Month: February 2025

Perfumery – Did You Know?

PERFUMERY – DID YOU KNOW?

Eau de Toilette or Eau de Parfum?

While Eau de Toilette contains 5-9% of perfume oil, Eau de Parfum usually contains 8-14%. Eau de Parfums therefore last longer and smell more intense.

Natural or synthetic fragrances?

Perfumes with natural ingredients often smell different in batches based on the source of the ingredients, while synthetic ingredients usually have consistency in their smell and last longer.

Notes and different smell after application?

Perfumes are often designed with top, middle and base notes, and designed to smell differently based on the time after application. For example, some top note citrus scents smell stronger immediately upon application, while a lavender middle note may be sensed after some time from application as the top note evaporates.

80th Anniversary Of VE Day

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

80th Anniversary Of VE Day

This year sees the 80th anniversary of VE Day. May 8th 1945 was the day the war in Europe officially ended. I’ve been thinking of plants to grow to remember that time. As we know most gardens, parks and open spaces were turned over to produce vegetables and there was little room for flowers. Some flowers and weeds stayed long in the memory of people of that time. Rosebay willow herb, or fireweed as it was known during the war, grew in abundance on bomb sites, as it loved ground that had been subject to heat. Ragwort was also prevalent. These plants brought in the hawk moth and multiple insect life. Which in turn became breeding grounds for redstarts and wheatears, which had never been recorded in London before. The leaves and roots of deadly nightshade were collected from the countryside to extract atropine, a drug used in eye operations. The late Noel Williams, of Walston Close, remembered collecting foxgloves to aid the war effort as a teenager for its digitalis. This powerful drug was used for regulating heart rhythm.

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands took refuge in the United Kingdom during the war, she remembers the daisies being in bloom when her country was invaded. To her it always represented hope and resistance. Food became so scarce in her country during the war that tulip bulbs were a regular source of nutrition. The capital city of Canada is a riot of colour in the spring with millions of tulips in bloom. The Dutch still send 20,000 bulbs each year. These flowers serve as a tribute to the unique friendship between the people of Canada and the Netherlands which developed during the Second World War. Thanks to the authors for these extracts and of course google.

Reading about what was produced on allotments at that time it seems little has changed on the growing side of things except that broad beans were considered a waste because the varieties then had no resistance to blight. Modern hybrids, make for heavier yields of most veg today. They also give us a longer growing season, unless you have a plot at Twyn yr Odyn, where the weather can be a little inclement on occasion.

Take care and happy gardening.

THE VILLAGE GARDENER

 

Cwm Gynfig and St Athan

Cwm Gynfig near Margam Park

January produced some icy weather, causing anxiety about the forecast of snow flurries or freezing rain after 4pm. We parked on a road south of the route to avoid driving on icy/narrow country lanes. Although cold (layers were the order of the day) it was a beautiful sunny day, and we were soon striding out. Until we met streams of water running across the road, hiding black ice in places, when shorter tentative steps were taken.

We laughed at a sign on a gate ‘No Trespassing If you weren’t invited you aren’t welcome’. A field of goats were hidden by a hedge, but they ran around as we passed.

As we approached a farm, a woman came towards us asking ‘Where are you going?’. ‘How friendly’ I thought. But she changed her whole demeanour, became very angry and told us in no uncertain terms that there was no footpath through her land and if we went across the fields, we would find sheep, cows and bulls. Several people had maps in their hand and tried to explain quietly ‘look the footpath is on the map’. She would not listen to reason and berating us told us to go back down the hill and take another track; of course, the track was not a footpath. Our skilled navigators soon had us back on route and the rest of the walk passed without incident.

As the morning progressed ice on the paths melted but the frost remained with surrounding fields and tree stumps often retaining a sparkling white veneer. We had excellent paths throughout and walked a variety of areas – woodland, open spaces, and farmland. We spotted some fungi, foxglove seed heads, a buzzard and a heron.

