Category: News

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.