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NEWSLETTER November 2006
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Museum Refit This is now under way; the electricians have done their job and our Museum Designer, Alan Morgan, is busy with the displays. Lecture Programme Our October lecture clashed with holiday and other commitments of many of our members and so the audience was somewhat smaller than usual but those who went along were treated to some superb photographs of Switzerland taken by Mr Harry Vagg – a very sprightly octogenarian who is planning yet another trip to Switzerland later this year. 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.
Contact Names
100 Club October We could do with some new members to the Numbers Club so please try to persuade family and friends to join. It’s in a good cause and a lot of fun. Fund raising October £ |
Diary Dates 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 or the website below –
www.cwmtillery.com
Vice Presidents Lucky Dip, Crafts etc The Christmas Bazaar is just a few weeks away on the morning of Saturday 11th November at Ebenezer Chapel and so can you please start bringing your contributions into the Museum. Can you help man a stall on the day? – if so, please see Peggy. Congratulations to Amy Pedwell, the 25 year old granddaughter of Museum Society members Jean and Cliff Hunt. Amy was brought up performing with Abertillery Orpheus Choir and recently fulfilled a childhood dream by making her debut on the professional stage performing in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance at Cardiff’s New Theatre, as a member of the Carl Rosa Theatre Company. Amy graduated from Cardiff University with a music degree and more recently graduated from Birmingham Conservatoire. Clearly a rising star!
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War Memorials We tend to think of statues such as the one in Abertillery but those who lost their lives in war are remembered in many ways and Don will be pleased to point out the memorials in our own Museum. Further afield, one memorial which is a little unusual is the Roll of Honour in the Ticket Clerks Office at Chester Railway Station. Printed on paper and protected by glass, the Roll of Honour lists those employees of the Great Western Railway who fell in the First World War. The list includes W.M. Ackrill, A.T. Harvey, G.H. Herbert and W. Nye from Aberbeeg, and J.H. Cox, T.L. Hughes, F. Hunt, F. Mitchell and J.R. Robbins from Abertillery. If you would like to know more about the war memorials of Gwent you could do no better than consult the two volumes of Great War Graves and Memorials in Gwent by Ray Westlake whom you may remember gave a lecture on this subject a couple of years ago. Among the information is an entry about the war grave of Private C Vaughan of the 2nd Battalion Welsh Regiment who is buried in a family grave in Blaina. Part of the inscription reads: Private Cyril Vaughan 2nd Battalion Welsh R. Beloved son of Thomas and Elizabeth Vaughan of Six Bells Who died Nov 3 1915 at Frensham Hill Hospital from wounds received At the battle of Loos. Aged 24 years. Only a British soldier, only a mother’s son who fell on the Field of battle my duty I have done. I have served my King and Country you know I did my best, Now I’m asleep with Jesus, a British Soldier’s rest. The Battle of Loos was the first major British offensive in the First World War. It was at Loos that for the first time large numbers of men from Kitchener’s Army – the wartime volunteers of 1914 – would fight and die in a major battle. Loos was to have been the ‘Big Push’ which would break the stranglehold of trench warfare but it was not to be. In two and a half weeks of bitter fighting in September and October 1915 over 20,000 British soldiers died. Some succumbed to the horror of chlorine gas which had been released against the German troops; pockets of the lethal gas drifted back over British lines when the wind changed. It has been suggested that the military powers attempted to suppress information about the battle. Lloyd George, anxious for an account of events at Loos, invited war correspondent Philip Gibbs to breakfast at Downing Street, complaining that he was not being properly briefed about events by the military. |
Book Corner Abertillery and Ebbw Vale Lines by V. Mitchell and K. Smith. Published by Middleton Press 2006. This new publication is a valuable addition to the history of the railways of the Western Valley. It begins with a brief history of the railway from the end of the 18th Century, when the tramroads were linked to the canals for the transport of iron and coal to the closure of the passenger lines in 1962 and the freight lines to Ebbw Vale steelworks in 2001. The journey starts at Bassaleg progressing up the valley through Risca and Crumlin to Aberbeeg where it becomes two separate lines to Abertillery and Ebbw Vale. Every station and halt is illustrated together with a map of the area. The photographs of the stations and railway buildings are interspersed with pictures of railway sidings and collieries which are only a distant memory. There are brief notes with each illustration and detailed descriptions of locomotives and trains from a bygone age. The older generation of readers will be reminded of the part railways played in their lives, while the younger generation will find an interesting historical record. The book will interest both the student of local history and the railway enthusiast. Jean Colwell Local Voices When I was young we didn’t have a car and so we travelled on holiday by train. They were steam trains with individual compartments, itchy plush seats, flip-up metal ash trays, and leather straps for holding the window open or shut - usually shut because of smuts and warnings about having your head chopped off if you leaned out! My mother tells an embarrassing tale of my seaside bucket being used for ‘other’ purposes when caught short during the journey but I would stress that I was very young at that time! The suitcases would be sent ahead for collection at our destination station, with a taxi ride to our lodgings. Trains seemed to be available to get to anywhere in the country but that is probably my fanciful imagination. I also remember the trains that went up and down the line to Cwmtillery colliery, and waving to the drivers. How many of us crossed the rails just below the colliery, often stepping over a cable that stretched down the line to coal wagons, or passed through the pit head at Cwmtillery? The thought of doing that in today’s safety conscious climate is horrifying! Jen Price | ||
