Members collected their group allocations for the next year; John Illston paid tribute to Chris Dickson for all her hard work in drawing these up. The bird watching group is oversubscribed but John Brown has volunteered to run a bird watching group for beginners, and anyone interested should contact Chris. Chris is still hoping for new groups and would like to hear from anyone with ideas.

James Mogford, Editor of the newsletter, was congratulated for his latest production in A5 size; the new format was approved.

The free I.T. courses at S. Wilts Grammar School will begin on 21 September for beginners and 22 September for intermediates. Another 5 applicants are needed to make the beginners’ course viable – anyone interested should contact Neville Jennings.

Outings currently being booked include a visit to the British Museum on 10 November. John Ewington will be taking over the outings from Rosemary Nicholls in March and would welcome ideas for future trips. He is sounding out members’ views on attending a concert given by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra on Wednesday 24 March.

The speaker was David Quinion who gave a succinct summary of Transport in Britain through the Ages, starting with the pedestrian use of the Ridgeway in 3000BC, touching upon the transport of huge stones for the erection of Stonehenge and Avebury, the Norman renovation of the Roman road system, the turnpike development of the 1700s and the introduction of railways during the industrial revolution, and finishing with the modern road network congested by 7 million cars and the construction of modern motorways at a cost of over £20,000 per mile.