Category: News

ST. MARY’S CHURCH NEWS – SEPT 2023

AUGUST REPORT

By the time you are reading this, schools are on the point of resuming for the Autumn Term, and following the cold, wet summer, let us hope for a brighter warmer September.

The three churches came together to celebrate the Holy Eucharist at St Bleddian’s on the fifth Sunday in July

St Bleddian’s The threat of rain in the weather forecast did not deter members from the three congregations from finding their way up to the ancient and holy hill, on which St. Bleddian’s church is sited. There has been a church here on this site from the 6th century, and the present building dates from the 12th century.

For the first time for many years the communion cup and cover of 1577 was used together with the 20th century silver cross donated to replace one that was stolen in the 1980’s. With good singing and Vicar Lyndon’s sermon on the theme of the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto many things, the service was completed with excellent hospitality and fellowship.

Thank you to the small congregation for their welcome and desire to host the occasion… Da Iawn.

The Chattery continues to be the place to meet together on the second Thursday of the month at 10.30am in the Church Hall, for a catch up and a coffee/tea and posh biscuits and a FREE raffle for a modest £2.00 per person. Why not come and join the company it is open to all, and we all need to meet up from time to time. Isolation is a terrible thing to experience, so come and make new friends on September 14th.

The phrase “A fish out of water” is quite familiar to us all. Have you seen the leaping salmon in the church grounds? Thanks to Mike we now have one, carved out of the dead cherry tree trunk to be admired by all.

Proposed Visit to Margam Abbey on October 29th 2023 to attend the 11.00am Mass.

Margam Abbey is celebrating its 875th year of foundation as a Cistercian Abbey this year and we propose a joint pilgrimage (by coach) as it is the 5th Sunday of the month, when we visit the other churches in our three church grouping of Sully, St. Lythan’s and Wenvoe.

Contact has been made with a member of the staff at the abbey, and they will be pleased to welcome us as a part of the congregation that morning. Lyndon has been invited to preach at the service, and he has accepted. We had hoped to arrange a lunch near to the abbey but the costs were higher than we anticipated.

After discussion with Lyndon we have decided to take a BYO lunch. The Abbey will accommodate us in the “Drill Hall”, adjacent to the Abbey and car parking area, and they will provide tea/coffee for which we would make a donation. Access to the Country Park can be obtained from the Abbey and within the Park itself there is also “Charlotte’s Pantry” with tea/ coffee etc and hot food until 3.30pm. After lunch we are arranging a tour of the Abbey Church which has many interesting monuments and architectural items to see.

Carol Jones in Sully has found us a 49 seater coach and the cost will be covered from church funds. Pickup in Wenvoe at 9.30am and return from Margam at 3.30pm.

A list will be available in church to book your seat on the coach or if you prefer to make your own way to Margam by car sharing.

Teddy Bear’s Picnic. To coincide with the Wenvoe Village Show in the Church Hall on the 9th September, we are arranging a BYO picnic in the church grounds from 1.00pm. We are in need of folding picnic tables as all the tables in the hall will be used to display the entries in the show. There will be lots of games and activities for the children, and for the adults a time of fellowship and a chat to catch up with others you do not see very often. A guest appearance of PEPPA PIG is promised during the afternoon to make the picnic go with a swing. The church will also be open should the weather be inclement. The afternoon will come to a close when the cakes etc in the show will be cut and shared, so cake, cake and more cake……. yum yum

Our Matronal Festival was held on August 13th at the 9.30 celebration of the Eucharist to honour Mary, Mother of Our Lord. The new notice board near the church gateway has been put in place, and now includes the dedication to which Mary, in the account of Christ’s life, our church is named. Thanks be to God.

Harvest Festival will be held on Sunday 24th at 9.30am and church decorating will be on Saturday 23rd at 10.00am. Help will be needed to decorate with flowers and tinned goods etc donated for The Food Bank in Barry; any fresh fruit and vegetables will be donated to a church in Cardiff. This year we are opening a Flower Fund to purchase the flowers and of course willing hands are needed to arrange them on the Saturday morning. Wenvoe is surrounded by many active farms, whose fields are now ripe for harvesting, so let us give thanks for the produce of the land and the farmers who work 24/7 to bring in the bounty of the land which the Lord our God has given us.. All are welcome to our celebration. The celebration of the Harvest will continue in St. John’s, Sully on October 1st at 11.00 am and at St. Lythan’s on October 8th at 3.00pm,

There will be a retiring collection in aid of the Christian Aid Harvest Appeal which will remain open when our other churches hold their own celebration.

