The Saved and Remade Workshop Appeal
. The Saved and Remade Workshop Appeal
For more info visit
https://www.redskyproductions.co.uk/take-part
Month: March 2022
February Letters
Graham Davies R I P
Pat and family would like to thank everyone for the kind messages sent to us after the death of Graham at home on 3 January 2022. We have been overwhelmed by all the flowers, cards, letters of sympathy and support that we as a family have received.
Pat Davies.
Ann, Darren, Claire & children would like to thank friends & neighbours for all cards, flowers and offers of help during their resent sad and sudden loss of Philip. Thank you all and God bless.
Ann Dwyer
Carbon Monoxide (The Silent Killer).
I write this letter with regards to the potential hazards of carbon monoxide poisoning due to defective appliances. I write out of genuine concern for people’s safety.
It’s that time of year when central heating boilers have been adjusted from providing twice a day hot water to providing all day heating thus having to work a lot harder. If there is a fault the winter months will find it but also, as my wife and I experienced, any faults can lead to more serious issues such as a build up of potentially lethal levels of CARBON MONOXIDE. You have seen the adverts for the ‘silent killer’ but when we were suffering all sorts of symptoms we did not put two and two together. Our boiler had been a stalwart for over 20yrs and reliable so ‘ why change it’. Despite the symptoms which didn’t exactly match the normal ie we had, tingling skin, redness of complexion; apart from not being able to get up in the mornings, and a long career in the fire service we just didn’t twig it, until, on starting to put the heating on all day at this time of year the penny finally dropped as one evening we both felt awful and I finally ‘twigged it’.
What an idiot. The rest is history, shut off boiler, got emergency gas out etc. My wife and I visited our Doctors for blood tests and both had levels of CO equivalent to a cigarette smoker but neither of us had ever smoked. So it appeared that our symptoms were a very slow poisoning process which went over months until the boiler’s weakness was finally exposed, (incidentally we had a CO alarm which was testing OK but we can only assume the levels through summer months with daily ventilation etc did not trigger the lower limit sensitivity of the device, although it was an old detector).
We changed boiler of course and now have an ANNUAL GAS SAFETY CHECK (approx. cost £50 to £100) depending on Gas Safe or OFTEC engineer, but it is worth every penny to protect yourself and loved ones. Of course it is not just old boilers that go wrong so as a matter of course have your boiler checked annually.
And install a Carbon Monoxide Alarm or Alarms in accordance with the relevant manufacturer’s instructions.
The principle of course applies to the checking of all fuel burning boilers / heaters etc. but the message is the same and is simple – Annual Gas Safety Check of Appliances and an appropriate provision of Carbon Monoxide Detectors for your property.
Of course an annual gas safety check doesn’t prevent subsequent leaks but combined with a suitable provision of Carbon Monoxide Detector it is very obvious that this protection improves the odds in favour of you and your loved ones.
When installing new appliances always use the relevant Gas Safe or Oftec Registered engineers to ensure the appliance’s safety from the outset.
Just to add some footnotes to this don’t forget that if you, or anybody you know, live in rented accommodation your Landlord has a legal duty to organise a competent engineer to carry out an annual safety check of any gas boiler in the premises.
You may also wish to check that any self-catering accommodation that you book for holiday breaks eg the very popular ‘air B& B’s’ have had appropriate safety checks carried out to relevant appliances.
St Lythans resident
Clytha
Clytha
On a March Day in 2018 we visited Clytha and I opened my write-up of the walk with ‘snow flurries and hills dusted with white’. It was bitterly cold with icy winds which made us pull hats down to our eyebrows and on that day, we trudged through mud and flooded lanes. Four years on and a month earlier, the weather forecast was blustery with showers and heavy rain after 2pm but still relatively mild.
We travelled to the National Trust car park at Clytha Park. Our route, reverse direction to our previous visit, was described as a ‘snowdrop walk’ and we were eager to spot the gorgeous flowers which push up through the earth so early in the year and presage the advance of winter and the coming spring.
Our walk was based on a route from the National Trust website and took us on some permissive paths (allowed by a landowner) which are not shown on OS maps. We set off south, along the river Usk which was fairly full and came to a good strong footbridge, crossing a small stream, but it was tilted at about 10° – very strange. The river Usk is a designated SSSI, and a special Area of Conservation well known for salmon and trout. Otters, dippers, sand martins, kingfishers and bats live in or near this stretch of the river.
We were pleased to find our first snowdrops, a small clump on the bank of the river. Soon we found a mat of white snowdrops in the undergrowth and a spread of bright blue and pink flowers of lungwort (pulmonaria) glowing in the shade. Lungwort is named after the white splodges on some leaves which resemble diseased appearance of the lungs. It is used by herbalists to treat coughs and bronchitis and can also be used as an astringent. Nearby were tight clumps of pink flowers on bare branches of viburnum. All cheering us on a grey winter’s day, especially when we found a carpet of snowdrops under a hedge which covered about 20ft.