As we gained height, we observed the devastation caused by recent storms. Trees tumbling over one another like matchsticks. Emerging from the forest it was very cold, and we walked faster.

 

An area where stones littered the ground, and heather grew proved excellent for lunch. Then we returned through the valley surrounded by rusty-brown, bracken covered hillsides – so much better to look at than walk through.

We enjoyed warming tea at Pyle Garden centre.

Walk 8m 1000ft. Map OS151/166

St Athan

Parking in Aberthaw we discovered that one of us (who will remain nameless but has experienced many years walking the footpaths of South Wales), realised he had brought two left footed boots and would have to walk in the shoes he was wearing!

It was a grey day with glimmers of sunshine. We started by walking back up the road to the coastal road, we stepped out quite smartly, hesitating only to look over the parapet at the structures within Aberthaw

We walked north across land associated with a castle and investigated the remains of a dovecote. Several trees had large black bracket fungus on their trunks. As we approached St Athan a large caravan/chalet park could be seen in the sunshine.

Turning south we could see the airport; several planes were parked up. Then our most experienced walker said, ‘I’ve never walked this path.’ It was a very short section, but the walk planner was very pleased to find something new!

On reaching the coast we scrambled over the stones and through the 2nd world war sea defences to gaze out to sea while we ate our lunch. The tide was out but five surfers entertained us by riding the slightest of waves.

This part of the coastal path was wet underfoot until we reached the firmer path in Aberthaw. A structure out at sea is the sea water intake used for cooling in the power station .There is a tunnel connecting the caisson to the land so personnel could walk out to it if required.

As a coal fired power station Aberthaw could supply enough power for 1.5 million households. It is now silent and there was evidence of buildings and contents being dismantled. When it was active, coal trains would come in and out of the site on a continuous railroad without stopping; the carriages released their load from the bottom onto a conveyor belt which carried the coal to a store. There is now a hill of coal ash at the edge of the site where several species have set up home.

Reaching the end of the high wall around the power station, we walked through the nature reserve back to the cars. Drinks in the Blue Anchor rounded the day off nicely. Walk 7.8m 280ft. Map OS151

Celebrating Three Engineers At Berwyn

CELEBRATING THREE ENGINEERS AT BERWYN NEAR LLANGOLLEN
Richard Roberts, Charles Bayer and Henry Robertson

On the 18 November 2024 a celebration of a Welsh, German and Scottish engineering circle, with local connections, took place with the unveiling of a plaque. The setting was Berwyn station (opened 1865) on the Llangollen Railway where Station Master Ben Jackson welcomed the special train from Llangollen station. The audience were warned that the handover address could potentially be three times as long as normal as this was about three engineers celebrated on ICE Wales Cymru’s first trilingual plaque!

Three engineers  a Welshman Richard Roberts (1789-1864), a Scotsman Henry Robertson (1816–1888) and a German Charles Beyer (1813-1876) who would become partners at some point in their careers, were connected to the locality and railways and locomotives. Richard Roberts was born at Llanymynech, Powys, close to the English border, some twenty miles away from Berwyn. During his early working life, he worked as a patternmaker and is remembered today as an engineer in the field of high precision machine tools who made a major contribution to production engineering and mass production. A prolific inventor, his automatic spinning mule of 1824 was mass produced by his company; Sharp, Roberts & Co., which would later build locomotives designed by Charles Frederick Beyer or Carl Friedrich Beyer, as he was christened. Beyer was a celebrated German-British locomotive designer and builder who is buried just a stone’s throw away, in Llantysilio churchyard. His house; Llantysilio Hall, was completed a few years before his death in 1874. He cofounded and was head designer and engineer of Beyer, Peacock & Co., the famous locomotive works at Gorton in Manchester established in 1854. Locomotive manufacturing continued up to the late 1950s. In 1966, after 112 years of operation, all production ceased with the company building nearly 8,000 locomotives. One built in 1856 for the Royal Swedish Railways, ‘Prins August’ is claimed to be the oldest working steam locomotive in original condition in the world.

