Monthly Meetings

Monthly Meetings and Open Days

We meet at 2pm on the first Wednesday of each month (except August and December) in the Angel Centre, Tonbridge (map). We invite interesting speakers and always follow the talk with the chance to chat over a tea or coffee.

Once a year this meeting is dedicated to an Open Day where there is the opportunity to talk to many group leaders. Details of these meetings are given on the Events page.

We have had positive reports from most of those that joined the January monthly meeting over zoom. We will be making the February meeting available over zoom. The meeting id is published in the February Journal. These meetings are for members only. Please don’t circulate these details outside the u3a.

If you would like to be sent an e-mail with the link to these meetings each month or have any questions about this new service, please e-mail me at zoom@tonbridgeu3a.uk The zoom service is being provided for those members that cannot join us in the Medway Hall for whatever reason. 

Do come to the meeting if you are able; you would then hear the speaker live and enjoy meeting other members after the talk over a tea or coffee. 

IT Coordinator David Bell itcoordinator@tonbridgeu3a.uk

Wednesday 2 July 2025 

Tonbridge u3a Annual General Meeting (AGM) 

Following our AGM in July, our talk will be given by Paul Mason, a local speaker living nearby in Pembury. He is married with two daughters, both doctors, and three grandchildren.  For forty years he ran a successful business in Tunbridge Wells providing language training and commercial translation services. Paul has been a keen student of church architecture and history since he was a boy in the 1960s, with a genuine enthusiasm for his subject and will provide a fascinating insight into his interest and history of ‘monumental brasses’.

For those unfamiliar with the subject, ‘monumental brasses’ are memorials to the dead found in many English churches.  Here’s a chance to find out about a fascinating part of English church history.  Up and down the length of England are hundreds of country churches with an intriguing, but little known secret: lift the old piece of matting in the corner of the lady chapel and you may find a finely incised 700-year-old brass plaque fixed to the floor commemorating the life of a knight, a priest, a wool merchant or a local squire and his wife and children.They provide a detailed history of styles of armour, civilian and priestly dress from the 12th to the 17th centuries, giving a fascinating  insight into medieval and early renaissance society – especially changes in styles of clothing, priestly vestments, ladies’ head dresses, and knights’ armour and weaponry. The presentation will cover the origin, manufacture and significance of these monuments, referred to simply as brasses, with film clips, photos and illustrations, plus a map of nearby places where you can find examples to discover some for yourself.

Wednesday 3 September
Speedbird One; The History of Concorde. - Guy Bartlett

Wednesday 5 November
Wimbledon Strawberries. - Marion Rega.