Woodstock & District u3a

Our AGM was held on 7 May 2026. This was followed by a talk given by Mandy Massam from Oxfordshire Age UK on the prevention of scams.

Scams are received online, via the phone and WhatsApp. They are very clever, so you need to be vigilant and suspicious of everything.

Mandy provided us with contact details for the various different forms of scams. If someone is selling things on your doorstep, the advice is not to answer the door or engage in conversation with them. Phone the police on 101 or 999 if in any danger. Any texts received about an undelivered parcel asking for your bank details, report by forwarding to 7726 then delete and block the number. Calls received asking for your bank details, in particular your 3-digit security code. Call your bank on 159.

This was an extremely interesting and informative talk. Mandy supplied us with an information pack containing so lots of useful information and telephone numbers.

Our speaker for June was John Wilford who entertained us with stories about his 30 years as a sound engineer and tour manager working with well-known artists and musicians. John started in working life repairing Television in an electrical repair shop. Someone brought in a Marshall Amplifier to be repaired, from this John drove a van and helped to repair the band’s equipment. John progressed to Road manager and sound engineer, working with many well-known artists such as the Rolling Stones, Black Sabeth and Meat Loaf. John has written a book about his experiences Soundman by John 'Wilf' Wilford a Journey Though Rock’n’roll Sound.

On 2 July our talk is entitled 'Dogs for Good -Assistance Dogs. Carol Shearman will tell us about assistance dogs as she works for the charity Dogs for Good, based in Banbury. This is a UK based charity training dogs to assist adults and children with physical and learning disabilities, children with autism and adults with dementia. Visitors £3.00 to include tea/coffee and biscuits.

Book Group 1 have just finished reading For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain by Victoria Mackenzie. This is a story about Julian of Norwich who was a medieval anchoress and lived for 30 years in a cell attached to St Julian’s Church in Norwich. The group had an extremely interesting discussion about this book. Our book for July is Tin Man by Sarah Winman.

Our monthly meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month at St Hugh’s Centre, Hensington Road, Woodstock at 2pm for a 2.15 speaker. Our U3a branch is centred in Woodstock but welcomes people from the surrounding areas. Are you recently retired and looking for local social activities around interests you have? Our interest groups develop when someone is willing to run them – maybe you have something that you can offer? If so, please make contact with us through the website: www.woodstocku3a.uk. We would be delighted to hear from you.