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Ashdown Probus Club








A message from Phil Watson, President 2024/25

Ashdown Probus Club is for retired or semi-retired professional or business people who, as a core activity meet once a month for social drinks and lunch, at which we host a guest Speaker. There are also various Activities, Functions, Outings and Walks organised for members, partners and guests throughout the year.

We draw our membership from a wide area, centred on Crowborough, but extending north east to include Tunbridge Wells and Wadhurst, south west to include Uckfield and Danehill, and north west towards East Grinstead.

If this is of interest to you, we would be pleased to welcome you as a guest, with a view to your becoming a member. We normally meet at Crowborough Beacon Golf Club on the second Monday of the month at 12.00 for 12.30 pm, and we would be happy to welcome you. Just drop us a line using the 'Contact' tab in the menu bar above.


It is a great honour to be elected to serve as your President for the 2024/25 year.  I and the Vice-President Paul Black and the other Committee members are looking forward to taking on our new responsibilities this year.

In addition to our monthly lunches at Crowborough Beacon Golf Club with a guest speaker, we have an extensive programme of other activities, including outings to places of interest, golf weekends, monthly croquet mornings and walking groups.

We are open for new members and if you are interested in joining the Ashdown Probus Club, please click on the 'Contact' tab in the menu bar above or contact me direct. phillynwatson@sky.com or 07779 787089.


Phil Watson,
President 2024/25

Phil Watson

Monthly luncheons

Full members are reminded that should they prefer not to attend a lunch they should advise Mike Theobald, the luncheon secretary, of their intentions by MIDDAY on the THURSDAY prior to that month's luncheon date. Similarly, Waiting and Occasional members should make their intention to attend known to Mike by the same deadline. Please go to the luncheon page of the website for his contact details.

Alongside monthly luncheons we now have a published schedule of outings and functions for 2024 - please see full details elsewhere on this website. We look forward to welcoming members, partners and guests to all these events over coming months.
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PROBUS - WHAT IS IT?

  • PROBUS is NOT a fundraising organisation
  • PROBUS exists to provide a social forum, fellowship and friendship for like-minded people
  • PROBUS is not affiliated to a central organising body
  • Each PROBUS Club has its own constitution
  • The origins of PROBUS were with Rotary, who sponsored the first clubs
  • PROBUS Clubs may be mixed gender, men only or women only
  • There are no upper or lower age limits

A Probus club is a local association of retired and semi-retired professional and business people, and others who have had some measure of responsibility in any field of worthy endeavour, who are of character and respected in their communities. Clubs meet regularly for fellowship and an extension of their interests. Probus is not a “senior citizens” or “lonely hearts” club.

The name is an amalgam of the abbreviation of the words PROfessional and BUSiness. Probus is also a Latin word meaning honest or virtuous, from which the English word “probity” is derived.

Probus is a non-sectarian, non-political luncheon club for retired professional and business men. The first Probus Club was set up by a group of ex-Rotarians in Caterham, Surrey, in 1966. The idea caught on and today Probus Clubs are to be found in many parts of the English-speaking world, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India.

Each Probus club is autonomous. There is no central organisation and each club sets its own rules.

Probus clubs are local to towns and districts. By 2002, there were over 300,000 members in approximately 4,000 Probus clubs worldwide. By 2014 there were around 2000 clubs in the UK alone.

For further details on Probus in the UK visit http://www.probusonline.org/history/

ASHDOWN PROBUS CLUB of Crowborough

The original Crowborough Probus Club was formed out of The Royal Tunbridge Wells Club in 1987 with a nucleus of just 4 members. By January 1991 the Crowborough Club had reached its constitutional ceiling of 50 members and had a waiting list of 14 with others showing an interest in wishing to become members. The Crowborough Club under its then President, Eric Nailard, set up a meeting on 28th February 1991 to discuss the formation of a new club and thus the Ashdown Probus Club was born. By the time of the first AGM of April 1992 the membership had risen from 16 to 47.

