January news.

Congleton Dane Probus Club held their monthly meeting at the Lion and Swan on Monday the 19th of January and Chairman Don Newling was pleased to welcome new member Grant Bremner and also guest John Whitehurst. Don explained the reason for the meeting having been called earlier than usual and thanked the members for helping out by making themselves available.

Congleton Dane Probus Club held their monthly meeting at the Lion and Swan on Monday the 19th of January and Chairman Don Newling was pleased to welcome new member Grant Bremner and also guest John Whitehurst. Don explained the reason for the meeting having been called earlier than usual and thanked the members for helping out by making themselves available.

The members stood in silence to pay their respects to Arthur Bellingham, a founder member who had passed away recently, following which Don presented new member Grant with his membership pack and badge. Grant gave the meeting an outline of his career with the BBC, mentioned a few interesting anecdotes and was made very welcome by the members.

The date of the December meeting was confirmed for the 14th of that month and Paul informed the members that the website link to Amazon was already working quite well.

Brian Cook requested that those attending the spring lunch should kindly settle their account at the February meeting at the latest and also asked that if anyone was requiring club regalia could they please let him know.

Don informed the meeting that unfortunately the planned trip to Holland and the Keukenhof flower display would not be taking place but did recommend to the members a trip to Holland being organised by Bostocks’ Coaches.

Don Cole reminded the members about Mervin White’s trip on the Manchester Ship Canal due to take place on the third of June, Paul gave details about the next dining group lunch and also a proposed trip to the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham in the middle of March.

David Dickinson gave some information about the possibility of a trip to the Railway Museum in Crewe and Chairman Don put a request to the members for more proposals on social events.

Doug reminded the members that the spring lunch was due to take place early in March and that he would need to finalise the numbers quite soon. It was going to be held at the Swettenham Arms, would be ‘Welsh themed’ and the cost was to be £22.50 per head.

Peter informed the meeting about the health of Geoff Parry and the members sent their best wishes.

Peter then introduced member Ian Fraser who gave a delightful and most interesting talk on the subject of ‘A free holiday’. It transpired that Ian travels to Madrid and meets up with other English speaking people who then meet up with an equivalent number of Europeans and they spend a week working with them and coaching them in colloquial English. It sounded like hard work but great fun and very rewarding. Gordon Watkin expressed the member’s thanks and the members expressed their appreciation in the usual manner.

 

Probus clubs are local to towns and districts and are made up of retired business and professional people. They are non-denominational and the name itself derives from the first three letters from ‘PROfessional and BUSiness’.

We meet once a month for a regular meeting and to listen to an invited speaker, followed by lunch at the hotel for those who wish to stay.

During the year many other activities are arranged, such as visits to places of interest (e.g. television studios, factory sites, museums etc.), days-out at the races, sports events ranging from snooker (regularly) to ten-pin-bowling, canal boat cruises, countryside walks, club lunches with spouses invited and group holidays.