Derek Stannard, co-ordinator of U3A Princes Risborough's History Group was telling me about the way he gets more of his members involved at their meetings.

"I ask two or three of them to deliver a short talk on just one aspect of history that they've recently found interesting" he said. "It doesn't matter if it's only a few paragraphs from a book, and it certainly doesn't matter if it's only five or ten minutes long; the thing is to get them talking about a subject they are enthusiastic about, or that they have been actively involved in".

I had been invited to give a slide-show 'The Tudor Monarchs - a century of trouble and strife" and I was just one of three speakers that afternoon. Maddie Simpkin gave a talk on Roman Mosaics, their styles and probable manufacture. I gave my own talk on the Tudors, from 1500 through to the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, and Bob Reece then took us through the development of Westland Aircraft from the late 1800s, when they started as makers of agricultural machinery, up to his apprentice years at the beginning of WW2.

It struck me afterwards what a wonderful illustration our meeting had been of the sheer diversity of history, and I can certainly vouch for the enthusiasm that was generated by having these three talks ranging over such a wide canvas.

Working Women

Bob Reece's talk on Westland Aircraft leads me back to a project I've been working on for some years now. I started Timewitnesses in the 1980s as an inter-generation project for school-children with special needs, and it has now become a biggish website much used for helping with Modern History homework (you can see it at http://timewitnesses.org ).

We have now decided to start a new section to be called 'Working Women' which will consist of short stories and anecdotes from many of the women that were drafted into the factories and offices during the 1940's. If anyone reading this would like to take part, I do hope you will write to me. Our 'icon' will be Rosie the Riveter (seen right). Norman Rockwell painted this for the front cover of the US Saturday Evening Post and I've always thought her quite magnificent in a Rubens sort of way - welding mask/halo above and 'Mein Kampf' trampled firmly underfoot.

Aquae Sulis
Geoff Wilson, U3A Warwick District

An imaginative and innovative new Spa is emerging only a hundred yards or so from the historical Roman Baths in England's World Heritage City of Bath. Controversial in the eyes of some, but in the eyes of many, a project worthy of the third Millennium and complementary to that created nearly two thousand years ago.
Built on the derelict site of the old Beau Street baths, it also has a 'main spa pool' with whirlpool, steam rooms and footbaths, massage and treatment rooms, a solarium and gymnasium.

A Three thousand year progression
The development of Bath as a spa goes back over thousands of years. These hot springs were the site of ancient pagan worship, this being superseded by the Romans - Aqua Sulis ( The water of the goddess Sulis), and yet again by the Christians.

Mediaeval Debauchery
Conduct in the baths was not always of the standard of which Mrs Whitehouse would have approved, but with the introduction of the regime of Beau Nash and his friends, acceptable conduct and dress codes were imposed.

National implications
The project may act as a catalyst in restoring interest in England's Spa Towns, of which there are 12, mostly not functioning in their original manner. Leamington is but one. Our Pump Room no longer serves its origin purpose. Our near neighbour, Droitwich Spa, has a salinity much higher than that of the Dead Sea. Its future is under consideration. Likewise that of places such as Buxton and Harrogate. The present trend is to move away from hydropathic treatments, and for the towns to re-invent themselves as "Spa Heritage Centres" with all that that implies.

England claims credit for starting health spas - and sea bathing - but in both cases current trends need reversing. Germany, for example has 347 working health spas, about 300 in that nation's health service.