MIDDLEWICH U3A’s March Social Morning was re-enrolment day and the Wych Centre was full of people paying their £15 fee.

Members were reminded of the trip to see Dirty Dancing and a visit to Chester for an outdoor production of Merry Wives of Windsor.

The morning’s speaker was Peter Kirk with ‘A history of british postage stamps.’ Peter began collecting stamps when he was about seven years old and founded the Macclesfield Philatelic Society when he was just 18, serving as its first secretary; a post he still holds today, several decades later.

A fascinating story of items being sent cross-country and continents, methods of payment, by recipients rather than senders to begin with, and the introduction of stamps and a postal service finally being created under the leadership of Roland Hill, first Post Master General, this story starting with Charles II in 1660.

Colours of stamps, commemorative issues and envelopes were all discussed and shown: with a reminder that lots of first day covers are only worth their face value, so use them.

Any decimal denomination stamps are acceptable.

One interesting fact is that british postage stamps are the only stamps in the world not to bear the name of the country of origin.

The speaker at the April meeting will be Tom Jones talking about Chester Zoo. For more information about Middlewich U3A please see the website. middlewichu3a.org.uk.