Category: Community Groups

The Seamstress

 

by Maria Duenas

Aged 12, Sira Quiroga was apprenticed to a Madrid dressmaker. As she masters the seamstresses’s art, her life seems to be clearly mapped out – until she falls passionately in love and flees with her seductive lover. But in Morocco she is betrayed and left penniless. As Civil War engulfs Spain, Sira finds that she cannot return and so turns to her one true skill – and sews beautiful clothes for the expat elite and their German friends. With Europe rumbling towards war, Sira is lured back to Franco’s Nazi friendly Spain. She is drawn into the shadowy world of espionage, intrigue and betrayal.

Opinion was unanimous on five counts – the writing was naïve, the story was predictable, overlong, disjointed (could have been 2 separate stories) and totally implausible when Sira progressed without a qualm from seamstress to spy.

There were three plus points – it was clever the way the story interwove real characters with fictional ones, the historical research was detailed and enhanced the story, it was a page turner.

Mixed feelings, not one of our better reads. A few enjoyed it and would recommend it as an easy read. Most of us didn’t. The score was a 6.

July Meeting

At our July meeting we were saddened by the news that Olwen had passed away earlier that day. She had been a good and faithful member of our institute for many years but due to ill health had been unable to continue with her membership for some time and she has been sorely missed. We held a minute’s silence in her memory.

Viv Truran was our speaker for the meeting and she brought along some items for us to try to guess their age and value. Included was a cup and saucer from 1840 and a Christian Dior brooch from 1960. We enjoyed the challenge. On times we were quite close and sometimes our estimations were way out.

WI business began with feedback from our successful tea party. This was followed by details of forthcoming events-coffee morning hosted by Barry Highlight WI on Tuesday 2nd August and a harvest supper with Culverhouse Cross institute on the 10th October.

There was enthusiastic discussion regarding the opportunity of owning a banner for our institute. More details will be available at the next meeting.

To end the meeting we all enjoyed strawberries and cream .Raffle winner-Lyn.

No meeting in August but some members will be joining Dinas Powys on the 2nd and 22nd August.

NB All future meetings, unless otherwise stated will take place at the Church Hall.

At our next meeting on 1st September and Elin Jones from Ty Hapus, the day centre in Barry, which gives support to people living with dementia.

Wenvoe Castle

Wenvoe has a castle which is over 600 years old; it is not really a typical castle but rather a very grand house with some architectural features which gave it the appearance of a castle. It is an important and historic building and something of which we can be proud. The first record of a castle in Wenvoe was in the 1500’s and that was somewhere to the west of St Mary’s church, possibly in the area of Church Rise. There is no further information about that early fortification, though at the time it was recorded as being “badly decayed”. It is said that it was destroyed by Owain Glyndwr.

Fast forward a couple of hundred years to 1762 when a survey of the estate of the Thomas family showed a floor plan of a “long rambling building of irregular design” and that is where Wenvoe Castle Golf Club is located. One writer at the time wrote that “Wenvoe Castle is not at all worth seeing!”.

The Thomas family were leading gentry in the county for over 150 years. A family with a chequered history which at first amassed wealth and significance, but as often happens this turned from affluence to extravagance. After ambitions of being Members of Parliament and grand landscapers they were forced to sell off parts of the estate to cover their losses.

 

AUG castle

By 1769 the family could not carry on and the estate was put up for sale. It was finally sold in 1774 toMr Peter Birt for £14.000. Mr Birt had made his fortune from coal and canals in Yorkshire and had made enemies there among the woollen traders, so he felt it was time to move to pastures new.

In 1776 Peter Birt engaged stone masons and labourers and demolished the Thomas mansion, rebuilding in the same place a large mansion house with castellated battlements. The architect for this was Robert Adam. Adam was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), the country's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. Much of the original stone from the Thomas’ mansion was used in the new building but additional Bath stone was brought in from Cardiff docks. At one stage over 30 masons were engaged on the building. By the end of 1776 the roof was complete but the interior was so grand that it was not finished ten years later.

