Month: July 2024

Sully Island

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.

 

Valeways Walk & Clear Group


Valeways Walk & Clear Group

 

The group of volunteers meet weekly (weather permitting) to check, mark and cut back overgrowth on the Vale’s hundreds of miles of footpaths. (Wenvoe has 20 miles of paths) Broken bridges and stiles are reported back to the Vale’s footpath officers for future professional repair.

During the month of June they met in Wenvoe and checked on numerous local paths. They also managed to reopen the footpath 29 which commences on the St Lythan’s Road and proceeds westward alongside Hawthorn Cottage to emerge by The Chapel at Twyn yr Odyn.

The path, is probably not used very frequently and slowly became impassable (especially with lockdown restricting travelling) hence eventually  brambles, nettles, trees and hedging took over the whole 100meters of path. The route is now once again usable but will benefit from further work at a later date

If you are in the area walking please detour to walk this path, this will assist in keeping it passable. Hawthorn Cottage is the house on the right just before the sharp bend on the hill up to Twyn yr Odyn and St Lythans

If you discover any Vale footpath that is becoming  overgrown, broken stiles etc please report them to  the Vale of Glamorgan Council

Wenvoe Village Show

WENVOE VILLAGE SHOW SATURDAY 7th SEPTEMBER
WENVOE 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. (See category list opposite)

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 8.30am and 11.00am on Saturday (for those who have other commitments on Saturday morning there will be a limited time slot to register entries between 6.00pm and 7.30pm on Friday evening 6th September. However, this will not include culinary entries). The hall will then be closed between 11.00am and 1.00pm for the judging to take place. The public will be welcome to come and view the exhibits between 1.00pm and 4.00pm. From 3.00pm – 4.00pm 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. If you have a prize that you could donate, we should be very grateful.

If you wish to reclaim your entries, they should be collected between 4.00pm 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 4.00pm.

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 (we would love volunteers) or have any queries, please speak to Mike or Glenys Tucker.

Weather permitting there will be refreshments available outside all day. All funds raised from this event will be donated to the Wenvoe Wildlife Group.

Welsh Traditions 4 Gwau Hosanau – Knitting Stockings

WELSH TRADITIONS 4

GWAU HOSANAU – KNITTING STOCKINGS

In rural Wales, one of the main cottage industries which flourished during the 18th Century was that of knitting stockings – not only for the family – but for selling in the local markets – and further afield. The towns of Bala, in southern Gwynedd, Llanrwst near Conwy and Tregaron in Cardiganshire were the main centres of the knitting industry, but we know that it also existed in many other locations all over Wales. It was said that Welsh women knitted stockings whenever they had their hands free. But it was not only the womenfolk who knitted; the men and the children, who were old enough, did so too.

Before anyone could start knitting, the yarn had to be prepared. Sheep farmers’ wives had enough wool for their needs, but the poorer cottagers were not able to afford to buy wool. So, as we heard last month, they would go out on wool gathering journeys, before the sheep were sheared, to collect tufts of wool snagged in the hedges and on gorse bushes and elsewhere. The right to gather the wool was valuable and young women who were employed as servants would make sure that they were given the two weeks off for wool gathering each year.

Once they had gathered a good supply of wool, they would carry it home, wash it and when it was dry, begin the process of carding it. This was often done with teasel heads – combing it or brushing it out until it was ready to be spun into yarn. It was now ready to be knitted – but at this stage, it could be dyed, using plants from the countryside.

Here are some of the colours that could be obtained:

  • Different lichens would produce green or a deep pink, depending on the type of lichen
  • Sloes would also produce a rose colour
  • Elderberries and alum would produce a turquoise colour
  • The roots of some types of straw would produce a red colour
  • The bark, flowers and leaves of gorse would produce yellow
  • Bracken would produce brown
  • Dandelions produced magenta
  • Onion skins can produce a range of colours from red to orange to brown – and more

 

As you can see, many colours could be produced by dyeing, but the stockings knitted tended to be plain black, grey or white – although, apparently, blue with white stripes was very popular. Many women of rural Wales were proficient spinners and highly skilled in the art of knitting. Despite the time-consuming labour involved in carding and spinning the wool into yarn prior to knitting, many were able to support themselves by knitting and selling stockings. Such was the demand that a Walter Davies, in 1799, estimated that annual production ran to approximately 192,000 pairs.