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“The Story of Primitive Methodism in Abertillery” 1927 The following account is taken from Chapter 1 of the above book, published in 1927, loaned by Glenys Lee. NOW (1927) Abertillery is often called the ‘Metropolis of the Western Valleys’ with some of the largest and finest shops in the county, if few public buildings. The principal industry is coal mining with eight colliery shafts in the town, a further dozen in the urban area, and many small drifts and levels. The only other industry of note is the tin plate works. The climate of the district is moderately dry and bracing; English is the prevailing language with little Welsh spoken. Its population growth has been phenomenal from the year 1891. Here it will be necessary to glance at the figures for 1850, the year in which the winning of coal was begun systematically. Cwmtillery collieries were then opened, and Penybont in 1851. The estimated population was 1200 souls. In 1891, we have a population of about 10,000 – a period of forty years in which the population has increased by only 9000. The next ten years saw a great change. In 1901, the population was 21,000 or double the 1891 population. In 1927 the estimated population for the Urban Area was 37,250 though these figures do not fairly represent the highest point reached since the aftermath of the tragic events of 1926, i.e., the General Strike and the prolonged coal stoppage, resulted in many people seeking pastures new. Educational facilities are on an equality with any town of its size in the Country. There are practically a dozen elementary schools in the town locality, and a secondary school with a reputation that is ‘second to none’. Generous provision is made for ‘Evening Classes’ and these have laid the foundation stones of many University careers. The people are well catered for in the way of recreation, by the provision of Public Parks, Sports Grounds and Swimming baths. The religious life of the community has not been overlooked, and there is visible evidence of strenuous efforts made to meet requirements in this direction. Every denomination is represented, and their work has resulted in some very fine edifices being erected, one of the finest being our own Central Church in Somerset Street. The town has two lighting schemes – Gas and Electricity, and as a mining town, is clean and |
sanitary. The inhabitants are justly
proud of their town, and endeavour to keep its reputation high. The sylvan beauty of the ‘Land of Gwent’ was at no place greater and more enchanting than at the Northern end of its Western Valley where the ‘Tylery’, a turbulent stream, dashed o’er the stones in its mad race to join the silvery, rippling ‘Little Ebbw’ in its gambol to the sea. Limpid brooks sang music to the placid sweetness of the air, and on their wooded banks, the birds nested in peace, called forth only by the rising of the sun o’er the hilltops at dawn, to the beauty of the day, and lulled to rest by the crooning of the waters, whose bosoms were flecked into motion by the gentle swaying of the breeze. Chestnut trees spread leafy shade, shared by winding paths bedecked with a profusion of wild strawberries and raspberry canes that bore fruit, tempting the weary passer by. Dreamy, mystic woodlands abounded, where in the heat of the day, one wandered on Nature’s carpet of green-sward, decorated by wild flowers, being ever allured farther and farther into their depths by the sweet medley of sound, poured forth by the unseen songsters hidden in the green foliage of the trees. Here at eventide as the moon peeps over the hill and sheds her beams faintly through the deepening shade, the gnomes and fairies played and romped in ever widening circles around the trees, to the accompaniment of music that sent the pulses throbbing with delight, and as the darker shades of night appeared, ran off in dreadful fear to their home in the shelter of the flowers, to escape the hobgoblins who, with their friends the evil spirits, changed men into cows, and took their sight away, came to take possession of the scene, from which they, in turn, were carried off in the dew-drops, by the sun’s rays in the early morn. The waving cornfields, verdant pastures, and wooded hillsides – down whose slopes sported in wild glee many pretty streams – with white farmsteads, made a picture of such scenic beauty as would grace the canvas of the greatest artist. In this Arcadia dwelt some few hundred souls, without a place wherein they might worship the God who made them. In the whole district there were but few who met in fellowship at Blaenau Gwent, a village seeming far away. Our people were the first religious body established in Abertylery, and it is the part played by them in bringing and preaching a knowledge of the Gospel to Abertylery, that our story relates. | ||
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ABERTILLERY & DISTRICT MUSEUM SOCIETY Museum matters. | |||
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Museum matters July 06 There are many ways to portray history, one of them where actors act out events such as the “Living History Days which are held in the museum. Military Re-enactment Societies do this on a much larger scale
One such group is the South Wales Borderers which formed by Paul Sydney some eleven years ago, depicts an ordinary infantry unit of the British army circa 1944. The South Wales Borderers regiment can trace its history back to 1689 when it was raised as Sir Edward Dering's Regiment of Foot. In 1747 it was ranked as the 24th Regiment of Foot and the title under which it is most famed for its part in the Zulu War of 1879 and as the regiment which defended Rorke's Drift. In 1881 the regiment was named the South Wales Borderers and went on to serve with distinction during the Boer War and the First World War. Throughout the Second World War the regiment's various battalions served in North Africa and Burma. The part of the regiment chosen to be recreated by Paul Sydney is the 2nd Battalion, 24th Regiment of Foot South Wales Borderers.
