ABERTILLERY & DISTRICT MUSEUM SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER September 2006

Coffee morning  You will see from the diary dates that we have arranged a coffee morning at the Museum on Saturday 16^th September (re-arranged from August to avoid the Bank Holiday weekend).  We will be putting on a display of handicrafts and so if you sew, knit, paint, photograph or whatever, please let us have one or two examples for the display.  We know our members have lots of hidden talents – now is the time to show them off!  Please see Peggy for more details.  As usual, we would be very grateful for cakes.

Lecture Programme  Our lecture programme starts up again this month and you will see that our Programme Secretary, Marge Selway, has arranged a varied programme with some of our more popular speakers.  Please be sure to come along and bring family and friends.

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.

www.cwmtillery.com

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.

Vice Presidents
Mr Keith Dykes                         Mr Alan Hunt
Mrs Esme Heal                          Mr Glyn Saunders 
Mrs Kathleen Davies                 Rev. R Watson
Mrs Margaret Herbert               Prof.Gerwyn Griffiths       
Mr David Llewellyn               Mrs Carole Brooks           Mr Edward Meredith (dec'd) 
Mrs Jeanette Fulton                   Mr Arthur Lewis
(Annual Subscription £25)

Fund raising July & August £390

Home made jam  Museum member Enid Dean makes superb jam which she sells in aid of Museum funds at £1 per pot.  With this season’s fruit coming on stream we hope you’ll try some – once tried we know you’ll be back for more.  The jam is on sale at the Museum or contact Enid.  Various flavours available including blackcurrant, greengage, gooseberry and plum.

Contact Names
Mrs Peggy Bearcroft,       Chairperson                   01495 213806
Mr DonBearcroft,       Curator                                   01495 213806 
Mr Ron Selway,         Vice Chairman                       01495 215775
Mr Trevor Cook Secretary- c/o Museum               01495 211140
Mrs Margaret Cook  Assistant Secretary
Mr Bernard Jones, Treasurer                                    01495 213185  
Mrs Enid Dean, Fund raising Secretary                  01495 212880 
Mrs M Gilson, Schools Liaison                                01495 212413    
Mrs M Selway, Programme Sec                                01495 211960
Mr Roy Pickford, Social Events Sec                        01495 213377
Mr Bernard Hill, Asst Curator                                   01495 212864 
Mrs Jen Price (Newsletter)                                         01633 482851

he public are most welcome. News of coffee mornings and other events can be found on the notice board at the Museum.

Diary Dates

Wednesday 6^th September 2006 –George Hudson – Railway King in Victorian Times by John Long

Saturday 16th September 2006 – Coffee morning featuring handicraft display

Monday 25^th September 2006 – AGM 7.00pm at the Museum

Wednesday 4^th October 2006 – Scenes of Switzerland by Harry Vagg

Wednesday 1^st November 2006 – Birds and Mammals (with owls) by Dave Cooksey

Wednesday 6^th December 2006 – The Haunted Hills by John Rutter

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 opposite.

Congratulations to Enid and Bert Dean who recently celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary.

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ABERTILLERY & DISTRICT MUSEUM SOCIETY

Severn Barrage  Abertillery generated its share of debate over renewable energy in the last year or so when faced with a wind farm proposal.  A little further afield, the construction of a barrage across the Severn Estuary is once again under investigation, with forceful arguments for and against.  The notion of damming the estuary to provide transport links, flood protection and harbour facilities has been around since the 19^th century but attention over the past 30 years has focused on its potential for tidal power generation.  First mooted in 1981, in 1992 the Renewable Energy Advisory Group identified the Severn as the most financially attractive barrage in the UK. Some years later the Government withdrew funding for further appraisal, claiming that tidal power was unlikely to be economic within the next 20 years but the debate has continued.  Earlier this year the Welsh Assembly Government endorsed a Severn barrage in a submission to the energy review – a stance which has led to renewed interest and argument. 

