Category: Community Groups

AGM Report

 

Our AGM was held in May and two representatives from Federation House were present to oversee the proceedings. Our members voted unanimously in favour of the national resolution which this yea concerns mental health matters keeping parallel with physical health. Delegates will vote accordingly at national level this month.

The financial report was presented in June’s absence and as our retiring treasurer, we wish her well as she recovers from recent surgery. Secretary Pam gave a detailed and interesting report on our previous year.

The president’s address carried a “ Thank you Theme “ when Madeleine thanke committee members and all the WI ladies for all they had done and given to our institute, especially at those times in her absence,when everyone worked together to produce successful events. Madeleine also expressed her pleasure that after a few years, Pam Hodge has renewed her membership of our institute. It will be good to have her join us.

The committee for 2018/19 is as follows:-

President – Madeleine Rees.

Vice President- Margaret Morant.

Secretary – Pam Ewington.

Treasurer- Jayne Aust

Committee Members. Shirley Hammond,

Maria Williams,

Janet Young.

The WI advisor praised our instate forits success and warmth and we look forward to another year.Next meeting is at the church hall on June 7th at 7pm when we will be welcoming back Viv Truran with more of her humorous stories.Visitors are very welcome to come along.

A reminder that our charity afternoon tea is on June 15th at the community centre, 3-5 pm.Donations for raffle and tombola will be very welcome.at our June meeting.

 

 

Mercy Ships and Faberge Jewellery

 

Mrs Sheila Pugh visited us on April 18th, and gave us a very interesting talk on the Mercy ships, and the wonderful work done by those who volunteer to work on them. The ship is stationed each year at a port, mostly in Africa, where it becomes a hospital,carrying out surgery and treatments doctors, nurses, teachers etc, at their own expense volunteer to spend 10 months of the year helping the poor people of these countries. Receive medical aid .This coming year it will be in port in Guinea.

On April 25th Mrs Lilian Charles came to tell us the history of Faberge jewellery. via the screen she showed us numerous pictures of Faberge eggs and jewellery all sparkling with diamonds, and mostly made for an occasion .Then we were treated to a few real pieces from Mrs Charles own collection

Dr Neville Evans visited us on May 2nd with his on his childhood experiences, this was part two of his talk, and as before, very humorous .

We were looking forward to Mr John Sheen’s new talk on May 9th,and we were not disappointed. Mr Sheen sees the the funny side of every day life and with his acting experience tells it all so well.

Diary of events

June. 6th. Afternoon tea

June. 13th Donald Knight. ‘The art of Bonzai’

June20th Wenvoe school choir

June 27th Bruce Hawkins. ‘Naughty ladies in history’

 

 

Ice Trap by Kitty Sewell

 

Ice Trap by Kitty Sewell Published 2007

Dafydd Woodruff, a young surgeon, experienced the horror of making a near fatal mistake on the operating table. Very shaken by this he takes a locum position in Northern Canada in a remote community Moose Creek to help overcome the guilt he suffered. He returns to Cardiff and fifteen years later he’s a consultant surgeon in the Heath Hospital and is married to Isobel, an interior designer. Their marriage is crumbling under the pressure of infertility.

Dafydd receives a letter from Moose Creek from a teenager, Miranda, claiming that he is the father of her and her twin brother. Her mother, Sheila, is the head nurse of the hospital there, with whom Dafydd is adamant that he had never had an intimate relationship. However, DNA results prove Dafydd wrong. His marriage by now is extremely unstable. In his effort to unearth the truth he returns to Moose Creek and stumbles upon long buried Moose Creek secrets.

It took very little time to establish that to varying degrees everybody disliked the book. It was felt that one would have to stretch one’s imagination to the limits to have any belief in the characters or story line. It was said to be not well written, boring, tiresome, very flat, and it’s only minor interest was that it was partly set in Cardiff and Penarth. Nobody felt that they would recommend the book. Not surprisingly the score was 3 out of ten.

