I also joined the U3A (university of the third age) they are all over the country and all the groups meet in during the day. They will have a group on anything that there is a demand for - from languages, meditation, patchwork, art, line dancing, short mat bowls, walking, , photography, whatever. There is an annual fee about £15-£20, a monthly meeting with a speaker, and groups that meet monthly or more often, where you pay a couple of pounds to cover the hall unless you meet in someone's home.
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Education
I think the WEA is about 10 years too late in trying to protect publicly funded adult ed. It true that "you don't know what you've got till its gone" I guess. I remember Youth Clubs suffering a similar quiet death. Remember the days when every comprehensive school had its own youth club with several paid youth workers. But like the over 60s, facilities for teenagers were not considered a priority.
U3As are all independent charities and they as good as their members. At one time I was on the committee of one and used to get a bit hacked off with the majority of members who seemed to think that all this education and entertainment was something that we, the committee, should provide for them. Rather than thinking what they could do to to contribute. Grhmph. But tends to work out a lot cheaper than publicly funded courses of yore because members do the group leading/teaching/convening etc
I was rather impressed with Cambridge U3A brochure which as one might expect was a full of fascinating, but very academic offerings by... guess who.
Happy enough myself as my learning needs are being heavily subsidised by the Welsh Government 
And of course the OU was hit by withdrawal of funding by the dear leaders of our country. According to my U3A magazine participation of part timers in OU study has dropped by almost half since 2010. 
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