Cottingham U3A

Cottingham U3A

The Cottingham U3A meets on the 2nd Thursday

at 2.00 pm in the Darby & Joan Hall, Finkle Street, Cottingham.

 

List of Events for 2026

April 9th – ‘Inn & out at the top – tales of life at the highest pub in Britain’

Neil Hanson is a hugely engaging storyteller and award-winning speaker, and his talk “Inn & Out at the Top” is a laugh-a-minute tour of the quirks and foibles, highs and lows of his time running Britain’s highest inn back in the 1970s and 1980s.

 

May 14th – ‘The Swinging Sixties’ – Sex, drugs and rock and roll’ 

 The decade that changed the world with local author Marion Gamble. Marion is a popular local speaker and author who keeps herself busy combining storytelling with fund raising for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. 

 

June 11th – ‘The works and life of Thomas Hardy’

Emeritus Professor of English Literature, Jane Thomas will share some of the passion,  knowledge and enthusiasm she has for the famous author we know and love and who played a major role in her successful research and teaching career at the University of Hull.

 

July 9th – ‘When the railway reached Beverley’

This talk from Colin Bradshaw describes how Beverley changed after 1845 when the first steam trains operated from Hull, via Beverley to Bridlington. Coaching inns declined, new buildings emerged, people travelled much further and more easily. It is not a technical talk about railways.

 

August 13^th – ‘Lynda Harrison – an exposition of an interesting, entertaining and inspiring life

Lynda Harrison was born and brought up in Hull.  She began performing in the mid-sixties, at just sixteen years old. A founder member of one of the first British all-female groups and one of five teenaged girls who found themselves reluctantly centre stage in the lion’s den, a male dominated industry. This part of her life was an oddly serendipitous occurrence for Lynda, significantly because her short life, prior to this, had been adverse in many of its aspects. Historically this chapter of her life is what began forming the basic recipe for the development of her love of writing, appreciation of poetry and passion for storytelling.

October 8th – ‘What inspires Art? (and just about everything else!)’

Retired research physicist Dr Kevin Byron will demonstrate some commonly occurring patterns of creative ideas that appear across a broad spectrum of activity including art, science, engineering and advertising. This talk will appeal to anyone with an enquiring mind.

 

November 12th – Women of Words – A celebration of the spoken word 

Some of the core members of the Women of Words Collective will share pieces of their prose, poetry, plays, novels, musings and generally inspiring writing. Prepare to be moved, inspired, to laugh, cry and to experience some magical moments with this talented group of women. Women of Words meets on the first Wednesday afternoon of every month at Hull Central Library. The session features a special guest writer along