 

 

SS WENVOE – A STORY OF BRAVERY AND TRAGEDY

SS WENVOE – A STORY OF BRAVERY AND TRAGEDY

 

The 2,979 tonnes merchant steamer the SS Wenvoe was built in 1894 by the Gray Company of Hartlepool and owned by a prominent Cardiff shipping family, the Morels. Ships like the SS Wenvoe, which were used to transport a variety of cargoes, helped Cardiff to become a port of worldwide importance in the years leading up to the First World War. These ships and their crews played a brave role in supplying the country during the conflict. The war however led to tragedy for the SS Wenvoe, albeit under a different name. Sold to French owners in 1916, the SS Wenvoe was renamed the Bayvoe, although due to wartime restrictions it had to remain under the British Flag.

From the start of the Great War in 1914, Germany pursued a highly effective U-boat campaign against merchant shipping. At first, U-boats obeyed 'prize rules' which meant surfacing before attacks on merchant shipping. This allowed time for the crew and passengers time to get away. As the war progressed and allied detection improved, this policy was abandoned. U boat attacks intensified and in late 1917 and early 1918 several Cardiff based ships were hit.

On 9 January 1918, Bayvoe, on a voyage from Portland to Bordeaux with a cargo of wheat, was targeted and sunk off the coast of Brittany by a German U-boat. Tragically, four crewmen, all merchant seamen from civilian backgrounds, lost their lives.

Their origins give a strong indication of the cosmopolitan character of Cardiff at the time. The youngest, a mess room steward, was 19 and from Turkey. The fatalities also included an engineer from Riga, fireman and trimmer from Bombay and a cook from Greece.

The submarine which torpedoed and sunk the Bayvoe was under the command of 31 year old Walter Roehr. Roehr was a very successful U boat commander, with several military decorations, including the Iron Cross 1st Class. His U84 submarine was responsible for sinking 1 warship and 28 merchant ships.

Attacks on SS Birchgrove and SS Cardiff

In an indication of Cardiff’s contribution to the war effort, two more local ships suffered attacks around this time. Roehr had already been responsible for sinking the SS Birchgrove, carrying goods from Penarth to Bordeaux, the previous month. The very day after sinking the Bayvoe (9 January), Roehr attacked and severely damaged the SS Cardiff 20 miles off the French coast near Lorient. In spite of these successes, his story did not end well, as his submarine was itself sunk off Penmarch, France just 5 days later with the loss of all officers and crew. The SS Cardiff was later sold on to a German company, Schulte and Bruns. In a final twist of fate, the SS Cardiff, as the renamed Konsult Schulte, was sunk by the allies in a Norwegian fjord in 1941.

 

 

 

April Activities

 

As always all were made welcome by Madeleine at our April meeting, especially Pam Hodge, a former member who came as a visitor. We were pleased to see Pam and hope she will come again. We all send June, who is in hospital awaiting surgery, our good wishes for her future recovery.

An interesting evening was provided by Mansel Thomas who in addition to being a member of the Rotary Club of western Cardiff , is publicity officer, treasurer and website designer for the Rotary Doctor Bank, which was set up in Britain and northern Ireland, following great success in Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Germany. Mr Thomas’s talk with slides was excellent and informative. We learned that the UK has 1 doctor to 350 people, whereas in rural Africa that ratio is 1 doctor for 10 to 20,000 people. Rotary Doctor Bank is involved only with mission hospitals, mainly in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. 4th year medical students have visited these hospitals to work and also dentists. A major refurbishment has taken place at Kamuli hospital in Uganda. For further information visit www.Rotary Doctor BankGB and I.org

Members were thanked for the way they all came together on March 15th to celebrate our 15th anniversary. AS vice president, Margaret stepped in to chair the event and all visitors thoroughly enjoyed it all. Glamorgan Federation events were announced. May 14thsees Dinas Powys hosting the fashion show by Samantha B of Ewenny. We will next meet on May 3rd, which will be our annual meeting when the committee for 2018-2019 will be formed. In May we will also be voting on the resolution of Mental Health Matters and WI advisor, Carol Atkinson will be overseeing the proceeding.

For many years June has been our efficient, well-organised and dedicated treasurer, but sadly, due to ill health she has had to step down. Wde appreciate all the hard work she has done and we all wish her well on the road back to good health.

 

 

March Talks

 

On March 21st, Mr Tom Phelps entertained us. He first gave us an insight into his childhood education which was poor but was determined to learn by following correspondence courses. He went on to write hundreds of humourous poems which he read to us with his very Welsh accent making them very comical.

