Middlesbrough Group is celebrating reaching 20 members! And because we are now covering such a diverse and large area we have decided to rebrand ourselves with a name to reflect our bigger geographical coverage – we are now calling ourselves “Teesside”, with 3 new members up in Hartlepool, a few in villages in North Yorkshire and small towns in East Cleveland and the rest in various parts of Stockton and Middlesbrough.
We are also very proud to be hosting an area conference on the national theme of “Connections”, in recognition of the 200th anniversary of the Stockton to Darlington Railway, the first in the whole world, taking its first passengers. This will be held in Darlington, with lots of interesting speakers, who will talk on different connections topics, and workshops to share fun and experiences. We are hoping many members will come from all over the UK to be part of our day, and we encourage everyone to bring their non-member friends along too, so we can showcase how wonderful NWR is and hopefully get a few more ladies to join.
As a group, we really enjoy going out for lunches and having adventures together. We have begun mid week lunch dates twice a month and Sunday lunches once a month at local restaurants, hotels and pubs to sample all their wares!
Some of us started to take holidays together last year – 4 days in the Netherlands and 3 days staying in University Halls rooms in Cambridge. We have enjoyed them so much we are heading to Oxford to stay at New College this August for 3 days, followed by a Spring break to Barcelona in May 2026. We also hope to visit Bath in September 2026 to take part in the Jane Austen festival and would love to meet up with other members local to Bath for some of the organised events, such as Promenades and Afternoon Teas, talks on Jane Austen…. any advice on where and how to acquire Georgian costumes and bonnets would be much appreciated!