Category: News

Unsightly Litter Surrounding Wenvoe

 

I am sure that the amount of unsightly litter surrounding Wenvoe’s roadsides has not gone unnoticed.

Whilst on a recent walk along Station Rd East on route to the Salmon Leaps, I was appalled at the amount of litter in the trenches alongside the road, so much so that I took it upon myself to return and collect it.

Armed with a pair of plastic gloves and one black bag, I set to work & in twenty minutes the bag was full with rubbish from one side of the road only!

I contacted the Vale Council’s Refuse & Re-cycling department & informed them of my collection and that the rubbish contained much which could be re-cycled. They were very accommodating, arranging to collect the bag from outside of my house the following day – which they duly did.

However, whilst grateful for this efficient service, I was mindful of one driver and one van coming to collect one bag!

I don’t know the answer to the problem of individuals dropping litter or throwing litter from their cars, but I wonder if any village residents who, like myself, have a spare hour in which they could collect litter from a designated area and collectively have it collected by the Vale. Thus attempting to keep the village devoid of unsightly litter.

Any responses to What’s On or the Wenvoe Community Council (see page 2 for contacts)

 

 

Lent and Holy Week

 

The season of Lent came to a glorious conclusion on Easter Sunday, when the church was beautifully decorated with Easter Lilies provided by members of the congregation, given in memory of loved ones who have passed on to a greater life in the Lord. This year the celebration of Easter, considered to be the Queen of Festivals in the church calendar, fell on Sunday 21st April one of the latest dates that Easter can be. The next time Easter falls on such a late date as this will be in 2030. The reason why Easter is a moveable feast is due to the phase of the moon. Western Christianity decided that the feast always falls on the first full moon after the Spring Equinox, so Easter follows the Jewish tradition of the Passover, and the Bible tells us that the death and resurrection of Jesus took place at the time of the Passover festivities.

During Lent on Mothering Sunday, the “Pebbles” children gave a splendid slide presentation, on how they love their Mums for all the care they give them day by day as they grow up. The church was decorated with the daffodils grown from the flower bulbs handed out at harvest time last year, and flowers were handed out to all the ladies in the congregation as they left church. The following Sunday the “Pebbles” held a pre-Easter Egg Hunt, and the winners proudly displayed their prizes of yet more larger chocolate eggs. Thanks must go to Alyson and her helpers for the way in which they work out how best to convey the Gospel message in a practical way the children can easily understand.

Holy Week 2019 – The procession into church on the morning of Palm Sunday, of the congregation bearing their palm crosses was a memorable start to the solemnities of Holy Week. Jon had devised a special service sheet for the occasion and Helen Ormrod gave a suitable reading to mark the beginning of the last week in the life of Jesus as he made his way into Jerusalem, to be falsely accused of treason and eventual crucifixion.

The saga of the lead stolen from the church vestry roof is near resolution with quotes received for our Insurers already in and it is hoped that the replacement of the roof covering and the repair to the internal damage to the walls and the flooring will take place without much further delay. Not being able to use the Vestry has been a great inconvenience, with registers and all the other things needed for the services scattered about the church, but soon all will be put right.

Christian Aid Week 2019 – In advance of the house to house collections, Jude Billingham gave a presentation in church on April 28th on the theme chosen for this year’s collection, which is “More Happy Birthdays”. Christian Aid this year is working with women’s groups, listening to their concerns in many parts of Africa. Through working in communities, women are able to identify their own needs and make steps to gain their goals.

In this way developments can be sustained and developed further when necessary. The example shown was a group of women who were building their own medical centre, where they could receive good antenatal care and when necessary give birth there.

Collectors will be delivering envelopes through your doors during the week and collected back at the end of the week. Please give as generously as you are able to support women in parts of Africa and elsewhere who are not as well looked after as in the UK.

In Gwenfo Church in Wales School, pupils will be having a “Big Brekkie” on Friday 17th May for those children who have school lunches. A non-uniform day is also being arranged so on Friday the charge of £1 will be going to Christian Aid.

The Annual Church Vestry Meeting took place after an evening Eucharist service on Monday 15th April, when the parish report was accepted, as was the financial report and the election of Peoples Warden took place. Carol Wyllie remains as Rectors Warden and Sandra Dicks was also elected as Peoples Warden. The past year has been one of progress with much of the work to the fabric of the building being completed as required by the most recent Quinquenial Inspection of the building.

