AGM papers will to be circulated shortly.

It would need to be in our lovely old local, the Woolpack, as they have the tables, a quiet room, with hot and cold drinks on tap. Contact Liz Green

I. How long have you lived in Stroud?

35 years

2. What was your most enjoyable job before retirement?

A very interesting 13 years at Stroud Council and working on promoting Health and Wellbeing projects in the district.

3. What is your dream holiday activity?

Coastal walking in Devon or Cornwall

4. What is your favourite piece of music?

Lots of pieces but particularly love Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition

5. Do you play or enjoy any sports? Which?

Played badminton for about 25 years but now I like watching cricket and tennis on TV and have managed a Fantasy Football team for about 15 years. Great fun.

6. When were/are the best days of your life?

Now is the best time, when meeting up with our family, grandchildren and friends.

6. What is the next exciting thing you are planning?

A BIG birthday in 2027

Here are a few suggestions that may not have occurred to you, but which seem to meet most of these criteria:

Stroud Hotel, by the station, is already used by some groups.

Emergence, in Kendrick St behind the Stroud Subs Rooms, is a new community venue. They have a room upstairs which could be made available for free.

Stroud Sub Rooms include several that might work for our groups; for example the Studio Rooms upstairs take 12 people and cost £16 an hour, including wifi.

The National Trust's Woodchester Park cafe, on Tinkley Lane, Nailsworth, is a bit further afield but spacious but fairly quiet, and does excellent scones (of course). You do have to pay for parking (unless you have an NT card).

The Blue Diamond Garden Centre, Nailsworth. Lots of space, not usually too busy, and nice cakes!

If you have other suggestions, please put them in the comments below.

The unfinished Woodchester Mansion, near Stroud, was built for the weathly Roman Catholic convert William Leigh. As a Neo-Gothic mansion, it was an on-trend example of mid-19th-century architectural design that drew on the talents of Augustus Pugin, Charles Hansom and Benjamin Bucknall.

In 2005 a collection of Leigh family memorabilia was discovered in the attic of a house in Brighton. Comprising letters, photographs, accounts and some books, it casts light on this interesting Victorian family. Volunteer mansion archivist Liz Davenport will be delving into this collection and exploring the extended Leigh family, their problems and their accomplishments, and travel across the globe.

By opening up this treasure chest, Liz will be able to answer many unanswered questions surrounding this unique family and ambitious building project.

Liz Davenport has been a volunteer at Woodchester Mansion for more than 20 years and is also a trustee. She has written a comprehensive guide to the history of the Mansion.

September 3rd, 2.30: Women in the Arts & Crafts Movement in the Cotswolds: Monthly meeting at Lansdown Hall.

September 10th: 2.30, Social Quiz; Congregational Church Hall, Bedford St, Stroud

September 15th: deadline for submission of articles to this newsletter

September 20th: publication of the September newsletter

October 1st: Lansdown Hall, 2.30: Monthly meeting: Liz Davenport, Woodchester Mansion - opening the treasure box.

Lisette’s first sculptor was Dylan Lewis, a well-known South African sculptor who is on a quest to explore ‘the untamed wilderness within us’ in order to live a more authentic life. These feelings are very much expressed in his art. He wants us to reconnect with ancient elemental forces of nature as this is where healing takes place, in order to be real.

Lisette led us to appreciate Dylan’s work as an emotional journey. He isn’t interested in making pretty, sterile statues, instead his work captures raw ancient energy. His style is deeply expressionistic and he is best known for his powerful bronze sculptures of big cats,as well as human figures and hybrid forms. These are shown off to perfection in his Stellenbosch Sculpture Garden near Cape Town.

Her second sculptor, Sir Antony Gormley, is one of Briton’s most celebrated contemporary sculptors, best known for large-scale public sculptures exploring the relationship between the human body and space. She chose four pieces of work in particular to illuminate his work and share with us:-

1. The Sleeping Place (his first creation)

2. Sound II (meditative figure in Winchester’s Cathedral)

3. The Angel of the North

4. Exposure (one of his recent works)

He won the Turner Prize in 1994 and has been a Royal Academician since 2003. He was knighted in 2013 and appointed Companion of Honour in 2025.

Please book or re-book your place/places as soon as possible. Online joining will be available here.

It now has a new online payment mechanism, and Stroud u3a will be one of the first u3as to test and deploy this. This new system should make payment online of your membership fees etc. far more straightforward.

The improved system should be live from 20th August and we will email all members once it is.

When you go to make a payment, you will be given an upfront choice of using your Debit/Credit card OR Paypal. At the moment you have to use Paypal and then (not easily) go through their process to use your own card without setting up a Paypal account. For those who wish to use Paypal, that option will remain.

We very much welcome this change in Stroud u3a, and hope that more and more of you will become comfortable with using this online payment method. But don't worry, all our other current methods of payment (such as bank transfer or cheque) will be unaffected and you can continue to use them if you prefer.