This was followed on 28th March by Mr John Metcalf who spoke about the Vale of Glamorgan Festival of Music which celebrates 50 years this year in Cardiff. Mr Metcalf is a composer who has many compositions and theme tunes to his credit.

Following our Easter break, Viv Truman came to tell us how she became an antique dealer. Starting with a stall in Jacob’s market in Cardiff and progressing to two shops. She told us how jewellery devalues immediately its purchased. As usual Viv’s talks are always humorous.

 

 

Trelewis and Govilon

Trelewis

Heavy rain overnight, which continued as we drove up the A470, suggested that we were to get a thorough soaking and trudge through mud for much of the walk. How wrong we were, the rain was light as we left the cars in the Taff Bargoed Park and soon stopped completely. We followed a solid path north along a full Bargoed River. Geese, ducks and swans were enjoying the water. An attractive insect hotel had been built on the side of the path.

On the edge of the river were fishing platforms which we didn’t step onto as we could imagine sliding across the slimy wet surface straight into the river. Wild fishing was established here in 2012 by the Environment Agency Wales (partly funded by the European regional development fund).

In 1994 mine water containing iron salts flowed from two of the disused mineshafts of local mines via a culvert into the river, staining it orange for many kilometres. Reed beds using more than 100,000 individual reeds were planted, creating one of the largest reed beds in Europe. The effect is amazing we could see bright orange water replaced by clear flowing streams. The reed beds while forming a natural filtration system provide habitat for mammals, birds, amphibians, insects and invertebrates.

Continuing north we reached the Bargoed Rock climbing centre.

Soon we left the river and turned west across moorland. We contoured around a hill and headed south. Just after Pen-heol-Adam farm was a solar farm and we decided to stop for lunch as the views were good and a comfortable bank beckoned. A tar macadam track took us through the centre of the vast solar farm and we noticed little hatches in the strong metal fencing for letting small animals through, though there was evidence that they just burrowed under it wherever they wished.

On reaching Hendai farm we headed across farmland, towards LLancaiach Fawr, and encountered our first real mud of the day (the stuff that clings to your boots and makes them heavy). An amazing tree had a strange shape and a ladder of fungus grew on its trunk. Crossing the road at Llancaiach Fawr we headed to Llancaiach village and re-entered the Taff Bargoed Park following the coal seams which we had seen a couple of months ago.

Eight miles walked and an 800ft climb we felt extremely fortunate to have had excellent paths and a dry day. Map 166

 

Govilon

We set off from Wenvoe on a misty morning and were pleased that it brightened up as we drove north of the M4 towards Abergavenny. Parking near the tramway at Govilon, we started out in sunshine and soon passed Govilon station, now a private house but decorated with railway memorabilia – including London Midland and Scottish railway company signage, dated August 1924, promising a forty shilling penalty for trespass.

Soon we moved onto farmland heading generally south. The fields were full of ewes with their lambs and overhead we spotted two buzzards and a kite.

Climbing steadily towards the Blorenge we took a track passing Garn ddyrys farm and leading to a road where we found an imitation blue plaque for the farm attached to a stone. Crossing the road we took a footpath which contoured around the north of the Blorenge. This wide grassy track degenerated to a narrow rough path as we passed close to woodland. Large machinery was clearing some of the trees and loading huge tree trunks onto the back of trailers.

Lunch was taken on a comfortable slope above the wood with the sun beating on our backs for the first time this year.

Continuing we could see Sugarloaf and later Skirrid in the distance. After Pen y Craig farm we followed a stream downhill through Glebe wood to the Brecon and Monmouth canal at Llanfoist. A sign at the bottom stated ‘access to the towpath is only through the tunnel’. The sound of thundering water passing through this tunnel was somewhat off putting, especially as the ground looked really wet. Entering we found the tunnel was a good height and totally safe, the water flowing in a separate channel. Emerging we could see Abergavenny ahead of us. Now we were to take a gentle stroll along the canal back to Govilon to complete the walk. But we were disappointed to find that the towpath was closed for embankment repair between Llanfoist and Govilon. Luckily the tramway was nearby so we were able to follow that back to Govilon. Once again we spotted birds of prey soaring above us and passed a wharf with a number of boats.

