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NEWSLETTER June 2006
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Museum News Visitors to the Museum will have noticed that one area is already partitioned off ready for the refit. Don is organising things so as to minimise disruption to the Museum as a whole and avoid any prolonged closures. It’s an exciting time for the Museum but the refit means lots of hard work too and, as ever, we are always glad of volunteers even if you can only spare an hour or two. Spring Trip We set out for Swansea on the morning of 6th May, umbrellas to the ready, but arrived in fine weather. Was the forecast wrong? First stop was the impressive National Waterfront Museum – views on this museum were mixed. It’s probably somewhere to visit regularly and take in a small section each time, but it was very interesting nonetheless and gave many of us a first glimpse of a ‘high-tech’ museum. Some of the group then went on to Swansea Museum which was highly praised – a museum more like our own in Abertillery. Others went to the Glynn Vivian Gallery which houses an impressive collection of paintings and china. The heavens opened as we made our way back to the coach so those umbrellas were a good idea after all! Thank you Roy for organising another excellent trip. Where next? “Steps in Time” is the title of an anthology of poems by Museum member Gordon Rowlands to raise funds for the Museum; on sale at £3.50. It’s a delightful little publication with a poem for every mood. Treat yourself to a copy, and boost our funds at the same time. May Numbers 1. No.58 Janet Rees £25 2. No.31 Margaret Gilson £10 3. No.133 Vera Greaves £5 You will find the Newsletter here if you miss collecting your copy at the monthly lecture or Museum but it’s also an excellent site for local news, events, history and much more.
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Diary Dates Wednesday 7th June 2006 – Serving a Custodial Sentence by Roger Morgan Wednesday 6th September 2006 –George Hudson – Railway King in Victorian times by John Long Wednesday 4th October 2006 – Scenes of Switzerland by Harry Vagg The lectures are usually held at Abertillery Comprehensive School and start at 7.00pm. Entry is £1 and the public are most welcome. News of coffee mornings and other events can be found on the notice board at the Museum. Lecture Programme – Last month’s Ralph Robinson Memorial Lecture by Frank Olding attracted a large audience. Frank is a natural communicator and when he told us about Lepcis Magna, the Roman city in the sand, we were there walking around the ruins with him. Lepcis Magna is a World Heritage Site in the Tripolitania region of Libya. Originally founded by the Phoenicians in the 10th Century BC it eventually became part of the Roman Empire of Africa around 23BC. Its reason for being was its fine natural harbour and during Roman times the city was the Mediterranean outlet of a trade route through the Sahara into the interior of Africa. It prospered as a Roman city and Emperor Septimius Severus, born at Lepcis Magna, was one of its main benefactors. The area covered by the city was huge and it contained many impressive buildings including the forum, theatre and four way arch. However permanent it may have seemed at the time, the city was sacked by a Berber tribe in 523AD following which it was abandoned and was quickly reclaimed by the desert. Excavations began in the 1920s and are ongoing but the area is vast and funds are limited. There is still much more to learn but in the meantime the sands keep their secrets. There will be a break in the lecture series over the summer but the Autumn programme starts again in September. A big thank you to our Programme Secretary Mrs Marge Selway who does an excellent job of finding speakers on a wide variety of topics. | ||
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Contact Names Fund raising May £215 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. Impressionists in Wales – the recent television series on the Impressionists proved popular and we are fortunate that the National Gallery in Cardiff has a fine collection of paintings by several Impressionist painters. The works include paintings by Alfred Sisley who was born in England but spent most of his life in France. He and his partner of thirty years, Eugenie Lescouezec, arrived in Penarth in 1897 and stayed there for some time before moving on to Gower; also during their stay the couple married at Cardiff Register Office. Sisley made about twenty paintings of the South Wales coast. He was fascinated by the tides, the changing summer light, the geological formations, and the shipping but apparently found it quite difficult at first to paint outdoors in a stiff breeze, having been used to more settled weather in France. Sisley’s patron was Francois Depeaux, a businessman with interests in shipping and anthracite and business links with South Wales. Depeaux was impressed by the generosity of Richard Glynn Vivian, the benefactor of the gallery of that name in Swansea, and when the new gallery opened in 1911 Depeaux donated six works from his favourite Rouen artists. Two of Sisley’s seascapes, The Cliff at Penarth and Storr Rock are currently on loan to the Glynn Vivian gallery from the National Gallery at Cardiff and are displayed alongside the paintings donated by M. Depeaux. |
Book Corner The Forgotten Conscript: a History of the Bevin Boys by Warwick Taylor This is the story of the young men who were conscripted into the mines during World War II. In 1943 there was a serious shortage of man-power in the mining industry; to address this problem Ernest Bevin, the Minister of Labour, introduced a scheme so that a proportion of the men who were called up were selected by ballot for conscription into the mining industry. The scheme was implemented in 1944 and continued until the end of the war in Europe. A total of 21,800 Bevin Boys were recruited. The author was one such conscript who was balloted for service in the mines and was sent to Oakdale Colliery. After a four week training period the conscript was sent to a colliery where a further two weeks training was given before the new recruit was allocated a specific job. Many of the conscripts found it was a totally alien way of life and they were viewed with suspicion by the established workforce. Gradually, however, they became accepted and played a major part in the mining industry during the war years. Warwick Taylor covers all aspects of the Bevin Boy’s work during this period and provides not only a book of historical reference but a record for those who participated and for