- Basingstoke Discovery Centre
- St. Michael’s Hospice (North Hampshire) Lights up the Autumn Sky
- Basingstoke Lions Club – September 2018
- PROBUS Club October Report
- Basingstoke Civil Service Retirement Fellowship
November Events At The Basingstoke Discovery Centre
Main events
Local Radio Talk by Pam Marsden
Tuesday 13 November/ 2 pm / £4
Pam Gillard worked for the BBC from 1970-1997 and has a unique view of live programming in BBC Local Radio in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s in the UK and abroad. Her interesting and informative talk, with photos and BBC memorabilia, takes you through her years of Local Radio and Pam has a wealth of stories to tell about a bygone age of radio and would love to share her tales of broadcasting with you.
AWE Orion Laser Facility Talk
Tuesday 27 November/ 2 pm / £4
This AWE presentation will provide a fascinating insight into the Orion laser facility. Orion is the UK’s largest laser and is used to study high energy density plasma physics. Nick Hopps will discuss the incredible technology behind Orion, provide a brief overview of some of the experiments that are conducted within the facility and describe how visiting academics are also able to use Orion in research into laboratory astrophysics.
12 Hours – Jane Austen’s Engagement
Friday 30 November / 2 pm / £6.50
This exciting new monodrama, currently in development, is a dramatization of a real event in the life of one of the world’s most famous authors and explores issues that concern women even today about the dilemmas of accepting an offer of marriage. Come and be part of a play in development. This workshop will include a reading of 2 scenes of the play, followed by an audience critique and feedback.
Children’s Events:
Children’s Craft
Saturday 10th November/ 10 am to 12 pm/ FREE
Celebrate Autumn with our free Autumn-themed craft activity.
Learning in Libraries courses:
Sewing for the Home – Soft Furnishings
Wednesdays 7th, 14th and 21st November (3 Weeks) / 9:30 am to 1.30 pm / £60
An opportunity to learn how to produce soft furnishings for the home. Learners will work with different levels and techniques of sewing, including hand and machine sewing. You will need a sewing machine. Please ask the staff at Basingstoke Discovery Centre if you do not have access to your own sewing machine, as some will be available to use.
Mixed Media Art – ‘MIX IT UP’
Tuesday 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th November and 4th and 18th December
(6-week course – 2 hours per week) 4 pm to 6 pm / £60
This course will introduce learners to creating unique and innovative art and design work based on mixed media, techniques and processes. Create, review, mount and present mixed media artwork.
Basingstoke Discovery Centre
Festival Place Shopping Centre
Basingstoke
RG21 7LS
01256 478670
St. Michael’s Hospice (North Hampshire) Lights up the Autumn Sky
November is a busy month for the Hospice. Staff are busy preparing for the annual Light Up A Life Service and helping with all the different November Nights activities.
November Nights is a wonderful campaign for when the nights are drawing in, giving a great excuse to have a fun evening with friends and family and at the same time raise money for St Michael’s Hospice. Some popular things that people choose to do are a cheese & wine evening, a games evening, Bonfire Night Party, a girl’s night in being pampered, or a pub quiz night. The list is endless of the different things you could do to be involved.
If you have an idea for November Nights please let us know, or if you need supporting material to help promote your event, please give Lynne Grimshaw a call on 01256 848845 or email Lynne.grimshaw@stmichaelshospice.org.uk.
On Sunday December 2nd, a beam of light will illuminate Basingstoke as supporters gather at the Hospice to remember loved ones.
St. Michael’s Hospice is looking forward to welcoming the community to its annual Light up a Life remembrance service starting at 6pm within the Hospice grounds. The poignant service allows those who wish to remember loved ones the opportunity to dedicate a star in memory. Stars can be dedicated via the Hospice website or by contacting the Hospice but to be featured in the order of service dedications must have been received by 23rd November.
Laura Hughes, Events Manager at the Hospice is looking forward to the evening and welcoming the community to St. Michael’s “We have many fundraising events that are held throughout the year but this one is particularly special to the Hospice staff and I, the love and compassion that the public bring to this event is very hard to describe. All staff whether clinical, administrative or fundraising do everything they can to ensure the best care for patients is delivered and the event openly demonstrates the difference St. Michael’s makes to the communities of North Hampshire. Christmas for many is a time of great joy, happiness, warmth and laughter. The most important thing for the families that we care for this Christmas is allowing them time to enjoy spending precious time together and creating memories that will last a lifetime.”
For more information please visit St. Michael’s Hospice website at stmichaelshospice.org.uk or call the fundraising team on 01256 848848.
For additional information please contact:
Chris Griffiths, Head of Operations
St. Michael’s Hospice (North Hampshire)
Tel: 01256 848847
Email: chris.griffiths@stmichaelshospice.org.uk
Basingstoke Lions Club – September 2018
Our MacMillan Nurses Coffee Morning was its usual resounding success. I think we raised about £250 which is a great result for two hours gluttony and coffee slurping. Motown, which raised just under £700, at the Royal British Legion was a stonking success too. Not quite as good as my fag packet accounting calculated for my original report, but still an acceptable result for an evening of super music and a lot of exuberant dancing none of which would have made the grade on “Strictly”. On the down side, we had to cancel the concert which The Band of the Hampshire Constabulary were due to perform for us. We apologise to all who were looking forward to the concert and thank the Band and QMC for their understanding of our predicament.
