Month: March 2019

Tuesdays After The Christmas Break

After our Christmas break we resumed our meetings with a social evening. This gave members a chance to catch up and enjoy an evening together. Thank you to Betty for providing a quiz and to everyone who generously donated to our Bring & Buy table.

Our next meeting was a talk by Lyn Howell about the charity LATCH. This charity was set up in 1982 in Llandough Hospital and although the acronym Landough Aims to Treat Children with cancer with Hope is not as appropriate as it was the charity still carries on the fantastic job of supporting children and their families who are being treated by the Oncology Unit at The Children’s Hospital of Wales.

Latch famously provided accommodation for families at Llandough so that families could stay together during their child’s stay in hospital. In 1992 this was relocated to the children’s unit at UHW.

As well as this support for parents Latch also provides essential equipment such as CT Scanners. Other services provided are Social Workers who can provide practical, emotional and financial support to families at a very difficult time.

In order to provide its comprehensive range of services Latch needs some £700,000 per annum to cover the cost of supporting families. This charity has no paid fundraisers and they rely heavily on the hard work of volunteers and are very proud of the fact that they have one of the lowest management expenses for a charity in the whole of the UK.

One of the most recent innovations was the installation of a patient controlled interactive lighting system. This has enabled children to have scans without an anesthetic as they can control various display screens to watch while in the scanner and this serves to relax them and so makes a frightening procedure more acceptable.

Lyn spoke from the heart when telling us about the work of the charity as his daughter died from leukaemia at a very early age. We were shown a series of photos of her before and after treatment and I don’t think there was a dry face in the audience. It

is through the work of this local charity that survival rates for childhood leukaemias are improving all the time and although there are so many charities out there that need our support this local charity should get support

 

 

Meet the Author – Ron Jones

WENVOE COMMUNITY LIBRARY
Tel: 02920 594176 – during opening hours or wenvoelibrary@outlook.com
Like and follow us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/WenvoeCommunityLibrary

Meet the Author – Ron Jones

This was the Library’s first Meet the Author talk. Ron Jones who will be 102 in April, spoke about his war-time experiences as a POW with us. Full report on page 12

Look out for future Meet the Author events which we hope to hold every couple of months.

Advance Notice

Our last bus trip was a sell-out resulting in requests for more. As such we have three trips planned so book your seats early to avoid disappointment. Hay tickets are on sale now at the Library. Further details to follow.

  • Sat June 1st – Hay Festival. £15 Take time to explore the Festival site and the town of Hay. The full Festival programme will be released ‘on line’ in March.
  • Sat July 13th Cheddar Gorge 11.30am – 2pm then on to Clark’s Village (Outlet shopping centre) in Street Somerset 2.45 – 5.30pm
  • Sat Nov 30th London Trip

 

Easter Raffle. Tickets are on sale now at the library for a chance to win our hamper full of Easter goodies.

Volunteers

If you have a few spare hours a month to help us in any way, please email us or call into the library for an informal chat and a warm welcome.

Clwb Clonc – Join the growing number of learners and first language Welsh speakers who want to practise their conversational skills. Weekly meetings on Mondays in the café at Pugh’s Garden Centre at 11 am, and at 7pm on the second Thursday of the month in the bar of the Wenvoe Arms. Croeso i bawb.

Off the Shelf – The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

This book had a mixed reception. It was the complete opposite of his contemporary Charles Dickens. Set in the world of the gentry it did not decry the attitudes and mores of the existing society. The story was told through the eyes of some of its characters: some in the 1st person others through letters or journals. These characters were very well drawn; especially Betteredge the butler and Miss Drusilla Clack a family friend. The story was detailed, long-winded and somewhat unbelievable. Some of the group found it a relief to reach the end, others did not get that far. However, we did enjoy the humour and melodrama in the story and wondered if the book was written ‘tongue in cheek’; maybe as a ‘send up’ of the Gothic Novels fashionable at the same time. We gave it 6/10

 

 

February Planning Updates

Planning updates

The following applications have been approved

  • Valegate Retail Park, Culverhouse Cross. External refurbishment, including removal of existing entrance structures, with replacement entrances, new signage zones and with all other associated works
  • Countisbury, St. Lythans Road, St. Lythans. Proposed two storey side and rear extension
  • Front garden of 61, Walston Road, Wenvoe. Work to Ash tree covered by TPO, reduce due to proximity to cracked wall .
  • Land at Lydmore Mill Farm, Dyffryn. Construction of manege and fencing.
  • Weycock Waste Water Treatment Works. Request for EIA Screening Opinion Not Required

 

The Council had a discussion over the outstanding local highway issues with Mr M. Clogg, Operational Manager Highways. A number of issues are only going to be resolved when sufficient funds are available. Other issues will be examined for a possible solution.

