Our Latest Activities are listed here beginning with the most recent. More detail is available by clicking on the blue link for some of the items.

16 March

We celebrated President's Night to thank Norman for his hard work over the year. We were pleased that Joy, our District Governor was able to attend.

19 February

At today's Business Meeting we welcomed Lynn and April as new club members

27 January

We celebrated Burns Night in style with a hggis and a Piper.

22nd January 2024

We welcomed Hugh to the club as a new member.

18th December

We had an excellent Christmas Dinner in the Abbey Great Hall.

11 December

Today we had an account of the erly days of the CAB. After the excellent meal provided by the County Hotel, Marghatret Bozic took us through the early history of the CAB and the work they did.

4 December

Gill Slaterley entertained us at lunch with an accout of her activities as a Newcastle Guide. Aninteresting talk on what to find in Newcastle.

27 November. How to reduce our carbon footprint.

Bill Grainger, an expert on Green Issues described how it is possible to decrease our personal carbon footprint by adopting a greener lifestyle. Prior to the meeting many of us had used an app to determine our carbon footprint which averaged out at about 11 tons/annum/club member. Using Bill's suggestions we should be able to get that down to about 6/7 tons especially if we can offset some of the airmiles.

20th November. The life of a Royal Chaplain

An interesting talk at lunch today when the rector of Hexham Abbey, the Rev David Glover, described his life as a Royal Chaplain.

6th November - an interesting talk on 1970s policing in Hong Kong.

30th October - We were delighted to welcome Andrew Festing, the portrait painter.

Andrew fascinated everyone with his talk from his life of painting. This included portraits of the late Queen and large scale pictures of the MCC and Parliament. He generously sold copies of his book for the benefit of our charity.

19th October - A Celebrity Talk in the Forum Cinema.

This popular event was open to the public and was a "sell out". Conrad Dickenson, a well known photographer of wild life gave a fascinating talk while showing pictures from his collection of wild life. This popular talk raised over £4,500 which will got to our Disaster Fund and the RSPB>

16th October - John Dunn talked about "Brave Hearts of the North East"

An account of a childrens charity celebrating their bravery in adverse situations,

25th September - Ben and Jan Herdan updated us on their SEDCU project.

An excellent account of their help with schools and disabled children in Uganda.

11th September - Andy Moore gave an account of his walk on the Camino de Santiago.

This was an account of a walk along the pilgrims' trail to Santiago de Compostella in Spain and highlighted the highs and lows of the trip.

4th September - Graham Gill - "Forestry and Kielder"

An account of trees and the Kielder Forest.

21st August - Toby Price spoke on "Cycling Minds"

An account of how cycling helped with mental illness.

7th August - Keith Dyson on "A Newcastle Footballer"

A fascinating account of a footballer's life.

31st July - Lt Col Hooper RHA updated us on 3 RHA activities.

An interesting talk which helped us understand the changes taking place in the Army.

10th July - DCC Debbie Ford - Northumbria Police

Dcc DCC Debbie Ford gave an up to date account of Police work in Northumberland. She explained the force structure and policies and highlighted the problems of policing such a large rural area and the problems caused by the large distances. She emphasised the need to improve relations and trust with the public and outlined the steps being taken to aceive this. An excellent and enlightening talk.

4th July - Balsam Bashing near Juniper

today we helped Tyne Rivers Trust clear a patch of Himalayan Balsam near the Rowley Burn. Full story here.

3rd July - we install our new President for the year 2023/24

Bob Hull today handed over his Badge of Office to Norman Wicks who is our President for the year from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024. Full Story here.

12th June - to day we held our Club Assembly.

This is when we plan for the year ahead which starts on the 1 July 2023 and the Club agrees its aims and objectives. We also welcomed visitors from New Zealand - Mike and Liz Elliott - from the Rotary Club of Wanaka.

5th June - Young Employee of the Year Awards.

Tonight we celebrated the Young Employee of the Year. The overall winner was Katie Protheroe, an engineer with Osbit was nominated as the winner and received the cup and award of £500 from the Club. It was an entertaining and informative evening and the full account with all the winners can be seen here.