Initially this partnership, with Richard Peacock, ran into funding problems bringing the famous contractor Thomas Brassey into the picture. Brassey persuaded Henry Robertson to become a sleeping partner in the venture. Henry Robertson was born at Banff, Scotland, he went to Aberdeen University taking up mining engineering but later concentrating on railway engineering. Sent in 1842 to report on mineral properties at Brymbo, he revived the Brymbo Ironworks and promoted the North Wales Mineral Railway which he would engineer with Thomas Brassey as contractor. Then the Chester to Shrewsbury line, with the Dee and Ceiriog viaducts, followed by the line from Ruabon to Llangollen, Corwen and Bala. At Brymbo he oversaw the changeover to steel production in 1884 as well as being an MP. In 1871, he built Palé Hall, a grand house eighteen miles away, where he passed away in 1888. The Llangollen Railway has a function room named in his honour at Llangollen Station.

Just a few years before the 1860 Act for this railway was obtained, the poet laureate; Alfred Lord Tennyson, was staying at Llangollen. It therefore seemed appropriate to incorporate part of a line from Locksley Hall as a railway motif and to acknowledge Richard Robert’s automatic spinning mule; ‘Let the great world spin for ever …’

Stephen K. Jones

 

Nest-boxes for Swifts and Swallows

Wenvoe Wildlife Group

Nest-boxes for Swifts and Swallows

By the time you read this the first of two Orchard pruning courses should have been held. We were delighted to host these as it means that some of our trees get a bit of professional TLC. We were also pleased to hear that the Welsh Ornithological Trust has given us a grant to install nest-boxes for both Swifts and Swallows. This will take place at Goldsland Farm. If you have not yet copied your Big Garden Birdwatch results to us it would be good to hear from you. We would hope to publish our local results in the next issue of What’s On. And, finally, the first of our new programme of nest-box installations has taken place thanks to Mike Tucker. This is clearly visible as you drive or walk past the Village Green

 

Sybil Green’s Orange Fruited Teabread

Sybil Green Recommends

Orange Fruited Teabread

You may well remember Irene Canning who owned and ran Gibsons, later to become Quayles, a lovely restaurant in Romilly Crescent. This easy recipe came from her grandmother, ideal for Christmas left -over mincemeat.

Ingredients

4 ozs butter or margarine

8 ozs self raising flour

3 ozs caster sugar

2 eggs

8 ozs mincemeat

3 fl ozs orange juice

zest of 1 orange

  1. Heat oven to 180/350/4
  2. Grease a 2lb loaf tin (or use a liner, much easier!)
  3. Rub the butter into the flour and add the sugar
  4. Beat the eggs and add to the flour mixture with all the other ingredients. The mixture should be soft enough to drop easily from a spoon given a little shake. If too stiff add a little milk
  5. Put into tin and smooth the top.
  6. Bake for 1 – 11/4 hours. It should be golden brown and firm to the touch. Turn out onto a cool-ing rack.

This cake is lovely when fresh, or buttered if a little stale, or even as an impromptu pudding warmed in the microwave and served with custard

Traditional ‘Lucky Dip’ At Christmas

‘Lucky Dips’ At Christmas

It has become somewhat of a tradition for a ‘lucky dip’ at Christmas for the Page Turners group. Everybody wraps a book and it is pot luck what you pull out of the hat. At our January meeting, members share their surprise gift.

This year was no exception with some members delighted with their find and others less so as gifts ranged from known and loved authors to short stories (as ever varied), to one person who was lucky enough to receive 2 books and one of them even had 2 books within 1!!!

