A Short History of Tameside U3A

Tameside U3A was started by Tom & Jean Muskett together with Mark Newman, a lecturer at the Hyde College. The inaugural meeting was held in the Community Education Building on Beeley Street in Hyde on 22 February 1988. After the Beeley Street premises were taken out of use before demolition, meetings moved into the College Buildings and Tameside U3A became associated to the College.

Tameside U3A is now nearly 25years old and still retains some of its founder members. Over the years, membership has grown from the starting number of 30 to around 180, taking part in a variety of activities.

In the beginning, meetings were held on a Monday for thirty weeks, coinciding with the college terms. The Monday Lecture has been retained from the original programme.

As the membership grew further activities were added. The first was a Tuesday meeting discussing literature and music. From then on a wide range of activities has been added, resulting in the present programme. From one meeting a week we now offer 10 activities this year. However, if enough members have an interest we are always prepared to try and include new activities in our programme if we can find someone to act as the co-ordinator.