SPEAKER'S CORNER

Monthly talks are held at Claygate Village Hall on the first Wednesday of the month at 2pm.

Talks about The Co-op, Christmas, The Atlantic, Being Grandad and Memsahibs make up this months Speaker's Corner.

PLAN TODAY, PROTECT TOMORROW

This talk from the Co-op throws light on the following areas:

Inheritance tax
An explanation on how people can be impacted by this and some simple steps to take that may reduce the burden.

Protecting savings
One of the biggest worries as we grow older is how to ensure that what we have worked all our life for goes to the people we love. Care homes can take a chunk of this - so what steps we can take to protect our estate? Blended families Re-marriage of a surviving spouse can inadvertently result in the new husband/wife inheriting everything, whilst the children from the first marriage get nothing. With blended families it’s never been more important to ensure what our chosen beneficiaries inherit.

Lasting Powers of Attorney
What happens if we become unable to make decisions ourselves? Planning ahead will remove the burden from our family and help reduce stress and cost. 4th November

The Co-op
This is one of the world’s largest consumer co- operatives, owned by more than 5 million members and the UK’s fifth biggest food retailer. There other businesses include: providing funeral services, insurance and legal help. The Group also has a minority shareholding in The Co-operative Bank and a joint-venture travel business with Thomas Cook. It operates 3,500 outlets, employs approaching 70,000 people and is recognised for its social goals and community-led programmes.

CHRISTMAS – A FESTIVE HISTORY

An insight into the myths and traditions

In a fascinating, entertaining and uplifting presentation, Andy Thomas uncovers the intriguing background to the festive season. From the ancient midwinter celebration of light, to the marking of the birth of a Messiah, mid-December has long been a time for rituals and rejoicing. Yet the history of Christmas has not been straightforward; it was banned outright in Puritan times and its merry traditions splintered into many guises before the Victorians reinvented the festival into what it has become today. Andy shows how we can still find meaning and enjoy Christmas today.

Andy Thomas

Andy is the author of Christmas: A Short History from Solstice to Santa, together with several books on Sussex history and folklore He is also a renowned researcher of paranormal phenomena and cover-ups and is author of the acclaimed Strange, The New Heretics, Conspiracies and The Truth Agenda which explore these. His many other books include definitive guides to the crop circle mystery. Andy extensively writes and lectures in Britain and around the world and he has made numerous radio and TV appearances in the UK as well as worldwide.

AN ATLANTIC ODYSSEY

This epic journey across the Atlantic was an amazing adventure.

Crossing the Atlantic is a challenge, but in a small boat with a baby on board could be called madness. However, for Ian Worley who learned to sail as a boy it was and unforgettable adventure.

This talk recounts Ian’s experiences back in 1968/69 when he took his wife and younger sister plus his six- month-old daughter on a voyage from Chichester to the Caribbean then sail home again across the Atlantic Ocean.

It was quite a feat at a time when navigation was by sextant and time-keeping was by chronometer, both long before satellite navigation and mobile phones were used. They encountered many storms, a collision with basking whales and a nasty encounter with a very large shark. Ian said his grandfather and father had sailed round the world and he wanted to keep up the tradition.

Ian Worley

Ian was brought up in Chichester and spent all his time on the water after his father bought him his first sailing boat aged eight. He sailed and raced regularly, winning many races and always increasing his knowledge and love of the sea. Then as a young husband with a baby, he set sail to the Caribbean and all points west. A subsequent major journey was into the Southern Ocean on Great Britain II. While on the Round the World race Ian filmed the experience for the BBC.

BEING GRANDAD

An exploration of the gentle art of being a good Grandad

In this talk Steve Wells covers the benefits to grandads of getting involved with their grandchildren, the complementary roles of grandad and granny, the different typologies of grandads, how they can encourage connection with ‘the real world’, the ‘cheeky grandad syndrome, comparing the roles of grandads and parents, and other areas.

Steve explores the notion that grandads are often an under- utilised resource and that encouraging their greater involvement with grandchildren of all ages can have huge benefits. Grandads have a great opportunity to make the world more vividly real, and in so doing, more enjoyable for their grandchildren, and for themselves.

Steve says that grandads can give vivid expression to family history – youngsters love hearing about ‘the olden days’ - which gives a vital sense of cross-generational security in an uncertain world.

Steve Wells
Steve is a retired qualitative researcher, which has proved very helpful in getting the most out of the in depth interviews he has conducted with lots of different types of grandads and grandchildren. Studying for a degree in Philosophy when he retired has also worked to his advantage. With his wife Linda, who also has a philosophy degree, they have run Claygate Philosophy Group for eu3a for the last 12 years.

MEMSAHIBS AND THE EAST INDIA CO

The women of the 17th century who started a new life in India.

Jenny Mallin tells us that tea first came to England due the East India Company. Tea trading became a lucrative monopoly for the EIC thanks to Catherine Braganza, the young Portuguese wife of Charles II who served it to her aristocratic friends and soon tea would become the fashionable drink of the day.

Jenny also hints at the technological changes of the industrial revolution which had a positive effect of intertwining the economies of India and Great Britain.

We may think that memsahibs are linked only to the British Raj, but the first women who came to India in 1608 were intent on making money by running a business on their own. As wives, courtesans or she-merchants, these tough women were just as intrepid as their men - the sea captains and traders - in whose wake they followed to India, taking daring leaps into the unknown.

Jenny Mallin
Jenny is a regular speaker on her British Raj family whose history she explored having discovered a book written in 1844 by her great x 4 grandmother. It holds handwritten manuscripts, passed down from mother to daughter through five generations..

With her passion for cooking, Jenny’s award- winning cookbook “A Grandmother’s Legacy” is a memoir that mingles the history of her family with her grandmothers’ recipes.