15th May - We induct another new member

At lunch today Paula Gilroy joined us after a short ceremony conducted by our President Bob Hull. We also voted to make George Proud an Honorary Member of the club in recognition of his may ears of service.

22nd April - We walked Hadrian's Wall for Charity

Hexham Rotary arranged a celebratory walk along Hadrians Wall and 20 clubs - 120 walkers - took part in a 3 hour dash along the Wall. We covered the whole 84 miles in just over 3 hours raising over £7000 for Charity. See the story here.

17th April - We induct a new member.

At a short ceremony during our lunchtime meeting. Our President, Bob Hull, invited Lynn Sayers to step forward accompanied by her sponsor, Brian Massey, to be formally welcomed into the club. Lynn had already been to several meetings and had met several of the club members. Everyone welcomed Lynn.

11March - We celebrated Presidents Night

and entertained our President and his guests to dinner in thanks for his work in leading us this year.

25 February - Collection at Hexham Tesco.

today we collected money for the releif of victims of the Turkish/Syrian Earthquake.

19th December - Our Christmas Dinner.

This was held in the Beaumont Hotel where 41 Rotarians and their friends and partners sat down to an excellent Christmas Dinner.

£1000 to Cancer Research

We were able to donate another £1000 to cancer research from our support for the Jazz Festival

12th December

Dr Rachel Penn gave us an interesting talk on the Woodland Trust.

12th to 17th December

Collecting in Hexham for our Christmas Charities.

5th December

Charles Enderby talked to us on "Bird Ringing". This was an interesting account of how it was done and the information it obtained on the life and movements of birds. He illustrated his talk with excellent slides and demonstrated a mist net which is used to trap the birds for ringing without harming them.

29th November and 10th December

Our planned tree planting took place on these days making an impact on the environment close to Hexham.

28th November

Herbie Newall from Humshaugh told us how the village was planning to become carbon neutral over the next year. An excellent talk which showed what can be done by working with the community.

26th November

group We take part in the town litter pick. Many thanks to our 15 litter pickers who, together with the Town Council collected 60 large bin bags full of rubbish around Hexham which is a marvellous achievement. Well done, lets make it a regular and worthwhile fixture.

21st November

Our talk at lunch today was by Keith Loraine who spoke on Social Housing and the way Housing Associations work. An interesting talk on a complex subject.

31st October

This evening, Brigadier Clouston, MBE, spoke on his life in the Army. it was an interesting account especially about his time with a Pioneer Regiment - a part of the Army that was unfamiliar to most of us.

24th October

Joy Yates had just taken over her editorial role with the Hexham Courant and described her views on the way forward.

17th October

This was all about photography using a drone. Dave Best took us through what is allowed and what you cannot legally do with a drone when photographing people or places.

Saturday 15th October

This was one of our social events and was planned to be a progressive supper but read what happened.

10th October

Our local MP, Guy Opperman came to lunch and gave us an account of his life as an MP.

26th September

An evening meal to remember as Sean Hayden, a magician, spent time with us demonstrating his sleight of hand. This was done round the tables and he amazed us all with his dexterity and seemingly impossible tricks.

12th September

A new venture in Hexham is the Community Grocery, situated behind the hospital, it provides groceries to those in need at really low prices. Dale Dawson described how it operated and obtained its supplies. It is helped by volunteers and some local shops.

15th August

vivien At our lunchtime meeting today, our own member, Vivien, gave an interesting story of her life. This included teaching cookery at Haydon Bridge High School, a spell in the Tynedale Tourist Office and ten years teaching "the Man in the Kitchen" before retuning to the High School to help in the sixth form. An interesting career and her love of cookery, meeting people and helping students shone throughout her talk.

11th August 2022

Presidents’ Party
group Not one but two past Presidents entertained Hexham Rotary to an evening of drinks and nibbles on the 11th August 2022. The original event, in Andrew Rigg’s year as President should have taken place in buffet 2019 but was postponed due to a rain storm. The new date in 2020 fell victim to Covid and then it was Miles Middleton’s turn as President. Covid again intervened both in 2020 and 2021 but finally they managed a joint party at the Corbridge Cricket Club.
Some 20 guests were present at what was an excellent venue and were group welcomed with a glass of Pimms by the two ex Presidents. The weather was exceptional and the veranda provided welcome shade from group the sun. The buffet was excellent and both Andrew and Miles gave short talks thanking the club for their support over three difficult years.