future generations. Civil War and Restoration in Monmouthshire by Jeremy Knight Published by Logaston Press Price £12.95 Monmouthshire has traditionally been seen as a staunchly Royalist country in the Civil War with strong Catholic believers at one end of the spectrum and a few Puritans at the other. The picture drawn by Jeremy Knight is less clear cut and shows that the actions and reactions of the people of the County were more complex and less certain. Royalist support was mainly of the Catholic gentry, although some gentry sided with the Parliamentarians, while others sought only to live in peace. The reactions of the working classes differed across the County. The story of the gentry, clergy, soldier and the ordinary people, many of whose descendants are still resident in Monmouthshire, and the advances and retreats of the various forces ending in the epic siege of Raglan Castle is an interesting one and reminds us of the importance of the County of Monmouthshire in the history of Great Britain. Jean Colwell
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Arthur Charles Wright died in the Second World War aged just 32. His name appears on the War Memorials in Abertillery and Llanhilleth and it also appears on a memorial in Switzerland where he is buried. Sgt Wright was an observer with 207 Squadron. His Lancaster was one of 9 aircraft from the Squadron which, with 286 other aircraft, attacked Turin on 13th July 1943. They took off at 22.35 hrs. The outbound route was to take them over the Somme then straight to Annecy, France where pathfinder aircraft were to drop marker flares over Lake Annecy in order to keep the bombers clear of neutral Swiss territory. With 100 miles to their target, they were then to fly over the Alps before descending into Italy and on to Turin. The bombers ran into bad weather over France with electric storms and heavy thunderclouds making navigation difficult. Over 100 Lancasters found themselves entering Swiss territory. Sgt Wright’s plane was believed to have been hit by Swiss anti-aircraft fire in the Jura Mountains, but it is also possible it was struck by lightning. It was unususual for anti-aircraft fire to hit intruding aircraft; the objective was to make them leave Swiss airspace. Mortally damaged and in atrocious weather, at about one in the morning the Lancaster crashed into a mountain above the town of Le Bouveret at the eastern end of Lake Geneva, killing all the crew. The plane burst into flames with a terrifying explosion which blew out windows in the town. The subsequent funeral of the aircrew at St Martin’s Cemetery was an impressive event and attended by a large crowd. Flowers had been sent from all over Switzerland and all over Europe and the funeral was attended by representatives of countries around the world. Despite the pomp, the ceremony itself was conducted in silence and has been described as movingly simple. As well as individual headstones in the cemetery, the crew are remembered in a memorial which was erected close to the shore of Lake Geneva by the people of the village of Le Bouveret; the memorial was dedicated in July 1993. The plinth carries a crew list, a description of the crash, the Squadron crest and, on the top of the plinth, a model Lancaster. During the raid on Turin, an important industrial town, thousands of incendiary and explosive bombs were launched. Thirteen planes did not return, 101 airmen died and 203 were wouinded. Source: 207 Squadron RAF website
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Vice Presidents Corus General Offices – You may have noticed that the Museum has on display a photograph of one of the clocks in the General Offices at Ebbw Vale Steelworks. Sadly, this and other clocks were stolen from the listed building on 3rd May of this year. Please keep a lookout for clocks like these in antique shops or boot sales and inform the police if you have any suspicions. Poet’s Corner Emotion Contentment is
like a light blue sphere Frances May (11) Ystruth School, Abertillery Frances May is the grand-daughter of Museum members Margaret and Graham Evans. What a lovely poem. Local Voices Dirty Coal “You wasn’t to use a shovel to fill the drams. You had to use what you call a curling box. You had to put the box down, put all the coal in and carry it and tip it in the dram. It was a monotonous job. If you were caught with dirty coal in the dram it would be turned out. Then either you was fined or you had to go on top of the pit for a day cleaning the coal. That was the penalty you had to pay if they found you with dirty coal. They would put your number by the pit cage and if it was there it meant that the next day you couldn’t go down the pit and you had to go on the screens, on the muck belt picking the dirt out”. Source:Voices of Abertillery, Aberbeeg and Llanhilleth Obituary We were very sorry to learn of the recent death of Mr Edward (Ted) Meredith, one of our Vice-Presidents. | ||
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Museum Matters I have been asked by some of our people to write about recent events in our museum. So here it is. Life as a Curator in Abertillery & District Museum, (Or, A Comedy of Errors). In the museum newsletter for November 2005 was a photograph and description of the work carried out to strengthen the floor for the upstairs. After this all the artefacts that had been removed into storage had to be set up again. We then had the wonderful news of our Heritage Lottery Grant, but before we could receive this certain new conditions had to be met. One of these was concerning conservation. First was additional conservation monitoring equipment for the museum and also a Collection Management Policy for all the artefacts in the museum. This had to be done by Professional conservators; both these conditions were at a cost of £2.500 to the museum but fortunately we obtained a grant from CyMAL for £1950. One of the requirements in the policy was that the lighting in the museum, being too bright the tracks were required to be raised 4ft. This had to be done before the new displays were set up as it would be impossible afterwards. This again would cost time and money but arrangements were made with the help of the BGBC to proceed. Before this work could start the museum displays had to be moved into store once again, the time estimated was one month but it only took 3 weeks. Afterwards the displays had to be set up once more, the new museum design was to be done in two stages to keep the museum open. Partitions were to be erected with the North and central areas containing displays and the peripherals around the walls cleared for the work.
