Jolly Outing to Oxford

It’s June so MIRTH goes on its annual outing. This year the destination was Oxford.

After a smooth journey on the coach, we were delivered to the Ashmolean Museum.

After a quick coffee break, many of us enjoyed a tour of the Museum with an expert guide.

First, we were introduced to the history of the museum. It opened as Britain’s first public museum and the world’s first university museum in 1683. (It moved to its current site in Beaumont St in 1894)

We then spent about an hour being introduced to the wide range of treasures housed in the building from ancient artefacts to 19th century impressionist paintings.

The highlight of the afternoon was Tim’s walk. Tim has spent some time in Oxford whilst his son studied there and shared his considerable knowledge with us. He took us around some of the famous colleges and sights.

After the walk, I managed to visit Keble Collage Chapel and see the famous painting “The Light of the World” by Holman Hunt. This is the earliest of the three versions of this painting by Holman Hunt. (You can see a photo of the painting at the bottom of this post.)

Others enjoyed leisurely lunches, shopping and visiting their old colleges or simply spent more time in the Ashmolean. Too soon it was time to get the coach back home but I think we all agreed it was a jolly day out.

Bascote Heath and HS2

Todays mainly dry walk took us from the Fox and Hen and back in time for lunch. Soon after setting off we passed a sign for Bascote Heath Underground station, not sure what zone this is in but must be 8. We walked about 4 miles in total. First passing through Ufton. We continued on to the HS2 works where they are constructing a bridge over the Grand Union Canal to carry the HS2 railway; old infrastructure vs new. We stopped a while, all boys (young and old) like to watch diggers at work. As some one once said “I love work, I could stand and watch it all day”.

We continued along the tow path and passed a barge towing a small barge “Chip”. This small barge houses the owners wood turning workshop.

Returning across the fields the path seemed to disappear and for a while and it looked as if we were heading in to a field corner with no way out. Graham even began to doubt Richard’s directions, he should have known better as we approached the corner the path passed through the hedge and over a small bridge over the stream so rule no 1, never doubt Richard’s directions.

After the walk we returned to the Fox and Hen for a well deserved lunch, it was good to be joined here by some other members who could not make the walk.

Lawn Bowls Experience

Following lunch at the Rugby Tavern around 20 MIRTHers enjoyed an afternoon trying Lawn Bowls courtesy of the Lillington Bowls Club ( https://www.lillingtonbc.co.uk/ ). The weather remained dry and our coaches were able to introduce us to the basics of the game. To help us get used to bowling they set out what could be described as a crazy bowling course with targets and obstacles.

After this we played a short game in groups of six. We managed with varying degrees of success to get the balls close to the jacks. At one point Terry had to get the tape measure had to come out to check who was closest.

A lot of fun was had by all, who knows perhaps some MIRTH members will follow up with more tuition.

Around Shottery and Stratford upon Avon

Only four walkers today but we had a dry walk. The walk started in the centre of Shottery. Soon passing the primary school dates back to 1848 but we felt the building was much older. As we took a team photo outside the school there was some discussion as to if the local lass Anne Hathaway (Shakespear’s wife not the Actress) might have attended the school.

We passed the racecourse and then into the town. The walk then took us alongside the canal where we paused to watch a nesting Swan organising the eggs in the nest.

After 4 miles we arrived back at The Bell pub in time for lunch. All was going well until halfway through his pie Richard was wondering why he could not see any chicken in his pie and realised they had given the mushroom pie by mistake. He reported that the pie was still good.

Sent to Coventry

After lunch at the Flying Standard, 11 of us settled in for a one-hour guided tour of the Coventry Transport Museum.

Our loquacious tour guide kept us on our toes by singling out individuals to interrogate with leading questions (i.e. none of us fell asleep 😉).

We saw a truly impressive array of bicycles, motorbikes, cars and other vehicles. All testament to the importance of Coventry over many years to the growth and decline of those industries in the area. On a positive note, Jaguar still has a strong presence in the area and the new Jaguar gallery shows how the marque has developed.

Most exciting of all – for Pete at least – was the open-top bus used in 1987 to celebrate winning the F.A. Cup … and the F.A. Youth Cup (now how many of us knew that?!).

King Solomon’s Gold: Fantasy or Fact?

Some 50 of us sat attentively at the feet of Prof Alan Millard to hear him talk about “King Solomon’s Gold: Fantasy or Fact?” We came in hope – that we might walk away with some gold in our hands [Ed: really? … really!?!! You knew this was a MIRTH event 😳 But … wait till you hear the end! ].

Prof Millard told us of the very large quantities of gold which King Solomon received, including 3.9 tons from the Queen of Sheba; and 21.6 tons annually (worth over £1 billion in today’s money. And bear in mind that the Bank of England currently has something over 300 tons of gold reserves.)

