Despite the ever-changing lockdown restrictions, Honiton’s University of the Third Age (U3A) has remained active, with its 220 members rising to the challenge of running activities in these difficult times.

Like many organisations, much of U3A’s work has temporarily moved online. Monthly meetings that members have enjoyed at the Beehive have been replaced for now with Zoom meetings.

In October, Stewart Raine gave an illustrated talk on how we used to travel. Stewart said of his talk: “The generation born just before and during the Second World War and those ‘baby boomers’ born after it in the 1940s, were the last to grow up in an age when travel by motor car was not the norm.

“Many cities had trams and trolleybuses in the 1950s and even into the 1960s, and if we went to London we went by train.”

In November, the prominent historian Todd Gray gave a talk on mob violence in Exeter. Todd was recently featured in the edition of Britain’s Most Historic Towns on Channel 4 filmed in Plymouth.

As he pointed out in his talk, there are many historical parallels to today’s street protests, whether over Brexit, the environment or Black Lives Matter.

Over the centuries, he noted, Exeter suffered religious, political and social unrest in its streets. Some events involved up to twenty thousand people. Violence often centred around conflict between the most important two centres of power in the city: the church and the council.

December’s monthly meeting was an online Christmas social, featuring songs, stories, poems and a quiz. Members were encouraged to have seasonal refreshments to hand.

The backbone of any U3A is its interest groups, run by the members themselves. U3A exists to provide people who are retired or semi-retired with opportunities to share learning experiences not for qualifications, but for fun. Despite the present restrictions, many of the 28 interest groups have kept going, and even flourished in these difficult times, as a welcome piece of normality in members’ lives.

The history group has continued to meet regularly through Zoom. September’s topic was the Pilgrim Fathers and Puritanism, and then in October the group looked at the East India Company, both fairly topical given the US election and the ongoing discussion of slavery and Empire. In November they looked at The Jazz Age or ‘The Roaring Twenties’, particularly in USA, but also in the UK and in Germany.

The Armchair Adventurers recently began a study of the Forest of Dean. During a brief respite in the regulations, when groups of up to six could meet, they managed two socially distanced indoor meetings to share findings on the new project.

Members shared their discoveries on everything from a stone that bleeds when scratched, to Roman votive offerings including dogs, which apparently were thought to aid healing by licking affected parts. The group also reported on the strange Cappers Act of 1488 which forbade the wearing of foreign made caps.

Other groups that have continued to meet online include the Poem Sharers and a group dedicated to Wine Tasting for Fun. The Photography for Pleasure group have also continued to meet through Zoom, and the knitting group have continued to keep in touch by email.

Founded in 1982, U3A is a UK-wide movement of locally-run interest groups that provide a wide range of opportunities to come together to learn for fun. Members explore new ideas, skills and activities together.

There are 1050 U3As across the UK, with 444,000 members. There are over 100 U3As in the South West alone, including 37 in Devon. U3A members everywhere have embraced the national body’s mission to “Learn, laugh, live,” which is a particularly appropriate message for these strange times.

New members are always welcome. Details of the Honiton U3A and its activities can be found on the website: u3asites.org.uk/honiton/home.