Category: Community Groups

Llanbradach and Ystrad Mynach

Llanbradach and Ystrad Mynach

We started in Llanbradach on a cloudy morning, after a night of thunderstorms, but the forecast was for a dry day. We crossed the railway and climbed through the woods to the west of Llanbradach. On the side of the path were large benches made from stone, placed there by the Llanbradach Community Council some of them having dedications to late council members.

As we climbed further a mist started to surround us and then we entered the clouds. Fir trees, soaked from heavy rain last night, edged the path and brushed against us as we walked. Even though we wore gaiters, trouser legs were soon wet and to some extent our arms. Still it was pleasant to walk in the mist in warm weather.

Emerging onto the open common we found rubbish dumped in many places spoiling the area. A field of cows was invisible until we were very close to them but plants were clear – a lovely rowan in full bloom, and gorgeous yellow gorse and irises.

A wide track was packed with stones and after we’d walked a while we heard a lorry coming – it was bringing hardcore up the track and dumping it to lengthen the reinforced section.

Until now we had resisted putting on our waterproofs as we were sure the weather was improving and we’d soon dry out but suddenly the rain fell heavily so we put jackets on. Our route headed northwest across Nant Cwm Sarn. To the east there were slag heaps appearing and disappearing in the gloom, and then the clouds parted a little and we could see a pair of pyramid shaped hills.

The rain hadn’t eased off as we continued across the moor following a wall in the hope it would protect us a little. Water had begun to trickle inside gaiters and down into our boots as the wind blew harder. It was time to accept that the weather was set for the day and don our waterproof trousers.

Our path continued through a high sided green lane so we decided to stop and eat lunch while we had some shelter from the elements. We had passed our highest point of the day and looked forward to less climbing in the second half of the walk as we continued east towards Ystrad Mynach and then down the Rhymney valley back towards Llanbradach.

Unfortunately, the footpath down the valley was severely overgrown with brambles and bracken and after making slow progress we decided to try and climb above the blockage. This took a while but proved to be a good decision. We approached another green lane, access was again difficult but we climbed down onto it, now our way was clear and we made good time back to Llanbradach. At last we were below the cloud and could see the river in the valley and lakes which looked like fishing ponds.

We had walked 9 miles and climbed 1200ft. Apart from the overgrown stretch it was a good walk but the views, which would have been good, were totally hidden by the clouds an unlucky day but still very enjoyable.

 

 

 

MAX BOYCE ONLY KNEW HALF THE STORY..

MAX BOYCE ONLY KNEW HALF THE STORY..

BBC Wales has recently started showing a series of programmes about Wales in the 1990’s and I wondered whether it might be of interest to relate some of my own experiences of working in Human Resources (H.R) during that period?

You might remember the Wales Development Agency and how it set out to attract Japanese investment into the Valleys during the 90’s? In fact, Max Boyce referred to it in one of his songs: “…….me Welsh-speaking Japanee”?

At the time, it was highly desirable to be able to add employment by a Japanese company to your c.v and I was lucky enough (as I thought then) to be recruited by a Japanese investor setting up a “green field” manufacturing operation in the Gwent Valleys. I was the first Brit they had employed and it turned out to be a steep learning curve and culture shock for all concerned.

I’ll skip over the initial period of working from serviced offices in Cathedral Road and the commissioning, recruitment, training and general liaison with everyone from the Secretary of State for Wales to the local milkman and just list some of the idiosyncrasies which you might find thought-provoking…….

The four Japanese who had been seconded to the U.K to set up the operation had obviously not had any briefing about British culture or working methods and were expecting an autocratic management style to work as well in Wales as it did in Japan. What they had not expected was the wit and wiliness of the Welsh workforce, coming, as they did, from a steel-working area. This caused endless frustration and annoyance to all concerned at the time, but with hindsight was akin to being part of a Laurel & Hardy film.

The Japanese M.D spoke no English (we employed a dedicated interpreter and bought English/Japanese dictionaries to point to) and was about 5’ 4” tall – with all the characteristics usually attributed to a “little man”. These are some of his best moments:

It was expected that the workforce would wear uniforms of white jacket and trousers and a navy blue baseball cap. This requirement was honoured more in the breach than in the observance and caused the M.D endless concern. However, we “early joiners” were told that safety footwear was not to be worn until the rest of the uniforms had been supplied. The baseball caps were to be made of the cheapest available material but managers should require the workforce to wear them to protect their heads.

British employees were only to use the Conference room for meetings if they used the end without windows as the part with windows was only for use by the Japanese. Similarly, visitors must be seated with their backs to the windows.