Messy Church met in the Wenvoe Community Centre on Saturday 30th March to celebrate Motherly Love. Around fifty people attended with children and parents enjoying a variety of craft activities which were either gifts for Mum or helped develop a greater understanding of how much our mothers love us. Crafts included decorating gingerbread mums (one for mum and one for me), making cards and gifts, writing promises to help our mums and planting plants to give the following day. A short worship session followed with a tea party to end the session which was much enjoyed by everyone.

The next Messy Church will be an outdoor messy event, in the school field at Gwenfo church in Wales Primary School on Saturday 15th June when the theme will be Father’s Day. See you there.

 

 

Thank You For Sticking With Me

Three Years Older

Three years ago, on the 17th of April 2016, I launched this blog. In true me style, my first blog posts were about feminism, and how hard being a teenager is. Fifteen-year-old Tirion thought she’d run the blog for a bit and probably forget about it, but three years later, I’m so glad I stuck with it.

I knew when I was about fourteen that I wanted to explore journalism as a career. But trying to be a journalist when you’re fourteen and fifteen is hard, especially when you’re too shy to even put your hand up to ask to go to the toilet. I would submit work to The Guardian and search for work experience that would satisfy my craving to write what I wanted to write. But most companies like the BBC don’t let you apply for work experience until you’re eighteen. Public speaking and BBC School News Report were great, but they were seasonal.

I remember sitting in the back of the car and reading some magazine when I came across a piece about Tavi Gevinson, the Editor of Rookie (which has since released its final copy). She’s only a few years older than I am, but she’d started a blog before she was able to expand Rookie into this incredible magazine for teenagers that Teen Vogue could only dream to be. My brother told me that he’d heard of her, and that she was eleven when she’d started her own blog. I didn’t really know what a blog was, but upon further exploration, I realised that it was what I wanted. Within a few weeks, just shy of turning sixteen, I finally launched my blog after much deliberation.

My blog gave me a chance to explore my beliefs and expand upon them. These days it’s common to read a post about something I’ve been outraged by in the news, as opposed to complaining about not being able to wear a coat in school.

I’ve grown up over the past three years, and I feel my blog is a reflection of that. A lot of things have happened in the past three years since I started my blog. I was following the news to an extent, but I wasn’t educating myself enough on the events which occurred on our newsfeeds. I was being passive, taking in the information but never really acknowledging its impact. Until I did. I used my blog as a way of understanding my own viewpoint, and further understood that maybe I could tell the story in a way which made more sense to more people.

By continuing to write blog posts over the past three years, I’ve been able to improve my writing. I’ve learnt my writing style, and I think a little bit of me has stopped caring what a lot of people think, too. My blog posts aren’t supposed to be substitutes for newspaper articles, as there’s almost always a bias I don’t pretend to hide. But it doesn’t mean running a blog hasn’t helped to improve my writing skills in a journalistic capacity.

If you’re thinking about starting a blog, I would always say do it. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, if you feel passionately enough about something, do it. My blog has helped me a lot, in all seriousness. Because I’ve practiced my written skills, I’ve since been Editor of my secondary school’s newspaper; started writing monthly articles for Wenvoe What’s On; gained work experience (and been published) in Buzz Magazine; been published on S4C’s Hacio website; gained a place at Cardiff University’s school of Journalism and been published in the University’s newspaper, Gair Rhydd. Most importantly to me, it’s given me more confidence to speak out about issues I care about. Although I’m always careful and aware of others’ views, I’m more open about my beliefs now and I know that they deserve to have a platform. It’s a platform I made myself, but sometimes if you want something done you’ve got to do it yourself.

It’s been three years, and although the blog posts are less often (guys, University’s actually a lot of work) I still love writing them. I’ve received some amazing feedback over the past three years, and it’s always nice because it means I’ve reached someone.

I didn’t start a blog to be rich and famous, I started it for me. And boy how I’ve changed since I started it. But that’s okay. It’s good.

