u3a Core meetings allow all members to meet together as a single group, develop friendships, catch up on news, exchange ideas, and feel valued as part of a local community.
Our Core meetings take place on the second Monday of each month. We meet at at 13:45 for a prompt start at 14:00 in the Bentley Heath Community Centre, finishing by 16:00 at the latest.
The meeting starts with a welcome from our Chair, followed by the main topic of the meeting; a talk by a guest speaker on a topic chosen to be of interest to our membership. Over the years we have had a very wide range of talks and presentations, exemplified by some of the reports of ‘Recent meetings’ below. On some occasions, particularly in December, we have a more social party instead. We always break for refreshments partway through the afternoon, and this provides an opportunity for meeting other members.
Potential new members are always encouraged to come along for a ‘taster core meeting' and we have a good reputation for making them feel very welcome.
Note: The views and opinions expressed by guest speakers are their own and should not be taken as representing the views or position of South Solihull u3a.
Forthcoming meetings
Recent meetings
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Upton House and the Bearstead Art Collection
Tony Mawbey is a National Trust volunteer, and has a special role in delivering talks about Upton and its art collection. 
Our April Core Meeting was enlivened by Tony Mawbey's excellent talk about the extensive art collection at Upton House, near Banbury.
Tony described the origins and development of the house, now owned and run by the National Trust, and introduced us to the art collection assembled by the early 20th-century owner Walter Samuel, the 2nd Viscount Bearstead. The well-chosen slides included notable paintings and porcelain from the collection, illustrated by Tony's explanations of their origin and history, and enhanced by his gentle humour throughout.
Afterwards, Tony kindly stayed on to answer members' questions, providing even more insight into the house and its history.
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Financial Security – Scams and online banking
Georgia Sproul, Senior Branch Manager, Solihull Cluster, Nationwide, gave us advice on financial scams and online financial security.
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Art In Depth
This month our Core Meeting talk was given by one of our own members: Terry Powderhill.
He introduced his talk thus...
"Sculptors have it easy: they make 3-dimensional models of 3-dimensional subjects – simple! Graphic artists, on the other hand, have a much more difficult job; they also have 3-dimensional subjects, but their images are only 2-dimensional, and that is a BIG problem!"
This fully-illustrated talk was about the tools and techniques that artists have discovered and used to try to re-create the impression of the missing 3rd dimension of depth in their artworks. It spanned the history of art from cave paintings to Virtual Reality, and took as case-studies some iconic images that we all recognized.
The audience got involved in various informative experiments and demonstrations.
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Humorous Monologues
Jennifer Rigby performs Stanley Holloway's “The Lion and Albert” Actor and raconteur Jennifer Rigby treated us to her delightful renditions of monologues by luminaries such as Joyce Grenfell, Stanley Holloway and Pam Ayres along with memories of her own childhood. It was a lovely afternoon.
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Christmas
84 members enjoyed our Christmas Party in December. Pam gave us her legendary Christmas Quiz, (2 winning teams!) and members of the Play reading group performed ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’. After prosecco and mince pies Raye and Maria taught us to sing a round and we finished with Christmas songs with the help of the Technology Group. The garden group made beautiful table decorations and many people helped with refreshments and arrangements to create a lovely festive afternoon. Thank you Everyone!
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Victorian and Edwardian Buildings of Birmingham and the West Midlands
Tim Bridges works as a Conservation adviser for the Victorian Society, representing our region. The Victorian Society is a National Charity campaigning for the Victorian and Edwardian historic environment. Tim spoke about his case work and current campaigns for buildings of local interest, including examples from Solihull.