The late Minwel Tibbott, of the Museum of Welsh Life at St Fagans, stated that ‘Knitting stockings became a vital industry for many families throughout that time, and during famine periods, saved many a family from starvation – and this cottage industry continued to support families economically up until the early twentieth century’.

Between the financial benefits of knitting stockings and the lack of transportation in rural Wales during the 18th and 19th centuries, women often knitted while they walked or performed other duties. Using a yarn hook in the shape of an ‘S’, women would attach the upper hook to the waistband of their apron, then hang a ball of yarn from the lower hook. In this way, both hands would be free for knitting while they walked, often with a basket on their back, travelling to market, tending to animals, or collecting peat’. Knitting sheaths were popular; suspended from the hip, they bore the weight of the garment being knitted. These were handmade, carved, and given as love tokens, much like Welsh love spoons.

Knitting evenings were always popular – social evenings when knitters of both sexes gathered in someone’s house to enjoy a few hours of knitting accompanied by storytelling and singing. A good storyteller was always in great demand for these occasions and some of them had a great store of tales. Storytellers have been given pride of place at such gatherings in Wales for hundreds of years. We know that two of the most highly regarded members of the courts of the Welsh Princes in mediaeval times were the ‘Cyfarwydd’ – storyteller – and the Court Poet.

When the knitters had a good supply of stockings, they took them to market to sell to middle-men or dealers, who probably sold most of them at English markets, from where, it is said, many were exported to Europe and beyond. We know that some were exported via the port at Barmouth to Charleston, USA, the West Indies and the Gulf of Mexico. We know that stocking markets were held in many towns in Wales, from Llanilltud Fawr – Llantwit Major in the south, to Caergybi – Holyhead, in the north. The price of a pair of stockings varied from 6 pence (2 ½ pence in today’s money) – to ten shillings (50p today). But the average price for a plain pair of stockings was about 1 shilling (5p today).

Some stocking knitters would stand along the stage-coach highways to sell their wares to passing travellers. It is said that Welsh stockings were of high quality and long-lasting. Several members of the gentry purchased pairs as souvenirs during their tours of Wales – and tradition maintains that King George III insisted on wearing Bala stockings to relieve his rheumatism!

Today, the internationally known Corgi Socks factory in Rhydaman – Ammanford – which holds a Royal Warrant, and which has been producing socks, stockings and other items of knitwear since 1892 – is a worthy exponent of the Welsh stocking knitting tradition.

Ann M. Jones

Monmouth

Monmouth

Monmouth’s history goes back at least 2000 years to the presence of a Roman garrison. Its position at the meeting place of 3 rivers – the Trothy, Monnow and Wye, and one of the few places where the Wye could be safely crossed, allowed it to grow from a market town to the seat of legislature. Parts of the medieval town survive at Monnow bridge, the priory buildings and the castle where Henry V was born. In Agincourt Square his statue overlooks that of another famous citizen, Charles Rolls, an early pioneer of aviation and co-founder of Rolls Royce.

We were lucky to park as, we chose the day of the Monmouth Regatta for our walk. The beginning of the walk along the river was very busy with many people participating in the regatta (some from as far away as Staines) and spectators.

A few of us went into the Church of St Peter, its history stretches back to early Welsh Christianity with the first mention of a church, Llan Tydwg, in AD 750. It was on the border of a small Welsh kingdom of Archenfield, a stronghold of the early Celtic Church. The current church was probably rebuilt in the 11th Century after it was destroyed by the Welsh prince Gruffydd ap Llywelyn who, in 1054, led a raid up the Wye to Hereford, devastating riverside settlements. Historically the church has passed back and forth between the dioceses of Llandaff and Hereford. Now, although the church is in Monmouth (Wales), it is part of the diocese of Hereford (England) as the parishioners voted for this in 1921.

The church was full of interesting information and articles. One of my favourite nuggets was ‘customs included the payment of rent in honey; the Welsh believed that bees came from Paradise and so candles for Holy Communion were always made from beeswax.’ The old font was discovered in the rubble of chapel farm, it is possible that after leaving the church it was used to press apples or as an animal trough. There is a leper’s bench and door. A beautiful, variegated tree stands in the church yard.