Foodbank Many thanks for continuing to support the Foodbank. Your gifts are very much appreciated, both gifts of food and money. Currently the Food Bank is providing more help than the donations coming in, and so they are reliant on stock they had received previously. Concern was also expressed during the current school holiday as the usual help has been withdrawn. Our weekly donations do fill some of the gaps. So a BIG THANK YOU to all who give week by week.

For those of you who still have a holiday planned, have a safe journey and return, we shall be here to welcome you back.

God Bless.. St. Mary’s is your church and all are welcome.

Parry Edwards

 

NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH – Opportunistic Theft

NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH

Opportunistic Theft

There is still a problem in the Vale with thieves prowling and trying car doors.
Things to do to protect yourselves include:
• Keep house and car doors locked. It only takes a moment for a thief to enter the house if you are in another room.
• Keep items of interest out of sight.
• At night close house curtains to prevent a thief seeing in.
• If you become aware of someone prowling around, ring 999.

WhatsApp Scam
Action Fraud has reported a scam against members of large groups relying on the goodwill of members and their desire to help others in distress. Examples of groups targeted are alumni and academic groups, work groups, and religious groups such as church or prayer groups.
Scammers infiltrate the group to try and deceive members into sending the scammers money. From January to August this year 268 people nationally have reported falling victim to this scam.
To protect yourself against scammers:
• Never share your account’s two-figure authentication (2FA) code. (That’s the 6-digit code you receive via SMS)
• Set up two-step verification.
• Think. Call. If in the slightest doubt, ring back to check identity.
• Report spam messages or block a sender within WhatsApp.

Alan French

 

WENVOE VILLAGE SHOW

WENVOE VILLAGE SHOW,
SATURDAY 9 SEPTEMBER 2023, ST. MARY’S CHURCH HALL

This is Wenvoe’s own local show and offers an excellent opportunity for some friendly, fun competition. Will your fruit and veg be the talk of the village? Is your baking a triumph? You don’t have to be an expert, you just need to enter.

The show is limited to entries from people who live in the Wenvoe community (Wenvoe, Twyn-yr-Odyn, St Lythans and Dyffryn) and children who attend the village school.

Entries to be registered at St Mary’s Church Hall between 8.30 and 11 am on Saturday morning ( for those who have other commitments on Saturday morning there will be a limited time slot to register entries between 6 – 7.30pm on Friday evening 8th September but this will NOT include culinary entries). The hall will then be closed between 11 am and 1.00pm for the judging to take place. The public will be welcome to come and view the exhibits between 1 and 4pm. From 3pm – 4pm there will be a chance to sample the culinary entries for yourself. There will be a good quality raffle, and this will be drawn at 3.30pm. We already have some really good prizes but if you have a prize that you could give we should be very grateful.

If you wish to reclaim your entries they should be collected between 4 and 4.30pm but please note that Items entered in the culinary categories will be offered for public tasting and will not be eligible for collection unless there is any left at 4pm.

Entry fee – £1 for the first entry and 50p for all subsequent entries per person. You may enter as many sections as you wish but the maximum number of entries per person in any one section of a category is two. Items entered in previous Wenvoe Village Shows are acceptable but only if they have previously failed to win a prize. If you would like to help on the day or have any queries, please speak to Mike or Glenys Tucker.

Money raised from this event will be donated to the St Mary’s Church building fund. Please support this local event in any way you can.

In conjunction with the Wenvoe Village Show there will be a Teddy Bears Picnic in the St Mary’s Church grounds opposite, between 1 and 4pm.

Bring your own refreshments and teddy bears. There will be games for children and fellowship for all, in between popping over to the church hall to admire the exhibits.

St Mary’s church will also be open. Come, relax and enjoy the beautiful area in the centre of the village.

Exhibit Categories

 

FUTURE OF ST BLEDDIAN’S CHURCH

MEETING ABOUT THE FUTURE of St Bleddian’s Church in St Lythans

Thursday, October 12th, 2023 at 7pm

at St Bleddian’s Church in St Lythans

St Bleddian’s is a special place on a site that has been a sacred gathering place for millennia. The church has a faithful, but small, congregation.

Sadly, expenses are more than income and there is likely more than £50,000 of repairs required in order to maintain the building for use.

Therefore, we are inviting all who are interested in the future of St Bleddian’s to gather to hear an update on the financial picture and to explore ideas and possibilities for ensuring the future use of this sacred place.

 

CAN YOU HELP YOUR LOCAL MAGAZINE?

CAN YOU HELP YOUR LOCAL MAGAZINE?