Ashdown Probus Club currently has over 60 Full members with a small number of Waiting and Occasional members. The Club is administered by a committee comprising The President; Vice President and up to 9 other members elected at the AGM held in April/May each year. The committee allocates responsibilities as it sees fit provided that there shall be a Treasurer and Secretary.

Crowborough Golf Club

Crowborough Beacon Golf Club

If anything of what you see on this website is of interest to you, we would be pleased to welcome you to lunch as a guest, with a view to your becoming a member. Please use the 'Contact' tag at the top of this webpage or e-mail: info@ashdownprobus.org.uk.

Ashdown Probus Club is for retired or semi-retired professional or business people, who meet once a month, for social drinks and a Lunch, at which we host a Guest Speaker.

We draw our membership from a wide area that, centred on Crowborough, extends north east to include Tunbridge Wells and Wadhurst, south west to include Uckfield and Danehill, and north west towards East Grinstead.

The purpose of The Ashdown Probus Club is purely social and to promote fellowship and friendship among its members. The Club used to meet for a monthly luncheon at The Plough & Horses pub in Crowborough until this establishment closed its doors in 2016. It then relocated to Crowborough Beacon Golf Club, Beacon Road, Crowborough, TN6 1UJ for its monthly meeting and luncheon on the second Monday of each month and has remained there ever since. Members gather at 12.00 noon for a 12.30 p.m. two course meal and coffee followed by a guest speaker and questions.

With the exception of the monthly luncheon, members’ wives and partners are invited to join in all social activities - this year enjoying the annual President’s Lunch at the Hydro Hotel, Eastbourne.

Functions planned for 2024 are a mid-Summer BBQ and a later Summer picnic hosted at a member’s private home. The final function and highlight of the year is the Club Christmas lunch, when members, their wives / partners and guests meet to celebrate the Christmas season. After two years at High Rocks, Tunbridge Wells in 2024 this event will take place at our monthly luncheon venue - Crowborough Beacon Golf Club.


Outings to varied and fascinating places are regularly arranged attended by members, wives/partners and guests. In early 2023 we enjoyed a guided tour of the Stationers Livery Hall in the City of London followed by a trip to Theatre Royal, Brighton for the opera "La Boheme". We had a Spring guided walking tour of Greenwich and there was an outing to Wadhurst for the outdoor theatre company The Rude Mechanicals' play "Miss Popplewell's Garden" followed by an autumn visit to the Trinity Theatre, Tunbridge Wells to see the TWODS musical production “A Chorus Line”. The final outing of the year was to The Apothecaries Hall in the City of London.  All this year's trips were well attended.

There is a range of Club outings arranged for 2024 including a guided walk of London's Inns of Court, returns to the next TWODS production "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat" in May and The Rude Mechanicals "The Dressing Book" in July with a trip to another of the City of London's Livery companies - the Armourers and Braziers' Hall in September. A full programme of events throughout the year is available elsewhere on this website.

There is also an active Golf section with Spring and Autumn meetings scheduled at various golfing venues around the South east - London Beach, Tenterden in early June and Weald of Kent, Headcorn at the end of September. Other activities include Croquet in Tunbridge Wells on the second Tuesday of each month (May to September) and countryside walks of around four miles organised each month during the Spring, Summer, and Autumn, ending with a pub lunch.

ASHDOWN PROBUS CLUB 25th Anniversary Celebration (2016)

CROWBOROUGH

Crowborough, situated just south of Tunbridge Wells on the A26 has the largest population in inland East Sussex (21,688 in 2021) and at 794 ft (242 metres) above sea level is the highest town in the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It borders the Ashdown Forest, a site of European significance for birds and heathland. The countryside around the town is a walkers' paradise and there are also facilities nearby for horse riders, cyclists and rock climbers.

