The year was 1984.   Edith Bentley, State Registered Nurse and District Midwife, now Edith Bentley MBE, HonMA and our President, who initiated the Over 50s Weekday Leisure (OWLS) in November 1983 with help from Kirklees Leisure Service and Peter Hinchliffe (then with the Huddersfield  Examiner now a U3A Tutor), heard about the University of the Third Age. 

The idea originated in France in 1977, arrived in the UK in 1982 at Cambridge and reached Edith in 1984, when she decided to introduce the idea into Huddersfield.   She looked for support.   “I went to Brian Pearson (Kirklees Leisure Services) and he was absolutely enthusiastic.”   He  agreed to help and was Chairman of the inaugural meeting.

In March 1984, Angela Black (who has taught two or three classes for two terms each year since then) addressed the inaugural meeting and the seed was planted.   Edith Bentley is now our President and as a result of her initiative she was awarded the MBE and an HonMA.   A Committee of fifteen was set up and the foundations of our current U3A were laid.   That single seed has now grown into a large and sturdy tree.

Our U3A is not an academic institution but a society of people sharing similar aims to maintain and improve the quality of life by keeping fulfilled and active as we age.   Thanks to the foresight of our President, Huddersfield residents (and also many people from the surrounding district) have enjoyed the benefits of an educational and cultural organisation which is second to none.  

We started in 1984 with 24 volunteer Tutors and about 400 members.   In 2007 there were 2400 members , more than 90 Tutors and Class Leaders who taught activities as diverse as Yorkshire Dialect and its History, Scrabble, Line Dancing and Human Evolution - and most things you can think of in between!