Thursday 27th August 2026 – Club Meeting – Speaker, Tony Bostock with a presentation entitled ‘Mary Fitton: The Life & Loves of an Elizabethan Maid of Honour’.
Tony began by describing Mary Fitton as a ‘Vivacious Lady’. She was something of a commoner even though she grew up at Gawsworth Hall. It is thought in some quarters that Mary is the ‘Dark Lady’ referred to in the many sonnets attributed to William Shakespeare. Mary’s father was Edward Fitton, the MP for Wigan, and he was the son of Sir Edward Fitton who had served Queen Elizabeth 1st as her government representative in Ireland. However, that level of breeding didn’t entitle her to move in Royal Court circles. Her father had written to William Knollys, the 1st Earl of Banbury, who was controller of the Queen’s Royal Household. This brought a breakthrough for Mary when, at aged 18, she was elevated to become one of Queen Elizabeth’s Maids of Honour.
While at Court, Mary had formed a relationship with William Herbert, later Earl of Pembroke, and she became pregnant. Both were dismissed from the Royal Court and Herbert refused to wed Mary because he considered her below his standing in society. The resulting child is believed to have been stillborn. Afterwards Mary Fitton returned to the sidelines of London society and is believed to have had several illegitimate children before marrying Captain William Polwhele and they had 3 children together before her husband died in September 1609. Mary then married a Pembrokeshire captain named John Lougher who had family connections to the playwright William Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets were addressed to ‘WH’ who many think might be William Herbert. In relation to ‘The Dark Lady’, his sonnet number 135 plays with the capitalised and un-capitalised word ‘Will’ in multiple connotations which possibly refer not only to William Herbert but could also bring in William Polwhele, William Knollys,
William Kempe(a clown actor friend of Shakespeare) and, of course, William Shakespeare himself.
So in conclusion, Tony Bostock posed the questions “Was Mary Fitton the Dark Lady?” or even “Did Mary Fitton write the 154 sonnets herself?”
Wednesday 26th August 2026 – Bowling – Northwich Probus v Knutsford Probus
On a wet Wednesday morning the bowlers from a combined team of Northwich/Weaverham Probus played the combined team from Knutsford Rex/Tatton Probus on their home green at Owley Wood Club.
The wet weather did not deter the keen players and as the games progressed they were blessed by the weather improving. In a keenly contested first half, the score at tea was 37-34 in favour of the home bowlers. So all to play for in the second period.
As the second period progressed it looked as though two of the four games were going to decide the outcome of the match and this was to be. The visitors from Knutsford however had a greater win in their game to that of the home bowlers which tipped the final result in Knutsford’s favour by 72 points to 68.
Thursday 20th August 2026 – Walk – Blakemere Moss/Delamere
Suitably attired to the falling rain the group set off skirting the shores of Blakemere Moss. The good news being that not long after the start, the rain eased off. Blakemere Moss the depleted water levels gave witness to old tree stumps and roots from earlier times. Further on the group stopped at the Grufallo clearing for a coffee break and photo with the Owl sculpture. The route continued clockwise and was enhanced by a chance meeting with one of the Forestry Commission Rangers who gave the party some insight about the forest and decisions about its infrastructure, litter bins etc..
After the walk everyone retired to the Fishpool Inn for an excellent lunch.
Thursday 13th August 2026 – Club Meeting – Speaker our own member, Roy Conchie with a presentation entitled ‘Science to Selling’.
Roy started out by pointing to the title being an ‘Alliteration’ which has always been a favourite of Advertising copywriters as well as newspaper editors. In referencing the ‘Science’ element, He mentioned the talk he gave 3 years ago about his 2 years work with NASA’s programme, based in southern France, to bring greater accuracy to all the measurements of the moon’s topography in readiness for the Apollo navigation system.
At the end of this venture towards December 1965, it was vital to get a new job and Roy focussed his attention towards the Advertising Industry in Manchester. Initially working directly for an Ad. Agency, an opportunity arose to rent the studio from the same agency and so Roy joined the army of creative freelancers working in advertising, film and television.
Roy detailed some of the changes which brought great benefits such as the change to electronic flash lighting in stills studios from the old incandescent tungsten filament bulbs previously in use.
Roy worked through many examples of work and pointed out the many vagaries in technique utilising the Schlieren effect used in photographing liquids and glassware and Scheimflug’s Rule as part of focus control. A brief series of images showed the film and larger studio facilities required for such an enterprise and then he showed how interactions between himself, Art Directors and other freelancers came together in producing the final images. Examples included a vast amount of work with fishing tackle companies, Clothing manufacturers, Kitchen companies and Domestic appliance manufacturers. Roy showed some images for Exhibition Stands often used at Trade shows, Sales conferences etc., where arrangements featured multiple products arranged in eye-catching situations.
To bring us into the current Century, Roy detailed his work in Digital Imaging and all the opportunities that presented with new techniques such as ‘Stitching’, ‘Sampling’ and ‘Layering’ for clients such as Nissan UK, B&Q and BP. At the end, Roy invited members for a Q&A session.
Wednesday 12th August 2026 – Bowls – Knutsford Probus v Macclesfield 2/Alderley Edge Probus
On what was one of the hottest August days ever recorded the bowlers of Knutsford entertained their friends from Macc/Alderley Edge Probus to the Knutsford Bowling Club green. With wilting vegetation and grass looking rather brown to say the conditions were challenging could be seen as an under statement. However, the guys gave it a go, but at the half time tea break, with Knutsford leading by 42 points to 34, it was decided with consideration to health that the match should finish. Nobody complained!
Thursday 6th August 2026 – Walk – Thelwall
The Walking Group started at Thelwall and commented how delightful they found the village, wedged between the M6 viaduct and Warrington, it had a really nice feel especially with the Pickering Arms Pub dating back to the 17th century.
It was unfortunate that some group members had to pull out of the walk so it ended up that just 3 members took part and the walk started with a unique experience for the group, a short trip on a ferry! This ferry runs ‘in perpetuity’ across The Manchester Ship Canal and the 3 members took the ferry over to the River Mersey flood plain where they observed a weir which nowadays was retaining water to help drive 3 Archimedes Screw type generators putting out half a megawatt of electricity. The walk returned for another crossing back over the Ship Canal via Latchford Locks and then back to The Pickering Arms for a nice lunch.