Category: Readers Articles of Interest

MONKNASH COASTGUARD ROCKET HOUSE

Just inland from the top of a precipitous Heritage Coast cliff near the village of Marcross in the Vale of Glamorgan there stands a small stone building with an almost semicircular stone flagged roof. One end of this building is completely open and faces the sea. It is yet another entity associated with shipping in the Bristol Channel.

As the title of this article suggests the building, which was constructed in the 1870s, was used to house the apparatus that could fire a thin rope to any ship in distress close to the shore in these hazardous waterways. If the mariners on such a vessel were to successfully receive the initial rope, then they would haul to themselves a thicker rope to which would be attached a breeches buoy to enable their rescue.

Rocket Houses became an essential part of the infrastructure of being able to effect rescues close to, or indeed on, lee shores which would have otherwise proved difficult for the life boats of the time.

The UK Coastguard Rocket Stations were strategically located along the coast to cover areas with high risk of shipwrecks and to provide timely assistance. There is some evidence that there was such a rocket station adjacent to the Watch House at the entrance to Barry Old Harbour. The equipment and techniques used evolved over time, but the primary goal remained the same: to save lives at sea

WHEN SEPTEMBER AND THE HUMBLE SPLIT PEA SAVED BRITAIN

September 1940 is arguably the most significant month in British history; when the tide turned in the Battle of Britain and Hitler’s plans to invade Britain during the Second World War were thwarted. The RAF victory over the Luftwaffe was famously ensured by our Spitfire planes and brave fighter pilots. A closer look leads to some surprising and fascinating insights.

The Spitfire was designed by R. J. Mitchell, who developed his expertise designing seaplanes to race in the Schneider Trophy competition. Mitchell never got to see how important his contribution was because he died of cancer in 1937 at the age of 42. Fast and manoeuvrable, the Mark V had a top speed of 369mph and could climb 20,000 feet in seven-and-a-half minutes, with a flight ceiling of 36,500 feet. All this was a tribute to the genius and ingenuity of the plane’s developers.

Amazingly, the humble split pea played a key role in the development of such an effective fighter. Flush riveting was used on the prototype Spitfire to ensure the smoothest possible surfaces and aerodynamic performance. However this proved difficult, expensive and time consuming in production. Thinking outside the box, engineers went to a local grocery and bought several bags of dried split peas and glued them on every flush rivet head to test the likely impact of using round head rivets. Unfortunately this reduced the Spitfire’s speed by around 22mph. Not giving up, they progressively scraped off the split peas to determine which flush rivets were most effective and where on the plane was it best to deploy them. The results were applied to production planes and with the various flush and round head rivets strategically placed, the speed and manoeuvrability of the planes was maximised.

Pilots were in many ways more important than the Spitfire planes. With the average life expectancy of a pilot at only four weeks and an urgent demand for new recruits, the RAF was forced to cut the training time from six months to just two weeks. Some recruits saw action with as little as nine hours experience. They included pilots of other nationalities, including Polish and Canadians. There were even a handful of American pilots, most notably Billy Fiske, a 29-year-old sportsman who had previously won a gold medal for bob sledding at the Winter Olympics.

The bravery of these pilots is legendary. Having lost both his legs early on in his RAF career, Douglas Bader re-trained, flying Spitfires and Hurricanes at RAF Duxford and re-entered the fray. One advantage that Bader had over his fellow fighter pilots in training was courtesy of his amputations. The high g-force experienced by pilots throughout combat often caused them to pass out as the blood was forced to drain from their brains and into their legs. Bader’s dual amputation meant that he didn’t lose as much blood to his lower extremities, allowing him to maintain blood pressure and stay conscious for longer. Promoted to wing commander he was credited with 22 aerial victories, over 10 shared and another 11 confirmed damaged enemy planes. Shot down over the French coast, he was captured and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner at Colditz until it was liberated in April 1945. He had been treated as something of a celebrity by his captors.

The Battle of Britain lasted from I July to 31 October. Other planes and factors, of course, played important roles in the battle. The development of radar for example, enabled the RAF to know when to scramble their pilots and get the Spitfires into the sky to defend London and the south east. However the contribution of the Spitfires and their pilots to our liberty cannot be overstated. Winston Churchill famously encapsulated this when he said ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.’

By the time it ended, 544 Fighter Command pilots had been killed in the Battle, many flying Spitfires. 808 Spitfires took part with 326 lost and 589 damaged. The official Luftwaffe losses for the Battle totalled 2071. Spitfires saw action all over the world and continued in service after the Second World War.

