ABERTILLERY & DISTRICT MUSEUM SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER June 2007

Museum News

We anticipate that the Museum refit will be completed in July.  Next month’s Newsletter will update you, as will any of our volunteers in the Museum itself which will continue to take phone calls during the opening times set out opposite, although we have to close to the public from 4^th June for safety purposes.  As always, if you’d like to be more actively involved when we reopen, volunteers are very welcome.

Lecture Programme – May’s lecture on the Crawshays of Cyfarthfa Castle gave us a fascinating insight into the rise and fall of that particular line of the Crawshay family.  Scott Reid brought the family to life as characters in their own right, rather than just names from history, and as well as slides of paintings and other illustrations, we saw some of the photographs taken by one of the Crawshays who was a keen photographer (much to his daughter’s dismay no doubt as she had the thankless task of developing the prints with little protection against the chemicals used).  The lecture ended with many of us promising ourselves a repeat visit to the museum at Cyfarthfa Castle. 

The new lecture series starts in September. Once again our Programme Secretary, Marge Selway, has organised a varied programme with something for all tastes.

Help! We need unwanted gifts etc for use in the 50p bran tub which the Museum Society is running at the open air stalls in Church Street on Saturday 23^rd June as part of the Aberfest programme. Please contact Enid Dean or Margaret Gilson.  We hope you’ll support Aberfest with its exciting week-long programme of events (and our own stall on the Saturday!).

Also needed – volunteers to run a Museum stall at Six Bells Fete on 7^th July.

We are also looking for donations of wine. Why? See page 4! 

Museum opening times
The Museum is open to the public, free of charge:
Monday - Thurs 10am - 1pm     2pm - 4pm
Friday                 10am - 1pm
Saturday             10am - 1pm
Museum phone number 01495 211140. Visitors and volunteers are always welcome so please call in as often as you like.

PLEASE NOTE THE MUSEUM WILL BE CLOSED FROM MONDAY 4^TH JUNE UNTIL THE RE-OPENING IN JULY.

Diary Dates

Saturday 2^nd June – trip to Warwick Castle

Saturday 23^rd June – Aberfest stalls, Church St

Wednesday 5^th September – Solemn Sabbaths and Faraway Sundays by Pete Strong

Wednesday 3^rd October –Don Bearcroft lecture

Wednesday 7^th November –From Camera to Canvas by Nora Lewis

Wednesday 5^th December – 1804 Ship’s Surgeon by Roger Morgan

Lectures start at 7.00pm in the Metropole Theatre, with teas and a chat downstairs in the Museum afterwards. Entry is £2 and the public are most welcome. Details of coffee mornings etc are posted on the notice board at the Museum or at the following websites:

www.cwmtillery.com     www.abertillery.net

You may wish to note the following events upstairs in the Metropole: 
                          
Tea Dances on, 29th June, 27th July from 1.30pm - 3.30pm;                                                                                             Forgotten Skills and Crafts  10am – 4pm, 16th and 17th June.

Phone number for queries and prices for Metropole events - 01495 322510

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ABERTILLERY & DISTRICT MUSEUM SOCIETY

Fifty Years Ago
 Sputnik 1    The word sputnik originally meant ‘fellow traveller’ but has come to mean ‘satellite’ in modern Russian. Fifty years ago this October Sputnik 1 became the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth.  This was perhaps the real start of the space age.  The United States had previously announced their intention to launch a spacecraft and that was the spur for the Soviet Union to be first in the race and show that their space technology was the best in the world.  With that aim in mind, Sputnik was not designed as a scientific mission and the information it sent back about the atmosphere on the edge of space was broadcast at a frequency amateur radio operators could tune into, ensuring its broadcasts were monitored around the world.  The satellite's batteries only lasted about three weeks but the craft itself remained in orbit for nearly six months, and completed 1400 orbits of the Earth. The fact that the Soviet Union launched a craft that repeatedly flew over America did much to spur on the American space programme.    Although the radio transmissions were readily monitored, the only telescope in the west which could track Sputnik’s booster rockets by radar was our own newly opened Jodrell Bank, and helped ensure the continued funding of that facility.
The Soviet Union continued apace with their space programme, sending a dog into space later in 1957.