A brief synopsis:

  • Maggie O’Farrell’s, “This Must Be The Place” was agreed to be read by the group for a future meeting as all had previously thoroughly enjoyed her writing.
  • “The Essex Serpent” by Sarah Perrin had been read by the group many years ago and was enjoyed by a new member.
  • “Cold Comfort Farm”, short stories by Stella Gibbons, whilst easy reading was recommended as a group read.
  • “The Sky Beneath Us” by Fiona Valpy, again described as a simple read but not recommended for the group.
  • “Ghost” by Robert Harris, whilst described as excellent by the reader, was felt not to be up to his usual very high standard of research and analysis.
  • “Burmese Days” by George Orwell didn’t go down a storm as the characters were described as unlikeable and uninteresting, the setting equally so.
  • “The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts” by Louis de Berniere was confusing initially and at times hilarious to read.
  • “The Woman on the Ledge” by Ruth Manseni, a thriller, was a great page turner;
  • “Mrs Harris Goes to Paris” AND “Mrs Harris Goes to New York” was great and the New York book built on her Paris adventures.
  • “Mystery Guest” by Nita Prose was described as written by an amateur Agatha Christie and not recommended for book club.

Once again we were fortunate enough to sample Babs’s Christmas cake which was up to her usual very high standards!!

Memories of Christmas  

Memories of Christmas  Etc

How was your Christmas of 2024? Was it spent with family and friends gathered around the table groaning with turkey and pigs in blankets, followed by lashings of Christmas Pudding. Or is it but a pleasant memory of an event which often begins with the carols on the radio heard in mid November and the stores filled with Christmas decorations from early September. The secular world starts its annual observance of the birth of Jesus months before the 25th of December, and yet by the 26th, the carols have stopped playing, the stores hope that the shelves will be empty, and what is left are subject to heavy discounting. How different is the celebration of Christmas in church,. First we have the short season of Advent to prepare for Christmas, the lighting of the Advent candles Sunday by Sunday tells us that we need patience before we get to the big day.

In the church’s calendar Christmas is followed by Epiphany, with the visit of the three magi, who having followed the star which lead them to the baby Jesus, with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Having been warned in a dream that Herod the king intended to kill all first born baby boys, the Holy Family left for sanctuary in Egypt and the magi returned to their distant lands. Lyndon in his sermon showed the congregation the empty stable wherein the Saviour of the World was born but now completely empty of man and beast.

In Tudor times it was the custom to celebrate the 12 days of Christmas after the big day, with much feasting and jollification. Now we celebrate long before the day and are only too anxious to put away decorations, make the left over turkey into sandwiches, curries and the like. But in church St. Mary’s like all churches continue to celebrate the Birth of Jesus until the feast of Candlemas on the February 2nd. By tradition it was on this day that all the candles used in church for the coming year were blessed, hence the name, and Christmas of 2024/25 was finally laid to rest.

Looking back we had a good celebration here in Wenvoe, our carol service of Nine Lessons and Carols set the scene with the true story of Christmas. The church was well attended for the services on Christmas Eve and on Christmas morning at St. Bleddians. We thank everyone who helped with decorating the churches, those who arranged the services, chose the carols and hymns, read the lessons, and generally helped to make sure that all went without a hitch. Diolch Thankyou.

Now we turn our thoughts to the year 2025, and there is much to plan for but first we have the season of Lent which begins with the ASH Wednesday ceremonies on March 5th. as itemised below..

Lent 2025

Ash Wednesday, 5th March 10am – St Mary the Virgin, Wenvoe– Holy Eucharist & Imposition of Ashes 7pm –- St John the Baptist, Sully – Holy Eucharist & Imposition of Ashes This is the day we

begin our penitential season of Lent with the remembrance that we are mortal symbolized by receiving ashes on the forehead.

Lenten Weekday Eucharist on Wednesdays at 10am, 1st and 3rd Wednesday in Wenvoe & 2nd and 4th Wednesdays in Sully.

Lenten Meditation An opportunity to deepen our inner life – 30 minutes of silence bracketed with prayers. Please note rotating locations. Come to some or all.