A long line of mole hills would suggest a good population of moles here but who knows as… ‘Mole activity is usually greatest in late winter and early spring and moles are very territorial and in many cases the mole hills seen in a garden are the activity of just one individual. ‘
Leaving the river, we followed the road to Bettws Newydd. A small village which boasts a Grade II listed, stone well ‘Erected by those who love him, to the memory of William Richard Stretton of Brynderwyn, who died 24th March 1868’. The 17th century, Black Bear Inn emanated enticing smells of bacon cooking – willpower and the threat of rain later kept us walking.
Pretty black faced sheep stood framed by the outlines of the Blorenge, Sugarloaf and Skirrid on the distant horizon, clear at the beginning of the walk but now wreathed in dark black clouds and probably heavy rain.
Coed y Bwnydd beckoned us in. It was presented to the NT by Captain Geoffrey Crawshay in memory of Sgt R.A. Owens, RAF who died aged 21 in World War II. Snowdrops carpeted the whole of the wood, breath-taking! Later in the year you can see bluebells and orchids. We climbed to a hillfort; where human involvement goes back over 2000 years and sat on a tree trunk to enjoy a well-earned lunch.
Now we were on the final stretch. We passed Clytha castle, an C18th folly, in the care of the Landmark trust and available to rent, and the Clytha Arms. It started to rain but we voted to complete the walk rather than dash for the cars which were close by. We skirted Chapel Farm with the remains of Capel Aeddan, a chapel dedicated to St Aythean, thought to be founded in C12th. All that survives is an L-shaped wall footing but we couldn’t spot it. The stone may have been used on Chapel Farm, where a substantial C17th house with stone-mullion windows was added to a C16th stone house with upper crucks.
We went down into woods where one of us was inspired to give us a short excerpt from Hamlet! Then a short walk along Clawdd Brook and we re-joined the river Usk espying a red kite soaring above us and a buzzard being mobbed by crows.
Trees had provided colour all day. Early, yellow, hazel catkins could be spotted hanging and
blowing in the breeze. Birch skeletons stood with drooping branches covered in pink/ purple buds. And most notable, large clumps of Mistletoe had been a constant companion sitting high up in many of the trees. It grows in hawthorn, poplar, and lime as well as the apple trees with which most people associate it.
A lovely walk with excellent views and dry weather until after lunch with sunny spells, how lucky we are! Walk 8.7miles, 900ft. Map OL13
Considering Today and Tomorrow
WENVOE FORUM
Considering Today and Tomorrow
Global gas prices have seen record increases over the last 6 months, with wholesale prices quadrupling in the last year. They are set to rise further, and with the knock-on effect to electricity production, the Ofgem energy price cap is due to increase by £693 from 1 April for around 22m UK customers. This will impact all of us to a greater or lesser extent, and Government is looking at a range of packages to help alleviate the financial situation.
A recent article sparked in me a degree of hope. Oxford scientists announced that they had smashed a previous record for generating fusion energy, hailing it as a ‘milestone’ on the path to cheaper, cleaner power and a cooler planet.
Nuclear fusion is the process that the sun uses to generate heat. By forcing together atomic nuclei, at high speed, energy can be released and used to generate electricity. Operating the power plants of the future based on fusion would produce no greenhouse gases and only very small amounts of short-lived radioactive waste. Proponents believe it could one day help address climate change by providing an abundant, safe and green source of energy.
The team at the Joint European Torus (JET) facility at Oxford generated 59 megajoules of energy for five seconds during an experiment in December, more than doubling a 1997 record according to the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).
That is the equivalent energy needed to power 35,000 homes for the same period of time, or boil 60 kettles. The UKAEA claim the results “are the clearest demonstration worldwide of the potential for fusion energy to deliver safe and sustainable low-carbon energy”.
Great news I thought, except that the article went on to say that the practical benefits would not be realised for 20 years, at the earliest, more likely during the second half of the century.
In the slightly nearer-term, wind and solar-power generation is developing along with better insulation projects, heat pumps, hydrogen boilers, energy efficiency schemes and community energy generation, they are expensive but will eventually ease the economic problems and help to address global warming.
So, what can be done to help bridge the gaps in the meantime? Various websites offer a range of energy- (and money) saving tips that can help.
The Which website offers 10 key ways to save on energy bills, see below (with more detailed information on their website). The eco-friendly habits website (also below) offers 37 specific tips for both money-saving and energy conservation, and the
U-switch website (also below) offers a staggering 98 tips. We hope some of these will help.