The past three years have been a whirlwind but it’s been brilliant. I learned some new, fancy words (could you tell?) but I also learned more about me. I’ve got a lot more fire in me than I thought I had when I was fifteen. I mean, it’s probably always been there, I just never let it out.

Thank you for reading my blog. Even if you thought what I’d said was rubbish, thank you for taking the time to read a post. If you’ve sent me a message about one of my posts, know how much that truly does mean to me. Thank you for setting aside a few minutes of your day to read even a few sentences of a post. Thank you for sticking with me since I was fifteen. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Tirion Davies

 

 

The Wenvoe Telephone Box

Our Grade II Listed Telephone Kiosk

In spite of being a relatively small village, Wenvoe has three listed buildings. Most will probably be aware of St. Mary’s Church (Grade II*) and the Old Rectory (Grade II), but perhaps less well known (and not another attempt at an April Fool) is our Grade II listed telephone kiosk.

Listed buildings are nationally important and of special interest. For a building to be included, it must be a man-made structure that survives in something at least approaching its original state. Other than buildings, structures such as bridges, monuments, sculptures, war memorials, and even milestones may also be listed.

The Wenvoe telephone box is a K6 (Kiosk 6) design. These cast-iron boxes were introduced in 1926, with our K6 version appearing in the 1930s. They were designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect of the Battersea Power Station and Liverpool Cathedral. At its height there were 92,000 telephone boxes like this in the UK. The iconic booths began disappearing in the 1980s, when the privatisation of British Telecom and the rise of the mobile phone consigned most of them to the scrap heap.

Our telephone box shares its listed building status with some other iconic landmarks. Wenvoe has something in common with the famous Beatles Crossing in Abbey Road (an ideal question for the excellent annual St Mary’s Church quiz), recognised as Grade II in 2010 for its historical and cultural importance. It also shares the distinction with an Esso petrol station in Redhill, Leicestershire. The circular Mobil canopies were designed by the American modernist architect Elliot Noyes in the late 1960s, along with the controversial Preston Bus Station.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the left is a defibrillator at Upper Slaughter in the Cotswolds. Defibrillators in phone boxes like this one, have helped save lives in areas where medical help can be slower to arrive. On the right is an art work in Kingston upon Thames

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wenvoe Neighbourhood Watch AGM

 

The AGM of Wenvoe Neighbourhood Watch took place on 20 February 2019.

Two new Co-ordinators were welcomed, one covering Springfield Close and the other Old Market. There are now 32 Co-ordinators covering the whole village including most of the new housing developments.

A small number of criminal acts were reported from within the village. Fly tipping occurred at St Lythams but was cleared very quickly by the Council after notification by the Co-ordinator. On another occasion vehicle headlights were stolen but the thief was caught, and the headlights returned. In one area it was reported that residents were proposing to install a surveillance camera in response to local thefts.

On the Saturday after the meeting some lead was stolen from the roof of the Church. If anybody has any information about this, please would they contact Vicar Jon.

Residents are advised to be vigilant and report any suspicious activity or criminal act to their Co-ordinator. If unsure of your Co-ordinator please contact Alan French: 02920 59 8092.

Officers elected for 2019 are:

Chairman Alan French

Vice Chairman Trevor Case

Secretary/Treasurer Jackie Gauci

Minutes Secretary Bert Bates

Future Co-ordinators meetings in 2019 are July 3 and October 23.

Alan French

 

 

For The Love Of Libraries’

‘FOR THE LOVE OF LIBRARIES’
THE BRITISH LIBRARY, SUNDAY 10 MARCH

Faced with the threat of closure, it was the ‘Love of Libraries’ that underpinned the decision by members of our community to create the Wenvoe Community Library. Now, three years later, this group of volunteers are looking forward to the opening of the new library early in 2020 in surroundings which will be a hub for the community. Whilst funding from Welsh Government and the Vale of Glamorgan Council have made this possible, the volunteers are under no illusion that for the library to retain a place at the heart of our community, they need our continued support.

Authors Jaqueline Wilson, Philip Pullman and Salley Vickers shared their ‘Love of Libraries’ at the British Library in London on Sunday 10 March. Each author talked about the importance of libraries to them as children and how those libraries influenced their work as writers in later life. Sylvia and Cathryn Harvey write about an inspiring day.