Scalextric   The world famous slot car racing game celebrates its 50th birthday in 2007.  Since its emergence at a toy fair in 1957 Scalextic has become synonymous with slot car racing all over the world and is beloved by both adults and children.  Scalextric’s roots actually date back to 1952 when a small company called ‘Minimodels Ltd’ introduced a range of metal bodied model racing cars which contained a unique type of clockwork motor under the trademark ‘SCALEX’. By the mid-1950s, the models were modified to take small electric motors and the ‘Scalextric’ brand (‘SCALEX’-Electric) was born, with plastic cars replacing the original tin ones in 1960.
The company has issued a 50^th Anniversary commemorative box set featuring a Ferrari 375 with a tinplate body (representing the first ever Scalextric car produced), alongside a Ferrari F1 race car from its current range.  The set also features a 50^th Anniversary book which charts the history and milestones of the famous Scalextric brand.

Cutty Sark  The recent fire received a great deal of coverage but just why was this ship so important?

She is the last, beautiful remaining product of the golden age of sailing ships, when Britain had world's greatest navy and had perfected the technology to make some of the most elegant cargo ships in history.  Since she has been dry-docked at Greenwich, 15 million people have paid to look inside her, and up to seven million people a year pass through Greenwich Gardens to see her from the outside.

Her global fame is not just a reminder of the great age of sail, but of Britain's history as an island nation whose success depended on maritime prowess. She is the only tea clipper still in existence, built in 1869 at the height of British imperial grandeur.  The ship was named after a character in a Robert Burns' poem ( meaning ‘short chemise’) and was designed to win the annual - and lucrative - race across the globe from China to London to bring the first tea of the year. 

But even in her own day, in late Victorian times, she was a very famous ship. Everybody who was interested in sailing ships knew about her and her history. She had several good runs to China and back, but what really made her famous was when she was used as a wool clipper between Australia and the UK.

After her launch, the Cutty Sark had seven good trips to China in the 1870s. It would go out loaded with alcohol, and come back carrying more than 1,400 tons of tea. On one famous occasion, it lost its rudder going through Java's Sunda Strait, but using an improvised replacement was still only a week behind the first ship back to London.  However, on the eighth voyage, they discovered that all the tea had been loaded on to steam ships, which could make the return voyage in less time because they went through the Suez Canal – something sailing ships could not do because they needed head winds.

The Cutty Sark then went into service carrying wool from Australia to the UK and in the 1880s she set a the world record by making the trip round the Cape of Good Hope in 72 days.  The ship continued to have a chequered history and was badly damaged in the First World War.  After being purchased for the nation, but without funds to preserve it, the future of the ship was eventually secured by the director of the National Maritime Museum, Frank Carr, and the Duke of Edinburgh who concocted a scheme to preserve her for all time as an attraction for visitors and a memorial to servicemen killed in the two world wars, creating a dry dock in a Greenwich bomb site.

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ABERTILLERY & DISTRICT MUSEUM SOCIETY

Poet’s Corner

KEEP THOSE LIGHTWEIGHT

WHEELS TURNING

Keep those lightweight wheels turning,
Keep those alloy pedals spinning,
Take me home on tarmac ribbon,
to where my loved one is waiting.

I’ve been a long time wandering,
beneath hedges and trees so green,
Along lanes steep and narrow,
through places I’d never been.

Beside this river I’d like to linger,
From that bridge watch fish swim,
But the hour is getting later,
so my home is loudly calling.

Many years I’ve roamed this country,
Breathing deep of its fresh air,
Exercise has kept me healthy,
but many friends are no longer here.

Take me home, take me quickly,
To where I shall end my days,
A place that’s warm and friendly,
where a welcome always waits.

Keep those lightweight wheels turning,
Keep those alloy pedals spinning,
Take me home on tarmac ribbon,
to where my loved one is waiting.

Take me home,
        Take me home,
                Take me home.

Gordon Rowlands February 1999.

