One
Day Courses There are a wide variety
of one day courses and evening talks throughout the year.
One day courses are an excellent way to introduce yourself
to the WEA and sample the quality and breadth of the learning
options available.
These courses tend to be very popular so please contact
us on the telephone numbers shown if you are interested
and we will endeavour to fit you in!
Tea and coffee are usually, but not always, included in the Fee. Lunch arrangements are indicated but the duration of the lunch break may vary - the branch will be able to supply further details.
The following is a list in date order of all the courses that have taken place, or have yet to take place, this year. To search by branch,
please go to the Branches page.
Branch: ROYDON Course Title: One Square Mile and 2000 Years: The History of the City of London [ONE DAY] Course Description: What connections do we have with London? Strategic importance of the River Thames, Medieval London, its merchants, trades, and the influence of the Livery Companies. The Great Fire. Would London ever rise again from the ashes? Tutor: David Williams Venue: St. Peter’s Church Hall, High Street, Roydon, Harlow CM19 5EQ Date: 27-Sep-08 Start Time: 10:30 AM Finish Time: 3.30PM
Lunch Arrangement: Bring your own lunch Fee: £12
Contact Name: Mrs H Dettmer Telephone: 01279 792552
Branch: HATFIELD PEVEREL Course Title: Thomas Churchman Darby and his Steam Digging Machines [EVENING TALK] Course Description: Thomas Darby was an Essex farmer born in 1841. His family farmed at Little Waltham but it was on moving to nearby Pleshey that he began his great enterprise, the design and manufacture of steam powered digging machines. His first was made in 1877 – it travelled broadside across the field and it walked on steam-powered feet! Tutor: Brian Bourn Venue: Methodist Church Hall, The Street, Hatfield Peverel Date: 30-Sep-08 Start Time: 8:00 PM Finish Time: 10.00PM
Lunch Arrangement: N/A Fee: £5
Contact Name: Catherine Voysey Telephone: 01245 382595
Branch: HALSTEAD Course Title: Weather Systems and their Clouds [ONE DAY] Course Description: Britain has some of the most diverse weather of anywhere on the planet, from heavy snow and freezing cold of winter to blazing hot summer heat waves, this lecture feeds our fascination with the subject. Why is our weather so diverse? Tutor: Ken Newman Venue: United Reform Church, Kings Road, Halstead CO9 1HJ Date: 11-Oct-08 Start Time: 10:00 AM Finish Time: 4:00 PM
Lunch Arrangement: Bring your own lunch Fee: £10
Contact Name: Adam Thompson Telephone: 07837 911169
Branch: HATFIELD PEVEREL Course Title: Artists and Colour [EVENING TALK] Course Description: Discovering natural elements using materials for pigments enabled man to make coloured marks that have power & meaning.
Over centuries artists have employed colour to record, represent & interpret the world. How has the range of their palettes created masterpieces. Tutor: Joy Graham Venue: Methodist Church Hall, The Street, Hatfield Peverel Date: 28-Oct-08 Start Time: 8:00 PM Finish Time: 10.00PM
Lunch Arrangement: N/A Fee: £5
Contact Name: Catherine Voysey Telephone: 01245 382595
Branch: BENFLEET Course Title: Castles from the 11th to the 14th Century [ONE DAY] Course Description: Did you know that England and Wales are home to a host of castles of an unrivalled variety?In our course we will look at the different types, how they changed, got better and better, and then ceased to be built at all. We will explore how they functioned as a machine for fighting as well as living in. Tutor: Roger Cooke Venue: St Georges Church Hall, Rushbottom Lane, Benfleet SS7 4DN Date: 1-Nov-08 Start Time: 10:30 AM Finish Time: 3.30PM
Lunch Arrangement: Buffet lunch included Fee: £14
Contact Name: Philip Narbrough Telephone: 01268 759392
Branch: FELSTED Course Title: Our Hazardous Planet [ONE DAY] Course Description: Most natural disasters are the consequence of violent activity in our planet's crust or atmosphere. Aided by newsreel footage, we shall consider the causes, physical nature and effects of a number of twentieth-century earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Tutor: Adrian Wright Venue: Memorial Hall, Braintree Road, Felsted Date: 8-Nov-08 Start Time: 10:30 AM Finish Time: 3.30PM
Lunch Arrangement: Buffet lunch included Fee: £13
Contact Name: Dick Frost Telephone: 01371 820824
Branch: ESSEX FEDERATION Course Title: Elizabeth I and the County of Essex [ONE DAY] Course Description: Elizabeth’s maternal family, the Boleyns, had strong Essex connections, and she herself was to make one of the key speeches of her reign at Tilbury in the Armada Summer of 1588. But was this all it appears to have been? Tutor: William Tyler Venue: Feering Community Centre, Coggeshall Road Date: 15-Nov-08 Start Time: 11:00 AM Finish Time: 3.30PM
Lunch Arrangement: Bring your own lunch Fee: £10
Contact Name: Pat Dale Telephone: 020 8281 1536
Branch: ESSEX FEDERATION Course Title: Three World Faiths [ONE DAY] Course Description: The purpose of this day course is to promote a deeper understanding of three world faiths related to each other ideologically and historically, each of which is significant in today’s world. Tutor: Arthur Rowe, Manwar Ali and Rebecca Steiner Venue: Feering Community Centre, Coggeshall Road Date: 15-Nov-08 Start Time: 11:00 AM Finish Time: 3.30PM
Lunch Arrangement: Bring your own lunch Fee: £10
Contact Name: Pat Dale Telephone: 020 8281 1536
Branch: ESSEX FEDERATION Course Title: “Can British Farmers still Bring Home the Bacon?” [ONE DAY] Course Description: With low farm prices in the late 1990s farmers have had a tough time. However, recent world shortages of basic food items have brought rapid price increases. Farm incomes look set to rise, but will these increases be short-lived? Tutor: Andrew Notman Venue: Feering Community Centre, Coggeshall Road Date: 15-Nov-08 Start Time: 11:00 AM Finish Time: 3.30PM
Lunch Arrangement: Bring your own lunch Fee: £10
Contact Name: Pat Dale Telephone: 020 8281 1536
Branch: HATFIELD PEVEREL Course Title: Let’s Look at Towns [EVENING TALK] Course Description: Look for evidence for urban defences, a planned layout, a market, a mint, a nodal position, a diverse social & economic base, or multiplicity of religious activity. Some evolved from earlier settlements but yet others were deliberately established.