18th July

Due to various reasons and the need to get both the outgoing and incoming Presidents together, we were at last able to have our Presidents' Handover ceremony. Miles Middleton had served as our President for two years during Covid and was delighted to at last be able to pass on the Chain of Office to Bob Hull, our President for 2022/23.
After the handover Bob presented Miles with his Past President's Badge and thanked him for his sterling work over the last two years. This was 3 presidents echoed by the whole club. Bob then went on to install the President Elect, Norman Wicks, who will take over from him in July 2023.
Our new President outlined what he and Norman hoped to achieve over the next couple of years by encouraging the club to put Covid behing it and to push forward with an inclusive programme following the ideals of Rotary.

27th June

At our monthly evening meeting we were fortunate to have the Rev Henry Hope who described his research into medieval manuscripts concerning the minisingers and the way these songs an music were recorded.

20th June

John Dumbrell gave an interesting talk of his time in charge of the Queen's Baggage Vehicles.

11th June

This Saturday, the club helped the Tynedale Green Park Run by providing marshalls and other helpers. We all had a great time and one of our members, Andy, set a record. Andy had been persuaded to act as the tail walker -the last person to go round the 5km course- who normally follows the last few walkers. This time everyone ran and he set the record for the fastest Tailwalker!!

6th June

Today we held our Club Assembly where we debated our programme for the forthcoming Rotary year. Minutes of the meeting are in our members section.

27th May - A Jubilee Concert in the Abbey.

The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Celebrations got off to a fantastic start with a sell-out Concert in Hexham Abbey to suit all varied musical tastes. The event was presented by Sir Brendan Foster and highlighted many talented musicians from the area. Taking part were Andrew Davison on the Northumbrian Pipes, Michael Haynes on the Organ, St Joseph’s School Choir, Hedgehog’s Skin Ceilidh Band, A Fijian Choir, the Rock Choir, folk singer Abbey Tilley, Rebecca Howell on the violin and Hexham Brass.
Between these outstanding individual musical performances, the audience were reminded of life during the different decades of her Majesty’’s reign by seven narrators
Following the Concert, which had been organised by Hexham Rotary Club, everyone was invited to round off the evening for a celebratory drink on the cloister lawn to the accompaniment of the Sunshine Panners steel band.
The event was hugely enjoyed by both participants and audience and raised approaching £4,000 for two charities. It will be divided equally between the British Red Cross of which the Queen is patron and the Hexham Youth Initiative's Duke of Edinburgh Award

18th to 20th May - Our Weekend Away - postponed from 2020 because of Covid.

Some 16 of us spent an enjoyable few days in the Lake District, a welcome break after the last two years.

16th May- Young Employee of the Year Awards.

Tonight we presented our Young Employee of the year Awards to Rebecca Dent from Scott Mitchell Veterinary Care who took the first prize of £500 together with the Jack Charlton Trophy. Second place and £250 went to Antonia Azocar-Nevin, a project worker at Hexham Youth Initiative while Erin Edwards from Humshaugh and Wark Medical Group took the third prize of £100. All three well deserved their prizes and the judges had difficulty in making their final choices as the three finalists were very close.

19th March - A Special Evening Meeting - Our President's NIght.

Tonight was a celebration to thank our President Miles for his work in holding the club together over lockdown and acting as President for two difficult years. 42 of us sat down to a formal dinner in the Beaumont Hotel attended by the District Governor, Alan, and the Presidents of Tynedale and Hadrian's Wall Rotary Clubs together with our partners. A full account is here.

14th March

Christopher Porter gave an account of his career and the way he moved from project to project trying (and succeeding) to increase the manufacturing base in the NE with technical advances to provide job opportunities for the region. a fascinating account.

7th March

Brian Bell, a former member, told the exciting story of providing fibre internet services to the Allen Valley- a spectacular project just coming to fruition.

4th & 5th March COLLECTION FOR UKRAINIAN REFUGEES

Thanks to Waitrose and our collectors and to the generous people of Hexham, we were able to collect outside Waitrose for the Ukrainian Refugees. We managed to collect an amazing £8,200 which has been sent to the Ukraine through the British Red Cross - THANK YOU HEXHAM FOR YOUR GENEROUSITY.