NEW HOUSING PROPOSAL

A proposal to construct 30 dwellings consisting of 1 bedroom flats and 2, 3 and 4 bedroom houses on land between the Wenvoe garage and Pugh’s garden centre is under consideration. No formal planning application has been submitted at present.

A new access to the garden centre would be constructed directly off the present Port Road/St Andrews Road roundabout and the present access would become part of the development site. Burdonshill access would remain.

Full details of the proposal can be viewed at www.asbriplanning.co.uk and search in the consultations for statutory pre-statutory consultation

WELSH TRADITIONS 5

Love Or Romance And Marriage

Arferion Caru A Phriodi.

Most of the traditions associated with love, or courtship, and marriage in Wales have unfortunately died out but one or two are still practised.

Traditionally, when a young man’s eye fell on a young woman, he would not always approach her himself. He might well send his friend to ask her if she were willing to walk out with him. If her response was positive, the next step was for the young man to go ‘knocking’ – that is, visiting her at her home. He would wait until the family had retired for the night before daring to begin ‘knocking’ – throwing gravel or small pebbles at her window to let her know he was outside. If the girl was willing, he would then climb a ladder and go into her room through the window. The young couple would then spend the night cuddling and canoodling, fully clothed, on the bed – but not in the bed! In English, the custom was known as ‘bundling’. In theory, there was no sex involved – but who knows what actually went on! The lad made sure he left before the family stirred in the morning. This tradition had died out by the end of the nineteenth Century – under the influence of the Reformers, who maintained that it gave the Welsh a bad name!

When a couple had agreed to become a couple, there were different ways to demonstrate their fidelity. In some parts of the country, the young man would send his sweetheart a selection of nuts. In other parts, he would send her a sprig of hawthorn which she would return to him if his feelings were reciprocated. If she refused his advances, she would send him a twig from a different tree. So you can appreciate how important it was that everyone knew their trees!

I suppose everyone is familiar with the ancient love spoon tradition – when young men, as part of their courtship, would carve their sweetheart a wooden spoon. At first, the spoons were very plain and simple – but by the end of the Nineteenth Century, they had become far more intricate and highly decorated with different symbols. But it was not only spoons that were carved. Many museums and in particular, the Museum of Welsh Life at St Fagan, have many examples of these love tokens – such as a scoop for coring apples, a sheath for storing knitting needles, a kitchen implement for cutting biscuits, a spindle used in lace making, a bookmark and so on. By the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the most treasured love token was not carved in wood.It was a gold or silver jewel decorated with hearts, flowers, words and love birds. Sometimes, the young man would send a lock of hair with the jewel.

There were some interesting traditions associated with marriage also. After choosing his future wife, a young man often sent a friend – as a kind of advocate – to speak on his behalf to the young lady’s parents. In some areas, once the wedding had been arranged,

the ‘gwahoddwr’ (bidder), wearing a black hat, decorated with flowers and carrying a long staff – would walk around the area singing a traditional invitation song – bidding neighbours to attend the wedding and the wedding feast. He would also reminding them that they should repay any outstanding debts or favours to the young couple. In other areas, a ‘bidding letter’ would be sent to invite friends to the wedding.

On the day of the wedding itself, following tradition, a group of the groom’s friends would go on a ‘seek out’ to the bride’s home to accompany her on her journey to the ceremony. They would stand outside the house singing traditional verses, with the family inside singing their replies before she emerged. This is very similar to the tradition surrounding the visits of the ‘Mari Lwyd’ (Grey Mare) during the Christmas season. A poor family would walk to the church in what was called a ‘priodas draed’ (foot wedding). But wealthier families would have a ‘priodas fawr’ (large wedding) or ‘priodas geffylau’ (horse wedding) if they travelled on horseback.

When life was simple and lacked colour, to a very large extent, a wedding was an important occasion in a village – and all the inhabitants would join in the celebrations – especially in the wedding feast – where there would be plenty of singing and dancing. A special beer was nearly always brewed for the occasion.

Local youngsters always enjoyed a wedding day. They would often place barriers on the road or footpath – a rock, branches of wood or a rope – called a ‘cwinten’ – to try to delay the bride or groom on his or her way to the wedding. I happen to know that this tradition is still practised today in my home village.

This tradition is centuries old – and is probably pre – Christian – the remnants of the custom of setting the groom a number of tasks to complete before he won the hand of his sweetheart – a custom described in some of the eleven heroic Welsh medieval tales known as the ‘Mabinogion’.

