Category: Community Groups
Wenvoe Neighbourhood Watch AGM
The AGM of Wenvoe Neighbourhood Watch took place on 20 February 2019.
Two new Co-ordinators were welcomed, one covering Springfield Close and the other Old Market. There are now 32 Co-ordinators covering the whole village including most of the new housing developments.
A small number of criminal acts were reported from within the village. Fly tipping occurred at St Lythams but was cleared very quickly by the Council after notification by the Co-ordinator. On another occasion vehicle headlights were stolen but the thief was caught, and the headlights returned. In one area it was reported that residents were proposing to install a surveillance camera in response to local thefts.
On the Saturday after the meeting some lead was stolen from the roof of the Church. If anybody has any information about this, please would they contact Vicar Jon.
Residents are advised to be vigilant and report any suspicious activity or criminal act to their Co-ordinator. If unsure of your Co-ordinator please contact Alan French: 02920 59 8092.
Officers elected for 2019 are:
Chairman Alan French
Vice Chairman Trevor Case
Secretary/Treasurer Jackie Gauci
Minutes Secretary Bert Bates
Future Co-ordinators meetings in 2019 are July 3 and October 23.
Alan French
Closure Of The Leisure Group
It is with sadness that this coming month will see the closure of Leisure Group. The club has been running for over 40 years and was originally for both men and women over 60. Over the years it gradually be-came ladies only and of any age. Meeting every week, it was not always possible to have a speaker, but there was always some sort of entertainment.
Over the last few years, we have sadly lost many of our members, and despite our efforts we have failed to encourage new members to join. This together with being unable to appoint new committee members to continue the running of the club, has forced us into the decision to cease our meetings.
Our Easter party, on April 17th is our last meeting, when we say our last goodbyes to Leisure Group.
Betty Williams
Table Top Sale
Aspects Of The Wenvoe Wildlife
Madeleine welcomed everyone to the meeting and gave a special welcome to our visitor Pam Cockerill. We hope she will visit again and join our Institute.
Our speaker on this occasion was Bruce McDonald. We all enjoyed a wonderful evening learning about various aspects of the Wenvoe wildlife, including lovely slides which showed many interesting features and information about the introduction of Wenvoe Orchards. Our Wildlife Group has won 5 Community Green Flag Awards with the addition, last year, of the wild orchard at St Lythans. It is a great achievement – no other village in Wales has more than two. This is all due to the team work of some volunteers, the Reader family, the Community Council and the Vale of Glamorgan Council.
After refreshments we moved on to WI Business. Names were collected for the Charity Coffee Morning in Dinas Powys on Saturday 6 April. (Transport arrangements will be finalised in our April meeting.) Members were reminded that our Table Top Sale is to be held on Saturday 11 May at 10.30am at Wenvoe Community Centre. Donations towards the Tombola Stall can be brought to our next meeting where they will be gratefully received.
The Glamorgan Federation has organised several events in the near future, including a Driving Awareness Day at Margam Park and a Treasure Trail at Barry Island.
Our next meeting will be held on Thursday 4 April at 7.00pm at Wenvoe Church Hall. The speaker will be Jane Powell who is going to give us ‘An Introduction to Reflexology’. Visitors can be assured of a warm welcome and there will be no charge.
Old Docks Offices In Barry
If you’ve travelled along Ffordd y Mileniwm from Palmerston to the Barry Waterfront, you will have passed by one of the most iconic buildings in the area. This imposing building looks out over Barry Island – but at one time it faced the busy Barry Docks and housed the Docks Offices.
Barry docks office building
At the end of the nineteenth century a group of industrialists got together under the leadership of David Davies of Llandinam and with financial investment from John Cory of Tŷ’r Dyffryn, amongst others, to develop new docks in Barry for the exporting of the coal mined in their mines in the Rhondda Valley. The Chief Engineer of the docks project was John Wolfe Barry – who had also been involved in the construction of Tower Bridge in London. Interestingly, one of the other engineers who worked on the docks project was Henry Marc Brunel – the son of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
The headquarters of the Barry Docks and Railway Company was built between 1897 and 1900, designed by architect Arthur E. Bell after the style of Christopher Wren. It cost £59,000 to build and an imposing bronze statue of David Davies stands in front of it today. The statue is the work of Alfred Gilbert, the man who designed the statue of Eros in London. A copy of the David Davies statue stands beside the A470 in his home village of Llandinam in mid Wales.