 

For Jacqueline Wilson, the library served as a place of refuge during the summer holidays with arguing parents. She has wonderful memories of the silence, the smell and the blissful feeling of losing herself in the world of books. In this safe haven, she discovered books by Louisa M Alcott, Jane Austen and Mazo de la Roche. As a young mother later in life, she took her daughter Emma to her local library, letting her choose picture books like The Tiger who came to Tea and Where the Wild Things Are for them to read together. When Emma got older, the Nipper series became a favourite and served as the final inspiration to Jacqueline to fulfil the lifelong dream of becoming a writer. And the library also served an important role in Emma’s later life- she became fascinated by the French literature section and has gone on to become a professor of French Literature at Cambridge University. Jacqueline’s books focused on those stories not often heard, of children in difficult family situations in urban areas, that have become a staple for children across the country.

 

As the child of RAF parents, Philip Pullman moved many times throughout his childhood. Eventually, the family settled in Harlech, North Wales. Philip loved it, and it was there that his love of libraries and the stories they contain developed. A local lady ‘from the big house’ lent him books, and there he discovered HG Wells, the Tarzan novels, and The Moomins. As a teenager, the fortnightly mobile library introduced him to the Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell, and his school library opened his mind to great artists through the art history books published by Fontana. His university years at Oxford meant he spent a great deal of time in the Bodleian (readers of

his books will know how much this influenced his later work), and after graduating he worked in Charing Cross library for a time and as a teacher, before becoming a full-time author. In many of his novels, libraries feature heavily, particularly in His Dark Materials series and La Belle Sauvage, the first of the Book of Dust series.

 

Salley Vickers started her talk with her challenging childhood. As her parents were outspoken Communists, they often struggled financially, and the family was unable to buy books. As a result, Salley, from a very early age, spent much of her time in her local library, whose wonderful children’s librarian recommended books for her and let her choose her own. Salley developed a love for The Moomins, by Tove Janssen, especially the character Snuffkin, whose famous line, “all small creatures should wear bows on their tails”, has become one of Salley’s favourite quotes. Other discovered favourites included The Princess and The Goblin and other books by George McDonald, and Rosemary Sutcliffe’s The Eagle of the Ninth series. But her most treasured childhood book is Tom’s Midnight Garden by Phillipa Pearce. The wonderful librarian, a Ms Blackwell, whose guidance was so invaluable to Salley as a child, served as the inspiration for her latest novel, The Librarian. In the novel, Sylvia Blackwell’s goal is to inspire the children of East Mole to read, but elements of her personal life cause tension within the town, threatening the existence of the library altogether.

The discussion between the authors and the audience highlighted the importance of choice; for children to choose their books and for librarians to choose the books they believe their patrons would like to read. The current push for diversity has failed to take into account the treasure trove that is a library. Where else can you find the stories of so many people from so many different walks of life in one place? Reading and listening to stories teaches empathy and understanding in a way that nothing else can.

By investing in libraries, we are investing in the future by giving children a place to grow and develop ideas, and hopefully, help them become the best versions of themselves. We will leave you with this quote from an audience member: ‘A library is a treasure chest of Serendipity’. It is a place to be discovered and explored, with the unknown surprising you at every turn.

 

I do hope this will inspire you all as much as it did us. Please share your childhood memories of libraries with us on your next visit to the library or email us at sylviaharvey@hotmail.co.uk. We would like to display a collection of excerpts of your memories at the community events which will celebrate the opening of our new library.

 

 

Old Docks Offices In Barry

 

If you’ve travelled along Ffordd y Mileniwm from Palmerston to the Barry Waterfront, you will have passed by one of the most iconic buildings in the area. This imposing building looks out over Barry Island – but at one time it faced the busy Barry Docks and housed the Docks Offices.

Barry docks office building

At the end of the nineteenth century a group of industrialists got together under the leadership of David Davies of Llandinam and with financial investment from John Cory of Tŷ’r Dyffryn, amongst others, to develop new docks in Barry for the exporting of the coal mined in their mines in the Rhondda Valley. The Chief Engineer of the docks project was John Wolfe Barry – who had also been involved in the construction of Tower Bridge in London. Interestingly, one of the other engineers who worked on the docks project was Henry Marc Brunel – the son of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

The headquarters of the Barry Docks and Railway Company was built between 1897 and 1900, designed by architect Arthur E. Bell after the style of Christopher Wren. It cost £59,000 to build and an imposing bronze statue of David Davies stands in front of it today. The statue is the work of Alfred Gilbert, the man who designed the statue of Eros in London. A copy of the David Davies statue stands beside the A470 in his home village of Llandinam in mid Wales.