The castle has been variously described as “one of the finest houses standing anywhere in Wales” while another said it was “an extremely large but uninspired castellated mansion”. In appearance it had a long three storey south front. On either side there was a long low wing ending in a three storey pavilion with a smaller two story pavilion half way along each wing. The entrance was on the North side, facing Wenvoe village.

Over the years the Birt family married into the Jenner family and so the estate came into the hands of Robert Jenner in 1800. We know that in 1887 Mrs Laura Jenner, the widow of Robert Jenner was living in the Castle and she employed a large staff for a single lady. The family were rich because they derived a royalty, or income, from all the coal passing by train through their lands between 1890 and 1920. In the early 1900s the estate employed ten labourers, seven gardeners and a further twenty three beaters, quarrymen, masons and painters. In 1903 Mrs Jenner organised an outing for the estate workers and eighty people went to Bristol from Wenvoe station to visit Bristol Zoo.

The castle was mainly destroyed by a serious fire in 1910 and the remaining building was demolished in 1930. All that survives is the east pavilion together with the stable block, which is attributed not to Adam but to Henry Holland an architect who was working at Cardiff Castle in the late 1770’s.

1n 1936 Wenvoe Castle Golf Club opened, but during the war much of the golf course was ploughed to produce cereal crops, while the Club house became an officer’s mess. Since the war the golf Club has flourished and the Club Secretary Nicola Sims welcomes new members, especially from the village.

Pontneddfechan and Penderyn

We started from Craig y Ddinas a towering stone wall which translates as ‘Fortress Rock’. The car park was busy and groups of adventurers were donning wet suits and crash helmets ready for ‘gorge walking’ activities in this area famous for its beautiful waterfalls.

We kept to the southern side of the Afon Mellte as we set off and stayed on the lower path so that we could enjoy the sights and sounds of the teeming water below us. The valley was strewn with bluebells, was sheltered from any wind and felt warm even though the day was fresh.

After a short while we came to a bridge, with an excellent view of the river which led to the Gunpowder works. The Glyn-Neath Gunpowder Works, or Powder Mills, were established in 1857 to produce blasting powder (known as black powder) for use in coal mining and limestone quarrying. The works operated until 1931. It may seem strange to place such a factory in a steep valley but the location was actually well suited to the dangerous process of manufacturing gunpowder.

The site was large and remote, stretching over a mile and a half along the north bank of the River Mellte, with room to create plenty of space between each factory building to ensure that any explosions were localized. Safety was paramount; employees at the works wore leather slippers fastened with wooden pegs over their shoes and boots. Trousers were not allowed pockets or turn-ups to prevent grit to be carried into the works in case it caused sparks.

The river provided energy to turn waterwheels etc. and the raw materials required were sourced in the vicinity and moved upriver on a tram road. This tram road is used today as a level footpath, ‘The Powder Trail’ allowing visitors to explore the remains of the works.

Moving back across the bridge we climbed out of the valley and continued upriver until we arrived above the huge waterfall which is Sgwyd yr Eira – ‘fall of snow’.

We descended the steep and uneven path and a few people walked behind the waterfall to look at the world through a wall of water, very refreshing and exciting. The space behind the waterfall has been created by water eroding the soft rock behind it and there may be loose rocks so it isn’t advisable to stay too long.

As we came to the head of the valley we heard our first cuckoo of the year and as we emerged into open countryside its call became loud and clear. Then the terrain changed and we found ourselves stepping across tussocks in the moor trying not to dip into any of the waterlogged areas or turn an ankle (boots really earn their keep at times like these) but also enjoying some gentle climbing and the sunshine.

After a while we found ourselves in a very boggy area and although most of the group successfully negotiated it someone at the back (yours truly) stepped on a tussock which promptly descended at a rate of knots leaving her with one leg up to the knee in brackish water, and falling forward onto the peaty bog. A nearby friend quickly grabbed her arm and helped her out, one leg now soaking wet from knee to toes and the other knee soaked. As the sun was hot the trousers were soon drying.

The path was easier near Penderyn, although tempted to stop, we walked past the Tavern Llew Goch and arrived at St Cynog’s church. It has a distinctive weather vane that looked like a peacock but on closer inspection is a cockerel.