He took us through the extensive evidence which exists. He told us of the quantities listed in the bible in 1 Kings 10 and 2 Chronicles 9. He showed us beautiful pieces – gold cups, bracelets, anklets, funerary masks … He told us of the impressive temple areas plated with gold – including the amounts in the Temple of Solomon.

But just when we thought Solomon had a lot, Prof Millard informed us that the Egyptians took it all, and a subsequent Pharaoh Osorkon gave far more just in his gifts to the gods. While the rulers of Persia accounted for close to 7,000 tonnes.

At the end of his talk, questions flowed. And a key one was ‘Where is the gold now?’

Prof Millard’s answer? “If you have a gold ring, you may have some of it in there!” – because gold is continually recycled – melted down, re-crafted, removed, re-worked – down through the ages. [Ed: so we might have walked away with some of Solomon’s Gold after all!]

Clay Shooting

The second MIRTH Xtra event took place at Warwick Adventure Sports on Thursday the 14th March.

Eight intrepid Mirthers were given a real treat. David Harkness who is not only a regular member but also a fully qualified instructor and safety officer opened up the world of Clay Pidgeon Shooting for us. Expert tuition was delivered in a friendly and humorous way.

The clays were fired in a number of ways either towards us, away from us or across the range to simulate the flight of birds or the run of rabbits.

We soon established that pigeons and Rabbits are quite safe in Terry and Mel’s gardens but are in real danger if they go near Ian Roberts or Pete Chambers. Ian won the good natured competition and Pete was a strong runner up.

A really big thanks to David for running such a professional and fun event!

We may be able to run another event soon if you would be interested let us know (Click here for details and to express an interest.)

Walk Around Long Itchington

For the second month running it was raining for our walk. This time we were walking around Long Itchington. Five hardy souls set off, first we were walking on tarmacked paths so I thought my boots might stay clean but Richard soon led us off onto muddier and wetter paths across fields.  After a while we were walking on the old railway route connecting Southam and Rugby before dropping down onto the canal.

We were almost back to the cars when the footpath was flooded as the stream had burst its banks. One of our members sensibly attired in wellingtons helped us find the best route through. 

On arriving back Terry pointed out the blue plaque for the inventor of time travel apparently he will live in Long Itchington in some 75 years time (see photos below)

Once back we retired to the Blue Lias Inn for a well-earned lunch and to dry out. 

The Danny Razzoo Show

Danny Razzoo came to St Paul’s on February 20th to entertain and amaze us with his magic tricks, using mainly numbers and playing cards.

Danny particularly enjoys ‘mathemagic’ in which he uses his excellent knowledge of mathematics (as a former teacher of) to bemuse his audience. Some of his tricks employ straightforward maths and algebra (can algebra ever be straightforward? I hear some of you thinking!). Some of the audience may even remember the significance of these numbers: 10 29 / 18 43.

Time after time he made our jaws drop as he did complicated things with packs of cards and then showed that he had predicted exactly the one which a random audience member had chosen.

Danny passed round a book of some 400 pages and asked audience members to choose a page, read the first three words … and then proceeded to tell us how many paragraphs there were on that page and how many lines in each. He even asked us to choose a word – and guessed it correctly (though of course “guessed” is not al all the appropriate word here!). How did he do it??!!

Danny is of course none other than Cliff Daniel, a regular member of MIRTH. So it was no real surprise to us to learn that he had once travelled on an overnight train from Bangkok to Shanghai, sharing the compartment with three nuns. He showed them some close-up magic…which caused so much laughter that other passengers came towards the compartment to see what was happening!!!

Danny enjoys performing for groups of people around the country, so if you are looking for such an entertainer, then just get in touch through MIRTH.

MIRTH wet walk


Well, here’s a turn up for the books! Two firsts in one day!

Our first first was that it rained … and rained … and rained ☔️. For the whole of our walk 😳!
It had started before we met up at the Plough & Harrow. And it accompanied us all the way as we walked to Sydenham and along the canal and back up towards Whitnash.

Secondly, we walked so quickly that we were in severe danger of getting back to the pub well before opening time. Well we couldn’t have that, could we.
(But why dear reader do you think we walked so quickly? Was it perhaps because of all that training on the exercise machines at Victoria Park during last month’s walk …?)

Anyway, ever resourceful, we stopped at the very enjoyable Blenz Cafe in Whitnash Community Centre. Richard – top gent that he is – kindly treated us all to teas and coffees. Others in the cafe were intrigued by our presence (well – who wouldn’t be 😉) and asked us about MIRTH and what we were up to. One of the throng even offered to take a photo of us (which he said he had sent directly to the police …).

So if you see any of this lot walking around in the rain again, please let the police know they are a really excellent bunch of Men In Retirement Together Having fun, food, fellowship, fruitful exercise and friendly company.