28th February

Rob Hart entertained us at this evening meeting with a description of his work as a solicitor working in the area of vulnerable children. He showed us how the system worked and the way he represented the children's interests. An excellent account that proviked many questions.

24th February

Today we had an impromtu meeting to brainstorm what we might do in the next Rortary Year. It was organised by Bob, our President Elect, and facilitated by Ben. Many projects were discussed and the final out come will be decided at another meeting.

14th February

An interesting talk this week by Victoria Lancaster on "Rewilding Europe". She described particular projects in Italy and how it was possible to live with wild animals such as bears by taking the needs of both humans and wild species into account. She answered many questions including some about local conditions and Lynx and Beavers.

7th February 2022

Now back at our lunchtime meeting and this week we were told about the Hexham Park Run by Claire Knowles.The run is now back in action and Claire answered many questions and described how to takepart either by running or volunteering as a marshall. The run times those taking part and grades them on age and ability!!

31st January 2022

Our first evening meeting of the New Year held in a new venue - the Masonic Hall - a good evening with an excellent talk on the new build of QEHS by the Executive Head Teacher Graeme Atkins. he described the new facilities and took us on a virtual tour of the school and finished by offering aproper guided tour later in the year.

24th January 2022

Today we had an extremely interesting and enlightening talk byn Kim McGuiness who described her work as the Police and Crime Commissioner fpr Northumbria. She detailed her wide charter which encompasses not only dealing with the police but also victim support and how she actively consults with the community to find out our worries and fears and where we would like further committment from the Police. We all learned a lot at this interesting talk.

We also welcomed Richard Symm as the newest member of Hexham Rotary

17th January

At last after several delays due to lockdown and the lack of Face to Face metings we were able to welcome 4 new members into Hexham Rotary. After a brief ceremony conducted by our President Miles, Vivien Drydon, Barbara and John McNamara and Christopher Porter were welcomed into the Club.

10th January

Our first meeting of the New Year and one in which we hope to return to normal club life. Today our speaker was Liesbeth Langford who told us of her life in Holland under the German occupation. an extraordinary tale of how hher mother kept the family going despite the father being sent to a concentration camp. The family survived the war and Liesbeth read out some of the letters from her mother to her father while he was held in the concentration camp. She has collected these letters together in a book called "Written by Candlelight" and published by the Ergo Press in Hexham - aka Cognito. A book that is worth reading.

20th December

At lunch today we were entertained by Sarah Swanston who spoke on Natural Ability.

13th December

Today we celebrated with our Christmas Dinner in the Beaumont.

6th December

Back to lunchtime meetings and today Professor Harry Bradbury talked on "The Sustainable Future". A most interesting talk showing how cities of the future could be built to be carbon neutral and, in African countries, also provide employment to the indiginous population. A most enlightening talk that deserves a wider audience.

4th December.

A Saturday morning spent tree planting in Hexham led by Andrew Rigg. A full story here.

29th November.

Our first evening meeting after lockdown. We held this in the Great Hall of Hexham Abbey and invited our partners, friends and potential Rotarians to an excellent meal in pleasant surroundings. Our star turm for the evening was Helene Dolder, a raconteur, who entertained us with witty stories, some of which involved our own members. A Great Evening well attended.

22nd November

Today, Katy Taylor, the Director/CEO of Queen's Hall in Hexham talked to us about the future programe, the difficulties they had experienced with Covid and how they were moving forward with youth in the future.

15th November

The History of the Bagpipes was related by Piper Peter Hawkins who traced their evolution from the Middle East to the Scottish Pipes of today. He explained how he had learnt to play on a chanter before progressing several years later to a full set of pipes. He demonstrated his talk with his own pipes and gave us a tune at the end.

8th November

Margret Jacot gave an account of the "Spiegel Tent" which was the venue for part of the book fair. An intriging account of an unusual venue that has its origin in Europe.

