Alumni and guests are invited to join the Cambridge Society of Essex at their Summer Evening Garden Party.

This Summer Evening Garden Party is an innovation in our programme.  The idea is to give members, their families and friends a chance to socialise in a relaxed atmosphere, with summery drinks and light eats.  There will be no charge but there will be a retiring collection in aid of the local charity, CHESS Homeless (www.chesshomeless.org).  We have also invited Rob Saggs, the CHESS Chief Executive, to join us and say a few words; so, it should be an illuminating as well as a social event.

The location, Robert and Prue Jones's garden, is well known to those who have supported the Farleigh Hospice Urban Open gardens events over the years.  If it rains - and there has only been one "wash out" occasion during the garden parties that they have organised - we will pretend we are reliving our "Freshers Squash" experiences - if you can recall that long ago! - and fit ourselves into the house.  In fact, I am told that on the one occasion of the "wash out", when a local organisation was celebrating its oldest member, many of those attending declared that it was more enjoyable than the usual garden party because they got to know and speak to more people in the rather intimate conditions ! ......

Entry will be through the house but the doors will close, for security reasons, at 6.15pm, when late-comers are asked if they would mind using the side gate to the right of the house.  Parking, at that time of the evening, is available in the road and nearby.  The 42 and 100 buses stop frequently at the end of the road.