Purpose:

To undertake visits to places of interest, often with behind the scenes tours.

Contact:

Meetings:

Quester Group News - The next meeting is to be held at Burghclere Down Community Centre 8 Sept 2008

Annual membership subscription for this group is £3, plus £1 for attendance at each business meeting (to pay for the hall)

Past Meetings

Our Questor Group spread it’s wings a little wider at the end of November and ventured up to London for a tour of the Palace of Westminster.
We should have been escorted through the Commons by Sir George Young but he had to cry off at the last minute as something more im-portant than our little group arose.
However we were split into 2 groups and were ably shown around by Clive & Malcolm. I think our guide must have worked there for many years as he was so
knowledgable about the workings of both Houses plus a store of anecdotes about the Members past and present. We all learned quite a lot !
At the end of the tour we were taken to the historical Westminster Hall.There we were left to join the queue for lunch. Very crowded and certainly room for improvement. Next time I’ll take sandwiches! I bet the Members have a jollier time on the terrace.
Everyone then did their own ‘thing’ until we regrouped on The Embankment for the homeward journey on the minibuses. A grand day out.
In December we decided on a more modest outing as most people are busy getting ready for Christmas. Our trip was to ‘Milestones’ in Basingstoke which is a journey back in time — re-creations of old homes & factories from the Hampshire area all housed in a hangar-sized building.
Once more it was nostalgia time and disconcerting to find how much was from our own childhoods. If you haven’t been it’s well worth a trip.
Christmas over & a new year upon us we decided that the men would like to carry on the Christmas spirit with a trip to a small local brewery – particularly one which provided free samples! This was an evening trip which turned into a magical mystery tour trying to find them as they had moved premises. A mobile phone call to ask “where are you?” found us just outside their entrance. The Itchen brewery in Alresford delivers over a surprisingly large area. It was an interesting tour and we were invited to sample all their brews – they were very good too!

Since the last U3A meeting the Questors have been on two outings. The first (1.9.07) being a trip by minibus to the Weald and Downland open air museum in West Sussex. The museum is home to over 50 restored buildings which are scattered over a sizeable area. We were given a tour of the huge Gridshell building which has over 7000 artefacts in it’s collection – most of which have been donated by members of the public. It was quite worrying that so many items from our childhood are now museum exhibits!
We then moved on to the nearby Canine Partners training establishment. We saw a demonstration of the wonderful tasks these clever dogs are trained to do for their disabled partners. It was fortunate that our visit coincided with their sponsors barbeque evening which we were invited to join. This rounded off a wonderful sunny summers day.
Our next visit (4.10.07) was to Saint Margaret of Antioch’s church at East Wellow where Florence Nightingale worshiped and was buried.
The bad news was that there was a power cut in the church so it was not possible to see the DVD they use to illustrate the talk on Florence Nightingale.
The good news was that it was a lovely sunny day again and the Rev George Biggs was able to give us a fascinating talk about F.N. at her graveside. After this he took us into the church where he gave us a further talk on the history of the splendid little church which was consecrated in 1215 (the year the Magna Carta was signed).
We have been invited back to see the DVD presentation at a later date. Most of us then drove the short distance to Carlo’s Café for a good lunch before dispersing.
Our next visit is to the House of Commons on 27th of November and we already have an exciting lineup of visits planned for 2008.
Marion Marriott

At the beginning of March, 18 Questors paid a visit to Salisbury Cathedral where we were divided into 2 groups for the guided tours. The guides were both pleasant and informative and all of us increased our knowledge of the Cathedral – finding many hidden gems. The icing on the cake was seeing the Magna Carta at the end of the tour (and reading the translation)
In mid April we ventured further afield. In the morning we toured Fishbourne Roman Palace which was discovered accidentally in 1960 by a digger driver. Since then much excavation has taken place resulting in the unearthing of the largest domestic Roman villa in Britain. First we watched an audio-visual film which helped our understanding of both the Villa and its occupants. Then we were let loose to wander and explore. Lunch was taken at the on-site café and then off to the South Downs Planetarium in Chichester where we were entertained in the dome by an astro-physicist called Spike who had a brilliant way of imparting knowledge. The star projector projects nearly 4500 stars onto the blackened dome of the star theatre. We were shown the moon and planets and also star patterns. The seats were very comfortable – necessary as we were looking up at the stars. A very good day which everyone enjoyed.
At the end of May we had obviously had enough, for a little while, of learning so we spent a day at the Leckford Festival. There were lots of food stalls advertising their wares and lots of tastings to be had. One nameless person said they had so many tastings that it was unnecessary to buy any lunch! The highlight of the day was the Hayride – a 1½ hour tour around the estate sitting on haybales on a flatbed trailer pulled by a tractor. We had the farm manager as our guide so we learned a lot as we passed the orchards, mushroom farm, chicken coops, etc. As the Leckford Estate measures 5 miles by 4½ miles there was plenty to see. After that we were free to wander around the estate so most of us took the opportunity to visit the Water Gardens which were looking at their best – particularly as we went on the first day of the show and the weather was beautiful. The next two days of the Festival were rainy so we were fortunate. Another good visit.
For our latest Quest we were off to Southampton for a double deal. For the first event we boarded an open-topped bus for a tour around Southampton docks. Fortune smiled on us yet again as we not only had another lovely day weather wise, but, because there were only 18 of us on the tour, we all had an outside seat ‘up top’. Our guide gave us a comprehensive description of the history and workings of the port as we progressed around the docks and the container port. We passed a large building bearing the logo ‘Bacardi’ where, we were told, a million bottles of Bacardi Breezer were bottled daily! Who on earth drinks that lot? A highlight of the trip was to be close up to one of the newest vast liners, The Navigator of the Seas, as the passengers were boarding for the next voyage. We were later to see her set sail as we stood on the city walls.
When the tour ended we had some free time to independently shop or dine or ‘whatever’ before our evening guided walking tour of the city walls which was scheduled to last 1 to 1½ hours. I think that our guide perceived how interested we all were as the time extended to nearly 2 hours (not bad for £2 each) As we climbed up and down the walls, peered into churches, visited wine cellars and an undercroft we were treated to a fascinating history of Southampton – from Saxon times onwards up to the Titanic and the 2nd World War. Everyone agreed that we had learned such a lot in a very delightful way. I overheard one member say that they had lived all their life 20 miles from Southampton and was amazed to discover how interesting the city is. I’m sure that that sentiment was echoed by a number of us. A grand day out.

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