Would you like to join the What’s On production team? We are looking for 2 or 3 local people to as-sist us with the work involved in producing the village magazine.

If you are a person with good computer skills who would enjoy assembling the magazine ready for printing, we would love to hear from you. This would require a few days commitment around the 18th of the month. At the moment, there are two of us sharing the task. A third team member would be very welcome, and would give us added flexibility to support each other at holiday times etc.

If you are a person with good communication skills and would like to share the task of sending in-voices to businesses/individuals who currently advertise in the magazine, as well as helping to generate new advertisers, we would love to hear from you. We also need help with distribution of the magazine and with magazine income and expenses.

Alternatively, if you would like to help out on a more ad hoc basis, say to cover a deliver’s absence or holiday, then please also get in touch.

The magazine is a village production with most material provided by local residents. Could you pro-vide a regular column on a subject that interests you and others? It could be a monthly or bi-monthly item or even a quarterly piece. We are always looking for stand-alone articles.

Ross has written the front cover of the What’s On for a number of years and whilst he will continue to do so for the time being, we would also like to hear from you if you would like to write a feature for the front page, on an ad hoc or regular basis or an idea for a feature aricle.

Please contact any of the team members if interested. Our contact details can be found at the top of page 2. of the What’s On magazine

 

CELEBRATING BRIDGES

CELEBRATING BRIDGES

6 July saw an international celebration following the conclusion of three years of restoration work on the Union Chain Bridge linking England and Scotland across the river Tweed and the unveiling of an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). There is also an important Welsh connection as all the ironwork was made in Wales, at the Pontypridd chainworks of Brown Lenox. Now 203 years old the extensive restoration work saw some of the ironwork replaced in a complex project costing £10.5m. The bridge is now the oldest vehicle-carrying suspension bridge and with a 449ft (137m) span and was the longest suspension bridge in the world when it opened in 1820. It was designed by Captain Samuel Brown who introduced iron chain cables into the Royal Navy.

The structure is Grade I listed in England and a Grade A listed structure in Scotland and was singled out for honour by the ASCE, supported by the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Japanese Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE), along with many members of the local community from both sides of the Tweed. In terms of this accolade, it now joins the Eiffel Tower, Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge. Amongst the supporters were the Friends of the Union Chain Bridge who had campaigned for many years to support the preservation of the Union Chain Bridge and to conserve, protect and enhance its immediate environment for public benefit. See https://www.unionbridgefriends.com/ and http://union chainbridge.org/

Closer to home the website; Crossing the Severn Estuary severnbridges.org/ has been taken forward by the South Wales Institute of Engineers Educational Trust (SWIEET 2007) to continue the work by the Severn Bridges Trust (SBT). SBT trustees are all Chartered Civil Engineers who have enjoyed an involvement in the design, construction and maintenance of one or both of the Severn bridges. The Trust have sought to provide a permanent record of the many professions and disciplines involved in the First Severn Bridge and the Second Severn Crossing [now called ‘The Prince
of Wales Bridge’] together with approaches, the Severn Tunnel and former ferry crossings of the Estuary.


In 2016, the year marking the 50th Anniversary of the opening of the Severn Bridge and the 20th Anniversary of the completion of the Second Severn Crossing, the website was launched to provide a permanent public display expanded with engineering detail for those who are interested and to provide information on the background to both bridges as well as information on earlier crossings of the Estuary. It celebrates the broad spectrum of engineering disciplines and other professions involved, and the environmental and construction achievements of these two crossings. The website has been added to since then but is now complete.

Like the story of the Union Chain Bridge Crossing the Severn Estuary presents an inspirational example of the work of engineers and what they can achieve and contribute to society.

Stephen K. Jones

BIG TREES FROM LITTLE ACORNS GROW

BIG TREES FROM LITTLE ACORNS GROW

Can you recall what you were doing and where you were, when the dreadful tragedy of 9/11 occurred? It shook the world, and anyone watching the event on TV could hardly believe their eyes when the second plane hit the second Tower. It was so very hard to comprehend the scale of the tragedy, the loss of life, the fear that it might happen again…in USA or anywhere else in the world.

Over the years, even those here with no close ties in USA have been affected in some small way by this monstrous evil, even those in our quiet village. My younger son, Mark Roberts, grew up in Wenvoe, but later went to London to work, and became a TV cameraman for a Japanese News TV Company called TV Asahi. He filmed crime scenes, everyday dramas, earthquakes, floods etc all over the world, recording visually interviews by his colleagues of all sorts of people in all sorts of situations.