- Review your energy bills: small savings are available
- Choose energy-efficient appliances
- Add to your insulation
- Consider a new boiler
- Replace light bulbs with low-energy options
- Install / make use of your central heating controls
- Fit draught proofing
- Use less hot water
- Find out if you could get energy efficiency grants or free cash
10.Consider the wider range of quick energy-saving tips
Finally, if you want to be part of the ongoing Forum discussion and help to shape any future schemes for Wenvoe, please get in touch, via gwenfo.forum @gmail.com.
For further reading / information:
https://phys.org/news/2022-02-scientists-britain-fusion-energy.html
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/price-cap-increase-ps693-april
https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/cutting-your-energy-bills/article/how-to-save-on-your-energy-bill/10-ways-to-save-on-energy-bills-aX2RS8b8llMR
https://www.ecofriendlyhabits.com/how-to-conserve-energy/
https://www.uswitch.com/energy-efficiency/free-energy-saving-tips/
In the meantime we’ll be keeping a look out for schemes available in Wales to help those finding energy price increases difficult to manage. We will put information on our Blog site https://wenvoeforum.wordpress.com/
Any Wenvoe community member is welcome to join the Forum meetings, via Zoom, held at 19.00 on the second Thursday of each month. Next meeting 10th March. E-mail gwenfo.forum@gmail.com if you wish to come along.
Port Road History
PORT ROAD
Named Port Road because it connected Cardiff to the port at Aberthaw which existed long before a port was constructed in Barry
Port Road construction past the village © 1930
Port Road Nant Isaf junction © 1975
Port Road new junction to Wenvoe quarry© 1980
Village fete parade along Port Road on its way to Station Road playing fields © 1987
Port Road – start of Covid lockdown March 2020
Walk For Pia
WALK FOR PIA
Sadly in September of 2021, Pia Eaves lost her battle with Pancreatic cancer, despite being only 54 and an ultra-fit triathlete and fitness coach. Her husband Simon, daughters Rhiannon (21) and Emilia (18) and brother-in-law Kevin, are turning her loss into something positive to help others.
In homage to her love of Gavin & Stacey – watched whilst living in Dubai, to “stay Welsh” – the family (once of Orchard Close) are walking from the home of Gavin in Billericay to Barrybados, specifically Marcos, where Pia worked as a teenager.
Arriving on May 1st, to coincide with Pia’s birthday and wedding anniversary, the family welcome support for their 200 mile walk. Their journey can be followed on www.walkforpia.co.uk, and any donations are welcomed, with thanks.
Many thanks for your consideration,
Kevin Eaves Mobile: 07966861124
February Book Choices
Snap by Belinda Bauer
On a stifling summer’s day, eleven-year-old Jack and his two sisters sit in their broken-down car, waiting for their mother to come back and rescue them. ‘Jack’s in charge,’ she said. ‘I won’t be long.’
But she doesn’t come back. She never comes back. And life as the children know it is changed for ever.
Three years later, mum-to-be Catherine wakes to find a knife beside her bed, and a note that says: I could have killed you.
Meanwhile Jack is still in charge of his sisters, of supporting them all, of making sure nobody knows they’re alone in the house, and – quite suddenly – of finding out the truth about what happened to his mother.
But the truth can be a dangerous thing …
A taut, suspenseful new novel from award-winning thriller author Belinda Bauer in which a woman being menaced by a knife-wielding home invader is connected to a string of burglaries in a quaint bedroom community, and the brutal murder that left three children motherless three years before.
The group scored an average of 7 for this quirky and well written thriller. Overall, it was described as an easy, enjoyable read.
There were a number of threads which initially some found quite confusing but it was interesting to see how these all came together at the end. Good descriptions of characters and environments in the story although there were also a number of unrealistic situations. A number of the group would recommend it to others to read
Cold Comfort Farm
OFF THE SHELF
Book Review for Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
The plot is simplistic and was written as a comedy about rural life in the 1920s. When it was first published in 1932 it was not without its critics, but it did sell very well. Flora Poste, the main character, was orphaned at 19 when her parents were both carried off by the 1919 Spanish flu epidemic, and she was left penniless. Her only option is to throw herself on the charity of her remote Sussex relatives, the Starkadders who live in Cold Comfort Farm. This desolate and ominous place is full of miserable, brooding, and overpowering characters, where even the animals are all full of gloom. Big Business the dominant bull, reigns over a hopeless herd of Jersey cows, ridiculously named: Graceless, Pointless, Aimless, and Feckless. They do all add to some memorable, comical, and bizarre accounts, such as the references to the cow with three legs, which reminded one group member of the cleverly written Monty Python sketches. Cousin Amos preaching hellfire and damnation to the congregation of the Church of the Quivering Brethren is another such high point in the book.