As the work on the upstairs continued, we became used to the bangs, crashes and the lights and telephone going off. It upset Frank Olding when he gave his talks but I told people that it was mice wearing clogs. It also gave added realism to the visitors who came for the WWII exhibits. In order to add rooms on the north side of the building the roof had to be taken off. (Gardeners please take note, to end a drought take the covering off our museum; this will invariably cause a monsoon to start.) We had planned for this eventuality and the only unexpected thing was a rather spectacular waterfall effect both inside and outside of the entrance porch. The museum was closed for a day to allow a giant crane to lift girders into position for this extension.
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The partitions were built and the displays set out, items had been removed to the Archive Store for safe keeping and I thought that we had done all we could until the museum design work began. Mary Coles and Peggy had gone into the store carrying out documentation. I followed them into the store the first thing I saw on entering was that the middle section of the ceiling had come down and was resting on the artefacts on the top of the shelving units. The reason it had not come down completely was that it was resting on the fluorescent fittings; these were holding the suspended ceiling structure and tiles. The south end of the ceiling had also collapsed and the whole ceiling had come away from the ends due to the displacement caused by the drop in the middle section which ran the whole breadth of the room. I informed the contractor that a major disaster had occurred in the archive store, after closing the store I Phoned all the relevant people. Lyn Phillips, Walter Cyrette, Simon Jennings, the Gee Construction Manager, Site Foreman and I then inspected the damage. The reason for the collapse became apparent and was that the workmen had been depositing rubbish including house bricks on top of the suspended ceiling, the weight of which had caused the supports to fail.
Due to the delay to the museum project we felt that the need for immediate action had to be taken as time was a factor we did not have. We decided to remove the artefacts from the aisles and then clean the store; our chairperson would supervise this as no one can clean to her satisfaction (I should know we’ve been married 43yrs). This would enable the ceiling to be replaced. Afterwards Frank said that "this was the
worst disaster yet". I told him it was not and that in December 2000 the
whole collection had been in danger and had to be carried up and down 7
flights of stairs to safety. He also asked me if I had consulted the
Disaster Plan, I confessed I had not. When we looked at it I had
followed it to the letter and more. This is due to my training as an
Electrician
Last month Newport History Society arranged an evening visit, but only two turned up. They were most apologetic their bus had not arrived, due to circumstances beyond their control. "Tell me about it"! Don Bearcroft. Curator
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The
partitions were made out of 8ftx4ft ½ inch plywood; they were fixed
together on the floor in sections. When it came to lifting a problem
came to light, I am 5ft 2ins, most of the people were also short (both
Roy and I have problems with our arms and two lefts don’t make a right).
We could not lift it until the ladies came to give a hand, (there is
no sexism in "F" TROOP) even then we could not lift it high enough,
we were stuck. I said what we need is a tall feller, when a voice from
behind us said, “I can see your busy I’ll make my own tea”. Turning we
saw Alf Stone, the tallest member in our society (The Lord sends to
those in need) OK I said but before you do give us a hand with this
and afterwards you can make tea for us all. 
Another
event which happened was when one of the contractors who had become
disorientated thinking he was in the opposite end
After making the room safe, removing items at risk and covering the
shelves with polythene. The centre section of the ceiling was then
removed and 4 or 5 wheelbarrows full of debris had been taken down and
out of the museum. In an ideal situation the store would be locked and
professional conservators brought in to assess the damage and remove the
artefacts for conservation. This of course would take time and money;
the contractors would be liable for this
of the Mine, courses attended through CMW and CyMAL and my
15 years experience as Curator of Abertillery District Museum.