Club News
Welcome to our Ladies Lunch at Coulsdon Manor Hotel
April Luncheon: Chairman, Tony Farrell, welcomed 23 members and our guest speaker Gordan Gillett.
R.I.P. Tony reported the sad news of the passing of Malcolm Guest on 18th March and of Paul Allard (Purley Chairman 2010-2011) on 26th March. Condolences go to their families.
Ian Payne (Secretary) reported that the Annual Fee (of £30) was due this month (April) and that the Luncheon fee had risen to £34 (including £2 to the Chairman’s Charity) to match Purley Sports Club’s increased charge.
Collection for the Chairman’s Charity, The Ryan Neuro Therapy Centre, raised £46. Raffle collection was £30.
Outings/Events: Terry Ribbons reminded members of the outings to Tangmere Aviation Museum (11th April) and Royal Albert Hall (28th May). Terry asked for suggestions regarding future outings.
Lunch changes by 10.30am the prior Tuesday to chris@moniz.co.uk T: 020 8660 6063.
Member News to Welfare Sec., Bill Ainsworth T: 020 8660 0399.
Please email vincent@fosdike.com with articles/news for the Newsletter.
Speaker today: Keith Smith, Kent, Surrey & Sussex Air Ambulance
6th June: Duncan Lavin: ‘Antarctica’
April Speaker
Gordan Gillet: ‘Tollsworth Manor’ Caterham CR3 5BQ
Gordan is clearly a man with outstanding drive and determination.
Since 1983 together with his late wife he has been engaged in the restoration of Tollsworth Manor with the main objective of supporting St. Catherine’s Hospice.
The history of the building dates from AD 675 when it was a grange. This term means a Monastic farm. Gradually ownership changed hands but essentially it stayed within the church being owned by the Prior of Merton Abbey from 1201 for the next 337 years! Although the ultimate ownership of the Abbey was with king Henry the third passing via Edward the third until Henry the eighth had it knocked down in the course of his policy of dissolving the monasteries.
However the grange itself has seen service as a YMCA from 1936 with a period during the war when it became a centre for refuges reverting to the YMCA in peace time when they ceased to use it in 1953 and became derelict until 1983 when restoration was commenced.
Gordan has discovered 9 pairs of shoes dating from 1560 to 1670 which were cut down to some extent to prevent witches from entering the property together with a walled up cat which apparently had a similar purpose. There are also witch marks engraved on the walls. They were certainly keen to ward off evil in those times.
Various taxes have left their mark with bricked up windows to reduce liability. There was also a hearth tax but I suppose this was more difficult to avoid if you wanted to keep any warmth in the building. It also involved inspectors entering the building to check the details which rendered it even more unpopular than the window tax.
The whole project has allowed donations of £148,000 to be made to the hospice.
Sadly Gordan’s wife died in 2019 after giving years of hard work and enterprise to the project but was well cared for in the hospice she and Gordan had supported with such dedication.
The grange is apparently the last surviving building of its type. Long may it stand.
‘The Mind Body Problem’ by Vincent Fosdike
In the days when teaching in further education seemed like a reasonable career, I took a post graduate course at a training course a College of Education which produced a certificate testifying to our understanding of the principles and practice of educating teenagers and adults. I was not the only member of Probus to follow this route. The late Tony Simpson who many of you will remember as a prominent member of our branch also attended the same college and we often reminisced over the experience we shared there and in latter work at the chalk face.
In training we studied psychology and philosophy in order to evaluate educational theory as it might (or might not) apply to the daily grind. A frequent area of debate would be what philosophers called the “mind body problem”. Broadly this is the relationship between the brain and the body as it affects the way we behave and perceive our environment. For example are we more motivated by ideas of correct social behaviour and moral codes or feelings emanating from “gut sensations” like hunger and aggression? Which is dominant and how do they reconcile their conflict? Does an army fight for freedom and patriotism or just simply “march on its stomach” as Napoleon would claim. Like most such questions it remains under discussion and probably still does in training colleges. This may have been forgotten in handling a class but is beginning to resurface as a practical issue in our retirement. It may even assist the manufacturers of stair lifts who probably would like to see you going up and down endlessly, especially if they can sell you a service contract.
How many times do we find ourselves climbing the stairs with three or more objectives in mind and fail to remember more than one before coming down again only to be strongly reminded by circum-stances or our partners why we went up? It gets worse with age.
Of course the nuisance has its benefits. We all need the exercise so as the brain weakens the body may benefit. The mind body balance alters from the time when we would have not forgotten part or even all of our errand to the point where the body has to increasingly compensate for the mind.
Should we just accept the shifting balance and be glad of the exercise or fight to use the brain more? If we advocate mind over matter how do we do this? How about trying to group the tasks into distinct areas so as to avoid unwanted exercise?
Some will be naturally physically based and others more abstract and less immediate. Which of the following are you most likely to forget? Re-setting the heater timer, fetching a book, checking a hospital letter or going to the loo and looking for the cat to put it out. Pick any three if that is too big a test. It is certain that you will not forget the loo because you can’t. But having carried out this task do you forget most or all of the others? This is physically based. If you see the cat the sensory que will help you out. The others are more easily overlooked. The heater re-set is out of sight and has no immediate effect (easily forgotten). The book may be eagerly awaited by the intellect and the hospital letter may well be quietly overlooked as anxiety generating and put to the back of your mind, (but you may be a worrier so could have the reverse effect in minority cases).
So plan the tasks with the less “body orientated” form LAST because they will not go away.
Put the anxiety generating one FIRST . Hospital letter? Then NEXT the easily missed heater timer reset. Then FINALLY: the pleasurable one, the book.
The rest are relatively SELF ACTIVATING so you would go downstairs at least having achieved both unless the cat had had taken cover on hearing your approach!I suppose you could always write a list and put it on your phone but would you remember/bother to look at it at the top of the stairs?