Soon after 9/11, Mark and the TV Asahi team, flew out to Toronto with BBC, ITN and other news teams, as all US airports were closed. They travelled straight down to New York by coach, and as they approached New York, they saw U.S. F-16 fighter planes circling the sky, in fear of a repetition of the Twin Towers disaster, a chilling sight. The area around the disaster was a scene of total devastation, but the news crews had to speak to anyone at the scene for their thoughts and comments. I asked him later if he felt intrusive and voyeuristic, filming people’s raw emotions and grief and anger, and he said simply “The world has to know, Mum”.

The following March, I visited USA on a Travelsphere tour of the Canyons, ending up in Las Vegas, with my friend, the late Mrs Maureen Hunt, whom many of you will remember. (We had booked the holiday long before 9/11). We sat having a coffee one day in Las Vegas opposite the New York, New York Hotel, and noticed a long line of people, with their backs to us, seemingly examining the wall around the hotel, so we went to investigate. We found a small, temporary, improvised Memorial had been set up, with mementoes from the Twin Towers, photos of the site of Ground Zero, letters and poems, even photos of some of those killed. It really brought all the memories rushing back, and we were both deeply touched by this humble display, and the solemnity of the long line of locals and tourists paying their respects.

More recently, many of you, like me, admired plants etc at the Wenvoe Open Gardens Event, and I was fascinated by the oak tree sapling grown by Mr Mike Tucker in his greenhouse. He explained that it had been grown by Mr Bruce McDonald, who, about 6 years ago, had collected some acorns from the Memorial Site at Ground Zero which had literally hundreds of these Swamp White Oak trees growing there. After checking it was (at that time) not illegal to bring them into UK, Bruce brought a few home to plant in pots. Only 2 “took” and Bruce gave 1 each to 2 friends, one of whom was our green-fingered Mike! He has nursed it tenderly ever since, and it looked very healthy when we saw it in June. The conditions at Ground Zero seem to suit the swamp oak tree , but it refuses to grow in many places so it is odd that it has settled in Wenvoe!
The plant certainly brought back many sad memories, and I am sure we all hope that the wars in Ukraine, Syria and Sudan will soon be over and that peace will prevail.
Thank you for reading this. and perhaps you could tell us of your experiences?

Val Roberts.

 

ST. MARY’S CHURCH NEWS – AUG 2023

JULY REPORT

A year has gone by since Lyndon and Chris made that long journey from Canada to be our Vicar here in Wenvoe as part of the Ministry Area of De Morgannwg. Now we are in the holiday month of August. Our church school has seen the senior class pupils preparing to join their new schools and we will be welcoming the youngest into the Nursery Unit. School holidays mean its holiday time for all the family, and whatever plans you have made to travel or take a staycation, may you have good weather and an enjoyable break. St. Mary’s will not be taking a holiday and will be open for worship as usual, although many of our regulars will no doubt be away, which makes even more room for visitors, who are most welcome to join our weekly worship at 9.30am on Sunday morning.
Wenvoe Village Show and Teddy Bears’ Picnic

The annual Village Show is being hosted in the Church Hall on September 9th and is being organised by Glenys and Mike Tucker and ably assisted by others. At the same time a Teddy Bears’ picnic will be held in the church grounds with a BYO picnic. Full details are on page 7.

The Harvest Festival this year will take place on September 24th at 9.30 am when the church will be decorated with many contributions for the Food Bank displayed around the church. We send many parcels each week to the Barry Food Bank to those in such great need in these days of high living costs. The demand is greater than ever with many essential items in short supply and the Food Bank has to rely on cash donations to buy in those items. Grateful thanks go to all who make a weekly contribution

A Flower Fund will be opened to purchase flowers to decorate the church and any gifts of fruit and vegetables will be most welcome. These items will be passed to a charity in Cardiff which distributes fresh vegetables etc to those who wish to provide fresh meals for their family. “Come ye thankful people come, raise the song of Harvest Home”.

Our LED Lighting System was completed just over a year ago on 12th May 2022.The benefit of switching to a LED system is now obvious with the savings we are making compared to the former Halogen fittings used in the building. During 2022 the church lighting was in constant use during the renovations and repainting the interior with a bill of £409 for the year. Since the installation for the first 6 months of 2023 our electricity bill is £136.The Ron Thomas Bequest was used to fund the installation and was a wise use of his bequest as shown by the running costs so far this year. Thankyou Ron. You were a faithful friend while you lived here and your gift will benefit St. Mary’s in the years ahead.
For those of you planning to be away on holiday, have a safe journey, an enjoyable time and a safe return.

Parry Edwards

 

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