#a JUNE W1 IMG_4864Lunch was in a nearby field and we could hear a peacock calling. Lunch took a little longer than usual as a certain person changed into spare socks (carried for years but never used before) and spread various items out to dry in the sun. It was a very pleasant spot and our view splendid.

We were now on the final leg of the walk going generally west. Our route took us around Penderyn resevoir and through Trebanog Isaf. Then we came across a bunkhouse with a tap for people to wash their bicycles and next to it a brilliant gate made from old bicycles.

After crossing a very steep gully, with slippery stone – a challenge for many of us, once again helped by friends- and an open area we made our way back to arrive at Craig y Ddinas once more.

A lovely day’s walking, though a bit wet underfoot at times we clocked up 8 miles and 1500ft.

Tuesday Group – Police and Crime Commissioner

There was a change in our programme for our final meeting of the session and instead of the AGM we had a talk from Mike Baker who, at the time, was a candidate for the post of Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales.

Mike was a serving police officer for nearly 30 years taking early retirement because of a spinal injury.He attended university in his spare time gaining a business degree at UWIC followed by a post graduate diploma in law and then qualified as a barrister at Cardiff University. He later qualified as a solicitor and now practices in Cardiff.

As a police officer he was involved in community groups in both Cardiff and the Rhondda and then as a lawyer dealt directly with representatives of the courts, the Probation Service, Crown Prosecution Service and the Victim Support Agency.

Mike then clarified for us the role of the Police and Crime Commissioner, a topic of which we had very little knowledge. These duties include having responsibility to hold the police to account on behalf of the public. This means holding the Chief Constable to account for the performance of the Force Area’s Officers and staff. He would also provide a link between the police and communities, working to turn the desires and ambitions of the public in terms of policing and crime reduction into action.

The Police and Crime Commissioner receives all the funding relating to policing and reducing crime and in consultation with the Chief Constable is responsible for how it is spent, He must also set strategic direction and aims for the police through the Police and Crime Plan. He can also hire and fire the Chief Constable when necessary as long as the relevant legal requirements are met.

Wider responsibilities include responsibility for reducing crime and a duty to deliver better value for money and improve the effectiveness of the police. A lively question and answer session followed and by the end the group felt that they had a much better understanding of the role of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

At the election two days later, Alun Michael was chosen to be the Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales.

Leisure Group

On April 20th, Mr. Philip Davies, who has had a lifelong experience in Amateur Dramatics, gave us an interesting talk on the many things that go wrong on stage, such as lights that don’t switch on, and props not where they should be, and the way the actors have coped with the situations.

Margaret called Bingo for us again on the 27th, and on May 4th, Mr. Anthony Walton, talked to us about "The Birds in our Gardens".We saw slides of many of our native birds, some of which are, sadly, in decline.

This was followed on May 11th with a Beetle Drive, which was won by Shirley. We have quite a busy June programme, commencing on the 1st with a return visit by Pam and Cled Lewis, who will recall their holiday in Namibia. This is followed on June 8th by a talk, with slides, by Mr. Alan Salisbury about "The Durango & Silverton Railroad in the Rockies.

We will celebrate the Queen's birthday on June 15th, and on June 22nd Mr. Peter Finch will give us a talk on "Edging the Estuary". Lastly on 29th June Mrs Polly Davies will talk on Calamity Jane.

As always new members and visitors are welcome.

Pure by Andrew Miller

This book is based on fact.

"A young man of humble background, Jean-Baptiste Baratte, is ordered to exhume the vast and ancient cemetery of Les Innocents in the poor Parisian quarter of Les Halles, and demolish the church. No one knows how many bodies are buried there – it is claimed that during one outbreak of the plague the graveyard received 50,000 in less than a month – but it has recently burst its banks, poisoning the city and spreading "moral disturbance".

Baratte finds that the stink of the dead dominate the quarter, fouling the air and tainting even the breath of those who live there. The vast smoke blackened church that presides over the graveyard obliterates the light. And yet as the young engineer begins the grisly excavations, he finds that the residents of this poor, labrynthine district have a powerful attachment to both.

