May 2025 Lunch and an early June Canal Boat Trip

After last month's ladies lunch it was back to normal in May with an opportunity to discuss important issues like cricket, football, rugby and golf results to name but a few in the bar before our meal!

Braised Beef was our main course followed by an excellent Banana Loaf with Vanilla Icecream.

Our speaker was Geoff Mead who was on his third visit to Cheam Probus, to continue with geography of Sussex, this time it was about Rye and the surrounding area of Camber Sands and Winchelsea.

We heard about smuggling activities, the name for Camber Sands, the largest on the south coast, being derived from the French word chambre. a room, (it was where their boats found shelter in the winter) and how the blue stones were collected from the beach and sold to the potteries for the blue pottery glaze.

Thank you Geoff for a fascinating insight to Rye, I think a visit to explore it first handwill be arranged soon.

On the first Thursday in June we had an outing to the Wey and Arun Canal Centre at Loxwood for a ride on their largest boat Wiggonholt along the canal and through some of the restored locks. Everyone had a relaxing afternoon on the water even though it did pour with rain all the time and scuppered our post-trip refreshments at the Loxwood Arms canal-side garden!