Directory of Previous Talks

Barbara first began her talks when she was a member of her U3A Local History Group. She became particularly interested in the NHS because she was born only two weeks after the “birth” of the NHS on 5th July 1948. Her parents met in the Army and moved to London.  At that time hospitals were … Read more

Roger Hart spent his career in various guises as an environmental health officer in the public health sector. His was a world of lice, bed bugs, dust mites, cockroaches, infestations, mice, rats and muck. Adapting the saying “Where there’s muck there’s brass,” to a more appropriate “Where there’s muck there’s vermin“ sums up the situation. … Read more

What is a tree and what is a bush or shrub? Very often we tend to refer to certain shrubs as trees when in actual fact they are not. For a plant to be classed as a tree it must grow to at least 6 metres tall and have one single stem or trunk which … Read more

The title of this talk was in the form of a question which I could have partly answered before the meeting, having watched our Lib Dem councillor Cliff Woodcraft trudging round the neighbourhood in all weathers, at all hours, delivering party political flyers and newsletters. Whatever your political persuasion, there could be no doubting this … Read more

A lot of Sheffield water originates from Redmires Reservoir, which was built in the 1830’s.  Iron ore pipes were laid in the streets and lead pipes connected to houses.  There were also lead-lined cisterns. Sinclair White, in 1886, drew the authorities’ attention to the fact that lead poisoning was more prevalent from houses supplied by … Read more

  Our speaker this week, Antony Taylor, was Professor of Modern History at Sheffield Hallam University, a specialist in politics and culture.  His topic could not have been more topical, as the current Brexit debate raged around us in Parliament and the media. Tony emphasised from the start that his talk was not about the … Read more