The Security Company were not allowed to have a Master key as they could not be trusted and the (British) Engineering Manager –a keyholder for day-to-day security – was not allowed on site at weekends to perform any maintenance work unless a Japanese person was also present.

Individual elements of a cleaning contract were approved by the M.D but, once consolidated into a single document were rejected as being too expensive. In a similar episode, the M.D personally negotiated rates with a distribution company. Two months later, the British Production Manager was required to find savings on these rates. The Production Manager was not allowed to put machinery in the front 15 metres of the shopfloor so that the M.D could stand at the front to see if everyone was working. On another occasion, the M.D was caught hiding in a cubicle of the Ladies toilet as he was checking that nobody was loitering after their lunch break.

The H.R function was expected to “police” all this despite having been told that employees wishing to learn to use company computer spreadsheets (as part of their job) could do so after normal working hours but without pay. The Travel policy, outlining daily subsistence allowances was to be kept secret and a training course for machine operators on a new piece of prime manufacturing equipment (which cost £80,000 including training) was vetoed as hotel costs for the two trainees was prohibitive. I was actually told “we do not provide training as we are not a charity”.

Perhaps the most notable idiosyncrasy – and the one which finally convinced me that it was time to move on – was the edict that in order to reduce the number of defects detected in parts supplied by the Japanese parent company they were no longer to be checked.

The other side of the coin, however, was the gently subversive attitude of the Welsh workforce. By and large these alien requirements (in every sense) were met with tolerance and amusement and the rather bombastic approach of the M.D seemed to invoke what can only be imagined as being similar to the “blitz spirit”. The highlight was possibly the occasion on which the M.D – who had refused to grit the car park due to the expense involved – slipped on the ice and fell heavily. This caused considerable merriment and a very un-PC voice was heard to mutter “there’s a nip in the air this morning”

It was always “good value” to listen to the Valley employees in the canteen. At the time, John West were running a television advert featuring a cartoon bear. The (deadpan) conversation went:

Employee A: Did you know that Keith thinks the John West bear is real?

Employee B: No. Where is Keith, anyway?

Employee A: Writing to Santa

Other “gems” included:

When a flock of sheep wandered onto the site: “That’s Ceri’s girlfriend looking for him”

I had to drive home. I was too drunk to walk

John has had an outside toilet built for his new house. He thought it would be nice in the summer

“XYZ Ltd” has got 140,000 employees”. Pause. “Think of the queue in the canteen”

This was more than 20 years ago, now – but I’d be prepared to bet that the BBC’s “Wales in the 90’s” series doesn’t tell this side of the story….

 

 

 

July Walks Programme

 

 

JULY WALKS

Saturday 1st July:- Circumnavigation of Partishow Hill, 7½ mile walk. Ian (OL13)

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Thursday 6th July:- Circular walk based around Castell Coch, approx. 5 miles. Bert (151)

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Saturday 8th July:- Afan Argoed A 7½ mile walk. V’Iain (166)

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Saturday 15th July:- Goodrich. 8 miles. Ian. (OL14)

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Saturday 22nd July:- The Skirrid and eastward. Approx. 7.5 miles. V’Iain (OL13)

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Saturday 29th July

Resolven, Neath Valley 9 miles. Ian (165/166)

 

 

 

Wenvoe

The progress of Wenvoe


I took a stroll the other day,
And passing Wenvoe on my way
Was pleased to see such progress made,
As it is always good for trade.
I mean the village is so changed,
New houses built and well arranged,
The gardens and the walks so clean,
Which proves that some one lives within.
Ten years ago this village look'd dilapidated,
And men forsook the place,
And went to other soil
To get their bread by honest toil.
But now its progress is so great,
New houses built in every street,
That every man can work who will
According to his strength and skill.
Tis quite a treat for those who ride,
In brakes and traps to the seaside,
To pass this place, with meadows fair,
And peace and beauty everywhere.
The Church is getting much too small
To seat the people when they all
Come as they ought on Sunday there,
To spend the time in praise and prayer.
The tower is low, it has no pride,
But scaffolding now stands by its side,
And workmen soon will point its face
And raise its head to grace the place.


                  J.B.


