It is fantastic that the discussion group is still going after all these years. I started it back in the early 80's when I worked at GTW. The shop was pretty male dominated back then, and I wanted to encourage women to get involved. 

It soon became clear that the group was much needed, as it was somewhere for women to talk about particular topics ( non monogamy and coming out were always popular!) and socialize.
Many women didn't have the confidence to go to bars and clubs on their own, and ended up feeling isolated. The group was a great place for them to meet other lesbians and mix with like minded women. 

In the very early days, our custom was rejected by many of the local pubs, they didn't want a bunch of dykes frightening their customers. Eventually, a friendly landlord took over the Marquis Cornwallis just over the road, and that became our local.
Congratulations to those of you who have kept it going all this time. It's an amazing resource.

It was a wonderfully welcoming place for my new partner and me. We met some amazing women and Amanda , who ran the discussion group and worked in the bookshop was someone we all looked up to. There weren't that many lesbian venues in those days so this was a great place to socialise as well as having really interesting discussions. We all used to go to the pub over the road afterwards and have a laugh. It was a great place to find our feet and gain confidence in the newly discovered lesbian world.