Those supporting the proposal say the scheme could supply about 5.4 per cent of electricity demand in England and Wales, equivalent to two or three nuclear power stations.  The Severn Tidal Power Group says it could cut 18 million tonnes of greenhouse gases a year and protect 225km of coastline from rising sea levels and storm surges.

Those opposed to the scheme on environmental grounds claim that it would destroy valuable wildlife habitats in the estuary, which provides feeding grounds for around 65,000 birds, and that the scheme would take too long to come to fruition to effect the predicted cut in greenhouse gases.  The estuary has been recognised as of local, regional, national and international importance as a wetland area and some opponents to the barrage have asked that attention be given instead to tidal lagoons which, they claim, would be less environmentally damaging and produce more energy.

Oxford Dinosaurs

Oxford is a popular visitor destination and among its attractions are its museums.  The Oxford University Museum of Natural History is perhaps less well known but houses a splendid collection of exhibits, including life size dinosaurs.  The building itself is also impressive, its huge glass roof being supported by cast iron columns.

Local Voices
It is invariably the case that our members, of all ages, reminisce when they get together.  Please share your memories with us.  If you’d prefer not to put pen to paper yourself then we’ll do it for you.  Please contact Jen Price via the Museum or telephone 01633 482851.  Thank you.

Police Boxes
Can you remember the police boxes in Abertillery?  Now long gone, the former police box in Somerton Crescent in Newport lasted longer than most (albeit decommissioned) thanks to the stripey Dr Who scarf  painted on it. Police boxes first appeared in the United States but started to appear in Britain from the late 1880s.  You may remember them as blue but in fact they were also to be found in red, while Newport traditionally favoured cream (except for the one in Somerton Crescent!).  The first ‘tardis–like’ boxes appeared in Scotland in 1929 – they were considered to be very expensive, costing £55. 16s 11d, with a further £3 for number plate, coat hook, lino, stool, a fire extinguisher and bracket, as well as a brush and duster.  The various police boxes were equipped with first aid kit, telephone, police incident and log book – a miniature police station.  I can’t recall ever having seen the inside of one, or recall one in use, but a friend from Yorkshire says he vividly remembers that if the light started flashing, he and his mates were expected to alert the local bobby.  What are your memories?

Jen Price

Poet’s Corner
‘The Latecomer ‘(with apologies to Wordsworth)

I wandered slowly to the school, 
That  stands in Oak St. on the hill,
When I recalled the golden rule,
Of which I nearly had my fill.
Late – across the drive I hurried,
Feeling anxious, worn and worried.
Continuous as the stars that shine,
The prefect sees us at the door,
Waiting to write your name and mine,
In the little book we all adore.
Ten thousand times my name I saw
You see I had been late before
And oft as in my desk I sit,
The prefect comes into the room.
My fate in her bright eyes is writ,
And I’m directed to my doom,                                        And then another class mate whines,
We have to write 10,000 lines.

The Tylerian 1948

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ABERTILLERY & DISTRICT MUSEUM SOCIETY

Shorthand

In 1837 Sir Isaac Pitman invented the system of phonetic shorthand.  Shortly after this a John Harland of Hull became a devotee of this method of reporting simultaneously and even improved on Pitman’s great innovation.

Most of my office jobs required shorthand and typing ability.  I suppose I was reasonably efficient but must admit some of the longer words got a bit too involved for me and I reverted to an abbreviated version of the actual word which only I could decipher.

I have in my possession (still in the original box and in mint condition) a lovely Bible written in shorthand.  My father was a self-taught scholar and apparently shorthand appealed to him.  I am told that as a young man he used to go to chapel and take down the sermon in shorthand.  My mother bought him this Bible before they were married, probably about 1916.  I never aspired to reading it!

Shorthand like so many other things has become obsolete due to the inventions of today and the technology available.  The first decline of shorthand was the introduction of the audio system.  One could go back on the tape to check an item.  Much different from shorthand where a wrong squiggle could totally alter the context.

