Programme
Wednesday Meetings, Weekends Away & Other Events
December 2007
Wednesday 5th December
The Prince of Wales Pub
Pub night at the Prince of Wales, Roman Road, Mountnessing, CM15 0UG (see map). Pub is situated on the old A12 that runs through the middle of Mountnessing. Meet from about 8:30pm for a drink and a chat to while away the evening.
Sunday 9th December
Saffron Walden Walk
Lorna / Dave P
A walk of about 8 miles through some of the best countryside in Essex. Meet at 10:30am in the Fairycroft Road car park in Saffron Walden (From Thaxted Road, turn left at the lights onto Audley Road, first right into Fairycroft Road and first left towards Waitrose, grid ref TL540383, see map). Lunch at the Rose & Crown in Ashdon (please let Dave P know if you want to eat). Following the walk, everyone is welcome to celebrate Lorna's (significant) birthday with tea and cakes at her Mum’s house. Catering contributions welcome; no presents please - there’ll be a collection for Marie Curie and Tuberous Sclerosis Association.
Wednesday 12th December
Committee Meeting
We will be trip planning for early summer and organising Wednesday evenings for February. Everybody’s welcome.
Christmas Dinner
Our traditional Christmas gathering at Chignal St. James village hall (3 miles from Chelmsford) with as much as you can eat for just £9 each.
We start with George's traditional Polish Christmas specialities of beetroot borsch and fish & sauerkraut, and follow this with delicious turkey with crisply roasted spuds and succulent veg, and of course Christmas pudding with lashings of custard, all rounded off with coffee and wafer-thin mints.
The dinner is prepared by volunteers, with Helen coordinating the arrival of turkeys, spuds, sprouts & gravy from all corners of the county. It’s all enormous fun and we are looking for volunteer veggie peelers, boilers, roasters, room decorators etc.
To find it (grid ref TL665108, see map), take the A1060 (Rainsford Rd./Roxwell Rd.) out of Chelmsford; turn right at lights into Chignall Rd., after 1 mile turn left (Mashbury Rd) signposted Chignall St. James. Hall is on the left after almost 2 miles.
Be there for 7.30pm. Bring your own drinks.
Please contact Helen to show willing and send £9 to Dave P to secure your dinner place (and say if you want a vegetarian option).
Wednesday 19th December
Seasonal Goodwill & Photo Competition
Our last get together before Christmas and the New Year trip. Come join us for a mince pie and bring some photos from the last year to remind us what we’ve all been up to.
We traditionally operate 4 categories: Best Portrait, Best Landscape, Best Caption and Spirit of YHA. The only rule is that the picture must be of a CYHA event that has taken place since 1st Nov 2006.As usual we expect to plumb new depths with the caption comp and you will have to be there if you want to hear the versions we can’t publish!
(for inspiration, see last year's winners!)
Thursday 27th December 2007 to Tuesday 1st January 2008
New Year 2007/2008
Five nights at Harris House at Hardraw, near Hawes, in Wensleydale.
Harris House is the former Hardraw village school. “The well appointed and practical accommodation is centrally heated throughout”. The village has a café and a pub, the famous Green Dragon Inn with England’s highest single-drop waterfall in its grounds. The Pennine Way passes beside Harris House, on its way up Great Shunner Fell and over to Swaledale. Or for a less demanding walk, follow the Pennine Way south for a mile to Hawes, the capital of Wensleydale, with its pubs, teashops, museum and cheese factory.
Directions: From Hawes, drive north across the River Ure on the road for Thwaite. It bears left at a T-junction and when it turns right to go uphill to the Buttertubs Pass, continue along the dale bottom into Hardraw. Pass the Green Dragon inn on the right, cross the bridge over Hardraw Beck and then turn immediately right into the school playground used as a car park. Grid ref SD866912, see map. You will need to bring a sleeping bag.
Cost will be about £16 per night for bed and meals, plus about £30 towards petrol for those sharing lifts from the Chelmsford area.
A £30 deposit will book your bed.
Note: Unless otherwise stated, Wednesday events start at 8.30pm at the YMCA in Victoria Road, Chelmsford
Please send any comments on these pages to Dave Plummer