Ann M. Jones

SULLY ISLAND

Most people in Wenvoe will know of Sully Island and many will have visited it, but for those who do not know it, here are some facts about it. It is a small tidal island of 14.5 acres by the hamlet of Swanbridge. It is located 400m from the shore and midway between Penarth and Barry and is registered as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Sully Island is one of 43 tidal islands that can be reached on foot from the mainland of Great Britain.

Over the years many people who have walked over to the island at low tide have been caught out as the incoming tide rushes over the rocky causeway. Some have been rescued by a lifeboat from Penarth RNLI and some have waded back through the waves, which is not a good idea, and some people have drowned. The danger is that the rise in the sea level can be as much as 6 feet, almost 2 metres in one hour. To make it worse the rise is so fast on the seaward side of the causeway, the tide has to go around the island, where the level is several inches lower and when the tide starts to run across the causeway it forms a race, or rapids, which becomes much stronger as each minute passes. It is strong enough to sweep you off your feet, especially as underfoot the uneven, rocky surface, covered in seaweed is very slippery. So, nobody should ever attempt to cross to the mainland when the tide is close to running across the causeway – even though the path might be clear and beckoning.

There have always been warning signs to make people aware of the dangers, but in recent years National Resources Wales has installed a board, with a traffic light system, which tells visitors when it is safe to cross, and when it would be too dangerous.

Some people have slept overnight on Sully Island to enjoy having the island to themselves, and the feeling of isolation. Then at high tide, they can marvel at the waves crashing against the rocks with spray flying high in the air. In the trips we have made to the island, there has not been much litter as people realise that they need to take any rubbish back with them.

Looking back in time there is evidence that the island was frequently visited by both Romans and Vikings. There is archaeological evidence of the remains of a Saxon fort occupying the eastern end of the Island, on the summit of which is a Bronze Age barrow. It has been suggested by some that this was an armed stronghold, but it was more likely to have been a defended residence and farm homestead.

During the 13th century, the island was the base for Alfredo de Marisco, a Norman pirate known locally as The Night Hawk. Over the centuries the island was well known for its involvement in the local smuggling trade. Smuggling was an endemic problem along the Glamorgan coastline and a constant headache for the port authorities of the Bristol Channel, especially during the eighteenth century. Criminal gangs sought to profit by smuggling in contraband from the Continent and avoiding the high tax imposed by the Government. Alcohol and tobacco were the most smuggled contra-band, but the smugglers would attempt to conceal anything which made a profit.

There have been several shipwrecks around the island over the years owing to the tricky tides and narrow access. Several sources record that the famous Antarctic survey vessel, the SY Scotia, was wrecked on the island on 18 January 1916. Local elderly residents from as far away as Barry re-member arriving at Swanbridge as children, with sacks, to harvest coal spilt on the foreshore from the wreck, over several weeks. A skeleton of a wreck is still visible on the island’s north foreshore facing Swanbridge, but this vessel’s keel is too short to have been the Scotia.

Sully Island is fascinating and if you are fit and agile take a walk over there and enjoy a drink at the Captain’s Wife on your return.

False Alarms In Barry Island

On Saturday May 18th the media reported that hundreds of beachgoers on Barry Island were advised by a tannoy announcement to ‘get out of the sea’ due to concerns over water quality. Dwr Cymru/Welsh Water confirmed that an announcement was made but it was a false alarm. No doubt the newspaper and TV reports will have put some people off a visit to our local beach.

There is a precedent for this sort of thing. In the Summer of 1964 rival gangs of Mods and Rockers descended on seaside towns causing the media to create a national panic over what was happening to society. Many curtailed their visits to the seaside as a result. But was it just another false alarm?

Mods and Rockers were not really about violence. The Rocker subculture was all about motorcycles, with members decked out in black leather jackets and motorcycle boots or winkle pickers. This style took cues from Marlon Brando’s iconic look in the 1953 film “The Wild One.” Rockers typically sported a pompadour hairstyle and grooved to 1950s rock and roll and R&B tunes, favouring artists like Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, and Bo Diddley, as well as British rock and roll stars such as Billy Fury and Johnny Kidd.

On the other hand, the Mod subculture focused on fashion and music, with many opting to ride scooters. Mods were known for their sharp attire, often wearing suits and other neat outfits. They listened to a variety of music genres, including modern jazz, soul, Motown, ska, and British blues-rooted bands like the Yardbirds, the Small Faces, and the Who. Amen Corner’s Andy Fairweather Low, guitarist, songwriter and producer remembered the time. ‘I used to ‘mitch’ off school to go to Barretts music shop in Cardiff. There were lots of mods around, certainly in the cafes around the city. I loved the style, the mohair suits, button-down shirts, the smell of Brut aftershave.’ In the Valleys, the Italian cafes proved popular meeting places for mods to park up their ever impressive scooters and discuss the latest in mod fashion and music. You can read more in ‘Welsh Mod: Our Story’ by Claire Mahoney, which documents the roots and Mod revival in Wales.