The impending revolution hangs over the narrative like the blade of the guillotine to come."

Taken from a Guardian review

As you will have gathered not a book for the faint hearted.

A mixed reception of thoroughly enjoyed, quite enjoyed and not enjoyed at all. It did seem to us all that it was a weird, rather creepy subject.

We did agree that it was extremely well written with short, concise sentences. The descriptions were so good we felt that we could hear and smell the things he was describing, it was at once horrific and enthralling. The excavations were done by miners supervised by Jean and his friend who had both been miners. The descriptions of their work, the piles of bones, the transport of these bones to a quarry, the thought of all these men living in tents in the midst of all this- Ugh! The author had obviously done a lot of painstaking research.

There was a part where Jean was at Versailles and saw the elephant that the King had been given by the King of Siam. The writing about this was so well done and took you into the extremes of Paris and its environs at this time.

We discussed whether we would recommend this book to a friend – a difficult one due to the macabre subject. It did come out with a good score of 8.

March 2016

Everyone was welcomed to our March meeting including guests Val and Helen and members were reminded of  forthcoming events. These include Barry Highlight Link meeting – April 12th, our own Table Top Sale – May 14th,Culverhouse Cross Link meeting – June 6th and our Charity/Celebration Tea on June 9th.

We are saving items for the tombola stall at the table top sale and would be very grateful for donations. Glamorgan Federation has several interesting events coming up including the Council meeting at the Princess Royal Theatre, Port Talbot on May 10th and a summer meal with entertainment at Margam Park on June 23rd

Our speaker at our March meeting was Gwerfyl Gardner who gave an interesting and informative talk about William Goscombe John, 1860-1952.We were told of his early life in South Wales and of his connection with Llantryd in the Vale of Glamorgan where today there is a row of houses called “ Goscombe Place”.

William became a famous sculptor, having been educated at the South London School of Technical Art. His work is to be seen in many war memorials, including Port Sunlight, Lampeter, Penarth and Llandaff. He played a significant role in the New Sculpture and at the age of 14 he was working on the building of Cardiff Castle, carving architectural ornaments.

Although based in London his work in Wales underpinned his career and he actually designed the medals still awarded by the National Eisteddfod today.

Raffle winner was Janet. April’s speaker is Yvonne Rees and her talk is entitled “Going, Going, Gone” Visitors are always welcome.

Visit from The Royal Mint

We use coins everyday and don’t ever think about how they evolved or where they came from. Chris Barker, from the Royal Mint museum, came to talk to us about the history of the Royal Mint and started the story with the Celtic coin that was struck by a Celtic chief. This was not used as currency but as a means of showing off. This changed around 1880 when Alfred the Great struck coins with the name London in the form of a monogram on them.

For many centuries this penny was the only coin in circulation. One coin meant that giving change was difficult and they were literally cut in half or quarters for this purpose. Coinage production remained the same for centuries – simple basic methods were used with the coins being made by hand in many parts of the country.

In 1279 coin production was centralized into the Mint in the Tower of London and the first gold coins were produced which were meant to convey wealth and power. During the reign of Henry the Eighth, in a misguided attempt to raise money, the coinage was debased by adding silver and copper but was subsequently rectified by Elizabeth the first. 

By the Seventeenth Century machinery was introduced and screw presses and horse driven rolling mills were installed at the Royal Mint and the ancient method of striking coins by hand was finally abandoned. This meant that the portraits on coins were clearly defined and edge lettering and mulling were achieved. 1699 saw the appointment of Isaac Newton as Master of the Royal Mint where he remained until his death in 1727.

In order to equip the Royal Mint with up to date steam powered machinery, a purpose built facility was constructed at Tower Hill nearby and was in production by 1810.   In the 1920’s in a development which has shaped much of its subsequent history, the Royal Mint began seeking orders from overseas countries. This followed the establishment of an independent committee to examine new designs for coins, medals and seals.

By 1964 output exceeded 1000 million coins a year. 0n the 1st March 1966 the Government announced the decision to adopt a decimal system of currency. The task of striking hundreds of millions of decimal coins in readiness for decimalization in 1971, while at the same time not neglecting overseas customers, made the construction of a new mint essential. James Callahan was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time and the decision was made to relocate the Mint to Llantrisant and in 1968 the first coins were officially struck by the Queen.

