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NEWSLETTER March 2007 | ||
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Museum News –we have decided to raise the lecture fee to £2; faced with rising costs we were in a situation where our takings were not covering the cost of the venue and speaker and that is clearly something we couldn’t allow to continue. Please continue to support us – the lecture evening represents excellent value for money. Lecture Programme - we will now be using the Metropole Cultural Centre above the Museum for our monthly lectures; this month we will once again be using a lecture room but the following months we will be in the main theatre. Please remember that tea and coffee are available afterwards in the Museum. 100 Club (Please see Peggy or Enid for February’s winners).
Museum opening times
Contact Names
Fundraising February– £441 including £208 at the coffee morning; a big thank you to all involved.
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Annual
subscription – this was due on 1st January so if you haven’t paid your £5
please renew your membership at the lecture or Museum (or post a cheque
to the Museum). The lectures will be held in the Metropole Theatre, starting at 7.00pm. Entry is £2 and the public are most welcome. Copies of the Newsletter and details of coffee mornings and other events can be found on the notice board at the Museum or at www.cwmtillery.com
Vice Presidents The Big Freeze of 1947 – Last month’s fall of snow will have brought back memories of the severe weather of 1947. ‘The Big freeze’ started in February of that year. The atrocious road conditions led to the cancellation of coaches headed for Edinburgh to watch the Wales v Scotland match but much worse was to come. What are your memories of that winter? Get well Bernard! – our Treasurer Bernard Jones had an operation for a hip replacement recently but you can’t keep a good man down and we’re sure he’ll soon be back to dancing and looking after the Society’s accounts.
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Poet’s Corner Tell me Mr. Bearcroft how can you
equate Entering in computer all these things so out of
date When I sit at the computer, I sometimes stop and
think Tell me all you volunteers working here for free Tell me Mr Olding how you store all that you’ve
read
And telling us of days of yore and what they did and
said Llanelly Parish
Church The
February Newsletter article on the above church was most interesting and
informative. |
Book Corner Brunel in South Wales Vol 2 Communications and Coal by Stephen K Jones Isambard Kingdom Brunel was one of the most eminent engineers of the Victorian era but his work in South Wales has been largely ignored.This second volume of Stephen Jones’ trilogy shows how Brunel was responsible for or associated with the engineering of almost all the railways in South Wales and that this period of expansion coincided with the development of the Coal industry in South Wales. The major achievement was the Severn tunnel bringing the London and Bristol railway to South Wales. His work in Monmouthshire includes the Usk Bridge bringing the railway into Newport, and the tunnel to the west which extended the railway to Cardiff and Swansea which were just developing as ports. He was also responsible for the Wye Bridge at Chepstow which carried the railway from Gloucester through Chepstow to Newport. The arrival of the first train at Newport in June 1850, with Brunel on the footplate, caused great excitement. This is an interesting book which will further our knowledge of railway development in South Wales. Jean Colwell .
The Big Flood of 1607 –a theory has been put forward that this flood was actually a tsunami but most academics believe it to have been caused by a combination of winds and tides. The water covered an area 24 miles in length and four in breadth in the County of Monmouthshire alone. A pamphlet written by the clergyman William Welby describes how ‘the waters were affirmed to have runne at their first entrance with a swiftnesse so incredible, as that no Greyhounde could have escaped by running before them. The flood destroyed a great multitude of homes, scattering and dispersing the poore substance of innumerable persons’. The author of this tract estimated that the flood caused the deaths of some 2,000 people and damage to the value of £100,000. His tract still remains an important contemporary account of the event , the following being just one example: Near Newport, Gwent, a wealthy women, Mistress Van, lived four miles from the sea and although she saw the wave approaching from her house she could not get upstairs before it rushed through and drowned her.
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Glyn Bevan born 7th December 1922, of 43 Aberbeeg Road, Abertillery, was very surprised and rather apprehensive when on 22nd November 2006 he recived a telephone call from the editor of a Dutch television company requesting his appearance in a Dutch TV programme which in English translates as “Round Trip to Happiness”. When serving in the RAf in 1944 Glyn was billeted with a Dutch family in Valkenswaard, near Eindhoven, Holland. On his return to the UK he corresponded for a short while with the family but then lost contact.