This building exhibits many interesting and unusual features. It is one of a number of buildings which are found all over the world called ‘calendar buildings’. Other examples are Avon Tyrrell House in Hampshire, Cairness House in Aberdeenshire, Adare Manor near Limerick, Schloss Eggenberg in Graz in Austria and so on. The features seen in such buildings are a reflection of various numbers in a calendar.
In our building in Barry there are 4 floors (4 seasons in a year), 52 marble fireplaces (52 weeks in a year),
12 panels in the porch (12 months in a year), 2 circular windows – one on each side of the porch representing the Sun and the Moon, 7 lights behind the traceried fanlight window (7 days in a week), 365 windows (365 days in a year) and a staircase made of Portland stone, which consists of 31 stairs (31 days in most months).
In 1984 much of the building was destroyed by fire, but fortunately, it was rebuilt and today can be seen in its former glory. It now houses the offices of the Vale of Glamorgan Council.
Ann M. Jones
Badminton Players Wanted
BADMINTON PLAYERS WANTED
We are a small group who play badminton (after a fashion) on Tuesday evenings, from 8:00 to 9:30 pm, in the Village Hall. We play for fun, but it’s quite energetic, and is certainly good exercise. If anyone would like to join us, or just try out the game, you would be most welcome.
Please contact Pia (029 2059 5216) or Dickon (029 2067 9108) if you would like to know any more
Please Help To Find Edge
Our missing cat’s name is Edge. He is about two and a half years old and has black and white short-hair, with a fairly distinctive black dot on his chin. He doesn’t have a collar but he has been chipped so if found, a vet would be able to get him back to us. Edge was last seen on Wednesday 27 February around Old Port Road near the primary school.
If spotted or found, please contact myself (Ben) on 07445308404 or my wife (Hannah) on 07856607570. Alternatively, pop a note through our door at 8 Wenvoe Close (up the road from Wenvoe Library).
Kind regards, Ben Jones
St David’s Day Walk
Welsh cakes were distributed before the March walk to celebrate St David’s Day and to provide an extra boost of energy to combat the extremely windy conditions.
The Living with Cancer Strollers were advised to avoid trees around the park due to the wind, so the walkers stayed on the more open paths. This meant that newly cleaned and shining boots quickly became immersed in thick mud, as the rain the previous day had turned many of the grassed areas into mini quagmires. Nothing a quick wipe with a cloth wouldn’t be able to handle!
Our two youngest strollers enjoyed the puddles and mud so much that they abandoned the walk at the
Play area! The rest of the group battled through the wind and red cheeked, and in some cases, red nosed, arrived at the cafe for a well-deserved hot drink.
If you want some gentle exercise, with a welcoming and sociable group, join us at Cosmeston on the first Thursday of every month at 10.30am.
Chris Jones, the S4C weatherman
Tuesday Group were delighted to welcome Chris Jones, known to many as the S4C weatherman. Chris started his talk with a bit about his background. He was raised in Aberaeron and then went on to Bangor University where he studied media. After this he was out of work for some 18 months during which time he did a variety of jobs to make ends meet. He was then fortunate to be approached by a new company Merlin TV who offered him the post of Assistant Cameraman. During this time he travelled the world making films on a variety of subjects – these included following the British Bobsleigh team in Calgary, and filming in South Africa prior to independence. After 11 years, Chris became tired of all the travelling and decided to go freelance. He was offered the chance to work in front of the camera presenting the weather for S4C, a position he has held for 29 years. As well as this, Chris works for several charities including Prostate Cancer and Keep Wales Tidy.
Chris described how presenting the weather over the years has changed and it is now much more informal. On a completely different note Chris has recently launched a range of socks all with a weather theme. These are proving to be extremely popular.
When not working Chris enjoys walking and recently walked the Inca Trail which was one of his lifelong ambitions. However the weather will always be his main interest and he hopes to fulfil another ambition – chasing tornedos in the US.
Although some of our regular members were absent we all had a very enjoyable evening as well as learn-ing some of the facts and fiction about a favourite British topic – The Weather.