This Group has been running successfully for upwards of 15 years, but has recently sadly lost some longstanding members and ideally would like some replacements.

The Group adheres fairly closely to the U3A ethic of members educating themselves rather than bringing in speakers and we only have one social visit a year to an appropriate venue. What this means in practice is that each member undertakes two or three pieces of research into subjects of their own choosing, each year and presents the results of their studies to the others at our monthly meetings. Research in this context means using secondary sources such as books and the internet. Members are not expected to spend hours in archives pouring over original documents – although if anyone was prepared to do this, they would not be discouraged!

Presenting the results of research to Group members is not something that many of us had done before joining, and we all recognise that this can be daunting. However in recognition of this we are all supportive of each other and adhere to an unspoken rule that we each encourage our colleagues and do not criticise or put them down. Over the years we have learned to trust each other and are more relaxed about presenting work, whilst at the same time recognising that this can still be challenging and stressful.

Originally our fields of study were in broadly chronological order but of late we tend to tackle any subject that attracts the interest of the researcher and this results in a good mix of political and social history subjects. Some of the most interesting presentations have been about individuals that have previously been unknown to most of us.

If this way of sharing a love of history appeals to you, please contact me to arrange an opportunity to meet the members and possibly join our group.

if you would like to be put in touch with the Leader of this Group, or want to find out more about what the Group does, please send us a message through the 'Link to "Group Leader Contact" at the top of this page and we will get back to you by email or phone, if you have included it in your note.