A public consultation concerning improvements in the local play areas took place during the month and a number of constructive ideas were submitted. The Vale is at present drawing up plans and it is hoped the work can be completed later this year.

A marked increase in dog fouling has been noted around the village lately especially in the area of the school. The Vale is looking to increase its enforcement team. The public could do more by shaming those responsible for not clearing up after the dog.

Five mile lane work is slightly behind schedule due to the discovery of an unmapped water supply pipe; the road is expected to open on the 1st April. The road then from Sycamore Cross to Pendoylan will be totally closed for 6 weeks for road widening work connected with the new housing development site.

Representatives from the Council and the Library have met with the Vale planning department to resolve a few outstanding issues. The tender documents are expected to be issued in mid March. The proposed building will be attached to the present Community Centre and consist of two rooms joined by a fold-away screen and additional toilets and main entrance porch. The new library will permanently occupy one room and when open the two rooms will be joined and spill into the other room. When not in use the library can be shut away and the other room used by the public.

 

 

 

February Planning Applications

Planning applications.

• Cwm Derwen Farm, Waycock Road, Nr. Barry. Extension to existing farm building to accommodate in-door lambing and storage of machinery and fodder. No objections

• Waunwyrdd, Port Road, Wenvoe. Proposed alterations and extensions. The height of the present bungalow is not to be altered hence the Council raised no opjections to the proposed alterations

• Grange Park Wenvoe. Trees to the side of 34 Old Port Road, Wenvoe. Work to trees covered by TPO. To remove 3 Horse Chestnut trees. The application was supported by an arboriculturalist’s report commissioned by the Vale. The Council requested that the felled trees are replaced by appropriate large specimens.

• Weycock Cross Sewage Treatment Works, A4426, Barry. Proposed works including the installation of plant/machinery and 1no. kiosk upon operational land. No comment.

• 43, Gwern Close, St. Lythans. Rear single storey extension within residential curtilage. No objections were raised.

• 3, Hill Terrace, Twyn yr Odyn. Change of use of land to domestic use. The land in question is agricultural land and the council did not support the application.

 

 

What Else Happened On St David’s Day?

WHAT ELSE HAPPENED ON ST DAVID’S DAY?

March1st is arguably the most widely known and important day in Welsh history and culture. Across the country we mark the death of St David, patron saint of Wales, who died on 1st March in 589 AD. Most celebrations take traditional forms, such as eisteddfodau or arts festivals. Perhaps one of the most unusual though, took place in 1956, when the Goons celebrated St. David’s Day by lighting cigarettes with leeks.

St David’s Day has many other significant and interesting events attached to it in recent Welsh history. On St David’s Day in 1827 the appropriately named St David’s College, Lampeter, now the University of Wales Trinity St David, was opened. Today it has campuses in Lampeter, Carmarthen and Swansea as well as another campus in London and learning centres in Cardiff and Birmingham.

On 1 March 1927 a crippling explosion at Marine Colliery, Ebbw Vale, killed no fewer than 51 miners. There had been worse mining disasters in Wales but this one, coming so soon after the tragedy of World War One, was a particularly poignant and painful event.

On a lighter note, on 1 March 1965 Tom Jones hit the number one spot for the first time with his single ‘It’s Not Unusual.’ Songs like ‘Green, Green Grass of Home’ and ‘Delilah’ are generally loved in Wales and beyond. No rugby international would be complete without at least one rendering of Delilah. It all began on St David’s Day.

St David’s Day in 1979 saw the rejection of devolution (by the huge margin of 4-1) in a referendum held right across the country. The idea of devolution disappeared from the Welsh political agenda for over ten years; only in September 1997 was a second referendum held, this time resulting in a narrow victory for the supporters of devolution.

Dylan Thomas, in many respects the traditional national poet of English-speaking Wales, was honoured on 1 March 1982. On that day a memorial was unveiled and dedicated at Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.

St David’s Day 1986 saw the death of one of Wales’ great sporting heroes. Tommy Farr, the ‘Tonypandy Terror,’ who died at the age of 73. Born in Clydach Vale on 12th March 1913, Tommy became British and Empire Champion in 1937 and in August of that same year was matched against the great American world champion, Joe Louis, in a bout at Yankee Stadium, New York. Louis had carried all before him, knocking out all nine previous opponents. Nobody gave the Welshman much of a chance. In a brutal and close contest Tommy Farr lost on points and earned the respect of Louis and the American boxing fans. Indeed, when the decision was announced many of the crowd booed to show their disapproval. Tommy’s later life did not run smoothly and, having retired in 1940, he was forced to return to the ring to try to recapture some of his lost fortune. He tried singing and even ran a pub in Brighton for a while, but his moment of triumph (even though it was, in reality, a defeat) had come years before in his contest with Joe Louis.

 

 

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