Our Quester Groups organise visits to interesting places.

Normally after the visit we socialise over a lunch or tea.

Members take it in turn to investigate and organise visits to places, often not always accessible to individuals. This is not very time consuming but keeps the groups active.

Visit to Chilcomb Hill House, (Winchester Msonic Lodge) Alresford Road - 14th February 2024

organised by Sonia Phillips.

(Chilcomb Down House was formerly the home of the Headmistress of St Swithun’s School, opposite.)

16 members of Quester 3 group were met by Andy, a Lodge member, who guided us to the lounge where coffee, tea and biscuits were served. While enjoying our drinks, we admired the wonderful views across to Chilcomb Down.

Andy then told us that organised Freemasonry, as we know it today, began with the founding of the First Grand Lodge on 24 June 1717 at the ‘Goose & Gridiron’ ale house in St Paul’s Churchyard. It was formed by the agreement of four London Lodges, the oldest of which existed in 1691.

Winchester Lodge members used to meet in the building that is now W H Smith – their emblem can still be seen on the outside wall of the building. 

Andy said that there are several theories regarding the origins of Freemasonry, but it is generally agreed by historians that Freemasonry developed from medieval Stonemasons, otherwise known as Operative Masons who built the great cathedrals and castles.  They developed initiation ceremonies for new apprentices and travelled all over the country.  They also developed a secret word to prove that they were skilled.

One surprising piece of information that Andy mentioned, was that Freemasonry was not secretive until during the Second World War when the Nazis persecuted and killed Freemasons as they did others. In recent years the Lodges are much more open.

Most people can become Freemasons – they will only be excluded if they have been convicted of a serious crime. 

Freemasons are very generous and nationally give many millions of pounds to charities every year.

Following his talk Andy guided us to a tour of the Lodge which comprises of several lounges, a dining room and the Temple which was built below ground level as the planners did not want to add to the building’s prominence. The Temple is very grand with a ‘throne’ and padded banquette-type seating around the sides.  The carpet is black and white squares which denote life and death. As a Chapter meeting was scheduled for the evening of 14 February, the room was prepared with symbolic articles, including a bible, spade, pickaxe, rope etc.

Jan Reynolds

Group visit to the Houses of parliament - 5th March 2024

Arranged through Winchester and Chandler’s Ford MP, Steve Brine’s office, Quester 3 also had a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament (Palace of Westminster) at 12 noon on 5 March.

The 14 members of the group who attended, met their guide in Westminster Hall. The tour included Central Lobby with its own post office and standing in the House of Lords, as the Lords were not sitting.

On the conclusion of the guided tour, the group were met by their MP for a Q&A session. The group met Steve in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association room, which he sits on the executive committee of.

Steve opened the session by saying that in addition to his parliamentary and constituency duties, he is Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee.

The group asked the MP’s views on a number of local issues including:

• The proposed closure of Andover Road which would lead to traffic being diverted through the Kings Barton estate.

• The future of Royal Hampshire County Hospital with the group raising their concerns regarding the Emergency Department and maternity services.

• The proposed improvement plan for M3 Junction 9 ahead of the Secretary of State for Transport’s final decision in the coming months.

Steve Brine has been the Member of Parliament for Winchester and Chandler’s Ford for 14 years and shared his experiences of that time with Winchester u3a group. Many attendees asked what he will or will not miss most.

Steve Brine said: “It was a genuine pleasure to host Winchester U3A in the Houses of Parliament. It is clear they are all incredibly passionate about local issues in and around Winchester and I’m glad they appreciated the Q&A as much as I did. It was especially nice to go through the issues around Winchester Hospital and deal in the complex facts of what is really happening here.”

To conclude the session, a group photograph was taken, and Steve Brine was thanked

Visit to Tesco Distribution Cenre, Canberra Road, NurslingIndustrial Estate,
Southampton - 9th July 2024

18 members of Quester 3 visited Tesco Distribution Centre, Canberra Road, Nursling Industrial
Estate, Southampton on 9 July 2024.

We were met by Simon, Service Manager, and were kitted out with pink conspicuity jackets before being ushered to their conference room for refreshments. Whilst enjoying coffee and biscuits, Simon gave us a brief history of the company. In 1919 Jack Cohen purchased war surplus goods which he sold. In 1924 he bought a shipment of tea from Thomas Edward Stockwell. Jack then made new labels using the supplier’s name TES and used the first two letters of his own surname CO. The Tesco brand was born. Over the years Tesco has expanded into several countries but now concentrates its activities in the UK, Ireland and some Eastern European countries. Tesco has 330,000 employees overall and the Nursling Distribution Depot covers Yeovil in the west, Emsworth in the east and Salisbury in the north. Suppliers deliver to this Centre 24 hours a day and employees work three shifts of 8 hours.

Following the briefing, we were split into two groups of 9 – Simon took one group and Matt the other. We were shown the computer system that monitors Tesco delivery vehicles 24 hours a day as drivers adhere to the Working Time Directive. If a driver cannot be contacted for a while, another employee will be sent to check on him or her.

The Distribution Centre is vast and as suppliers deliver to the Centre, all goods (both non-perishable and perishable) are picked, put onto fork lift trucks, stacked into the waiting lorries and despatched to Tesco shops within 24 hours. We were shown the perishable goods area which is maintained at 1 degree. Some lorries take frozen foods in the top space and non-perishable goods in the bottom space.

Our group was only the third U3A group to visit since the pandemic so we were made very welcome. At the end of our visit a photograph was taken in the foyer.

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