The Summer of 1964 saw the clash of cultures turn to violence in the coastal towns of the south east of England. Things really kicked off on Whitsun weekend, with newspaper headlines reporting the ‘Battle of Brighton’, and ‘Wild Ones ‘Beat Up’ Margate’ accompanied with detailed reports of violent clashes. In fact, only c1000 people congregated at Brighton Beach that day and the police made just 76 arrests. The country burst into what sociologist Stanley Cohen called a moral panic. Newspapers started warning about Mods and Rockers, calling them “vermin” and ‘mutated locusts wreaking untold havoc on the land.’

Welsh youth made their own Bank Holiday pilgrimages to Barry Island and Porthcawl. The South Wales Echo joined in the media frenzy, reporting what went on in England, but finding little to sensationalise about in Wales. Here it was all about fashion and transport. Mods and Rockers made their way to the seaside to show off their outfits, scooters and motor cycles. The local police kept a watchful eye; but there were few reports of violence. One weekend, The Echo, no doubt hoping for some attention grabbing headlines, was reduced to reporting on the heavy rain, which dampened the enthusiasm of Mods and Rockers at Welsh seaside resorts. This was hardly the stuff reported by a Birmingham Post editorial in May 1964, which warned that Mods and Rockers were ‘internal enemies’ who would bring about disintegration of a nation’s character

Harmony Express by Thomas Bird

The book being reviewed was penned by a local author and so should resonate with Wenvoe residents. Although he was born and raised in Penarth, his parents Bernice and Bob Bird moved to the village some years ago and when he returns from his base in east Asia, it is to Wenvoe that he comes. He writes for the South China Morning Post and the Taipei Times, and he has contributed to many travel books including the Rough Guides to the Philippines, Thailand and China.
That’s the introduction, here’s the review.

This is a wonderfully descriptive travel book that deals not only about the author’s travels in China by rail, but how he opens up the whole China experience about the people he travels with or encounters along the way and their beer, food, pop music, a bit of romance here and there – the whole package in fact. He compares and contrasts the ultra-modernity of the new mega-cities with the almost feudal existence in the rural areas. And when he gets to Tibet, well what a world he describes for us.
Soon after starting to read the book, and knowing next to nothing of this vast country, I decided that I needed a map to put the places mentioned into geographical context. After some research I lit upon the Periplus Travel Map of China (published in Singapore) which assisted me enormously.
And what journeys Bird takes us on as he traverses the rail network (and by bus where there is no railway). He treats us with his insights about the most overwhelming of the new megalopolises to the somewhat edge of existence habitations elsewhere. It matters not that some of these rail routes were initially constructed by the French in their Indo China Empire days or along the super highspeed maglev show stoppers at the cutting edge of modernity.
He presents a writing style that blends the narratives of genre defining travel writers – from Bill Bryson’s laugh out loud to the offerings of others: Bruce Chatwin (What Am I Doing Here) and Paul Theroux (The Great Railway Bazaar). It is to be noted that both of the latter wrote about the region as it existed some decades earlier, so another compare and contrast exercise naturally ensues. And if this book goes into a second edition, then I suggest that it includes a map of the salient cities and some photographs.

Tony Hodge

THREE TIMES A DAY IN TURIN

Don’t tell your dog, but in the Italian city of Turin it is a legal requirement to walk your pet at least three times a day. In Wenvoe it seems, our love of pets has never been greater and we have no need for such a law with ‘walkies’ commonplace most times of the day, providing many an opportunity for owners to catch up on the latest gossip and escapades of their ca-nine charges.

With a population in 2021 of 2,752, a rough and ready calculation based on recent surveys, suggests that there could be 300 dogs in our village! A survey in March 2023, commissioned by ‘Dogs Trust’, revealed that around 27% of adults own a dog and 36% of households. Swindon had the highest dog ownership per thousand people in the UK with 316.48. The survey revealed that pet ownership levels generally peaked to an unprecedented high of 62% in 2022, likely as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and increased time spent at home. The majority of owners (65%) ac-quired their pets when dogs were under 1 year of age. Less than 5% of dogs were acquired when considered ‘senior’ (around 8 years of age and older). Dog owners it seems are happy to pay top dollar for their new ‘best friend.’ The majority of respondents paid between £250 and £1,000 for their dog. However, just over 15% were prepared to fork out between £1000 and £3,000 for their new pet. Currently, the most common breeds are the Labrador, Cocker Spaniel/Poodle and Jack Russell terrier.

