Out & About March 2017

In good company Newbury National Trust support group was founded 35 years ago, in order to allow trust members to meet up and enjoy group outings and talks. Today, it has some 400 members and an extensive programme of events. Geraldine Gardner met up with Gerald Orbell and Keith Spires to discover more T he National Trust has been welcoming visitors to stately homes, old cottages, working mills, barns, gardens and coastland for more than 120 years. and fundraising events or hands-on conservation activities. Its success can be measured by the fact that the Newbury group has more than 400 members. nine-strong committee and their efforts to make sure an entertaining and diverse programme is presented to its members.

Six years ago Keith Spires decided to add theatre outings into the mix and these have proved to be a winner. “I book about four trips a year – it could be theatre or a concert. Most recently, we went down to Dartford, Kent, to see the Russian State Ballet perform Sleeping Beauty – it was fantastic.” I met up with the group just before the coach set off and they were all full of praise for the hard work put in by the committee and of the addition of these outings. Joy and Bob Brand have been members for nearly 20 years. “We found out about the group quite by chance,” said Bob. “We’ve been on lots of trips since we joined, which we wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. Joy particularly enjoys the extended residential visits. “It’s lovely to visit other parts of the country and see the historical sites around the area,” she said. “We also go to a lot of the talks because they are on such a wide range of subjects.” Another keen theatre-goer is Molly Breakspeare. She said, “I love these trips. This is a real treat, it’s not every day you get to see the Russian State Ballet.” Their next trip, to see Funny Girl, is already sold out. One important element of the Newbury group is fundraising and making sure that the money is put to good use. “The National Trust allows us to say where we would like the money to go,” explains Gerald. 

The attraction of joining a National Trust support group is that you meet people who share the same interests and can enjoy organised visits to special places. Perhaps not surprisingly, the group is generally made up of retired people. As outgoing chairman Gerald Orbell explains: “The age-range of our group is 60-plus, but you would expect that, given that many of our outings are during the week and so suit retired people.” On average, the organised daytrips are enjoyed by between 30 to 60 members, but the evening talks are a different matter. “We hold monthly talks up at the Greenham arts centre,” says vice chairman Keith Spires. “They are extremely popular and sometimes it is standing room only. We very often welcome more than 100 to the evenings.” The talks are booked by one of the committee members, Michael Perkin, whose job it is to find interesting speakers on varying topics. “They don’t have to be about National Trust properties,” says Keith. “For instance, our January talk by Robert Fromow was about the Australian Outback. “He presented to a packed house.” The success of the group is heavily-reliant on the

The organisation was founded in January 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley. It has grown to become one of the UK’s largest charities. Today, across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the trust looks after a quarter-of-a-million hectares of land, 775 miles of coastline, and thousands of archaeological monuments and historic buildings, large and small. Every year, millions of people enjoy days out to properties and land in the trust’s care. At the heart of the success of the trust are the thousands of volunteers who give up their time to act as guides or help out in the various locations. The organisation also relies on a network of support groups, who share an interest in the trust’s work and provide much-needed funds, as well as a social hub for like-minded people in their area. There are more than 200 National Trust support groups in the UK and, this year, the Newbury & District Association celebrates its 35th anniversary. The Newbury association was founded in 1982 by a group of friends who wanted to support the trust and one of its founders, Mary Hepburn, is still involved as president. The purpose of the group is to allow people to enjoy special interest talks, visits, holidays and other social

21