East Anglia has them all!
Tutor: Jim Page Venue: Methodist Church Hall, The Street, Hatfield Peverel Date: 25-Nov-08 Start Time: 8:00 PM Finish Time: 10.00PM
Lunch Arrangement: N/A Fee: £5
Contact Name: Catherine Voysey Telephone: 01245 382595
Branch: CHELMSFORD Course Title: Art in East Anglia: The 20th Century [ONE DAY] Course Description: Many are familiar with the great century of East Anglian painting that encompasses Gainsborough through to Constable and the Norwich painters but here the focus is on the continuation of this history into the 20th Century. Tutor: Graham Slimming Venue: Broomfield Community Centre, Main Road, Broomfield, Chelmsford, CM1 7AH Date: 29-Nov-08 Start Time: 11:00 AM Finish Time: 3.30PM
Lunch Arrangement: Bring your own lunch Fee: £10
Contact Name: Mrs J M Dougan Telephone: 01245 476583
Branch: CHELMSFORD Course Title: A Century of Jazz [ONE DAY] Course Description: Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Miles Davis, Django Reinhardt, Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins, Sarah Vaughan, Thelonious Monk, Alan Barnes are just a few of the many gifted musicians who feature in this one-day historical survey of jazz. Tutor: Roger Bawden Venue: Broomfield Community Centre, Main Road, Broomfield, Chelmsford, CM1 7AH Date: 31-Jan-09 Start Time: 11:00 AM Finish Time: 3.30PM
Lunch Arrangement: Bring your own lunch Fee: £10
Contact Name: Mrs J M Dougan Telephone: 01245 476583
Branch: TOLLESBURY Course Title: The Best of Jazz [ONE DAY] Course Description: A celebration of the very best jazz musicians and their music of the last eighty years.This course will feature the full range of jazz styles from New Orleans through swing, bebop, funk, fusion and free form to moern contemporary music. The course should appeal to those new to jazz as well as aficionados. Tutor: Roger Bawden Venue: The Parish Rooms, Church St.,Tollesbury, Essex, CM9 8QJ Date: 21-Feb-09 Start Time: 11:00 AM Finish Time: 3.30PM
Lunch Arrangement: Buffet lunch included Fee: £15
Contact Name: Aileen Gaskell Telephone: 01621 869218
Branch: BENFLEET Course Title: With my little stick of Southend Rock - a History of the Essex Seaside' [ONE DAY] Course Description: The English invented the seaside in the 18th century, and Essex was in the forefront with the development of ‘London by the Sea’ at Southend. Southend, from entertaining Royalty went determinedly downmarket, attracting by the end of the 19th century, huge numbers at Bank Holiday weekends. Tutor: William Tyler Venue: St Georges Church Hall, Rushbottom Lane, Benfleet SS7 4DN Date: 28-Mar-09 Start Time: 10:30 AM Finish Time: 3.30 PM
Lunch Arrangement: Buffet lunch included Fee: £14
Contact Name: Philip Narbrough Telephone: 01268 759392
Branch: HALSTEAD Course Title: Life in Georgian Essex and Suffolk [ONE DAY] Course Description: The Georgian age is often portrayed as one of elegance and taste. This is, of course, true and such lifestyles can be observed in the developing towns of our region, for example in Bury St Edmunds and Southend, and in country estates, such as those around Copped Hall and Melford Hall. But the age was also a tough and unrelenting one for the majority seeking to make their living from the land or in the growing number of industrial developments. Tutor: William Tyler Venue: United Reform Church, Kings Road, Halstead CO9 1HJ Date: 25-Apr-09 Start Time: 10:00 AM Finish Time: 4:00 PM
Lunch Arrangement: Bring your own lunch Fee: £10
Contact Name: Adam Thompson Telephone: 07837 911169
Branch: CHELMSFORD Course Title: Picturing Medieval Life [ONE DAY] Course Description: The world upside down? Misericords provide fascinating vignettes of everyday life at work and leisure including light-hearted images of domesticity. Dressing up or dressing down? – What clothes did we wear before 1500? This illustrated lecture will explore how far art reflected life in Europe before 1500. Tutor: Vanessa King Venue: Broomfield Community Centre, Main Road, Broomfield, Chelmsford, CM1 7AH Date: 20-Jun-09 Start Time: 11:00 AM Finish Time: 4:00 PM
Lunch Arrangement: Bring your own lunch Fee: £10
Contact Name: Mrs J M Dougan Telephone: 01245 476583