25th November

Chris Baylis from Hadrain's Wall Club and our Assistant Governor gave a talk on his experience with electric vehicles/

11th October

Norman Sellar from Consett Rotary talked on "Kids Out" and described how, every year, Kids Out took underpriveledged children out for a day. In our District this would be to the Beamish Museum. Working with local schools in the year before Covid some 450 children benefitted from this and he hoped our club would join in in 2022. He also mentioned Kids Out shoebox scheme which arranged presents for needy children at Christmas and, subsequently, club members donated £175 to this project.

4th October

An amusing and interesting talk by John McCabe of Tynedale on the 1960 Olympics. These were held in Rome and were the first truly global games and John went to them with a party from his school.

27th September

An interesting talk by Joy Palmer Cooper from Alnwick Club on on Rotakids and Interact and how these clubs might help our membership drive.

20th September

John Dunn showed us how a CHP power plant was constructed and built.

13th September.

Today we had a talk on where to find information on Rotary. John Dumbrell explained the various websites and how to access them and how members' information was stored in the DMS system and how to email anyone in Rotary.

6th September- A Hybrid Meeting.

This Monday we entered a new phase. Richard Thornton talked to us on his "Life on the Railways" a most informative and interesting talk that generated a lot of questions. It was also a "Guinea Pig" meeting as we tried to combine our live meeting in the Beaumont with a Zoom meeting for members who could not be present. We had practiced beforehand and despite a few technical hitches the experiment went well and the remarks from the remote members voted it a success. So we shall probably keep going with hybrid meetings.

31st August - Latest News from Rotary International

Hexham Rotary have earned the coveted citation from Rotary International for the work and achievements in the Year ending the 30th June 2021. One of only seven clubs in the NE to do so. The citation signed by the President of Rotary International will be presented to the Club at the District Conference in April.

23rd August - We are now meeting F2F each week

This week was a Business meeting where we discussed the immediate future and planned our programme for the coming months. Much work is still to do on the programme and we are looking for speakers. Minutes of the Business Meeting are in the Memberssection

16th August - our second F2F meeting discussing club matters

9th August - Brexlit - a zoom meeting with Dr Russell Foster

Today we had an interesting talk on the genre of literature that has emerged post Brexit. Dr Foster talked us through Imperial Gothic and the way Brexlit had developed. Over the years from 2016 he looked at the coping mechanism for Remainers and the way the UK has viewed the EU. A fascinating study.

2nd August- A Face to Face Meeting

At last we have met together again for a Rotary Meeting. 19 of us sat down to lunch in the Beaumont Hotel for a convivial get together. 4 members declined to come because of Covid reasons, 5 had appointments elsewhere and the other 15 had taken the opportunity to have a few days away on holiday. Full story here.

26th July - An Updaye on Uganda & SEDCU

Today Jan and Ben Herdan updated us on the situation in Uganda and how Covid had affected the schools there and the help SEDCU was giving to teachers. A recording is here.

21st July - Environmental Work helping Tyne Rivers Trust to clear Himalayn Balsam.

Eight members of the club spent several hours helping the Tyne Rivers Trust clear Himalayan Balsam - an invasive species- from the SSI where the South and North Tyne join at Walden. Some of the team are shown here but for the full story click Here.

12th July - Orphans in Zambia

Despite the continuing Covid pandemic, we have been having fortnightly Zoom meetings and our latest was a talk by Malcolm Thompson on Zambia. He went to Zambia some years ago as VSO helper and while there was asked to help some orphans. This eventually became a charity which helps orphan children through school and has resulted in some becoming teachers, another a doctor and yet another an accountant. A very worthwhile project and you can view his talk on our members page.

3rd May - Indian Cocid-19 Crisis

Our Disaster fund, helped by additional donations from members, has sent £1811 towards the appeal to help the supply of Oxygen for Covid-19 patients in India. More here.

26th April - The Kray Brothers

Today at our Zoom meeting, Mel Wall who used to be in the Metropolitan Police, gave us an interesting talk on the Kray twins and their elder brother. These notorious gangsters were active in the 1960s before being jailed for various murders. An interesting account of their rise and fall.

The Easing of Lockdown

has meant that our little group of walkers, orgsnised by Peter J, have been able to meeet in a slightly larger group for a walk. These are normally about 5 miles and in the last month or so we have visited an area to the South of Corbridge, walked round Acomb and visited the Allendale Chimneys. Any one interested in joining us should get in touch through adminsee the full story here.