We drove to the Horseshoe Inn, Mamhilad for refreshment and enjoyed sitting in the sunshine and watching sheep on the hillside. A glorious day, with lots of spring flowers and a lovely walk covering 7miles and 1100ft climb. Map OL13

 

 

 

John Sheen and Farming in Cameroon

 A talk by John Sheen

Our meetings continued with a talk by John Sheen with the very intriguing title “Five Boys and a Pasty”. It was even more puzzling when John produced several gift bags which were obviously going to play a part in his talk.

For most of his working life John had been a teacher and then an Education Officer in Cwmbran. During this time he had been very active in local theatrical societies and so when he retired from education he spent a couple of years as the manager of the Dolman Theatre in Newport. While at the theatre he was asked by a local Probus group to give a talk and not having a clue what to talk about he decided that he would speak about his childhood. This was the talk we were about to hear and to date it has been delivered some 286 times to a variety of local groups in South Wales.

John was born in 1947 and considers himself to be one of the “lucky generation” or alternatively the “sandwich generation” i.e. those caught between caring for parents and grandchildren. John described his post-war childhood living in Port Talbot in the words of Bill Bryson as “radiantly unsophisticated” as those were the days without a car, fridge and credit cards.

Friday night was traditionally bath night when a dose of Syrup of Figs was also administered. Other memories were sweet rationing, which ended in 1953, liberty bodices,darning socks and turning of worn collars. The front parlour was kept for special occasions such as funerals and Christmas. Some of the remedies that were used such as Friars Balsam, Goose Grease and Gentian Violet were remembered by some of the group. As a special treat John was allowed a bar of Five Boys Chocolate (used as part of the title for the talk).

School day memories included Daps ( Dunlop All Purpose Shoe), Ladybird books which kept their price at 2/6p for many years and the First Aid in English used for the 11plus. Other school memories were the milk and orange juice and the savings stamps one could buy.

The 1950’s were eventful years and John remembered the announcement of the Kings death, the conquering of Mt. Everest and the coronation (pasties were provided for the party), Roger Bannister and the 4 minute mile and the Empire Games.

Other highlights of John’s childhood were day trips to Barry Island and Weston-super-Mare, the Corona man bringing bottles of Dandelion and Burdock and television programmes such as Andy Pandy, Mr Pastry, What’s My Line and Archie Andrews – the ventriloquist on the radio. John then demonstrated one of his favourite childhood toys the Magic Robot. Childhood finally ended when John moved from short to long trousers.

Everyone really enjoyed this talk which was

delivered so professionally which is not surprising as John has the theatre in his genes – his nephew is the actor Michael Sheen and his daughter Caroline has played in musicals in the West End. We hope that John will visit us again with another of his talks.

 

Helen Joy – ‘ Food for prosperity’

On the 10 th April we welcomed back Helen Joy who was going to talk about her experiences in local radio. However, she introduced us instead to ‘ Food for prosperity’ which is a project based in Cameroon in Africa. Through her radio work and her membership of Glamorgan Small Holders Association, Helen had been introduced to Carol Adams who is in charge of the project in Cameroon. The aim of the project is to help the people there to improve their farming and make the most of what they produce.

Helen brought Maurice Price with her. He is a fellow member of the Glamorgan Small Holders Association and he was persuaded by Helen and Carol to join five other people and go to Cameroon. His speciality is animal husbandry and the others comprised an electrician, and experts in charcuterie and preserving fruit and vegetables. They took a lot of cooking materials and what not. It was a special experience for Maurice as he had never been abroad or even on holiday before.

He gave us a detailed picture of life in Cameroon. The people are poor but make the most of what they have, turning old cars into pots and pans and using spare parts for whatever they can. Motorbikes are used to carry everything from the family to coffins!

He was impressed with the way the farmers looked after their pigs.Labour is cheap so farming tends to be by hand and not mechanised. They could produce meat but did not know how to butcher into different cuts and that was what one of the group showed them and another held classes teaching people how to preserve fruit and make jam.

Helen gave reports of their work on her radio programme. It is hoped that more people will go out to Cameroon to continue this work. More needs to be done to improve building and health care. At the moment, life expectancy there is 57.

Maurice enjoyed his first trip abroad especially as he was upgraded to first class on the way back! He has happy memories of hospitable people- he even had marriage proposals!

 

 

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