It is thought that the church has been flooded 64 times in the last 95 years. In the 2020 flood (1.6metres) the pews damaged the reredos and in 2023 the pulpit was lost. The floor is regularly being replaced.

Leaving the river, we went through a tunnel under the A40 where the walls were decorated with painted mosaics created by local groups and schools; they depict the heritage of Monmouth and the Wye valley AONB. We travelled along tracks on the edge of the town until we passed the ‘the Manor on the Monnow’. We soon came to a feat of engineering, where the Monnow was channelled creating a hydroelectric scheme with a fish pass. Monmouth’s lights were water powered in 1899! In the 17th century a forge was powered at this site. At one point the river went over a lip creating an infinity pool effect.

Continuing we enjoyed fields of buttercups, welcome shade from trees along the river, and extensive views of the countryside. Climbing a steep road, we passed a small holding with a peacock and other birds, and someone spotted a few deer. Crossing a couple of fields, we stopped for lunch in a meadow covered in a red and yellow carpet of flowers and grasses. As we sat, we were excited to spot a herd of about twenty deer in the distance.

Walking again along a road, we saw the roe deer race across a field next to us before they disappeared. We passed Westwood Archery Centre where we were warned ‘ No trespassing – Violators will be shot; Survivors will be shot again’. We continued to have excellent views of the Black mountains and found some wonderful examples of trees, foxgloves and other wildflowers beside the paths. Emerging onto a road we were admiring a barn which had been weather-proofed with a new roof when the farmer told us it was for sale, if we were interested.

Near the end of the walk, we crossed the A40 and walked along the river Wye catching a few races of the regatta, as we walked, before returning to the cars. One race consisted of two mixed teams of eight rowers, the first of these any of us had seen. Someone in our group had to comment that ‘everyone seemed to be wearing old fashioned swimming costumes’.

An interesting and sunny walk was topped off with refreshments at a local garden centre

Walk 8.3m, 1100ft. Map OL14

 

Community Library July Events

WENVOE COMMUNITY HUB

Tel: 02920 594176 – during opening hours or wenvoelibrary@outlook.com

Like and follow us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/WenvoeCommunityLibrary

For general enquiries you can email us at wenvoelibrary@outlook.com

Library Hub – July 2024

Books – Our Selection of New Arrivals

Crime: The Next Girl by Emiko Jean. A masterful, deeply sinister read but subtly handled.

Fiction: House of Shades by Lianne Dillsworth – a fabulous gothic read.

Non Fiction: The pocket rough guide to Jersey

Romance: The Happy Hour by Cressida McLaughlin. Is one hour a week enough to fall in love.

July Special Events

Sunflower Seeds Galore: Sunflower Competition

Can you grow the tallest sunflower in Wenvoe? Pick up a pack from the hub and get growing! A book token will be presented to the winner of each category of under 8 & 8 and over. Judging will take place during autumn half term – £1 per entry.

Report from the Hub Team

  • Coffee machine – the Hub now has a new coffee machine. Now the warm weather is here, why not come in and drink a coffee on our patio.
  • Volunteers – we are fortunate to welcome new volunteers to the Library, as always, we are in need of more volunteers.

 

Watch this Space

  • Cuppa with a Coppa – Wednesday 10th July at 2.20 pm in the Hub
  • Wellbeing Group – Friday 12th July between 2.00pm and 3.00pm in the Hub
  • A trip to the Westonbirt Arboretum is being organised for later in the year – watch this space!
  • A trip to the National Eisteddfod in Rhondda Cynon Taff is being organised for Friday 9th August. Coach tickets will be £10.00 per head, this will not include entry to the Eisteddfod

 

Summer Reading Challenge 2024

The Hub is launching the Summer Reading Challenge as it has done each summer

The Summer Reading Challenge encourages children to keep reading during the summer holidays, ensuring they are ready for a great start to the new term in the autumn. Children set a reading goal and collect rewards for reading anything they enjoy. Children can sign up at the Wenvoe Hub from 6th July and it’s FREE to take part.

All Primary School and Nursery children are invited to take up the Challenge!

This year’s Challenge is called Marvelous Makers and it is all about creativity!

From dance to drawing, junk modelling to music, there is something for everyone.

This year’s theme has been developed in partnership with a leading arts charity, Create. It is about a group

of enterprising young people who are planning to set up a theatre for the local community. The project requires all their skills in music making, dancing, art, and computer skills.

