The IBM Retired Employee Club (South Hants)
www.shrets.co.uk

The IBM Retired Employee Club
(South Hants) Newsletter

August 2011

We Need Your Input:

Planning for next year’s trips will take place soon and here is a chance for you to let us know what you would like to see included in next year’s programme. Please send your favourites and new suggestions to:- pn.nol@ntlworld.com or Paul Nol, 20 Tarbery Crescent, Waterlooville, Hants, PO8 9NP.

Forthcoming trips

British Military Tournament

We have been able to secure seats for this year’s British Military Tournament at Earls Court which is a very similar show to the old Royal Tournament and which is only running on three days in December. Our tickets are for the Matinee on Saturday 3rd December and the coach will depart from North Harbour at 9:00am. Allowing for a comfort / coffee stop at Guildford Cathedral on the journey up we plan to arrive in London at 1200 approximately to allow people to have lunch before the show starts at 2:30pm. The tournament concludes around 5:15pm so dependent on traffic return to North Harbour should be about 7:30pm.
As usual with these shows we have had to book early to secure the tickets and this explains why we are sending this booking out so soon.

The British Military Tournament is an unforgettable and breathtaking opportunity to marvel at the skills and precision of the British Armed Forces while showing appreciation for our heroic servicemen and women. Set within a dazzling arena production, this unmissable show is the largest display of military theatre anywhere in the world.
Last year's event brought together all of the best elements from the world-famous Royal Tournament in a new show for the 21st Century. It was witnessed by over 50,000 people and raised substantial funds for ABF The Soldiers' Charity, which gives lifetime support to serving and retired soldiers and their families in their time of need.
This year the British Military Tournament is being presented by ABF The Soldiers' Charity in association with The Royal Navy & Royal Marines Charity and The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund. This spectacular new tri-service show for 2011 is packed with an incredible array of exciting displays and traditional, breathtaking crowd favourites.
The programme includes:

• Over 700 participants, including active combat servicemen and women plus musicians from the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and the US Army, and skilled historical American Civil War re-enactors
  
• Over 100 horses and modern military vehicles
  
• The only chance to see the legendary Field Gun Run, featuring two crews from Wellington College battling it out in a dramatic, nail-biting contest over the walls and chasms of an unforgiving obstacle course
  
• The iconic Musical Drive of the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery
  
• Death-defying stunts from the White Helmets (Royal Corp of Signals Motorcycle Display Team)
  
• Special appearances from the US Army Drill Team and the US Army Band & Chorus
  

Loseley Park & Horse Drawn Barge

This is a two part trip which includes lunch at Loseley House and a cream tea on the horse drawn barge in the afternoon. The limitation imposed by the horse drawn barge means that we are restricted to a maximum of 46 participants. As Loseley closes at the end of September we shall be unable to repeat this trip in 2011. However if it is popular with members we will run it again in our 2012 programme

At Loseley our group will be split into two with one half doing the tour of the house first while the other group will do the garden tour. Lunch will be taken following the tours and will be a single course of poached delice of salmon served with a potato and chive salad, the chef’s selection of salads, freshly baked roll and butter, and tea or coffee. Loseley ice creams will also be available on the day but you will have to pay for those yourself at £1:85p per tub. A tomato and basil quiche vegetarian option will be available for anyone who doesn’t eat salmon but if you want this you must indicate it on the booking form – it must be pre-ordered and you will not be able to change your mind on the day.

Since the beginning of the 16th century the More Molyneux family have been welcoming guests to Loseley Park , and its idyllic surroundings. During the visit you will see many fine portraits and other works of art, furniture from the 16th century, and special features such as the panelling from Henry VIII’s Nonsuch Palace. Elizabeth I visited Loseley on four occasions and you will see the small west facing bedroom in which she chose to stay. You will also learn about the ancestry of the More – Molyneux family and their fascinating past connections with royalty and figures such as Sir Thomas More and the poet John Donne. This is still very much a family home and has a special warmth and peaceful atmosphere.

The most recently developed area is the Organic Vegetable Garden specialising in old and unusual varieties and their colourful companion plants. This area should be particularly colourful for our visit

Following the tours there will be time for people to look around on their own before having lunch as described earlier.

After lunch there will be a very short coach journey to join the horse drawn barge at Godalming. The vintage packet boat “Iona” began life as the “Bellopheron”, a cargo carrying narrowboat. She was built in 1935 at Woolwich by Harland and Wolff for the Grand Union Carrying Co. At 70 feet long and 7 feet wide she is the maximum size for boats navigating the inland canal network and could carry up to 35 tons of cargo. She was worked as one of a pair of boats – the unpowered “butty” towed behind a motor boat – trading for most of her life between London and the Midlands.
She carried coal south from the pits in Warwickshire and Leicestershire returning north with imported goods. In 1960 she featured in the film The Bargee starring alongside Ronnie Barker and Harry H Corbett. A few years later she was retired and converted to passenger carrying on the Shropshire Union Canal, pulled by a horse in the old fashioned way. In 1984 the business was sold to the present owners and ‘Iona’ travelled south to her new base at Godalming, which is the most southerly point of the whole British waterway system. The work of hauling Iona on her journeys is shared by three heavy horses. Ben is a 15.1 hands blue roan gelding born in 1993, Rosie a piebald mare is 14.1 hands and was born in 1986, and a more recent addition is Denzil a 14.3 hands black Dales.

Longleat

A return to an old favourite and one you may well have experienced many years ago when Longleat first opened its Safari Park to the public – considered to be a sensation at the time! This trip offers you entry into all of Longleat’s numerous attractions – a drive through the Safari Park, the stunning Longleat House stately home, the ‘Capability’ Brown gardens, the Hedge Maze, the new Jungle Kingdom and even possibly Adventure Castle (if you want to return to your childhood). There is so much to see that your main problem will be planning your time there!

The Other Royal River - City & Village Tour

This day on and by the River Thames in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is aimed at well travelled groups. It avoids the obvious and concentrates on the interesting. Not the stately home at Dorney then but the arboretum and London Olympic rowing lake. Not Windsor but its fascinating neighbour Eton and not downriver to the flat meadows of Runnymede but upriver past the sumptuous homes of the stars and a true Hammer House of Horrors!
We begin at Dorney village in the café in the old kitchen garden of the manor house to purchase morning refreshments at 10.30am. When possible we will show you neighbouring Dorney Lake, a modern world-class rowing and flat-water canoeing centre, built and owned by Eton College. Set in 450 acres of parkland this is the venue for the Rowing and Kayak events in the 2012 London Olympic Games. A short drive takes us to Eton to step down outside the most famous school in the world and explore the historic High Street leading to the River Thames where we break for lunch. You can stay on the Eton side, choose a riverside pub or cross the bridge to Windsor; it is entirely up to you.
After lunch we depart from the pier by the bridge for a cruise lasting one and three quarter hours. We set off past the only island racecourse in the UK and then sit back to enjoy some beautiful scenery. You’ll hear about the turncoat Vicar of Bray and see the beautiful riverside homes of the stars. A striking gothic mansion housed the French government in exile later becoming the film location for many Hammer House of Horror and St. Trinians films. Edwardian Maidenhead had a risqué reputation where fashionable London motored to let their hair down. Marvel at Brunel’s famous Sounding Arch immortalised in JMW Turner’s painting Rain, Steam and Speed. There’s a bar on board serving teas and coffees or a nice glass of wine or a gin and tonic for a sunny summer afternoon
We arrive at Boulters Lock Pier at 4-00pm and head home well ahead of the rush hour.
Minimal walking on this day making it ideal for groups of mixed walking ability