Book Corner

The Brecon Beacons National Park was designated in 1957 to conserve the scenery, culture and landscape of one of Britain’s most beautiful places. “Moods of the Brecon Beacons” by Tom Hutton celebrates the landscapes of the National Park and captures some of their many different moods in a collection of over 140 superb photographs.  Although published a few years ago in 2004, it is still a good choice if you are looking for a book on this part of Wales.  Tom Hutton was born in England but fell in love with the Brecon Beacons on a Youth Club trip and returned as often as he could.  He and his family now live near Abergavenny.

The book is published by Halsgrove.

Brecon Beacons National Park Scenery is the title of a booklet published by the National Museum of Wales in 1979 and still available in its bookshop.  The booklet is subtitled A Geological Interpretation and is an easy to read explanation of how the rocks were laid down, the forces which raised and folded those ancient deposits, and the way erosion has sculpted the mountains as we know them today. A few introductory pages of text are followed by a series of photographs, each one illustrating a particular feature, with a paragraph of explanation alongside.

Whitsun Walks  It must have rained some years but I only seem to remember the sunny days.  It was when the ‘best dress’ was worn, with the Whitsun Walk or Sunday School Anniversary being the first opportunity to show off your new outfit.  Walking around the valley worked up an appetite so we were always ready for the tea which was laid on at whichever chapel was chosen that year.  I certainly remember a tea at Aberbeeg Chapel and so I can only think it was a particularly good spread there, or maybe they didn’t try to make you eat bread and butter with your tinned fruit and evaporated milk.  Bread and butter was fine for sandwiches but I always hated it with fruit!                              

The Chalford history books which the Museum Society helped to produce include detailed accounts and photographs of some of the Whitsun Walks.  The photograph on page 103 of the Archive Photographs volume, taken in 1960, will show you what I mean about the best dresses.                                           Jen Price

 Contact Names

Congratulations Tom!

Octogenarian Tom Wayne, a long standing supporter of the Museum, was recently presented with an Adult Learner Silver Surfer Award 2007. This took place at the Ebbw Vale Campus where Tom was presented with a voucher, plaque and certificate.

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ABERTILLERY & DISTRICT MUSEUM SOCIETY

Glug Glug – only joking!  When the Museum re-opens there will be an official ceremony on Friday 21^st July with invited guests and Museum members only.  A buffet is being provided for the Museum (more details and thanks next month) and we thought it would be nice to be able to offer guests and members a glass of wine.  We obviously can’t use Museum funds for that and so we are asking members if they will kindly donate a bottle of wine for the reception (a bottle each, that is!).  Many thanks.  The following day the Museum will have a second ‘opening’, this time to welcome the public through the doors. 

Celts Lectures

Around twenty people have attended a course of seven lectures on the Celts, given by the Museum’s Curatorial Advisor, Frank Olding.  This was rounded off by a very enjoyable day out at Cardiff Museum, to see artefacts relating to the lectures.  The lectures were held at the Museum and our share of the group fees was £150 which will go towards the Museum’s running costs.  The group would like to say a big thank you to Frank for such an enjoyable and informative course.

What’s next Frank?

                                                              Peggy Bearcroft

Spring Trip

Well for this event we can say What’s next Roy?

On Saturday 2nd June we headed off in brilliant sunshine for the heart of England to visit Warwick Castle.  A full report will be posted in next month’s Newsletter so this is just a quick hot off the press note to thank Roy Pickford for arranging a very successful and enjoyable trip.

 “Inner Peace”

I am passing this article on to you because it definitely worked for me, and we could all do with a little calm.  By following the simple advice I read in an article, I have finally found inner peace.

 The article read: The way to achieve inner peace is to finish off all the things you have started. So I looked round the house to see all the things I had started and hadn’t finished.  And before leaving the house this morning I finished off a bottle of red wine, a bottle of red wine, the Baileys, three Bacardi breezers, the Jack Daniels, the Prozac, some Valium, some cheesecake and a box of chocolates.

Email

The Museum now has an email address:

abertillerymuseum@tiscali.co.uk

 Notes

The rest of this column has been left deliberately blank.  Do you have a memory, story, or anecdote to share?  The most popular parts of the Newletters are those which jog our readers’ memories but contributions are usually a bit thin on the ground.  Come on folks, get pen to paper, or finger to keyboard in this electronic age.

Thanks, Jen Price