12th April - Tonight we held our AGM

We elected Richard Thornton, Brian Massey, Ben Herdan and Rob Hart as ordinary members of Club Council and Tom Jobson as an Honorary member of the Club. Our subscriptions for 2021/22 were agreed and the President thanked everyone for their support during the past year.

7th April - Tonight we had our own Quiz Night.

This in house quiz was design as a fun social gathering on Zoom. The Quiz Master produced a range of 40 questions covering notable people, geography, the monarchy and Covid. The enthusiastic members took part and the eventual winner was Bob H with an excellent score of 36 out of 40. Well done Bob!

Although not designed as a fund raiser, the quiz generated £70 of donations which will gp to the West Northumberland Food Bank. Keep your eyes open for the next quiz, perhaps in May.

29th March - Catherine Bush - The Rotary Foundation

Catherine gave us anexcellent guide to the ins and outs of The Rotary Foundation - Rotary's own charity. She explained it is rated among the three best charities in the USA and has held that position for many years. Like all major charities, the details of the Foundation can be complicated but we were given an excellent talk that explained simply how TRF works.

15th March - Sue Campbell talked to us on "PR made Simple"

an excellent talk which not only described how to get stories into the local papers but also gave us many hints on how to manage our Facebook and Twitter accounts.

1st March - Ian Hughes gave a presentation on the "History of Electric Vehicles"

An interesting account of the early electric vehicles starting from 1850 to the 1930s. This opened the eyes of us all to the start of the use of electricity as a motive power and how it was superceded by petrol and diesel vehicles, mainly because of the weight of the batteries, during the 1920s. Now, of course, they are coming into their own again.

In February we also joined the scheme to provide laptops or tablets to children.

Hexham Rotary wanted to help children who could not afford a laptop to benefit from distance learning and joined in a project to find redundant laptops and tablets among their members and friends and family. This initiative was led by Rotarian Ben Herdan and we joined the Laptops for Kids initiative. Donations of unwanted devices will be renovated, repurposed and distributed to needy children through the Partnership scheme to their schools. Ben donated two of his laptops and dropped them off at the Co-op in Corbridge The manager told him that 24 laptops had already been donated and sent on from the Co op to the Partnership which is responsible for renovation and distribution – a lot of this will have been as a result of our activity. Our photo shows Ben handing over the laptops.

28th February - We donate 200 jars of hand cream to Hexham Hospital

Following a proposal, Hexham Rotary decided to make a small gesture of thanks to the staff at Hexham Hospital for their efforts during the pandemic. Consultation with staff at the hospital revealed that providing hand cream for the staff who were repeatedly washing their hands would be much appreciated.
Many of us Rotarians have had family members who have suffered from Covid and would now like to acknowledge the part played by the frontline Hexham Hospital staff. Club members contributed to the cost of the hand cream from money they would have spent at Rotary meetings including one very generous gift of over £500. This enabled 200 jars of hand cream to be purchased.

15th February - A Business Meeting.

We discussed how the club is progressingnad the way we want to operate in the future. We also decided to use the Pro Zoom for our virtual meetings. We also voted almost £3,000 to be spent from our Charity Account on good causes.

1st February - Chris Harding gave a spectacular talk on Photography.

He showed us some excellent pictures demonstrating his theme of "Moments in Time" and showed how digital photography could be improved magically by using the right software. A recording of his talk is available here

18th January - We learned more about Facebook.

Charlet Phillips from Darlington Rotary took us through setting up a Facebook page and answered members questions on all aspects of Facebook.

The New Year 2021 started on a warm note thanks to the Natural History Society.

The Natural History Society of Northumbria gave us an excellent account of their 2020 Bee Census on our first meeting of the New Year on the 4th January. Charlotte and Gordon enthralled us with their talk on wild bees and a number of members hope to join in their census work in 2021.

Our Christmas Dinner

Should have been today, Monday 21sy December, but again the virus changed our plans and we had a celebratory Zoom meeting tasting various mince pies and cheeses followed by a Happy Christmas Toast to all.