Mondays 4:30-5pm at St Bleiddian’s Church, St Lythans – March 10, 17, 24, 31 April 7

Tuesdays 4:30-5pm at St Mary’s Church, Wenvoe. –March 11, 18, 25 ;April 1 8

Wednesdays 4:30-5pm at St John’s Church, Sully. – March 6, 13, 20, 27 April 3 (Not on 10 April)

The arrangements for the celebration of Easter will be in the March edition of “What’s On”.

During the year our faithful congregation have supported a number of charities with donations of money collected when need arises. Among these are Ty Hafan, in Sully at Christmas Time, the Royal British Legion at Remembrance tide and during the year our main charity we support is Christian Aid. Jude Billingham is our contact with the Christian Aid and we thank her and her team of helpers with organizing the collecting buckets and the counting and verifying monies donated. The response to Christian Aid is community wide and we are very grateful for this and for the Gift Aid declarations which swell the donation by a further 25%. We are confident that the money given does reach the intended communities who are suffering from many causes often by climate change or natural disasters.

See Jude’s account of the Christmas 2024 appeal below.

There will be much more to report in future editions of “What’s On” and we thank the team for all the hard work and hours they put in to ensure that your copy is with you towards the end of the month.

But for now, thank you for reading the church news. A welcome awaits you to join in our services.

Every Blessing on you and your families

 

Parry

 

Five Mile Lane’s Hidden Past

FIVE MILE LANE’S HIDDEN PAST

Most of us will have been familiar with the old narrow twisty, turny, downright dangerous section of the A4226 “Five Mile Lane” immediately north of Barry. The Vale of Glamorgan Council had plans to improve this section of road but before construction could commence a range of environmental studies had to be undertaken.

It has been long known that this area has a rich historical heritage spanning the preceding 6000 years. Witness the evidence provided by the neolithic burial chambers at St Lythans and Tinkingswood, the unearthing of various Bronze and Iron Age structures and artifacts locally and the well known remains of Roman villas at Barry Knap and Witton Lodge, the latter being actually on the alignment of the Five Mile Lane.

So, alongside special environment studies, the Council and the Welsh Assembly Government commissioned the archaeological investigations firm Rubicon Heritage in the period 2017 to 2019 to add to the knowledge previously gained in earlier studies.

The “dig” undertaken by Rubicon encompassed the full extent of the footprint of the envisaged new road. The revealed treasure trove of burials (some 456 in number), artifacts, foundations of buildings and the like exceeded all expectations. In fact, beyond the pre-historic and Roman attributes, it also revealed a surprising glimpse into early medieval life (5th to mid 13th centuries).Prior to this study that medieval period of Welsh history had been poorly understood. For instance it was found that during this period pre-historic burial mounds were re-purposed as witnessed by some 378 burials in that period. This image is of a Medieval Christian burial located within a re-used Bronze Age burial monument.

In summary, the dig uncovered a previously unknown multi-period landscape which has been used in many ways since humans first settled in this area.

The archaeologists were able to trace the development of this swathe of land, uncovering many surprises along the way.

One cannot help but wonder how much more of our history lies buried in the Vale of Glamorgan for future generations to discover.

The purpose of this article has been to present a brief overview of the study and the findings to date. For a comprehensive insight visit https://www.rubiconheritage.com/ publications-and-articles.html and follow the links to Volumes 1 and 2 of their Five Mile Lane articles.

Alternatively, copies of those publications have been placed in the Wenvoe Hub for reference.

Tony Hodge, who thanks Rubicon for permission to reproduce the illustrations.

Fun Fact: The Five Mile Lane as we know it is only four miles long. The missing mile is now Pontypridd Road, Barry.

Cows Bulls And Other Challenges

COWS BULLS AND OTHER CHALLENGES

As we walked into the quiet village of Rhémes Notre Dame in the Italian Aosta valley the village clock rang out the time. It was half-past three in the afternoon and still very hot. The sundial on the church spire looked down on us with the inscription “Nos jours passent comme l’ombre” or our days pass like shadows.