Barry Dock News, 21st July 1893

 

 

Reflecting on the change and development of Wenvoe since 1893 you may wish to consider the poem's relevance to the village as it is today

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May Report

WI Everyone was welcomed to our meeting by the president especially Federation Chairman Ann Davis and Federation Secretary June Humphry. Judith Jessop came as a visitor and we hope she will join us again soon. Details were given of our Table Top Sale. The following events are as follows – Culverhouse Cross WI fashion show, Link meeting at Wenvoe on 16 June and the charity tea party on 14 July. May has been Resolution Month and members present voted unanimously to support this year’s resolutions – alleviating loneliness and keeping microplastic fibres out of our oceans. Presentations were received from our secretary, treasurer and president and we would like to thank Mike Flynn for auditing our accounts again this year. The committee for 2017 – 2018 is as follows –President, Madeleine Rees, Vice President, Margaret Morant, Secretary, Pam Ewington,Treasurer,June Davis. Committee members are Maria Williams, Janet Young and Jayne Aust. The evening concluded with humorous stories from Ann Davis.
Our next meeting is on 1st June at the Church Hall at 7pm, when our speaker will be Viv Wigmore who will be speaking of her “Journey in Jewellery Making” Visitors are welcome.

All The Light We Cannot see” by Anthony Doerr

All The Light We Cannot see” by Anthony Doerr 

"This is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer whose sentences never fail to thrall" The Guardian.

Remarkably our whole group concurred with this quotation and during our discussion we ran out of superlatives to describe this brilliantly written book. The story is set in Nazi Germany where we follow the story of Werner Pfenning during his years in an orphanage with his sister Jutta and subsequently, having displayed exceptional talent for wiring electronics Werner wins a place at an elite but brutal academy for the training of The Hitler Youth. It is at the academy that he befriends Frederick who as a gentle character is bullied and finally brutalised.

Doerr cleverly intertwines Werner’s life with the story of a blind girl, Marie — Laure and her father, who live originally in Paris from where during the Nazi Occupation they flee to her uncle’s home in Saint Malo. Her father is deported to a work camp in Germany and she is left behind during the intense bombing of Saint Malo following the D Day landings. Doerr’s commitment to detail to the travails of a blind youngster surviving the difficulties of relocating to a new area is quite remarkable and the group felt that her character gave us an insight into life for so many people in Europe in the later stages of the Second World War. It is in Saint Malo that the paths of the two main characters collide as they both struggle to survive the devastation of the war.

The only detrimental part of the story was Doerr’s over use of Americanisms and perhaps owing to an overuse of adjectives the book may be over long. Ten years in the writing this book deserved to win The Pulitzer Prize and having awarded the book ten out of ten we would recommend it as a real page turner.

As usual we concluded our meeting with great hospitality and superb ginger cake!

May Meetings

 

For our last meeting of the session we were delighted to welcome one of our members, Ginny Golding, as a speaker. Ginny’s talk was about her time in the police force during the 1960’s and 70’s. It had not been her intention to go into the police and she actually applied as a dare ! When she applied to Cardiff City police at the age of 20 there were 10 applicants who were whittled down to two – and she got the job. The other applicant who failed at that time subsequently became the Chief Constable of Gwent.

She described her initial training in an old army barracks in Ryton on Dunnmore as just being like in the army complete with lots of marching.

Ginny returned to Cardiff as WPC19 complete in a uniform in which she as a dead ringer for Joyce Grenfell .For the next 18 months there were parades and inspections at 6.45 each morning. She spoke of being on point duty at Kingsway in Cardiff and as there were no radios at that time a flashing light on a pillar would indicate that they were needed back at the station. Her one claim to fame at this time was that she was the first officer to drive to drive the new Panda Car in Cardiff in May 1968 and her photograph was published in the Western Mail.

She was fortunate to have a varied career and after a spell with the traffic department went to Preston to the detective training school and then spent an enjoyable three years in Canton putting her training into practise.

The next training was in the use of firearms which led to a period in protection of well known people including James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher and Princess Margaret. The downside of this period included interviewing people wanting British Citizenship. This took hours and was extremely boring.

Finally Ginny described her period in Special Branch which involved long periods away from home where she was not allowed to even tell her husband of her whereabouts. This obviously put a great strain on her relationship with her husband so after much soul searching she gave up her career in the police which had spanned 16 years.

Her talk was interspersed with anecdotes, the odd case history and one thing was clear that the “ political correctness” of today did not exist then !. She agreed that it’s a different world nowadays and she is not sure she would enjoy a life in todays police force.

I hope all our members have enjoyed this session and our thanks go to Irene for once again sorting out such a varied programme.

Our next meeting will be on September 19th – this will be the AGM followed by nibbles etc and everyone can catch up on what we all hope will be a wonderful summer.

Wentwood Forest & Tretower

Parc Seymour and Wentwood Forest

Today our walk took us from Parc Seymour to Wentwood northeast of Newport.

