The Didsbury Probus Club invites you to our next scheduled Speaker Meeting on Thursday 4th December 2025. This is our last meeting until Thursday 15th Jan 2026.
Venue: Didsbury Baptist Church on the corner of School Lane and Beaver Road opposite Didsbury Metrolink, M20 6SX
Time: We will meet at 10:30 am for tea/coffee and biscuits with the talk starting at 11.00am.
Talk Title: The building of Manchester Ship Canal
It all started in Didsbury with Daniel Adamson at the “Towers”. This talk tells of the history of the building of the canal, the people who worked on it, the ships that sailed up it, some of the incidents that occurred and some strange visitors, all contributing to the fascinating and continuing story of this “Great Cut” The North West Waterway.
Speaker: Talk given by the Daniel Adamson Preservation Society
Visitors are very welcome. Donations from visitors, to help with our running costs and provision of refreshments, will be very welcome.
PLEASE NOTE: A number of people have commented it would be nice to have attendees identified with name badges. For the next few meetings we are going to trial doing handwritten sticky name labels. This is completely voluntary. You can get a name label by looking for our vice-chair, Sue Neesham, sat at a table armed with labels and a pen.
Future talks
15th Jan 2026 – Entrepreneurs, Their Empires and the Rise and Fall of British Companies. – Judith Popley
This talk will include many well known names and many names you have forgotten about. Come and be surprised at just how many of these people you recognise.
22nd Jan 2026 – Probus New Year Lunch (see attatchment)
All places are now taken but we are keeping a reserved list in case anyone pulls out. Send me an email if you are interested to go on the reserved list.
5th Feb – S & J Watts – Founders of a great wholesale empire and of Kendal and Milne – Diana Leitch
The Watts started as weavers in Burnage and finished up owning Abney Hall, Cheadle, the centre of their operation being their magnificent building on Portland St, Watts Warehouse now the Britannia Hotel. This building has the most impressive staircase leading up to the various floors with show rooms for their range of products for retailers and exporters to discuss business. If you wanted to impress your client this was the place .
19th Feb – Cold War Naval Aviation – Julian Bond
In this difficult period of deterrent and defence, Julian will give a snapshot of naval aviation in the Cold War years on HMS Ark Royal. Julian’s talk includes his experiences with 450 day time deck landings and 35 night time ones.
5th March – “Don’t Shoot the Messenger” – Frank Vigon
This is an entertaining talk about the history of advertising and how advertising works. There are many subtleties in the use of promoting a commodity, some so subtle you never know they exist. Frank will give his very enthusiastic and enlightening talk with his usual passion. Come and listen.
19th March – Alan Turing – His Life and Legacy – Neil Sheldon
Alan was a brilliant young man who was recognised for his important work at Bletchley Park on the decoding of the Enigma machine. After the war he came to Manchester and worked at the University until his death. Neil’s presentation covers all the trials, tribulations and successes of his life.
Secretary: Mary Hill didsbury.probus@gmail.com
Web: Ian Grant ianwilsongrant@btopenworld.com