During WW II
the battalion
participated
in the raid on Narvik in April 1940 and elements supported commando
raids against the western coast of France in the lead-up to D-Day. In
fact, it is the period June 1944 onwards * which the group sets out to
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honour from the regiment's service in Egypt. The other notable badge worn on the sleeve is the Polar Bear depicting is the fact the regiment formed part! of the 49th (West Riding) Division. Personal equipment including ammunition pouches are all of the period and items such as proper shovels, hand grenades and tin cups are all carried in the fashion of the British infantryman of the time.  The
history depicted by the group really begins at 07.25am on the morning
6th June 1944, that was the time when it landed as part of the 56th
Independent Infantry Brigade which went ashore on Gold Beach in the area
of Asnelles.
This assault force was 50th British Division and would be the only beachhead to link up with another beachhead, which in ' this case was the western edge of the 3rd Canadian Division landing on Juno Beach. The 2nd Battalion South Wales Borderers was the only Welsh regiment to land on D-Day and Paul Sidney has a copy of the map and route taken by the unit on that day in 1944. It shows how the men moved inland toward Ryes before swinging west to help in liberating the town of Bayeux. Today the town of Asnelles has a memorial to the men of the South Wales Borderers with inscriptions in Welsh, English and French surmounted by the Egyptian Sphinx. They went on to helps liberate the harbour town of Le Havre along with other towns and villages. The regiment was attached to XXX Corps during the ill-fated Operation Market Garden to capture bridges across Holland, the most famous of which was Arnhem.. This is a unit which has seen action and careering around the hills in Wales in full combat order keeps one fit. I doubt if any veteran seeing these men portraying a fine old regiment would be upset by their appearance.
Sadly the 2nd
battalion South Wales Borderers no longer exists, having been disbanded
in 1948. But thankfully, due to Paul Sydney
Should anyone be interested in discovering more about the South Wales Borderers they can contact Paul Sidney on 01495 774482 or, you can visit the group's Website which has all the contact details at: www.sw-borderers.cjb.net
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ABERTILLERY & DISTRICT MUSEUM
SOCIETY
One
of the fundamental aspects of re-enactment is to preserve with honour
and dignity the memory of those people who were involved in whatever
period is being portrayed. This is the way in which we can preserve
their lives and make sure they and their deeds are not forgotten.
Whether Romans or more recent events, they all deserve to have their
time remembered. In the case of the Second World War, re-enactors have
to take special care to put on good presentations, or they stand to be
criticised by veterans who might understandably feel slighted should a
group turn out in a slovenly fashion. For this reason, the groups who
portray WWII and depict specific regiments usually do a splendid job and
the veterans feel pleased that someone is taking the time to remember
them. The veterans pass on a wealth of information and are usually made
honorary members of the group. 
accurately
portray. The group recreates a 'foot slogging' unit of what is often
referred to as 'The Poor Bloody Infantry' who had to march everywhere.
They wear the correct insignia including tradesman's badges and chevrons
to denote rank. Paul Sydney himself holds the rank of sergeant and with
no officer in the group it shows a section-sized unit of which there
would have been three in a platoon. As a section of infantrymen the
group ‘have a couple of men armed with Sten guns, otherwise it comprises
of riflemen, Bren gunner, radio operator and the section commander.
Sleeve badges include the Sphinx shown yellow on black which is in
recognition of the battle 
Don Bearcroft, Curator.