In 1975, the last coin, a gold sovereign, was struck at Tower Hill and by 1980 the Tower Hill buildings were finally relinquished. The Royal Mint at Llantrisant is about to establish a visitors centre which should be open in May of this year and we are looking forward to a visit where we will be able to see some of the early coins that Chris showed us on the screen in his excellent power point presentation.   

Bargoed

We started the Bargoed walk in the Pengam area. Soon after starting, we came across a very tall sculpture in a small public garden. The 40ft statue, which is called the Lady of the Stream, was erected in 2009. It stands on a former ash-tip, which was reclaimed as a playground and then became rundown. The statue depicts a woman watching over children in the area, supposedly in reference to Pengam folklore of youngsters drowning in a stream.

Moving away from the town we crossed Gelli-Gaer Common with the usual grazing horses. It was a grey day and the environment quite bleak. Within the Capel Gwladys area, there are regular shaped mounds, which are variously described as marching camps or Roman Practice camps. The Roman army was in the area from 47AD – 113AD and used these camps regularly to practice making temporary fortified camps by digging ditches and making ramparts.

We continued in a generally northerly direction towards Pen-y-garreg farm and then Deri where we turned southeast. In Parc Cwm Darren we came upon a memorial stone ‘In memory of those whose lives were touched by the tragic events at the Darren Colliery on October 29th 1909’, below are listed the 27 names of those who died.

As we came down the valley, we followed a fast flowing stream; a bridge we crossed had a sign nearby ‘Caradoc’s bridge’. Caradoc was a Silurian leader who fought against the Roman occupation in Wales, but was eventually captured and taken to Rome. It is believed that this bridge near Deri has been called Caradoc’s bridge in his memory. The valley was steep sided and had layers of stone beside the watercourse. One area had some lovely Gorse bushes in full bloom.

1459597376[1]Approaching the built up area of Bargoed, a large viaduct towered over us with many arches, some people scrambled down a steep slope to reach its base while most of us detoured through the local streets to come down more gradually.

Our route now took us through a recently created woodland park – The Bargoed Woodland Park, which covers Bargoed, Britannia and Gilfach collieries. The country park has been created from barren waste ground left after the closure of the last mine in 1985. 90,000 new trees, 6500 bulbs and 8000 wild flowers have been planted.  This was once part of the largest colliery tip in Europe. LS Lowry immortalised it in his 1965 painting ‘Bargoed’. The Rhymney River flows through the park and after the winter rains it was in full flow, there were rapids in places and a dipper was spotted flitting across the rocks midstream. 

Coming closer to the town again a pretty stream ran next to the path and we passed under a modern road bridge with a stylish profile. Our final stretch took us alongside the river Rhymney through a quiet wooded valley to return to the cars.

Total distance covered was 8.75miles and the climb was 950ft.

Penperlleni

this walk was our first since meteorological spring began and it was certainly a lovely day, lots of sunshine with some cloud and not too cold. Basically it was a lovely gentle country walk with swathes of wild primroses in places.

The route took us south from Penperlleni towards Little Mill and almost immediately we saw our first lambs of the season.  Next we approached Cwm Hir, we wondered what awaited us (given its English pronunciation) but we walked through it without spotting anything of note.

Later there was an old metal, elaborate structure which carried a water course over a railway. From here we made our way to Glascoed and then towards Monkswood. We were now approaching the River Usk and as we passed through a field with a large flock of sheep an oldfashioned windmill could be seen in the distance. Lunch on the banks of the Usk was delightful in the sunshine with the fast flowing river very close.

Unfortunately we had to climb uphill straight after eating (always a challenge) but definitely worth it. Towards the end we passed a lane with a sign ‘No Parking  Entrance in use DAY and NIGHT’ – pretty impressive since the lane was blocked by a fallen tree.

We reached the cars and as we took off boots, the weather changed and we had a short flurry of sleet/hail, we had covered 7.25 miles and 900ft.

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