The History and Restoration of Paddle Steamer Medway Queen – 18 September 2024
Mark Bathurst delivered a fascinating insight into paddle steamer the Medway Queen, a heroine of Dunkirk, as she celebrates her centenary year. Mark’s presentation was very well attended by club members. We learned that she has crammed a lot into her first hundred years including pleasure cruising, mine-sweeping, no less than 7 return trips during the Dunkirk Evacuations successfully steering 7000 soldiers to safety, and a spell around the Isle of Wight as the Medway Queen Club.
Following her return to Medway in 1984, the Medway Queen Preservation Society was formed and after years of fundraising, including National Lottery funding, she continues her restoration and is now open to the public at Gillingham Pier on most Saturdays.
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Christmas Meal and a Light-hearted Look at Christmas – 6 December 2023
Our Christmas lunch at Gillingham Golf Club proved very popular with an excellent turn-out from Medway Stroke Club members. We were very well looked after by everyone at the Golf Club and enjoyed a four course meal and crackers with the corniest of corny Christmas jokes e.g. what do you call a frozen elf? An elfcicle!
Once we had finished our meal and enjoyed a hot drink with mince pies, we were greatly entertained by Club favourite Mel Rees with his light-hearted look at Christmas including the time his wife received a gift of mealworms from their son, and the circuitous route Mel’s parents took every Christmas Eve usually arriving 3 and a half hours late for dinner.
The service from Gillingham Golf Club was excellent, as usual.
Diamonds are Forever – 23 August 2023
Even if you think you know your sapphire from your amethyst, emerald, ruby or garnet, we all learned something from this fascinating talk on gemstones, and in particular the 12 birthstones. Our speaker Annie was exceptionally knowledgeable on the subject of gemstones and club members were extremely interested in the subject judging by the many questions raised and answered. We all received a very informative leaflet to take home to supplement the talk. We hope to hear more talks on the subject of gemstones in the future.
A Light-Hearted Look At Life – Mel Rees – 21 June 2023
Mel Rees gave another of his excellent talks taking a light-hearted look at life. Topics were wide ranging – beige, Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, amazing!, his honeymoon trip to Yeovil in a Ford Cortina, being served breakfast in bed but missing an essential ingredient – OK Sauce, birthday cards, diabetes nurse, Weight Watchers and looking forward to retirement and more time for hobbies. Its hard to do justice to Mel’s talk in such a few words – we look forward to him returning on another occasion to entertain us again.
Building A Steam Engine – Mark Lyons – 25 May 2023
We had a fascinating talk by Mark Lyons on the history of steam engines and how to build one. We also heard the downsides such as the time it takes for enough steam to be generated to operate the engine, and the oil required to keep the pistons moving. Ultimately steam engines were replaced by electricity but we were still able to see one in operation thanks to a demonstration of a working model by Mark. Thank you Mark for a very interesting talk.
27th February 2020
The most haunted village in England
26th. March 2020
Who’s Who in Hoo
2nd April
Pluckley Village
7th May
Patricia Davey-Cooking Demo
4th June
Community Nurses