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NEWSLETTER July 2007 | ||
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Museum News GRAND RE-OPENING Our main news this month has to be the re-opening of the Museum – a day we have all be looking forward to for some years now. We have had our share of setbacks and disappointments but our determination to succeed has paid off. We now have a handsome Museum which does credit to the items donated for our collections, and which tells the story of Abertillery and District. Our ‘old’ Museum did a sterling job, but the new displays are wonderfully effective and we are sure they will be much appreciated by locals and visitors alike. The Museum has a modern look following the refit, but the ethos is exactly the same – this is a ‘Community Museum’ with the emphasis on having local people at hand to enrich the Museum experience with their own knowledge and experience of life in the locality. So many people have made their contribution it simply isn’t possible to thank everyone but special mention must be made of Don and Peggy Bearcroft, our Curator and Chairwoman, for their unstsinting efforts over the years to see this project to fruition The Museum will officially re-open at a private reception for members and invited guests on Friday 20th July at 11.00am. Our President Sir Richard Hanbury Tenison, who has been a loyal supporter from the outset, will conduct the opening ceremony. Guests will have the opportunity to stroll around the Museum, and partake of the buffet which is very kindly being provided by Abertillery Communities First. We hope to raise a glass in celebration and are asking members if they will donate a bottle of wine on the day, or bring to the Museum beforehand (just knock if the doors are closed). We would like to take this opportunity to thank Rhian Cook of Abertillery Communities First for printing the invitations and labels. |
Fund raising – we will be back to serious fund-raising when the Museum re-opens. In the meantime, we were very pleased to receive £200 from the Welsh Church Fund, and a significant sum from the Voluntary Services Sector towards our running costs.
Museum opening times Diary Dates 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 Upstairs in the Metropole: Tea Dance on 27th July 1.30pm - 3.30pm. Phone number for queries and prices for Metropole events - 01495 322510 | |
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Welsh Names For more names and their meanings read Welsh Names by D Geraint Lewis, published by Geddes & Grosset, price £2.99. A little mine of information. PS Apologies that some of the names quoted are missing a circumflex.
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Welsh National Anthem
Ancient Land of my Fathers The words and music were composed by Evan James and his son James James of Pontypridd. A monument to them stands in the town, in Angharad Park.
We’ll Keep a Welcome Note: the Welsh word hiraeth means longing or nostalgia. Welsh Place Names | |
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Skomer – if the weather is fine a trip to Skomer Island is a delight, reached by a 15 minute crossing from Martin’s Haven, in St Bride’s Bay, Pembrokeshire. After Anglesey it is the largest Welsh island, roughly two miles in diameter. Now a wildlife reserve, the magnificent cliffs attract thousands of sea birds, the most famous of which are probably the puffins. Skomer, with 6000 pairs, has the largest puffin colony in Britain. These colourful birds return to the island in late March to occupy nest burrows in the cliff slopes where the first chicks hatch in early June. From then until early August puffins can be seen returning to the colonies bearing beak loads of fish which need to be swiftly carried underground to feed the chicks. Any delay and the catch is likely to be stolen by a gull or jackdaw. Once the chicks fledge they leave quickly and the adults follow shortly after so that by the end of the first week in August the puffin colonies are deserted. Puffins winter at sea, many travelling to the Bay of Biscay, and will not land again until the following March. The island is also home to other impressive birds, including guillemots, gulls, kittiwakes, razorbills and the mysterious Manx Shearwater. Skomer has 45,000 pairs of Manx Shearwaters – roughly half the world population of that species. These birds nest in burrows and, for safety from gulls and other predatory birds, usually emerge only at night, with their strange cry. They return to the same burrow year after year to lay a single egg which is incubated for 51 days, following which the chick stays in the burrow for a further 70 days – one of the longest breeding cycles of any British bird. Eventually deserted by their parents the youngsters set off on their first flight, usually in September, heading for the South Atlantic where they winter off the coasts of Brazil, Uruguay and the Argentine – a distance of about 6000 miles. Amazingly, some birds cover this vast distance in under 16 days. Manx Shearwaters can live for over thirty years and return, year after year, to the same part of the colony in which they were reared. Skomer is very much an island for those seeking a quiet (apart from the bird calls) day admiring the wildlife and scenery. The flowers on the island are magnificent, starting with a carpet of bluebells. There are few facilities on the island but for those visitors who stay, Glow Worms can be seen in the summer months. If you’re looking for a place to just ‘stand and stare’ with a seascape thrown in, Skomer is for you. |
Local Voices As a Rotarian of
Abertillery & Blaina, I was attending a meeting in the Bush Hotel, in a room
at the top of the wide staircase. On being presented to Joe Gormley I remember well his immediate response, ‘Mr Manager we are six at this table, six double whiskeys please’. I duly obliged in good spirit. My fellow Rotarians wondered at my delay with their drinks. W A Lewis Poet’s Corner FADING DAYS Speeding away until Each taking part of To fall on foreign shores, Behind is only darkness, Gordon Rowlands, May 2007 | |
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