The Roving Reporter

 Tiltyards

Tiltyards were a feature of a number of houses in the Thames valley.  Hampton Court was the last of Henry’s houses to have one, long after he abandoned tournaments for the more stately pursuits of bowling and tennis. Work on the rectangular tiltyard at Hampton Court began soon after May 1837, based on the dimensions of the Greenwich tiltyard.  Henry VIII died before it could be used and, due to plague outbreaks in London, it was probably not until Elizabeth’s accession-day tilts that it was first pressed into action.  The Hampton Court tiltyard originally boasted five towers, one at each corner with large bay windows, and the fifth occupying a commanding central position, taller than the others and with numerous bay windows around its curvilinear plan.  The towers normally housed courtiers, guests and ambassadors.  Only the south-east tower survives, bearing the traces of where the windows may have been.  A painstaking scheme of repair is under way, with care being taken to safeguard the architectural and archaeological integrity of the structure.

Sugar  As you put your spoon in the sugar bowl do you ever think about its history?  Polynesians have been using sugar on the islands of the Pacific for over 5000 years.  They discovered that the stalks of a giant grass contained a sweet tasting liquid that could be used in preparing food.

Sugar cane was then taken to the coastal areas of India and for many centuries it spread no further.  In 510 Darius, the Persian emperor, arrived to conquer the Indian sub-continent and found that people used a substance from a plant to sweeten food.  Until then the Persians had used honey to sweeten food and they called sugar cane ‘the reed which gives honey without bees’.

Some 200 years later Alexander the Great conquered parts of western Asia and took with him the ‘sacred reed’.  Before long, Ancient Greece and then Rome began to import sugar as a luxury item and a medicine. Through invasions, conquests and increased trading links with other countries, sugar cane reached a great number of places including Egypt, Rhodes, north Africa and southern Spain. The Arabs took sugar cane to Spain and Portugal in the fifteenth century and because it was a very profitable crop, they became active in finding new places to grow it.  In 1493 Christopher Columbus took sugar cane to the Caribbean island of Santa Domingo where it flourished in the rich soils and hot, wet climate.

This was a landmark in the history of sugar cane because it grew faster in the West Indies than anywhere else in the world. Farmers from Britain, France and Holland soon became involved in setting up plantations in Brazil, Cuba, Mexico and the West Indies. At first they used local labour but as the industry grew, slaves were brought from Africa; sugar was so profitable that it was called ‘white gold’.  Slavery was officially abolished in 1833 in Britain and 1863-5 in the USA. The harrowing story of the slave trade is well known, with nearby Bristol having a particularly close involvement in the trade.

The British developed a taste for sugar when it became affordable to the masses but the disruption of supplies in the First World War saw a switch to producing sugar from sugar beet.  That’s another story.

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Museum matters.

As a young man during the 1930s depression like others he had to seek work in other parts of the country.
At one time he worked as a erecting pylons for the electricity grid across Devon and Cornwall.  He became a Forman; part of his job was to see that the required steel sections were unloaded off the trains and delivered by lorry to the sites.  He lodged in Newton Abbot, Ivybridge, St. Austell, Redruth and Penzance. As I watched the passing pylons I could not help but wonder if my father had helped to build them.

