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.

Many Thanks To All From Playgroup

WENVOE PLAYGROUP NEWS AND EVENTS

Registered Charity, right in the heart of the Village.

www.wenvoeplaygroup.co.uk

Firstly, we would like to thank some of our local businesses, and fundraisers for supporting our Christmas fundraising events. They are;-

The Wenvoe Arms – Sunday lunch for two.

Springfield stores – Chocolates,

Bluebird Care Culverhouse cross – A Hamper of Christmas prosecco & treats.

Tesco Culverhouse cross – Selection box for each child.

The Tuckers – A lovely Christmas throw & more

It is good to know that local businesses & charity fundraisers support their local charity, so thank you all.

We would like to thank S.R. Davis Ltd – Poultry Wholesaler in Barry for their donation of 2 turkey breasts and Weddel Swift Distribution Ltd. for meat donations.

We would also like to express our thanks to the Ivy Cardiff, who donated a three-course meal with wine voucher and Pasture Restaurant Cardiff, who donated a fifty-pound food voucher. These raffle prizes were sourced for us through J.T. Morgan Butchers Cardiff, who purchase from the wholesalers and supply the two restaurants. Many thanks to all from Playgroup.

Latest news

Moving forward from January 2025, Playgroup will be enrolling children from the age of 2 years. We will be working through our waiting lists, to fill our few remaining places to the end of summer term 2025. Should you be thinking of joining the Playgroup, then please do email us a.s.a.p. We have waiting lists up to January 2026. Even if your circumstances change nearer the time you wish to start, it is worth adding your child’s name to the waiting list, especially for September 2025.

We have just received news, that we have been successful in a grant application, made to the Vale of Glamorgan Early years. Monies have been made available to upgrade and refresh part of the ladies’ toilets at the Village Hall. We have also been successful in obtaining monies to update the garden area and furniture within the playroom.

We have received over £30,000 in the past three years to support Playgroup operation. In-turn, the improvements made, also support all who hire and use the Village Hall. We are extremely grateful to the Early Years Childcare Grant panel for supporting us, to ensure we meet the needs of the children. These grants will allow us to operate successfully from the Village Hall, by achieving the National Minimum Standards set by Welsh Government, Care Inspectorate Wales.

I understand that we are one of the very few Playgroups remaining in the Vale, surviving these challenging times, so thanks to everyone, who continues to support the group.

For further information, please visit our website www.wenvoeplaygroup.co.uk where you will find more about us. Please view our Statement of Purpose, Admissions policy, and Operational plan, along with many more policies and procedures.

January Meeting of Wenvoe W.I.

WOMEN’S INSTITUTE

January Meeting of Wenvoe W.I.

Wenvoe WI met on Thursday 2nd January – their first meeting of 2025. The meeting was well attended with just a few absentees, considering the adverse weather and the season of flu and colds.

This meeting was what has become our traditional annual ‘Bring and Buy’. Items for sale consisted of household gadgets, Books, calendars, toiletries and ornaments, as well as other unwanted gifts and unworn new clothes. Business was brisk, and we donated a substantial amount of the proceeds to Ty Hafan – our Charity for this year. This was followed by a quiz.

Our next meeting will be held on Thursday 6th Feb at 7pm in the Church Hall. On that occasion Mr Stephen Jones, a local historian will speak about the history and growth of Wenvoe village.

Our membership has increased considerably over the last year, and any potential new members and ‘tasters’ are always assured of a warm welcome.

The members wish all readers a very happy and successful New Year.

 

Jan Young (President)

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!!

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