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memories and the extremely difficult times the Dutch people experienced. While the Director entertained them to a meal, a surprise visit was made to the school of the grand-daughter, Esther, and then to Riek at her home. The reunion with Riek was filmed at the Military Airport where Glyn had served in 1944. In the hangar at the airport Glyn was presented with some souvenirs by the Officer on duty. Glyn was then surrounded by friends and family members to await the arrival of Riek, escorted by her son. It was again a very memorable and emotional experience followed by a few happy days spent with the family.
Jodrell Bank Telescope is a familiar feature of the Chesire landscape. The need for a fully-steerable instrument of such a size sprung from the limitations of its predecessor 218ft transit telescope built in 1947. The current telescope, built to meet the exacting demands of astronomer Professor Bernard Lovell, celebrates its fiftieth birthday this year. No less than thirty firms were involved in its construction and for the technically minded you may wish to note that the paraboloid bowl 250ft in diameter is carried on a structural steel frame. Radio signals from space are reflected to the focus of the bowl where aerials are mounted on a 62ft high mast. The bowl and its supporting structure are carried by trunnion bearings which were formerly part of the 15in gun turrets of HMS Revenge and HMS Royal Sovereign. The two supporting towers are braced to form a yoke under the bowl, and are mounted on bogies to allow the telescope to rotate. Still operated by the University of Manchester, the facility provides research and teaching facilities for many different disciplines and also has an impressive visitor centre with permanent and changing displays as well as at least one or two special events each month. The 3D theatre will allow you to ‘explore’ the planets and journey into space, after which you will doubtless wish to head for the café and a welcome cuppa. As well as the indoor facilities, the centre has an arboretum covering 35 acres, with one of the walks taking visitors almost below the telescope. The centre is open most days, but not all and so it would be wise to check before setting out – tel 01477 571339. Entry is just £1.50 with a further £1 for the theatre and there may also be an additional charge for some special events. Jodrell Bank is just 6 miles from junction 18 of the M6 just off the A535 between Holmes Chapel and Alderley edge.
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Work on the new museum design funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund is now into its final phase. The screens are down and visitors to the museum are able to view the work from behind the chained off area. This has prompted a number of questions from people who do not realise how our museum functions, I will for their benefit try to set the record strait. The museum society was founded in 1964 the main aim was to set up a museum in Abertillery. This was achieved in 1972 when a room was set aside in the new library in Oak St and was its home until 1996 when the new Unitary Authority BGCBC was formed. The room was then required for new library purposes and we were told we would have to vacate the premises. Cllr Nigel Daniels promised he would help us in any way he could with relocation. Feelings in the society were running high at that time and harsh words were spoken by me and others. In short we did not trust them. Nigel has proved a man of his word and BGCBC has helped and still helps us If we had not been forced to move we would not have the museum we have today. On the other hand with the tragic death of our Chairman Ralph Robinson a few weeks later it could have spelled the end for our society so it is a tribute to the committee and members at that time that we survived and grew stronger. . A new museum was opened in the old Market Hall on 21st June 2001. The museum society became a Company Limited by guarantee, a Registered Charity and we now have full Museums Registration. We have a panel of experts appointed by us which we can call on for advice should we need it. Among those appointed on the panel is our curatorial advisor Mr Frank Olding we turn to him for advice on collection conservation etc.
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The museum is run by us
and whether we take the advice from these experts is ultimately our
decision. The money for the new museum design comes from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The application for this involving an immense amount of work, gathering information from us and others was made out by Mrs Jennifer Price our Company Secretary. The credit for this is hers and hers alone, Jennifer is a modest person but I believe in giving credit where credit is due. Peggy has also been responsible for accessing other grants for the museum. The new design was decided upon by the committee who did not choose the easy boring option of a room full of cases. What we wanted was an interpretive design, a museum with cases integrated into settings which tell the story of the artefacts in them.
The priority was for
young people with the older generation still in mind. Text would be part of
the displays with more available for the serious academic student.
Mike Lee of Lee
Associates was employed by us as our financial advisor for the duration of
the project. When the museum is finished I think that a notice should be displayed.
Don Bearcroft curator. | |
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Warning! visitors to this museum are severely in danger of enjoying
Themselves!