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In good company
Newbury National Trust support group was founded 35 years ago, in order to allow trust members
to meet up and enjoy group outings and talks. Today, it has some 400 members and an extensive
programme of events. Geraldine Gardner met up with Gerald Orbell and Keith Spires to discover more
T
he National Trust has been welcoming
visitors to stately homes, old cottages,
working mills, barns, gardens and coastland
for more than 120 years.
The organisation was founded in January 1895
by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke
Rawnsley. It has grown to become one of the UK’s
largest charities.
Today, across England, Wales and Northern Ireland,
the trust looks after a quarter-of-a-million hectares
of land, 775 miles of coastline, and thousands of
archaeological monuments and historic buildings,
large and small.
Every year, millions of people enjoy days out to
properties and land in the trust’s care.
At the heart of the success of the trust are the
thousands of volunteers who give up their time to act
as guides or help out in the various locations.
The organisation also relies on a network of support
groups, who share an interest in the trust’s work and
provide much-needed funds, as well as a social hub
for like-minded people in their area.
There are more than 200 National Trust support
groups in the UK and, this year, the Newbury &
District Association celebrates its 35th anniversary.
The Newbury association was founded in 1982 by a
group of friends who wanted to support the trust and
one of its founders, Mary Hepburn, is still involved
as president.
The purpose of the group is to allow people to enjoy
special interest talks, visits, holidays and other social
and fundraising events or hands-on conservation
activities. Its success can be measured by the
fact that the Newbury group has more than 400
members.
The attraction of joining a National Trust support
group is that you meet people who share the same
interests and can enjoy organised visits to special
places.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the group is generally made
up of retired people. As outgoing chairman Gerald
Orbell explains: “The age-range of our group is
60-plus, but you would expect that, given that many
of our outings are during the week and so suit retired
people.”
On average, the organised daytrips are enjoyed by
between 30 to 60 members, but the evening talks are
a different matter.
“We hold monthly talks up at the Greenham arts
centre,” says vice chairman Keith Spires. “They are
extremely popular and sometimes it is standing room
only. We very often welcome more than 100 to the
evenings.”
The talks are booked by one of the committee
members, Michael Perkin, whose job it is to find
interesting speakers on varying topics.
“They don’t have to be about National Trust
properties,” says Keith. “For instance, our January
talk by Robert Fromow was about the Australian
Outback.
“He presented to a packed house.”
The success of the group is heavily-reliant on the
nine-strong committee and their efforts to make sure
an entertaining and diverse programme is presented
to its members.
Six years ago Keith Spires decided to add theatre
outings into the mix and these have proved to be a
winner. “I book about four trips a year – it could be
theatre or a concert. Most recently, we went down
to Dartford, Kent, to see the Russian State Ballet
perform
Sleeping Beauty
– it was fantastic.”
I met up with the group just before the coach set
off and they were all full of praise for the hard work
put in by the committee and of the addition of these
outings.
Joy and Bob Brand have been members for nearly
20 years. “We found out about the group quite by
chance,” said Bob. “We’ve been on lots of trips
since we joined, which we wouldn’t be able to do
otherwise.
Joy particularly enjoys the extended residential visits.
“It’s lovely to visit other parts of the country and see
the historical sites around the area,” she said. “We
also go to a lot of the talks because they are on such
a wide range of subjects.”
Another keen theatre-goer is Molly Breakspeare. She
said, “I love these trips. This is a real treat, it’s not
every day you get to see the Russian State Ballet.”
Their next trip, to see
Funny Girl,
is already sold out.
One important element of the Newbury group is
fundraising and making sure that the money is put to
good use. “The National Trust allows us to say where
we would like the money to go,” explains Gerald.