Higham and Rushden

Welcome to the home page of our website


Important Notices

At least 2 members of our u3a have had their email accounts hacked. When this happens, everyone in that person's contacts will receive an email purporting to be from that person but not addressing you by name and saying "Hi, Let me know if you get this. Many Thanks" followed by the name of the purported sender. If you reply to that email you will almost instantly receive another email asking you to purchase a gift voucher for a relative of the purported sender.
Please be aware of this scam and do not fall for it as you may not be able to recover any money you lose by doing so.

We have had to cancel the monthly meeting for March as the hall we use in the Salvation Army Citadel will be closed for repairs. We apologise for this and would ask you to spread the word if you know of members without internet access.

Our 2023 AGM was very well attended, so thank you to all those who made the effort and were rewarded with an excellent performance by our very own Guitar Group. Thanks to them also.
At the AGM we voted for a few small changes to our constitution and the amended version is now online. Our committee for the coming year was elected, and the roles to be undertaken by each of the 8 members can now be seen on the Administration page. We aim to have 12 members on the committee and are looking for at least 2 other members to give us as wide a range of views as possible. If you would consider helping out please get in touch with any of the committee.

Why not make a New Year's Resolution to get more involved in our u3a and make a positive difference? In addition to our committee vacancies, the Meet and Greet Team and Refreshment Team would both welcome new recruits and several of our group leaders would appreciate offers of assistance in running their groups. Without "fresh blood" our u3a may stagnate and eventually collapse.


Please take extra care for the next few weeks as several members of our u3a have contracted Covid.



Monthly meetings

We are now settled in our latest venue, the Salvation Army Citadel, 16-20 Church St, Rushden NN10 9YU. If you have not yet attended a meeting at the Citadel but are curious about the venue, details including photographs and maps showing nearby parking and bus stops are still available here.

If you are coming to one of our monthly meetings we offer the following guidance to make things run smoothly:
☆ The doors are normally open from 1:30 so please do not arrive too early.
★ Please have your machine-readable membership cards ready as you enter. (If you lose your membership card a replacement can be issued for a £5 fee.)
☆ We ask you not to linger in the foyer after swiping in, but to make your way quickly into the hall.
★ As many of our members are less than fully mobile we ask the more nimble among us to sit in the balcony where possible.

Talks arranged for 2024:

Date Venue Topic Speaker
18th March Meeting cancelled due to repairs in Salvation Army Citadel
15th April Salvation Army Citadel Getting to Know You (Rogers & Hammerstein) Tricia Thompson
20th May Salvation Army Citadel Wild Life Photography Tom Way
17th June Salvation Army Citadel Masters of Mirth Mike Storr
15th July Salvation Army Citadel Juke Box Jury 1960s Roger Prescott
19th August Salvation Army Citadel Wonderful Wicked Wallis Julie Kinnear
16th September Salvation Army Citadel Life After Eurovision Vince Eager
21st October Salvation Army Citadel Behind The Scenes at Blue Peter Julie Kinnear
18th November Salvation Army Citadel When Doctors and Policemen Start to Look Young Keith Baldwin
9th December Salvation Army Citadel Our AGM and other entertainment our u3a
2025
20th January Salvation Army Citadel What Time's The Midnight Buffet? Vince Eager
17th February Salvation Army Citadel Hercule Poirot Steve Dimmer
17th March Salvation Army Citadel Musical Trio with clever ditties Sweet FA

If you would like to see what interest groups we run, please have a look at our groups page. You will note that some groups meet fortnightly, so if you need more precise dates of meetings or details of the topic, please click this link to the calendar:

The calendar will open in a new tab (which may not be obvious if you are viewing this on a phone or small tablet) and you can return to this page by closing the other tab.
The Computer Group has changed venue and days of operation, and the Sunday Lunch Group will be resuming in March. Further details of these and all other groups on our groups page.


We would like to remind members that we no longer offer the u3a central magazine Third Age Matters without charging for it separately. We have to pay the Third Age Trust a substantial sum each year for these subscriptions, so have decided to implement a £5 annual surcharge for those members who wish to receive the magazine. This applies to both new and existing members. While this may be a disappointment to those of you who receive the magazine we are sure you will accept that the surcharge makes things fairer for all members, including those who do not subscribe to Third Age Matters, and also that £5 per year for 5 copies of the magazine delivered to your door by today’s standards constitutes remarkable value.

If you want to know more about nationwide u3a activities without paying for Third Age Matters you can receive interesting monthly newsletters from the Third Age Trust: sign up for these here.


What is the u3a?

Previously known as the University of the Third Age and as the capitalised U3A, the u3a movement is a unique and exciting organisation which provides, through its u3as, life-enhancing and life-changing opportunities. Retired and semi-retired people come together and learn together, not for qualifications but for its own reward: the sheer joy of discovery! Members share their skills and life experiences: the learners teach and the teachers learn, and there is no distinction between them.

For the full story of the u3a movement's national organisation, the Third Age Trust, click here to open the national u3a homepage in another tab. For further details of the Higham and Rushden u3a, please carry on browsing this website.

If you would like to join us you can find a membership application form here or among the many documents available on the Administration page.


Higham & Rushden u3a treats your rights seriously. Our Privacy Policy and Data Protection Policy set out how we deal with your personal information: click on the links to see the documents, which will open in a new tab.


There is a page on our website entitled Wellbeing. If you know of any useful resources regarding health and wellbeing matters which we can share with other members, please let the webmaster know.

We still welcome entries of general interest for the Motley page so please let the webmaster know if you have anything you would like to contribute.


Members' Portal

Our u3a keeps basic records of members in accordance with GDPR, in order to manage u3a and group activities. Members are able, and indeed are encouraged, to check and edit where necessary the information we hold about them by clicking on the button below (which will open the portal in a new tab). The method of logging in changed in April 2023 and to access the portal a username (your email address) and password are needed. Full details of how to create a password can be found here.

Our duty of care to both members and group leaders means that we have to request all members to provide details of a person to contact in case of emergency. We also ask members who have a mobile phone to register its details: group leaders may not be happy to allow members without a mobile phone to go on trips in case they become separated from the rest of the party.


Please remember that this website is run by our members for our members.

Please submit anything you would like to see on the site (pictures, videos, items of general interest, breaking news, useful links to other websites etc). Email the Webmaster or the appropriate group leader via the contact page and keep our website interesting: any pictures of u3a activities would be much appreciated.
If you find any links which don't work or any spelling mistakes PLEASE also let the Webmaster know via the contact page.