Footpath Along the Alta Via 2 High-Level Route

We were hiking a high-level route through the Italian alps and this was day six, so we were now fairly fit. Our route was called the Alta Via 2 which runs across the grain of the alps, it took my wife Isobel and me ten days and we walked 143 km. Much of the route passes through the Gran Paradiso National Park and the paths in many places are well made because in 1856 King Vittorio Emanuele 2 had created a Royal Game Reserve and tracks had been laid to allow his entourage to move easily between the hunting lodges. This ensured good hunting for the King but also protected the native Ibex and chamois which were in decline. The ibex, in particular, was hunted because it was regarded as a “walking pharmacy “as their blood, horns, bones and even droppings were used in a variety of remedies. The paths were now two hundred years old, but in parts, the ancient paving was still in place that was originally laid so that the baggage train of mules carrying cooks, food and cooking equipment could be set up in the hunting lodges before the arrival of the royal party. When we found these paths still in good condition, they speeded up our pace considerably.

Our hotel the Galisia, was in the centre of this small pretty village and we soon settled in and ordered cold beers to drink in the sunny garden. We chose a table and sat down to relax and stretch our legs after the hard day of hiking. But no sooner had we settled than there was a virtual eclipse as the sun disappeared. We realised that we were in a high sided valley and the whole valley was now in shade. The lack of sun also meant that the clothes we had worn and washed were now not drying as we hoped – but worse things have happened. Our stay in the Galisia was comfortable and the supper they served was tasty and substantial. With coffee we drank Genepy the “digestif” flavoured with wormwood which grows wild on the alpine pastures. It was a fitting end to my birthday.

The next morning, my diary records, that breakfast was a spartan affair with no meats or cheese, just bread and jam and coffee. So, we did not linger as the pass we had to climb was at 2840 metres and we were at 1722 metres. There was a challenging vertical kilometre to climb before midday. Our path out of the village soon led to a narrow wooded valley down which a stream tumbled. We zig-zagged steeply up through the pine trees until the path levelled off and we got our breath back. This was pleasant walking and we had made a good dent into the height we had to climb.

We soon came to pasture with a small shepherd’s hut and around it was a herd of Valdostana Castana, the native cows of the area which are noted for their “vivacious and warlike temperament”! We have met many types of cows over the years and our standard tactic is to take a long detour around them, however frustrating that can be. But on this occasion, we were constricted by the raging torrent of a stream on our left and a high cliff to the right of the path. Now some cows will continue to chew the cud as you approach, others will drift away out of timidity but this small herd of about fifteen full-grown animals were walking fast towards us. There are many records of walkers being trampled to death in these circumstances, so we decided to back off and retraced our steps. Just behind us was a large rock about the size of a delivery van. I called to Isobel to climb up fast – she replied that she could not do that with her rucksack on. Her back was to the cows as she considered the sides of the rock upon which I was now perched. When I said that the cows were now very close, she suddenly found that she could climb up and join me after all. From this safe but uncomfortable stance, we could see that the leader of the herd was a large bull with horns about four feet across. He was now pawing the brown dry soil with his forefeet and eyeballing us from about thirty feet. I felt he would have been able to get at us where we were so I suggested to Isobel that we drop over the large boulder to the streamside where there was a ledge before the long drop to the stream below. Isobel replied quite firmly that she was not able to climb over to the ledge where I was now standing. Then the bull moved forward and suddenly Isobel found the strength and courage to vault the top of the boulder and join me on the ledge while avoiding looking at the drop to the stream. Being safe we now began to see the funny side of things and so we shared some sweets and the minutes passed by. Before long the bull had been lured away by some pretty cows and we were able to climb back down to the path. We did reach the col, or high point, before midday and only stopped for a bowl of polenta at a high mountain refuge before descending to our day’s objective the attractive but modest ski resort of Valgrisenche, where we celebrated our safe arrival with two large pink Magnums.

 

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