There was a cold wind and it felt like winter again. But there’s only one word to describe this walk ‘Bluebells‘! We headed southeast and on the road passed a neat woodland, a donkey and a group of beautiful horses. Then a little later we spotted a couple of shire horses ploughing in a field of bluebells. Now we followed the lane northeast and a field of bluebells appeared on our right stretching into the distance. We couldn’t help but stop and take photos and Misty (a dog) frolicked. We walked amongst them for ages, they were so thick that even the lane was covered in them and we were unable to walk without treading on them. We emerged into woodland which had been cut back hard and replanted.

Heading west we passed Hill farm and then went northwest towards Cross Green. Now picking a zigzag trail travelling generally westwards through Wentwood forest.

We soon found a tree known as the ‘Curly Oak’ an old tree which has split down the middle so that you can walk through its trunk.

The woodland was filled with English bluebells so that we were surrounded. Trees of beech and oak were in new leaf and the lime green and yellowy tones provided a perfect counterfoil to the purple blue of the bluebells. We just drank the colour in, wonderful. Unfortunately because it was cold there was little scent from the bluebells, just a waft now and again.

We came down alongside Bertholau Graig in a southerly direction and as we came out of the wood could see the Bristol Channel in the distance. The colours of the trees here were reminiscent of autumn there was so much yellow. Our route now travelled west until we met a road where we turned south.

We passed an old farmhouse with a dilapidated VW van and as we continued saw at least 20 abandoned old cars and farm vehicles on the property. We entered a large field where a herd of bullocks took some interest in Misty but eventually ran off uphill. Back at Parc Seymour we saw 2 carved wooden chairs on the green one dedicated to the AD and the other AD2000.

We had walked 8½miles and 1100ft. Map 152/OL14

Tretower

We started at the Cadw site in Tretower on a lovely Spring morning.

Tretower is the site of a medieval fortified manor house and castle. The Picards and Vaughans were influential Welsh families who created sumptuous accommodation reflecting their high status as Welsh gentry. The Vaughans left in the 18thC and Tretower Court became a working farm. It is an interesting site and Cadw have created a suite of rooms as they may have been in 1470.

Tretower is on the Agincourt Wales trail which tells the story of the people and places across the region that played a role in Henry V’s famous victory. It starts at Trecastle and visits Brecon, Tretower, Abergavenny, Raglan, Monmouth and St Briavels before ending at Caldicot.

Having seen Table mountain and Sugarloaf in the distance we set off walking south east towards Cwm-gu and then northeast to Cwm. We were soon high over Tretower and had an excellent view of the castle.

On the moor land we followed the Beacons Way and soon realised why it’s so called as we spotted Pen y Fan and its neighbours to the west. After reaching Cwm we headed generally northeast towards Llewenau Draw and Llewenau.

We were delighted to hear a cuckoo at 3 separate times and then spotted it flying across the valley, confirmed as the sound of its call came from behind us now. Unusually the hawthorn trees in this area had mistletoe growing on them.

A flock of sheep (mostly ewes with their lambs) were grazing ahead of us on the path and as we arrived they kept moving ahead of us despite the fact that there was a large open hillside above. Eventually most of them moved to the side but still some continued until we stopped for lunch when they ‘gratefully‘ stopped for a good munch of the grass.

 

 

At lunch we sat on the hillside and gazed at the vast range of mountains around us. Then we noticed a large bird swoop into the field below; it had a distinctive red glow and black markings on its wings; the forked tail confirmed that it was a red kite. We watched as it swooped to ground level and back up again, all the time working its way down the valley. Wow!

Continuing towards Llewenau we could see the Dragonsback mountain ahead of us and as we got closer spotted the iron hill fort which forms the dragon’s head. We turned southwest towards Cil-helyg.

This walk had been designed with the aim of visiting an ancient oak tree which had been found last year. According to the ancient register of trees it is possibly the oldest in South Wales. Now as we walked along a country lane most of us walked straight past it while distracted by a horse in the opposite field. The tree is huge (its trunk must have a diameter of about 12ft) and awe inspiring.

At Cil-helyg we turned north for a while before heading towards Cwmdu and picking up a path leading in a generally southerly direction towards Tretower.

What a wonderful walk full of the awe which nature inspires.

The walk was 7.5miles and 1400ft. Map OL13

June Walks Programme

Thursday 1st June

Coastal walk from Ogmore approx. 5 miles. Bert

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Saturday 3rd June

Hendryd Falls & Dyffryn Cellwen. A 7½ mile walk Ian (OL12)

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Saturday 10th June

Garway Hill. An 8 mile walk following the Herefordshire Trail for the majority of the walk. Ian (189)

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Saturday 17th June

Pen-y-fan Pond and a section of Sirhowy Valley walk. 7 miles. V’Iain (166)

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Saturday 24th June

The Llanfrynach Horseshoe, A 10mile walk. . Ian (OL13)

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