As the rustic mayhem unfolds, Miss Poste, who is a modern bossy-boots, decides that it’s her mission to bring a “higher common sense” to the lives of her relatives.
There were divided opinions on the book as some felt that there were too many questions left unanswered, the ending was too simplistic and there was a condescending pitch that the Starkadders’ lives needed ‘mending’. Generally, a well-liked book and the group scored it 7 out of 10.
A Bright Little Town With A Very Dark Story
A BRIGHT LITTLE TOWN WITH A VERY DARK STORY
Hay on Wye is a historic market town in Breconshire which has become world-famous as a “town of books”. It is a pretty, busy place with small independent shops selling everything from high-end fashion to agricultural equipment and of course the 21 bookshops. There are at least six pubs and a range of good restaurants with Chapters recently added to the Michelin guide. It is a great day out being only an hour and twenty minutes from Wenvoe
We walked into Hay on a cold sunny day in January and learnt the story of the infamous “poisoner of Hay”, a chilling tale which I will tell you here. Herbert Rowse Armstrong was a solicitor and convicted murderer, the only solicitor in the history of the United Kingdom to have been hanged for murder. As a leading solicitor, he had a fine office in the centre of Hay and lived just outside the town in Cusop. He practised law from 1906 until his arrest on 31 December 1921 for the attempted murder of a professional rival by arsenic poisoning. He was later also charged with, and convicted of, the murder of his wife, the crime for which he was executed.
Herbert Amstrong was born in Plymouth and his family later moved to Liverpool. From school, he went to Cambridge where he read law. Once qualified he worked as a solicitor in England before he successfully applied for a vacancy in Hay-on-Wye in 1906. The next year he married an old sweetheart Katharine Friend, who was known as Kitty.
The legal practice thrived and the family moved into a large house where they brought up three children, two girls and a boy. On the outbreak of the First World War Herbert joined the army and served in France in the Royal Engineers, rising to the rank of Major. He was later awarded the Territorial Decoration, a medal for loyal and long service.
In May 1919, not long after Herbert had returned from the war, Kitty’s health deteriorated. She was seen by various doctors and spent some time in a mental asylum. Her symptoms were a bit of a mystery, but she became well enough to return home in January 1921. It was noted that her husband took good care of her and would sit by her bed reading to her. Sadly, exactly a month later on 22nd February
1921 she died. Her death certificate stated that she died of “gastritis, aggravated by heart disease and nephritis.”
Mrs Armstrong had an overbearing personality and was not popular in the village. Her husband on the other hand had a string of affairs while he was away during the war, and on his return, he would attend village dances on his own. If he had anything to do with the death of his wife, he did well to avoid suspicion.
However – Herbert Armstrong had a rival solicitor in Hay and the two lawyers were locked in a dispute over a property deal. A deposit on the sale had been paid to Armstrong but it seems that he had gambled it away. Oswald Martin, his adversary, put pressure on him to come up with the money and Armstrong invited him to come to tea to discuss things. On 26th October 1921, Martin arrived and was given a scone with his tea. When he arrived home, he was violently ill. Martin’s father-in-law was the chemist in Hay and he became suspicious and remembered selling Armstrong some arsenic for use as a weedkiller. The local doctor noted how the symptoms which Martin suffered from were like those of Kitty Armstrong.
It was subsequently discovered that a few weeks before the tea party, a box of chocolates had been anonymously sent to the Martins. Mrs Martin’s sister-in-law had eaten some and become violently ill. Fortunately, some chocolates remained and when examined some were found to have a small hole in the base. Dr Hincks contacted the Home Office and explained his suspicions about what had happened to Martin, and also voiced suspicions about Mrs Armstrong’s death. Samples of the chocolates and Martin’s urine were examined and found to contain arsenic, and the Home Office then passed the case to Scotland Yard. Armstrong was arrested on 31st December 1921 and was found to have a packet of arsenic in his pocket. He was charged with the intended murder of Oswald Martin. The body of Kitty Armstrong was exhumed and found to be riddled with arsenic. So in January 1922, Armstrong was also charged with the “wilful murder of his wife”. He strongly protested his innocence on both charges.
The trial was held in Hereford on 3rd April 1922 and the legal proceedings ended the following month. Armstrong was hanged on 31st May and the hangman said his last words were “Kitty I’m coomin to ye!”. Earlier that morning the prison governor asked him if he had anything to say to which he replied, “I am innocent of the crime for which I have been condemned to die.”
Over the years there has been much debate about the case, especially as arsenic was an ingredient in some medicines at the time. There is a view that this was a miscarriage of justice, and that Armstrong was wrongly convicted. If an innocent man was hanged, we can at least be grateful that in the UK the death penalty was abolished in 1964.
