted tour of the enterprise. Once ushered in to the restaurant area which doubled up as our lecture room, Rebecca, a fourth-generation descendant of the owner, filled us in on the background of the business. Her great grandfather Edgar Henry Thorne started up the company back in the early 20^th century more or less by chance after being asked to make a beehive for the headteacher of Wragby School. From then on, he developed a keen interest in bee keeping himself and, also realised there was a ready market for manufacturing bee hives.

We watched intently as Rebecca dismantled a ‘National’ style hive and explained all the parts as she reassembled it piece by piece in front of us. We then split into two groups for our tour. Thorne’s manufacture a variety of different styles of ready assembled and flat packed beehives, the majority of which are made from Canadian redwood cedar, so our group were taken first to the timber store. From here we were escorted into a building where we were shown how the wood is cut to size and shape according to each frame type, then assembled by experienced joiners.

When you see the finished article, you really do not appreciate what skilled workmanship is involved in the making of a beehive. Not only does it require proficient woodworkers but also metal workers who manufacture all the different metal components as well as a variety of other operatives who specialise in making the interior constituents.

The company moved into its current premises some ten or eleven years ago having out grown its original building in Wragby. At Rand there is plenty of room to expand and develop; they even have an extensive ‘supermarket’ where not only beekeepers and candlemakers but also the public can browse their range of equipment and associated ‘bee’ accessories.

Thorne’s employ around 90 people and, in addition to those involved in the actual production of the beehives themselves, there are also staff who manufacture ancillary products including beeswax foundation sheets, protective clothing for beekeepers, honey extractors, smokers and many other apiary accessories; in fact they seem to make nearly every piece of equipment essential to the keeping of bees or that of the candle maker which includes hundreds of designs of silicone moulds and a spectrum of coloured candle sheets for making rolled candles. They even actually sell bees!!!

Our tour guide Rebecca was knowledgeable, passionate and justly proud of her heritage. It was fascinating to see how a beehive is created from start to finish and to know that this relatively small company situated in the back of nowhere is at the top of its profession and exporting its products around the world.  We ended our visit back in the restaurant where we started and were served a delicious selection of sandwiches and cakes. Many thanks to Sharon for organising the visit and she and Steve for their photos.

This event has been running for two or three years now, and is highly praised by those who have seen it, including some of our own members. It takes place outdoors, at Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham, on certain dates in August and September.

It is an outdoors, evening, 90 minutes long spectacle celebrating the history and events of England.  There is a video on their website.

PC Coach Holidays have a visit running on Saturday 1st/Sunday 2 September. Public cost £189 pp, U3A members cost £179 pp for a MINIMUM of ten persons.  If you want to take advantage of this offer, please email me initially, and then if we have sufficient numbers, I will pass your details on to PC Coach Holidays at Louth, and they will contact you directly to make the booking.  This must be done NO LATER than next Friday 13th July.

The trip is by coach to Durham, free time there, evening visit to the show, overnight dinner, bed & breakfast, Sunday visit to Beamish Living Museum, and return mid afternoon.

You cannot fail to have noticed all the noise about the new General Data Protection Regulation and no doubt you have been bombarded by emails from organisations, some you didn’t even know existed, concerning your data. We haven’t changed how we handle the information we hold about you – we’ve always respected your privacy and made sure that the information we have is kept as securely as possible.

Below are links to our new Privacy and Data Protection policies as required by law. In brief we hold your information securely; we only share it with HMRC for Gift Aid purposes and with National U3A for delivery of their publications; we update your information annually or whenever you inform us of changes; and we hold financial information for six years (Charities Commission and HMRC requirement).

And that’s about it but if you really want to know what’s under the bonnet then click on the links below to read the small print…

Our Privacy Policy

Our Data Protection Policy

If you have any questions regarding our policies then please contact us using the online form. Thank you – Steve McCarthy, Chairman

In his introduction, Steve mentioned that his background was in garden design and soft landscaping but his main claim to fame was that he once went to Sri Lanka with Anika Rice. Nowadays, he splits his time between organising nature tours, offering professional gardening services and giving talks and lectures.

Wildlife gardening is currently very much in vogue and Steve proceeded to provide some pointers as to how we could all increase the biodiversity of our garden without compromising the way it looks.

Choosing flowers which provide pollen and nectar encourages bees, butterflies and other insects whilst small trees and shrubs known for their flowers, fruit and seeds not only provide a wealth of food at varied times of the year, but also offer cover and nesting sites for birds and mammals. Adding a water feature of some kind will entice a range of amphibians, and a small log pile offers a habitat suited to a variety of more specialist minibeasts. Recreating a small meadow area with a mixture of grasses and wild flowers is a natural alternative to a labour-intensive lawn or, simply allowing patches of lawn to grow longer provides additional shelter and food for smaller mammals and birds.

Putting up bird boxes, bat boxes and making hedgehog homes is yet another great way of offering shelter to our wildlife as the more habitats you have in your garden, the greater the diversity of wildlife it will attract. The wildlife friendly gardener needs to also put in place good wildlife garden practices and should try to use natural alternatives to sprays and pesticides whenever possible.

Steve’s talk was most informative and, by following his tips and making just a few small changes to the way we manage our garden, we can make it much more ‘user friendly’ to all the creatures that call it home. The simplest way to do this is just to let nature take its course and leave things to go a teeny bit wild; this doesn’t mean your garden has to be messy, but a few weeds, dead leaves and twiggy debris will provide a variety of food and microhabitats for our wildlife all year round.

Homefield Alpaca Visit – 1st May 2018

Chrissy Kirk welcomed us on a sunny morning and started our visit by telling us about how she started keeping Alpacas in 2007. Originally, she showed them and weaved their fleece to make into numerous items. However, she now concentrates on running husbandry workshops and trekking; occasionally taking her best-behaved Alpaca to Care Homes and Primary Schools.
Starting off with a few males, she decided to start breeding them and bought in several ladies. Now, there are 15 at the Farm, with several babies due in June from 3 stud males. A top stud can cost £75,000 to buy but a ‘regular’ chap is about £2000. Chrissy mates the females from 2 years old, and only once every other year to allow them to fully recover their strength. The babies are weaned at approx. 7 months old.
Alpaca fleece is finer and lighter than Llama fleece; it has hollow fibres resulting in a material that is warm in winter but cool in summer. An Alpaca duvet does not need to change with the seasons as it adapts to the ambient temperature.
After an introductory talk, we were split into smaller groups and took the lead of a young male Alpaca each plus one of the dominant males and went for a walk around the paddock, observing their habits and temperament on the way. After everyone had had at least 20 minutes each, we were treated to a hot drink and array of tempting home-made cakes in the cottage. Chrissy had several examples of different fleeces and yarns as well as several beautiful products for sale in her studio and a few members were tempted.
All in all it was a very different experience, which all seemed to enjoy.

This item has been forwarded to us by Lady Bruce-Gardyne (Horncastle U3A member and patron of the Sir Joseph Banks Society – Kew Garden founder). Please  click here… if you require further information.

 Dawn has advised that she cannot be present on both Thursday 26th April, and Thursday 31st May, for the usual weekly Keep Fit class.  However, she does not want any slacking to occur and questions will be asked at the following week’s class as to whether you have been exercising at home ….