Crowborough The Broadway

Crowborough town centre

The town was really established in the 18th century after local benefactor Sir Henry Fermor bequeathed money for a church (All Saints) and charity school for the benefit of the “very ignorant and heathenish people”, as he described them in his 1732 will, who lived in Crowborough and Ashdown Forest. The town expanded with the arrival of the railways in 1868 and became a health and holiday centre - earning the soubriquet of Scotland in Sussex.

A heathland golf course - with magnificent views across Ashdown Forest and the south downs, a hospital and fire station were added between 1895 and 1905. Gradually the town grew to incorporate neighbouring Jarvis Brook, Poundfield, Whitehill, Stone Cross and Alderbrook, Sweet Haws and Steel Cross.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle statue in Crowborough

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Crowborough’s most famous resident was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes and author of many novels written in the years he lived in the town.

His home between 1907 and his death in 1930 was Windlesham, Crowborough and he is commemorated by a statue standing at Crowborough Cross - the town’s main crossroads.

Other attractions that Crowborough can offer visitors include a country park, a thriving arts culture and various annual events including the Summer Fair, a Christmas Event, the traditional Bonfire Society carnival in September and the amazing annual fireworks event on 5th November annually.

CROWBOROUGH and Montargis

Crowborough Town Council logo
Montargis Town Crest
Map of Montargis in France

The towns of Crowborough and Montargis are twinned through war time connections between Colonel Maurice Buckmaster of the SOE and his counterpart in France, Monsieur Jean Laurent. Montargis, a much larger town than Crowborough, is about seventy miles south of Paris and with some 131 bridges and footbridges straddling many canals, Montargis has earned the nickname the "Venice of the Gâtinais".

With the vestiges of its old château, its half-timbered houses and Renaissance residences, its regenerated Tanners' district and a museum dedicated to local painter Anne-Louis Girodet, Montargis offers an invitation to visitors to soak up its charm and sample its local speciality of pralines.

The twinning charter was signed on 22 May 1966. There is an active twinning association between the towns, making annual visits to Montargis and hosting families from the town in return. The visitors stay with families in Crowborough and many long term friendships, and a few marriages, have been formed. Some of the local sports clubs also take part in exchange trips and there are close connections with The Royal British Legion. Young people from both towns seek holiday work and have gained much from the experience.

Montargis Town in France
Montargis Town in France

ASHDOWN PROBUS CLUB Past Presidents

1991-93
Michael Vaughan

1993-94
Peter Andrade

1994-95
Marshall Scott

1995-96
Jeffrey Buckland

1996-97
Michael Buncombe

1997-98
Arthur Baker

1998-99
Michael van Beek

1999-2000
Brian Mortimer

2000-01
David Penn

2001-02
Hugh Jones

2002-03
Tom Wild

2003-04
Terry Hubble

2004-05
Derek Wiles

2005-06
Terry Keats

2006-07
Jim Ringe

2007-08
Alan Willett

2008-09
Roger Morris

2009-10
Brian Willison

2010-11
Richard Clark

2011-12
John Cozens

2012-13
Dave Adams

2013-14
Barry Davis

2014-15
Alan Lockett

2015-16
Duncan Rawson- Mackenzie

2016-17
Mike Roberts


2023-24
Michael Sander

2017-18
Bryn Hodson

2018-19
Peter Barker

                 2019-20                                   2020-22                                 2022-23                           Andrew Fermor                          David Scaife                         Brian Hughes                                                              

ASHDOWN PROBUS CLUB Committee


President 2024/25
Phil Watson

Vice President
Paul Black

Treasurer
Peter Barker

Secretary
Laurie Taylor

Outings Co-ordinator
Roger Benison

Deputy
David Prest

Functions
-

Deputy
-

Speaker Secretary
David Prest

Luncheon Secretary
Mike Theobald

Honorary Auditor
John Burton

Archivist
-

Website administrator
Phil Parker

Webmaster
Steve Goodwin SGSS

Photographs of Ashdown Forest and Crowborough on this website are copyright Dave Brooker Photography www.mappingideas.co.uk and are reproduced here with the consent of Dave Brooker.

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Ashdown Probus Club