U3A – The next meeting of U3A Hay, to be held in the Swan at Hay Hotel at 10.30am on May 19, features a talk on Madresfield – The Real Brideshead by guest speaker Brian Jauncey. Brian Jauncey is one of the guides for Madresfield so it promises to be a very interesting and informative talk.

Madresfield Court is a country house in Worcestershire, located next to the village of Madresfield and was the ancestral home of the Earls Beauchamp. Madresfield’s claim to fame, apart from its intriguing 1,000- year history under the ownership of the Lygon family, is its identity as the “Real Brideshead”, as opposed to Castle Howard, where the television adaptation of Brideshead Revisited was set. Evelyn Waugh’s Oxford friendship with Hugh Lygon brought him as a regular visitor to Madresfield and it is said that he based the Flyte family of Brideshead Revisited on the Lygons.

If you are not a member of U3A Hay and would like to find out more, please come to our meeting where you will be made very welcome. Further information can be obtained from our website, u3ahay.org.uk or the