Tag Archives: U3A

Callington U3A November


U3A speaker report 6th November 2017
Today’s speakers were Steve Marker and Emma Jones from Hansford Bell, Chartered Financial Planners, Tavistock.
Their subject was Financial Life Planning in Retirement
Steve started by speaking about the recent changes in the Regulations for Financial Advisers, ie no commissions, minimum qualification levels raised, and others.
What is Financial Life Planning, it covers 4 main areas. 1: Life Planning Stage
2: Financial Planning Stage 3: Financial Advice Stage 4: Regular Reviews 6mths/annual.
Their advice in the Life Planning Stage was to prepare Goals (bucket list). If it all’s ends what would you regret not doing. Or if you had 5 years to live what would you do. Or if you had 24 hrs to live what would you regret not doing! And to have the conversation with your partner.
The advice in the Financial Planning Stage was to analyse existing finances, wants, needs and goals, the stress test. Do a cash flow chart, income, expenditure, total assets, net worth, money for care and a disaster scenario. The Financial Advice Stage consisted of, how much is enough, Care cost Planning, estate distribution, Inheritance Tax Planning and wills. Also the facts about gifting money, £6000 per couple per year, £5000 for a wedding etc. Regular Review Stage was to keep on top of your finances.
Emma then talked about Equity Release and how you could release funds tied up in your property. It was a very interesting talk, it showed us that Planning is very important in later years.
If you are interested in joining us at the Callington U3A please go to …. www.u3asites.org.uk/Callington or come along on the first Monday of the month to the Callington Town Hall at 10am.
Gillian Brown

U3A Tamar Valley Study Day


Callington U3A …2017 Study Day entitled: The Tamar Valley, Past Present and Future.
An audience of 120 gathered for this full day event at Callington Town Hall on October 25th.
The Study Day started with a very interesting BBC DVD entitled Tamar Valley Voyage, from The Great British Story series. It followed the life of the valley from the Roman Hill Fort at Calstock, to the present day. It gave us a picture of how the valley was exploited for its minerals such as tin, copper, arsenic, lead, feldspar, silver, tungsten as they came in and out of use for over 2000yrs. It taught us about how unique the Cornish language is. And the history of the civil war with the battles of Horsebridge and the fight for the tin. It concluded that valley today has one of the finest areas of outstanding natural beauty.
We had 4 speakers scheduled throughout the day,’ the first was Rick Stewart the Mine Manager at Morwellham Quay. He told the story of how the River was the highway to transport minerals. The first evidence of mining on the Bere Peninsula was in 1290 for lead, silver, tin, copper and chalcopyrite this was not shaft mining, but Stream Panning. Shaft mining began in the Mediaeval times, they wanted the tin, as copper was valueless until they discovered how to achieve the temperature with coal to smelt it in 1688/9. During the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries, a period of major industrialisation which impacted significantly on the predominantly rural landscape. The populations of villages and towns such as Gunnislake, Drakewalls, Luckett and Tavistock increased dramatically during the nineteenth century as a result of the burgeoning mining industry. Copper mining and arsenic production in particular were to dominate the fortunes of the Tamar Valley through into the twentieth century. Devon Great Consols was at one time the largest copper producer in Europe and, later in its productive life, able to supply half the world’s demand for arsenic. If you wish for more information go to www.cornish-mining.org.uk 

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U3A speaker June 2017


This month speaker at the Callington U3A was the delightful and funny Denise Walker her talk was entitled ‘Who goes there’ a look at animal tracks.
She suggested when we are out walking in this beautiful county, that we keep our noses to the ground, as there is a world of animal tracks and clues to the wild life in your area. You need to look for clues to the small dramas that have been taking place.
There maybe fur caught on barbed wire, tracks and trails in the bank, and foot prints if the path is wet. Denise showed us various tracks we could spot, like hedgehogs, squirrels, deer and foxes. She showed us pictures of various poo! which contains the indigestible parts of foods such as hair, feather, bone splinters, which provide a wealth of information. Smells also play a vital role in the social aspects of mammals.
Clues can be found about their eating habits in their droppings, there are 3 types, vegetarians, carnivores and birds.

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U3A May meeting with Milli Lindfield


The talk this month was from Milli Lindfield about the short but remarkable life of her daughter.

Our daughter Hannah-Kate was born in 1991 with a rare syndrome called Pfeiffer Syndrome with Cloverleaf. This meant that Hannah was born with a cloverleaf shaped skull which affected her breathing, sight, hearing and pressure on the brain.

At five days old my husband and I took Hannah to Great Ormond St Hospital totally unaware that this was to become our second home for the next 19 years! At 6 weeks Hannah underwent the first of many, many major surgeries to help her live life to the full.

Hannah from day one proved she was not going to be beaten and amongst all the surgeries, having a tracheotomy (four times) being registered deaf and blind ,she attended main stream primary school and then the West of England School in Exeter.

Here she gained her love for swimming and art, and was introduced to her ever faithful Guide Dog Bella. Art became her life, it gave her an avenue to express her many emotions and to cope with the acute pain that she dealt with on a daily basis. She took her A level Art exam in Gt Ormond St Hospital on huge amounts of pain relief and blind folded as day light affected her eye pain. Continue reading →

Callington U3A Dec 2016


Speaker Graham Morris Education Officer for the R.N.L.I. explained his work is entirely voluntary. He visits schools and venues to raise awareness of the dangers of the sea and inland waterways. Volunteers comprise 95% of the workforce of the R.N.L.I.

An elderly lady, with new hearing aids, was sitting in her garden overlooking Looe Bay. She could hear a distant voice calling for help. On summoning the lifeboat the crew found a man clinging to an upturned dinghy, another trying to swim to shore. Continue reading →

Callington U3A Update


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February Meeting – My Quest for Journalistic Fame

 

The speaker this month was our own U3A member Michael Farr who stepped in at the last moment to give us one of the most entertaining and interesting talks we have had. His quest for journalistic fame was always tied up with his life long passion with the railways. He wrote numerous articles included in ‘Buses Illustrated’, ‘The Railway Modeller’ and the ‘Railway World Manual’.

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