u3a

Warley, Brentwood

Industrial Heritage

Meetings happen on an ad-hoc basis approximately once a month

We are a group of people who are interested in all things vaguely industrial (preferably with some age) or which represent our heritage (preferably with a bit of industry).

That allows us to visit a wide range of venues, including a materials testing facility dating back 160 years, various windmills and a tidal mill, the oldest operating theatre, the building which was a biscuit factory, the postal museum, an optometry museum, a pier and various sites associated with gunpowder!

We continue to plan new trips with many of the locations suggested by members of the group.

Museum of Power

Volunteer explaining working of the windmill to visitors

Members looking out over London from top of Batersea Power Station

Male examining vintage rifle

Museum of Power

Volunteer explaining working of the windmill to visitors

Members looking out over London from top of Batersea Power Station

Male examining vintage rifle

How the group works

A programme of activities is planned about 6 months out and advertised to the members of group by email. Those interested in any of the visits put the dates in their diaries and respond to indicate that they would like to join us. (The lists of attendees on the website are updated about once a week).

Sometimes numbers are limited and so the website is updated to list who wants to attend – that also helps with people who want to ask others for a lift. (Where the numbers are restricted then places are allocated based on the order that people sign up and, where appropriate, pay).

Find out more

About 8 weeks before a trip/event, details are sent out of the event, what we hope to see, what time we will start and end, the location and costs. It is member’s responsibility to get to the venue (car sharing is encouraged). Normally payments are required a few weeks before the trip (by bank transfer to Warley u3a) and final details are distributed a couple of weeks out.

Talking of transport and costs, we try to arrange many of the visits to be accessible by public transport (we tend to catch the first off peak train), and also with a range of costs from free, through small donations to the more expensive, more commercial locations (we always try and get value for money).

Many of the members of the group are also active in other u3a interest groups so we try and pick dates which do not clash. It is not always possible since we have to go when the venues will welcome us and they often have restricted opening. Sometimes we have a “vote” to decide on what to visit or which date allows most people to attend.

John regularly gets emails from people in the group suggesting venues – somewhere someone has visited or an item that popped up on the Internet. It is amazing how much one can learn if one goes with an open mind and many of us go on most of the trips even if, at face value, they are not our cup of tea!

If you cannot attend at the last minute due to illness, etc. then we will try and give you a refund (full or partial) although it depends on whether we have paid the venue already.

Joining the group
Details of some of the planned and recent trips are listed to the right so you can get an idea of whether this interests you. If it does, and you are a member of the u3a, then contact John, the group organiser, to join the mailing list. We don’t charge a group membership fee, your payments for the trips covers all the costs. A full list of planned trips can are listed on this page

If looking back at the places we have visited there is somewhere you would have liked to have been able to join us, then let John know because we have been discussing whether to repeat some of our earlier visits. We also welcome members from other u3a to join the group but do sometimes give priority to members of Warley u3a when allocating spaces.

Details of our planned visits can be found below

Full list of planned trips
(last update 24/03/26)

Find out more about some of our past visits