The 2024 Summer Reading Challenge will be launched in the Wenvoe Hub on Thursday 4th, the day the school has their visit.

Each child signs up to read at least 6 books over the summer holiday. They can be anything they enjoy: comic books, picture books, non-fiction and fiction. After every two books read, there is a reward and then by the end of the summer holidays a special certificate and a medal. There are 3 rewards to collect and then finally the medal if six books have been read.

Last year our children did really well. There were 35 who took up the challenge and of those 14 were Super Readers. These were children who read more than six books.

Let’s hope we can do even better this year. So, let’s get Reading!

Hay on Wye – Literary Festival

On Friday 31st May a merry band boarded the coach at 8.30 outside the Wenvoe Arms for our trip to the Hay Literary Festival. It was a return visit for some and a new experience for others, but everyone was really looking forward to it.

The first port of call for most of the travellers on arrival was coffee. It was great to see that the organisers had put so much thought into sustainable products and the site had many areas where the reusable cups could be washed out. The coffee was delicious too! (The loos were really good as well!)

Everyone then headed off, some to talks they had previously booked and some to explore what was on offer. There was definitely something for us all, from Greenpeace to information on visiting India, jewellery to clothing. And, of course, books! Heaven for us library groupies!

A trip into Hay village during the day was fun and it was interesting to have a look at the castle, find out why Hay had become so synonymous with booksellers and to visit some of the quirky shops.

We were all ready to head back to the bus by 5pm. We’d all done our 10,000 steps, for sure. A raffle of a couple of bottles of Prosecco on the way home made the end of the day and we were back in Wenvoe by 6.30’ish.

Absolutely a trip to go on the regular calendar.

Look out for details of the next outing to Westonbirt Arboretum in the Autumn

What About The Other Swifts?

What About The Other Swifts?

Many people are very excited by Swift – well, Taylor Swift, to be precise. But what about the other Swifts?

The poet Ted Hughes wrote:

A bolas of three or four wire screams

Jockeying across each other

On their switchback wheel of death.

They swat past, hard-fletched

We seemed to wait an age this year for our Swifts, House Martins and Swallows to return but they made it in the end. Our Swifts have flown from sub- Saharan Africa, a journey of some 3,500 miles each way. They eat, sleep and mate on the wing only pausing to nest – some can go for 10 months without landing anywhere. They are more closely related to Hummingbirds than Swallows and can fly at speeds over 100mph. They typically live for 10 to 20 years and have been known to make it to 30. If you want to help them consider putting up a Swift nest box. They can be purchased or you can make them with some simple carpentry. Alternatively you can now buy Swift bricks which can be incorporated into brick structures, which look very neat and require no maintenance.

 

We Have Had A Very Busy Year

WENVOE PLAYGROUP NEWS AND EVENTS

Registered Charity, right in the heart of the Village.

www.wenvoeplaygroup.co.uk

 

As you are reading this, we are probably very busy planning our end of term events and getting ready for our end of term party.

We have had a very busy year with 44 children on our books. I can’t believe how quickly time is passing by. It only feels like yesterday we were singing our Christmas and Easter concerts!

We were lucky enough to obtain a large grant to extend our garden in the Spring term. This was given by the Early Years Grants panel at the Vale of Glamorgan. We now have a large safe space in which to plan and play, which also benefits the Village Hall.

We have been planting our outside space planters in the garden and the planters at the front of the Village Hall, to make the front a little attractive as you approach the front doors. However, we would now like to incorporate more fun play in the garden to enhance this. If there is anyone out there who can supply some spare guttering, to make water play walls, using wooden pallets already donated, then please let us know by emailing us and we will collect.

The group closes on Friday 19th July at 1pm for the Summer holidays and will re-open on Tuesday 3rd September for a stay and play from 9:15am until 11:45am. We will also be taking contracts for those who wish to join us up until April 2025.

Our children will return on Wednesday 4th September from 9am, when we will operate mornings only for the remainder of the week.

Our full services resume with the afternoon and all day care from Monday 9th September at 9am.

If you would be interested in our wrap around care to Gwenfo Nursery in September, then please email your interest. Although closed through the holidays, I will be popping in and out of email to check on messages.

