Next Lunch and Speakers

Friday 20th June 2025

Exploring geothermal energy

After a friendly lunch, on Friday 20 June members of Milford Probus club and visitors (always welcome) will learn about the prospects for geothermal energy. Peter Clutterbuck has  a Cambridge degree in engineering and has had a career in energy projects around the world. He is driven now by the challenge of replacing fossil fuels (hydrocarbons) with low carbon energy.

Oil and gas have high carbon emissions. Wind and solar power are developing fast but are dependent on weather. Hydro has limited suitable sites. Nuclear is expensive, has long lead times and public safety concerns, though small modular reactors could be promising.

Geothermal energy suffers no such problems. It operates 24/7 and could have enormous potential across the globe as the earth is hot at depth everywhere. While drilling costs remain high however, hot and shallow sites are best and such ‘hot spots’ are being exploited in 32 countries. At just 1% of today’s global energy mix, there is great potential, as Peter will explain.

Friday 15th August 2025

Victorians at Leisure

The nineteenth century saw a shift towards shorter working days and increased leisure time. This talk will delve into the consequences of this shift. We will investigate the growing popularity of theatres and music halls among all the social classes. We will uncover the wide array of Victorian pastimes, from collecting cigarette cards and trainspotting to indulging in botany and science, as well as some very unique parlour games. Find out more about how the Victorians spent their time away from work. Join us as we journey through Victorian Britain. 

Friday 21st March 2025

My neighbour Roald Dahl - a personal view of a remarkable man

After a friendly lunch, on Friday 21 March members of Milford Probus club and visitors (always welcome and in rising numbers) had a talk by Andrzej Potocki, who for 20 years in the 1960s and 70s lived near Roald Dahl in the same village. His first ever job, at the age of 12, was collecting apples in Dahl's orchard. Over the years, he got to know Roald Dahl and his family well and many of the people and places that Dahl wrote about. This was an informed view from personal experience.

It also included other aspects of Dahl’s amazing life beyond his hugely successful children’s books, including as an ace fighter pilot, a spy, and inventor of medical equipment.