This building exhibits many interesting and unusual features. It is one of a number of buildings which are found all over the world called ‘calendar buildings’. Other examples are Avon Tyrrell House in Hampshire, Cairness House in Aberdeenshire, Adare Manor near Limerick, Schloss Eggenberg in Graz in Austria and so on. The features seen in such buildings are a reflection of various numbers in a calendar.

In our building in Barry there are 4 floors (4 seasons in a year), 52 marble fireplaces (52 weeks in a year),

12 panels in the porch (12 months in a year), 2 circular windows – one on each side of the porch representing the Sun and the Moon, 7 lights behind the traceried fanlight window (7 days in a week), 365 windows (365 days in a year) and a staircase made of Portland stone, which consists of 31 stairs (31 days in most months).

In 1984 much of the building was destroyed by fire, but fortunately, it was rebuilt and today can be seen in its former glory. It now houses the offices of the Vale of Glamorgan Council.

 

 

Ann M. Jones

 

 

Marine Colliery Personal Reflections

 

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

In the March edition of the ‘Wenvoe What’s On’, the leading article talked about the crippling explosion at Marine Colliery in Ebbw Vale on 1 March 1927, killing 51 miners. This led one of our readers to reflect on her childhood growing up in the mining community of Cwm, some 3 miles from Ebbw Vale in the years following the Marine Colliery Disaster. She shares this with us here:

‘The Marine Colliery was situated in my home village of Cwm where I was born and lived until the age of 16. In such a small community and in the surrounding area, few families were left untouched by the Marine Colliery Disaster on 1 March 1927. In the valley it was always referred to as ‘The Explosion’ and through family connections with the pit and faithful entries in family Bibles, local children were made fully aware of the events of that dreadful day.

My own father worked at the Marine Colliery when he left school, but he never worked underground. However, my grandmother was left a young widow with two small girls to raise, the elder of whom was my mother. In that single day, Gran lost her husband, her father and brother. Can you imagine surviving such a loss at that time?

The Marine Colliery is long gone, and a monument has been raised in memory of the miners. The valley has largely been restored to its former beauty, but as with other disasters, scars will always remain.’

Marilyn Case.

 

 

Your Local Welsh Medium School

 

YSGOL GYMRAEG GWAUN Y NANT

Your Local Welsh Medium School

Eich Ysgol Gymraeg Lleol

Ysgol Gymraeg Gwaun y Nant in Barry is your nearest Welsh medium school. It is about 10 minutes by car. The Vale of Glamorgan Local Authority will provide free school transport for those living beyond 2 miles.

Established on its current site in 2001 it has grown from strength to strength and now has over 250 pupils.

A few years ago the school had a major refurbishment to cope with the increased demand for Welsh Medium Education in the area. As a result we can now boast a wonderful learning environment; it is spacious and inspiring for our pupils and teachers.

Teachers and Governors are proud of the school’s ethos and continuously ensure it is maintained. Visitors have always told us that there is a very special ‘feeling’ to the school. We believe that this is created through the exceptionally strong emphasis we have on equality, diversity and respect for every child.

The Local Authority of Vale of Glamorgan continues to judge the school with the highest quality mark; the official classification is known as a ‘Green school’.

Our continuing excellent reputation was confirmed at our last Estyn inspection. The published report remarked that there is a ‘caring working relationship between adults and pupils and that the school is a caring community in which a high priority is given to pupils’ wellbeing’. The report added that ‘pupils are exceptionally well behaved during lessons and informal situations. They are welcoming, polite and treat each other, staff and visitors with genuine respect’.

As Head Teacher I would encourage all parents in Wenvoe to come and visit us before deciding on a school for your child or children. If you are interested in visiting the school please contact us on 01446 421723.

Head Teacher: Rhydian Lloyd.

 

 

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