Monday December 7th

Our SGM when we should have elected our future President. However because of the Pandemic our current President Miles and President Elect Max had offered to serve for another year. This was gratefully accepted by the Club with an unanimous vote. The two Johns were also elected to serve as Secretary and Treasurer for another year.

Tree Planting delayed !!

December 5th and November 21st should have been our days of tree planting to help the environment but this has had to be put back to 2021 because of the increased Covid-19 restrictions.

Lord Best talks on Rural Housing

On Monday November 30th, we had an interesting talk from Lord Best on the problems of rural communities and the need to supply suitable housing.

Flying on Electric Power.

Dr Peter Malkin of Newcastle University gave a talk on battery power and how it might be used in the future. He ilustrated how an aircraft might achieve carbon neutral flight using electric power and batteries. There is a great future in the technology but we have a long way to go although there are already aircraft flying using electric propulsion.

Music Bursaries

Hexham Rotary has made a grant of £5000 to Core Music. This money will provide bursaries to cover music lessons for disadvantaged youngsters who would otherwise not be able to afford them.

The money will provide 10 or 11 children with a course of lessons each year. This opportunity will continue to be available each year for the next 5 years. Details on eligibility are available from Core Music.

The Latest Lockdown

Read how the latest lockdown has affected us and what our programme is to the end of 2020 here.

November 5th

Some of us joined with the Kelso Club to their "Conversations Evening". We had a marvellous opportunity to listen to a talk by the President of Rotary International, Holger Knaack, talking from his home in Germany. He also made the point that we had to keep up with the times and that Covid-19 had made us all look at other ways of working. We need active Rotarians who are prepared for change. We need to lower our age profile and this might mean creating new clubs and different ways of working. We need to embrace social media and Facebook was perhaps the best medium to use. Using social media was a good way of finding new members.

November 2nd

Today we had Dave King, the editor of the Rotary Magazine talking to us. He emphasised the need to keep the club up to date and embrace the chamges made possible by Covid-19. see more here.

October 5th

Today Andy Hallington took us on a rail journey. He described the local railways that thrived in the late 1800s and early 1900s and described where they ran and what they were used for before going on to cover the history of Hexham station up to the oresent day. he demonstrated that the Newcastle - Carlilse line is used by the latest main line trains as a diversion when the main line North is blocked. An interesting talk available here on Zoom.

September 21st

Today we were delighted to hear about Borneo from Lauren Woodwiss who is stationed there with her husband. An entertaining and interesting talk recorded here on Zoom together with the results of our Babyface competition from Rita,

September 7th

Today Margaret Hales spoke to our Zoom meeting on the European Union of Women. A recording of the meeting is hereBe patient there is a long intro.

September 13th- Not the Great North Run

Today, we had our first Charity Event since lockdown. Our Not the Great North Run charity marathon took place on Tyne Green in Hexham in beautiful sunny weather. The event was started by Carol Malia from the BBC and the total of money raised so far is - £1,597.06.. A full report is here.

August 24th

We held our Club Zoom meeting today and Zahir Khan spoke from Pakistan on Cricket and the Earthquake. He also talked of the school we help to fund. The Zoom meeting was recorded and can be seen here

August 11th & 12th

On each of these days, we had a small working party on the river bank at Watersmeet helping the Tyne Rivers Trust remove Himalayan Balsam - a pernicious weed that stifles the native plant growth and contributes to river bank erosion. For the full story look here.

August 10th

Our latest Zoom meeting was a fun evening when the Limericks from our competition were read out. Surprise, surprise - President won!! Our zoom meetings are open to all - contact admin@hexhamrotary.co.uk if you want to join in. Our next meeting is at 12.30 on 24 August.

August 1st

Our members donated the money they would have spent on Rotary meals during April, May and June to our charity fund. This amounted to £1650 and was given to three local charities - Hextol Foundation, Tynedale Hospice and the West Northumberland Food Bank. £550 each.

July 27th

Almost a full house listened to account of how the House of Lords works during Covid by Lord Curry of Kirkharle at our meting via Zoom

July 13th

Our first stage of the Limerick Compettion took place with our President handing out first lines to members who will submit their full limerick for judging. Results on the 10th August.

July 10th - More Lockdown Donations.

Today we made two more significant donations to the Minerva Centre and Gateway to the Community both charities located here in Hexham. Read more