Polar talk raises £1,300 for village hall

Every seat was taken at St Thomas’ church hall, to hear: Race to the Pole, a lecture by Woolton Hill villager, Lee Farmer- the 180th Briton on Everest and three times to the South Pole.
About 90 people were on the edge of their chairs listening to the tale of Captain Scott and Roald Admundsen’s battle to be first to the South Pole.
At the interval, guests were treated to Typhoo tea - the brand that Scott took on his historic expedition, according to Mr Farmer - and Huntley & Palmers’ ‘sledging’ biscuits, similar to biscuits the great explorer and his team would have eaten at the time:
“The Typhoo tea was the same strength - although the (Scott’s Typhoo) brand can be bought in Tesco,” said Mr Farmer.
Made by volunteers using the original recipe, the biscuits, he continued, were similar to those Scott took on the expedition, but contained vegetable oil, rather than a hard fat:
”They are like Scottish oatcakes, but he would have taken bigger, thicker ones. They are not a cereal bar and not like a dunking biscuit - the nearest thing by comparison is an oatcake,” he said.
The £10 per ticket lecture was in aid of The Living Stones Project, to renovate St Thomas church hall and given in 2012 - the centenary year of Captain Scott and the polar team perishing in Antarctica.
Mr Farmer added he recently manned a stall at Woolton Hill village market on behalf of the Living Stones Project, where he chatted to the MP for North West Hampshire, Sir George Young, who offered his support for the project: ”He’s sent me two letters since saying ..anything he can do to help,” said Mr Farmer.
The old recipe for Captain Scott’s biscuits is kept at the Museum of Reading, which still has tins and remaining biscuits found in a packing case outside one of the huts at Scott’s camp, after his party succumbed to the ravages of the South Pole.