Please view our website, www.wenvoeplaygroup. co.uk where you will find useful information and our photo gallery of the children at play over the past year. You will also find links to the 30 Hour Childcare Offer and Tax Free Child Care Offer on our site.

Many children (the term after their 3rd Birthday) are attending 17.5 hours a week funded by; The Childcare offer for Wales at the Playgroup. For further information contact the Childcare offer for Wales helpline to get up to 30 Hours funded childcare Tel: 03000 628628

Many families are setting up Tax Free Child Care accounts to pay their fees. This is where you can set up an account and pay money in and the Government will contribute. For example; for every £8 you put in, the Government will pay in £2. Many children under 3 are paying for their fees this way and many families who take up the Childcare offer for 30 hours

of funded care, may pay any extra fees such as transition or top up fees outside of the funded hours.

The Vale of Glamorgan Family Information Service is most helpful with information on the above;. Call: 01446704704 or email fis@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk for further information.

Many thanks to our Committee for their support over the past year and to the staff who make the Playgroup the safe, welcoming place it is.

Thanks to all those who have supported the Playgroup by attending the events and donating your valuable time from the community. Your support is very much appreciated

Intriguing Ideas For Repurposing

WENVOE FORUM

Considering Tomorrow Today

“Intriguing Ideas For Repurposing”

 

 

A visit to the opticians this morning set me thinking. It was 2019, that I last had my eyesight checked. I do know the recommendation is that you go for a check-up every 2 years. I am sure that there were many more tests and checks carried out today than in 2019 even and reading the bottom line of the chart on the wall is a practice that has completely vanished now, to be replaced by machines that check for other health conditions detectable through your eyes. Thankfully this morning they found only slight changes in my prescription and nothing to worry about. However I did worry a little about “consuming” yet another pair of glasses. As I wear them only for reading/screen work or driving my specs tend to stay in pretty good condition. I do try to reuse frames but sometimes it is not possible and often there is a good reason to buy new ones. With several pairs in various drawers, no longer of use to me, I thought it time to do some recycling/reusing research.

As expected, avoiding using resources unnecessarily, by reusing old frames for your new prescription lenses is the best option. This of course supposes that you can manage without your glasses for a week or two while the new lenses are set in the old frame.

According to US charity “All about vision” around 1,000,000,000 people globally live with vision impairment that could be rectified by a pair of glasses that they can’t afford. Your old reading glasses are very likely to need no more than cleaning up for someone else to benefit from using them. Even lenses with complex prescriptions can be matched with patients by specialists. Opticians and charity shops often belong to schemes to reuse pairs of glasses where they are most needed, so take old ones with you when you have your check up, the optician’s recycling box starts with reuse. Any that can’t be used in this way will be broken down and their components reused or recycled appropriately.

As I was searching up popped information about what to do with your old mobile phone. Much of it was pretty standard recommendations but amongst all that there were some intriguing ideas for repurposing mobile phones. Here’s a few from the list, turn your old phone into:-

  • a security camera
  • a baby monitor
  • a web cam
  • an audio player
  • a GPS device
  • a remote control

 

and if you’ve had enough of those you can always make sure the phone is properly recycled by a reputable recycling company who will ensure reuse of the valuable, scarce components in particular.

And the Keys?

Well, with keys best of all keep them with the lock, then they will always be useful. Except of course, if lock and key are together they are not doing their security job. Inevitably you end up with keys that you have no idea what for. They are mostly metal and can join the metal scrap at the recycling centre, cut off any plastic covers first.

Keys, as symbols of abstract ideas find their way into in lots of creative artwork. How about considering a garden sculpture?

The key to being a successful minimal consumer is awareness and motivation. So here’s a suggestion how about arranging a collection in your street of the unwanted spectacles, or phones and volunteer to get them to the right recycle/reuse/repurpose project.

You will motivate others and repurpose yourself for a short while.

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To join our Facebook group, please ‘friend up’ with the Gwen Fo account @ https://www.facebook.com/ gwen.fo.1 and then jon the Wenvoe Forum @ https://www.facebook.com/ groups/635369267864402

Some further information and updates, blog site https://wenvoeforum.wordpress.com/. Any Wenvoe community member is welcome to join the Forum meetings, via Zoom, which are normally held 19.00 on the second Thursday of each month. E-mail gwenfo.forum@gmail.com if you wish to join.

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