Did you know?

In an interview in 2013, Paul McCartney said that he added a frequency only dogs can hear to the end of the Beatles song ‘A Day in the Life’ which was by co-incidence also mentioned in last month’s front cover story about potholes. Anyway, watch your dog when you play the song!

Did you know that three dogs survived the sinking of the Titanic; all apparently in first class? The dogs included a Pomeranian puppy – which her owner wrapped in a blanket to es-cape with, and everyone thought she was carrying a baby. Another Pomeranian and a Pekingese were also rescued.

Not only do we love our dogs, but increasingly owners are proudly entering them in dog shows. As reported in April’s What’s On, Wenvoe’s Carolyn Horton won the Dog Obedience category at Crufts in 2022 and came second in this year’s competition. The Vale of Glamorgan Agricultural Show usually provides such an opportunity. This year’s show returns to Penllyn on Wednesday 7th August. Further afield the South Wales Kennel Association has its four day show at the Royal Welsh Show ground, Builth Wells on 10th October.

Not everyone of course loves dogs. Dog fouling tops many people’s list of concerns regarding problems found on the streets. Responsible dog owners do not need reminding that it is an offence not to remove any faeces deposited by their dog. The Vale council warn that if you fail to pick up after your dog you could be issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice of £75 or be prosecuted which could result in a fine of up to £1,000.’ Clearly, dog faeces as well as urine, can cause health issues for those who come into contact with it. Less seriously, though often annoyingly, it can have a bad effect on private lawns. Bitches in particular, cause the greatest damage, because they tend to urinate in one spot, rather than dogs who tend to mark many spots and pass small amounts.

Barking can also be a problem. However there is a solution. You can move to Little Rock, Arkansas where a local law prohibits dogs from barking after 6 pm!

4,000 Holes In Blackburn, Lancashire And One Or Two In Wenvoe

In the Daily Mail on 17 January 1967, the Beatles famously found their inspiration for the Sgt. Pepper track ‘A Day in the Life.’ John Lennon’s lyrics repeated an article’s claim that there were ‘4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire.’ It went on to speculate that if Blackburn was typical there would be over 2 million potholes in Britain’s roads. One suspects today the total would be much higher.

It is estimated that, on average, there are about six potholes per mile in council-controlled roads in England and Wales. The RAC ‘Pothole Index’ suggests that motorists are now twice as likely to break down as a result of wear caused by potholes than they were 17 years ago.

No one actually seems to know where the term pot- holes comes from. One source attributes it to time when potters dug holes in Roman roads to steal the clay they were made with. Today we can firmly blame bad weather and heavy traffic for so many potholes. It is of course, the same the world over. And pot holes are dangerous. ‘India Today’ reported in 2018 that over 9,300 people had been killed and nearly 25,000 were injured in road accidents caused by potholes; a greater a danger they said, than terror attacks.

Meanwhile, back in Preston, Lancashire (and just down the road from Blackburn) an inquest found a pothole to have been the major cause of the death of a cyclist in January 2023. Interestingly, last year, The South Wales Argus reported the results of a Freedom of Information Request which revealed that the Welsh Government had paid out a massive £1,188,565.25 to an anonymous claimant for a ‘pothole-caused personal injury’ which took place four years earlier.

Citizens have become increasingly innovative in drawing attention to the problem. Recently on the streets around Bury and Ramsbottom, near Manchester, one man employed crudely drawn male genitalia in a bid to attract the local council’s attention to pot-holes. Within 48 hours, many had been filled. Back in India, fed up with the authorities failure to repair a pothole in the middle of a main road in north Banga-lore, artist Baadal Nanjundaswamy created an extremely lifelike sculpture of a huge crocodile and painted the area around it green to make it look like a pond. The locals were startled and the pot hole soon fixed!

So what about the Vale of Glamorgan? In March 2021, the Welsh Government announced £12 million extra funding to help improve the condition of our roads. You can report potholes to the Vale by completing a simple online form. To qualify for repair the pothole must extend in any direction by just over the size of a sheet of A4 paper. If they fit the criteria, the Vale target is, if possible, to fix all reported potholes within 28 working days. Potholes that are identified in a high risk area are repaired within 24 hours. Finally though, the Vale have a word of warning for us……’please don’t measure potholes, it is dangerous.’