During WW II a practice for the D. Day landings called Operation Tiger was held at Slapton Sands and Torcross West of Dartmouth and as far as Allington. The force consisted mainly of American troops using landing craft, floating tanks, supported by warships. The exercise was held at night it was a live firing exercise which went badly wrong. While the ships were on route to the shore they were spotted by a flotilla of German E. Boats. In the resulting confusion ships fired on each other not recognising friend from foe. To make matters worse the troops landing on the beaches became entangled in the live barrage from the warships and the defenders onshore, some of the floatation tanks sank. The casualties were nearly 1,000 American sailors and soldiers; the authorities kept the incident secret to preserve morale. The survivors were sworn to secrecy and dispersed throughout the different forces. There was a reluctance to talk about the incident but due to the efforts of Ken Small (His book “The Forgotten Dead”) the Americans have a memorial on the sea front at Slapton Sands. It is one of the Sherman floatation tanks which was recovered from the sea by Ken Small.
Exeter is dominated by its Cathedral. Inside is the fifteenth-century clock showing the earth as a golden ball at the centre' with the sun as a fleur-de-lys travelling around it once every twenty four hours. In between the two is the moon which turns on its axis as it completes its own monthly circuit. The minute dial above was added in 1760.
On display until 15th September is the Tsunami Noni carved in Ancaster limestone from Lincolnshire. The stone was formed during the Jurassic period and is at least 142 million years old. Rosie Musgrave began carving this piece in September 2004. Before carving she thought about the stone: making sketches and maquettes - small versions of what she was planning. By Christmas 2004 the outside of the boat was completed but the inside remained unworked as she felt uncertain as to whether the boat should become empty or contain a figure. After news of the tsunami broke she began carving the inside of the boat and the figure of the woman emerged very quickly. In some sense the process felt beyond her. The woman/noni lies in the boat in a chrysalis form awaiting transformation. When the sculpture is exposed to the elements the boat fills with rain water leaving the figure half-submerged. Tsunami Noni was named by Sri Lankans caught up in the aftermath of this devastation and is dedicated to the memory of

those drowned in this tragedy. The sculpture serves as a reminder of our human frailty and the nature of impermanence.

Dartmouth is dominated by Sir Aston Webb's monumental design for the Royal Naval College ( 1892©). The ancient seaport is itself a natural stronghold which Henry VIII had fortified at Dartmouth and Kingswear; the two haven forts were once connected by a chain boom. Dartmouth has sent ships to the Crusades, the siege of Calais and the Armada. The adventurous Elizabethan navigator, Sir Humphry Gilbert was born here; also Thomas Newcomen invented a steam engine in 1705.

Plymouth is full of history but what I remember most from our holiday is St Andrews Church and its windows. The ancient glass was destroyed during the Civil War, and none of the modern glass survived the destruction of the Church in 1941. The six stained glass windows now in position were all designed by John Piper and made by Patrick Reyntiens

TOWER WINDOW is the Astor Memorial Window. In the design, the Ladder, the Reed and Spear form a St Andrew's Cross in honour of the dedication of the church. In the tracery lights at the top of the window are shown the Sun and Moon in Eclipse, and the Sponge moistened with vinegar.

The CENTRAL EAST WINDOW. This is in memory of Lady Astor who was the first woman Member of Parliament and was the Member for Plymouth from 1919 to 1945. Here are represented the four elements: air, fire, earth and water. God's purpose for the world is shown with the beginnings of life emerging from the slime, and everything is striving upwards yearning for completion.

ST. CATHERINE CHAPEL the window shows  St. Catherine's symbol of martyrdom, the Catherine Wheel interlaced with the Cross of St. Andrew. The symbols of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are in the four corners of the window. The face in the top left is the symbol of St. Matthew, in the top right the face of the flying ox represents St Luke. In the bottom left is the lion of St. Mark and the bottom right shows the. flying eagle of St John. In the tracery at the top are the symbols of various martyrs, including St Boniface of Crediton, St. Sidwell of Exeter, St. Margaret, St Lawrence, St. Nicholas, St Peter and St. Paul. The flame-coloured background is a symbol of the fact the Church is called to suffer when it bears witness to the gospel.

The rays of the Catherine Wheel are caught on the cross of the altar below. The words "Jesus Conquers" inscribed on the altar frontal are the words supposed to have been uttered by St. Catherine when she died. This window is dedicated to St Catherine in memory of the daughter church which had housed the congregation after the blitz from 1941 -1957

Don Bearcroft , curator.