Author: Nadia Dawson

Philip took us on an amazingly zealous whistle-stop tour of his diverse career which started when he left school in 1966 aged 16. Men who lived in Barrow in Furness at that time were almost duty bound to work in the shipyards, so Philip’s dad was a bit taken aback when he announced that he…

As chaplain for the Hull and Immingham ports, Jake delivered an in-depth presentation on the history and work of the Mission to Seafarers, an organisation for whom he has worked for several years. This little known welfare charity serving merchant crews has its roots in the work of John Ashley, an Anglican priest, who in…

Richard hasn’t actually rowed the Atlantic as yet but is due to do so in November if all goes to plan. Although now retired, this hasn’t stopped him from participating in a number of taxing physical challenges which include cycling, running marathons and triathlons, white water rafting, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, undertaking a five day Bear…

Today we were accorded a very, very entertaining talk by the multi-talented Mark Walsh who, believe it or not, started his stage career at the tender age of eight. Since then, he has worked alongside many of our most well-known stars including Danny la Rue and June Whitfield to name but two and yet he…

Sally Henshaw, the current secretary of the Richard III Society retold the amazing story behind the discovery of Richard III’s remains beneath a council car park in Leicester. For hundreds of years, the exact whereabouts of his grave thwarted academics however, extensive research and the use of cutting-edge technology eventually led a very loyal band…

Derek explained that he has been a practicing Falconer for over thirty years and has his own business showing his birds up and down the country at shows, clubs and to different organisations including care homes where they are very popular with dementia patients. He first became hooked when he was a plumber and a…

Standing before us was a tall, black cloaked woman; she had a very distinctive long, grey plait draped over one shoulder and an unnervingly solemn face, so the audience were immediately visually captivated and waiting with bated breath for her to speak. And we were not disappointed because Karen is a very charismatic speaker, a…

We enjoyed a very entertaining hour listening to Loretta Rivett, the acclaimed doyen of the Lincolnshire accent and dialect. As she explained, the Lincolnshire dialect is full of weird and wonderful words and phrases which she uses with great aplomb, but which left most of us ‘frimfoak’ (non yellowbellies) feeling completely flummoxed. A true ‘yellowbelly’,…

With his background as a senior police detective, who better to advise us of ways to avoid being scammed than Stuart. After his introduction, Stuart showed us a video about ‘distraction burglary’. This is where criminals, often referred to as ‘bogus callers,’ call at someone’s house posing as an official from a company or similar…

In 2011, the Lincolnshire Co-operative Society celebrated its 150th anniversary and, to mark the occasion, it asked Bishop Grosseteste University to make digital copies of all its original paperwork dating back to its inception. The job of doing this fell to Dr Jackson (history lecturer) and henceforth, ignited his interest in all things pertaining to…

It’s been a while since we’ve had such an informative, engaging and entertaining speaker with such a blithe manner. Keith certainly captivated the members who became wholly engrossed in his Tales of the Tower. After an army career lasting 30 years, in 1997, Keith signed up to become a Yeoman Warder (often referred to as…

Originally from Birmingham, Sue started dance school at the tender age of 2 and performed in public for the first time aged just 3. From then on, she became totally hooked and put all her effort into passing dance exams and entering competitions rather than applying herself to her school studies. As a consequence, her academic results suffered…