Monthly Lunches

We meet on the second Wednesday of every month to enjoy each other's company, lunch, and, often, listen to a guest speaker.

Wednesday 9 October 2024 at The Castle Inn Hotel, Bramber

Speaker Christopher Churchman on "Losing our Landscape"

Chris has been a Landscape Architect for more than 40 years, setting up and running one of the UK’s leading practices in1993. His more memorable projects include The Sammy Ofer Wing National Maritime Museum, Tower Hill, London, the reworking of the Elephant and Castle estate, an HS2 Station and the Universities of Birmingham and Warwick.

In October 2023 Chris moved away from landscape architecture, and founded cquester, a not-for-profit company seeking to raise awareness of the value of natural assets in offsetting climate change.

Chris will talk about the UK's argricultural landscape which still occupies nearly 90% of our land and which is under multiple threats. Whilst climate change is certainly one of the biggest it is not the only problem. Other issues are: a farming workforce that is diminishing and ageing; removal of the subsidies that have underpinned

agriculture for 70 years; aggressive buying practices by supermarkets; our attitudes to food and our move away from meat-based diets; and our concerns about the use of chemicals, plus house building, water quality, etc. The agricultural landscape we know will change, and it has to. The question is - what will follow?

Wednesday 13 November 2024 at The Blacksmiths Arms, Adversane

Guest speaker will be Tim Fookes on "The Life of the High Sherriff"

Wednesday 11 December 2024 at The Findon Manor Hotel, Findon

Our Christmas Lunch with all the trimmings and festive fun

Wednesday 8 January 2025

Speaker Brian O'Gorman: "The Art of Variety"

Wednesday 12 February 2025

Speaker Michael Gilson: "Behind the Privet Hedge"

Wednesday 12 March 2025

Speaker Philip Waite: "My Life as an RAF Policeman"

Wednesday 9 April 2025

Speaker Kevin Newman: "Clock Towers of Sussex" or "Scrumptious Sussex"

Special Occasions in 2024

Friday 6 December

President's Ladies' Christmas Dinner at the West Sussex Golf Club with entertainer Paul Stanworth.

Recent Events

21 September 2024 - Storrington on Show

We "manned" a stall at the Storrington on Show event held at Chanctonbury Leisure Centre. It was a showcase for local voluntary and community organisations to raise awareness of their activities and to encourage more support by way of new volunteers or, in our case, new members.

We were encouraged by the level of interest shown in our offering despite the low footfall, the rain and insufficient parking facilities.

Many grateful thanks to Alan, Les A-W, Les N and Clive (shown below, left to right) who gave up their time to host our stand and to encourage passers-by to learn more about our Club and, hopefully, participate in our social events.

11 September 2024 - Monthly Lunch

Our lunch-time speaker at the Tottington Manor Hotel was Dr. Geoffrey Mead. He gained his PhD in Geography from the University of Sussex, so was well-placed to present about the evolution in the way in which people have worked in the county over thousands of years.

We were taken on a fascinating, interesting and informative explanation from the time when people mined flints for their personal use, through the development of a system of trading goods, to the modern service sector economy that exists within the County today.

14 August 2024 - Annual General Meeting

We held our annual general meeting at the Random House Hotel during which the club's presidency changed from Rob Neal-Smith to Peter Edwards. The picture, below, shows Rob (left) congratulating Peter having wished him a successful and enjoyable forthcoming year. Peter thanked Rob for the hard work he had put into moving the club forward during a difficult year and vowed to continue that progress.

23 July 2023 - President's Ladies Lunch

Our highlight social event of the Summer was a delightfully convivial luncheon at West Sussex Golf Club. Members, their partners, Friends and guests thoroughly enjoyed the superb food and service laid on by the Golf Club.

In his address, Club President Rob Neal-Smith, praised the ladies for their significant and important participation in the Club’s many social events throughout the year and for their invaluable support to the Members which helps to secure the continuing success of the Club.

Club President, Rob Neal-Smith

10 July 2024 - Monthly Lunch

At our July meeting we had an interesting and informative talk from Hamish Brown, a retired Detective Inspector from the Specialist Crime Directorate at New Scotland Yard. His talk was entitled “Stalking the Stalker”.

Hamish is a leading UK and international authority and regularly lectures and gives advice on a global basis. During his career of over 30 years’ service with the Metropolitan Police he developed a thorough investigative background, in the fields of rape, murder and contract killing.

After being commended on many occasions, he went on to specialise in stalking cases. He is the author of seminal works on stalking for the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police. His expertise and work on stalking were acknowledged with the award of the MBE by HM the Queen.

His presentation set off with a fascinating case history of an investigation which involved the stalking of a young lady over a six month period by a series of anonymous letters. These letters were intimidating and of frightening nature. The case was outlined to detail the investigation and to emphasise the psychological affect stalking has on its victims.

Hamish also explained what stalking is, or can be, outlined investigative tips on how to deal with victims of this unique and distressing crime, and detailed some of the methods previously used by stalkers.

12 June 2024 - Monthly Lunch

Our very own John Bradley spoke with great authority and some humour, initially about the history of, and his personal involvement with Gifford House in Worthing. John informed us about the strong, determined and influential women who fought and cajoled those in authority to open up places that could be used to care for returning wounded servicemen and its links to the Queen Mother.

Moving seamlessly onto D-Day, John recounted his experience of that particular day. He invited two other "senior members" - Clive and Peter E. - to also recollect their memories of that historic day. Whilst it was many years ago, and all three were but young boys then, they all gave vivid descriptions of what they saw and experienced.

John, Clive and Peter were thanked by Paul Weaver, Our picture, below, shows Chairman-for-the-Day Tony Girard, Speaker John Bradley and Paul Weaver.

8 May 2024 - Monthly Lunch

Our guest speaker this month was Ian Worley, an experienced and distinguished yachtsman, who spoke about “Racing to Victory in the Southern Ocean". His interesting talk covered how the 78 foot racing yacht, Great Britain II, on which Ian was First Mate, overcame many odds to win line hours in the 1977/78 Whitbread Around the World Race.

10 April 2024 - Monthly Lunch

Frances Farrer-Brown gave us a fascinating talk about the town of Rye. In her very own style and assisted with pictures of the town's landmarks, she covered much of the interesting history and stories of the people and places that can be seen and appreciated today.

13 March 2024 - Monthly Lunch

In addition to Jonathan Beardmore talking about "Filming at the Bluebell Railway", we were pleased to welcome as a new member Henryk Kaskow from West Chiltington.

President Rob (right) welcoming Henryk to the club

14 February 2024 - Monthly Lunch

A most interesting, well-researched and informative presentation by David Bickerton about the pursuit of the German battleship Bismark and its sinking on 26-27 May 1941.

10 January 2024 - Monthly Lunch

This was the first lunch of 2024 when we recevied a most interesting and informative presentation from guest speakers Chris Connors and Sharon Perry from CoCo's Foundation.