Welfare: One of our more intelligent and perspicacious members (an unusual combination in our Club) asked me a question. He/she does that a lot, but this one was actually worth answering. “How have we spent the money we raised over the past year?” As each case is dealt with on its own particular merits, and we have to ensure that individuals are not identified, it was a bit of a poser. So the assistance was extracted under the following loose categories:-
Family Support – Miscellaneous – £774 – 5 cases
Family Support – White Goods and Furniture – £618 – 5 cases
Family Support – School Uniforms – £356 – 6 cases
Pensioners Event/ Equipment – £400 – 2 cases
Various Youth/ Disability – £2013 – 8 cases
Community & Message in a Bottle – £800 – 2 cases
Christmas donations and lunches – £2200 – 7 cases
Other charities without their own dedicated fundraising support – £3500 – 11 Cases
Normally we would, during this period, have contributed to disaster relief efforts around the world funded through our International Fund. But, austerity has hit the most vulnerable hardest. We hope normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.
Fundraising: The Caerphilly Male Voice Choir sing for us on 17th November and ticket sales are looking good. Please get in touch with – mauricehockley@hotmail.com – or jomolincoln@btinternet.com/ before we sell out.
Quiz Night at the Cliddesden Millenium Hall is on 3rd November. Invitations have already been issued to our regulars. So if you want to join in the fun, apply direct to – philipjhwilson@btinternet.com . 5 tables are still available.
Thank you for your support.
The Man Who Made Meccano (and Hornby trains and Dinky toys)
Everyone in the room put their hands up to the question – who had played with some of the brand names in this heading?
The man behind such world famous products, Frank Hornby, was the subject of a talk given by John Hollands to the Probus Club of Basingstoke. Born in 1863, Frank Hornby was the 7th child of 8 children. Liverpool was his lifelong home ending up as Conservative MP for Everton. He started as a cashier and having realised that perseverance was the key to success founded a branch of the Band of Hope around 1900. This was a temperance organisation with several million members throughout the country.
He wanted boys to take up useful trades and started to develop a construction kit which he patented in 1901. Initially called Mechanics Made Easy the name changed to Meccano in 1907 and by around this time it was exported to over 40 countries. It had initially been plain metal then painted red and green then blue and yellow. Instructional monthly Meccano magazines became required reading.
The famous Binns Road factory in Liverpool was opened in 1914 employing up to 2000, mainly women. After WW1 Hornby introduced model trains to compete against resurgent German toy manufacturers. The engines were driven by clockwork motors and then by 1925 mains electricity. Export markets had decals on the trucks and passenger coaches pertinent to their own countries.
The factory started to make model figures and equipment to complement the train sets. They were called Dinky Toys. Road vehicles were added to add authenticity to the layouts and thus began the third string of this toy manufacturer which continued up to the closure of the company in 1978.
Today Dinky Toys, especially with original boxes, command extraordinary prices at auction.
Basingstoke Civil Service Retirement Fellowship
50 members attended the meeting on 3rd October who were welcomed by David Cowling, the Chairman who then went on to give apologies and welcome back those who had not been able to come for a while. Tony Brazier, the Secretary, then gave a reminder of the forthcoming Mystery Trip in October, the trip to Basildon Park (which would include lunch in Theale) on Thursday 22 November and the Christmas Lunch at BCOT on Thursday 13 December. Christine Broadbent, the Welfare Officer, gave her up-to-date report in which she mentioned members who had been unwell and with whom she had been in touch with or sent cards to.
The speaker this month was Malcolm Nelson who had worked for 40 years as a customs officer mainly at Heathrow airport. He explained that it was a particularly important airport to those who wanted to smuggle drugs into the country as it was not only easy to reach from most places abroad but was then conveniently close to London. In fact 80% of the illegal drugs found came in through Heathrow. He then went on to give an outline of the considerations taken into account by customs officers when a number of planes would land within a few minutes each with about 450 passengers taking just 20 – 30 minutes to pass through the “Green Channel”. He gave a number of examples of their procedures which ensured that they were able to target the people thought most likely to be smuggling illicit contraband into the country and the big part taken by their specialist dog teams in this process.
Malcolm also brought along copies of his books “Forty Years Catching Smugglers” and “In Pursuit of the Two Legged Mule”
The next meeting is on 7th November when the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service are coming to give a talk on Fire Safety at Home. Also at this meeting there will be a Christmas themed “Bring and Buy Sale” to raise further funds towards the new sound system. The group meets on the first Wednesday of each month at Brookvale Village Hall from 10 am to 12 noon and all retired Civil Servants and their partners are welcome. Details can be obtained from the Secretary Tony Brazier on 07715 640171 and for information about our trips please contact Kate Lambeth on 01256 328791.
David Cowling