Monthly Newsletter
August 2024

What’s On at The Met this month

Wed 7th Aug 11am & 2pm ‘Silent’ Disco price £4

Fri 16th Aug 8pm Pop Pavilion Jazz night with Hot Club Gallois Tickets from £9.50

For more information visit:
https://awenboxoffice.com/the-met/whats-on

Tel 01495 533195
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Museum Opening Times

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The Museum is open to the public, free of charge:

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Thursday* to Saturday              10am – 1pm

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June 100 Club

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This month’s prize numbers were drawn by member Susan Davies and the lucky winners are:-

No. 48 Colin Ewers £20
No. 88 Matthew Price £10

If you would like to join our 100 club and be in with a chance of winning, it costs just £1 a month. Ask at the museum for further details.
 

​Commemorative Plaque​

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Following a dedication ceremony on Friday 19th July, a commemorative plaque in memory of Don Bearcroft was unveiled. Present were many of Don’s family including of course his wife Peggy. The ceremony was led by the Rev Roy Watson. Other speakers included former councillor Nigel Daniels, Mr Trevor Cook and Mrs Jen Price.

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Don was our curator for thirty years and it’s fair to say that the museum would not be the success that it is today without his drive and perseverance and you can read more on the role of a curator on page two.
 

Sunday Shopping

This month sees the thirtieth anniversary of shops being allowed to open on a Sunday. 28th August 1994 saw the likes of Marks & Spencer opening for the very first time on a Sunday though they were still only allowed to open for a maximum of 6 hours and those hours had to fall between 10am and 6pm with smaller shops allowed to open all day. The law change had been a long time coming with no less than 26 failed previous attempts and ironically Marks & Spencer along with Waitrose had been vehemently opposed to Sunday trading. The new law though still prohibited opening on Easter Sunday and also Christmas Day whenever it fell on a Sunday which is still the case today.

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MUSEUM CURATORS

I recently came across this job description for a museum curator:

research, identify and catalogue collections
make sure exhibits are safe, stored securely and in the right conditions
arrange conservation and restoration
help visitors to interpret and enjoy exhibits and collections.

I think it is a pretty accurate description of the role of a museum curator and one which applies equally to a large national museum and our own community museum. However, it is a rather clinical description and what it doesn't say, certainly in the case of our own museum, is that the role requires a huge amount of dedication and an ability to inspire others to want to visit, volunteer at or simply support the museum in some way.
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​I first became involved with the Museum Society when Don Bearcroft was curator and the collection was held in a room below the library. Don held that post for over 30 years and was the one who led our fight to get the wonderful museum we have today. His dedication was unquestionable.

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​​As Don's health deteriorated, his wife Peggy stepped up as Deputy Curator and then Curator. Having initially said, all those many years ago, that she wasn't going to get involved in the Museum Society, she is another dedicated volunteer and currently holds the post of deputy Curator. Her knowledge and experience are invaluable.
That brings me to our current Curator, Gareth Murphy – another volunteer dedicated to his role at the museum and whose contribution is invaluable in ensuring the continued success

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​of the museum. We really wouldn't have our museum without the dedication of our curators – all of whom are volunteers – who go above and beyond their 'job' description. Something that characterises them all is a willingness to rise to a challenge, however daunting. On behalf of the museum, thank you!

​Jen Price

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Star Wars Comes to Wales

Star Wars (not to be confused with Star Trek) started life as a film franchise but has now branched out into various spin-off TV series, the latest of which is The Acolyte and much of the filming took place right here in Wales.

Like most of the Star Wars stories, the action takes place on more than one planet and the film makers needed a location to film where the viewer felt transported to various places throughout the galaxy and they found the ideal location in none other than the Brecon Beacons. Low in the valley they could use the greenery of the valley and the woodlands while higher up on the mountain, snow transports the viewer to another planet entirely. Also featured in the series is the, now drained, Upper Neuadd Reservoir and the Upper Neuadd Dam which was built around 1900. Filming also took place in fields adjacent to Trago Mills in Merthyr Tydfil.
 

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​So if you glimpsed a very hairy man while out and about recently, you weren’t

imagining it, it would have been a ‘Wookie’. May the force be with you!

The Acolyte is available to stream on Disney+ now.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx92exjz98ro
Sally Murphy

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THE WELSH AND THE BRETONS

I was on holiday in Brittany recently and the Celtic influence our two countries share was loud and clear. There were Celtic crosses, shared saints and, to a degree, a shared language with many words bearing a resemblance to Welsh ones.

Another parallel was the former suppression of the Breton language. I'm sure we have all heard of the notorious 'Blue Books' of 1847 which painted such a damning picture of the Welsh and Welsh education. The education system was in its infancy and the use of Welsh was not encouraged. In some schools, children caught speaking Welsh were forced to wear a piece of wood around their necks as a punishment, in the belief that it would improve their English skills. This was not the first time that the Welsh language was sidelined. In 1536 Henry VIII prohibited the use of Welsh in public administration and the legal system. Indeed, it was illegal to speak Welsh in court until 1942.

Something similar happened in schools in Brittany although in the case of France the state took a direct role in actually banning Breton in schools between 1880 and about 1950; the language had never been banned in Welsh schools, just discouraged. The Breton language is making a comeback with bilingual signs, including road signs, and more people choosing to learn the language. Breton symbols are everywhere and pride is clearly taken in them.

I mentioned that there were a number of saints linked to both Wales and Brittany and among the most famous are St Non and St Malo. St Non, the mother of David the Patron Saint of Wales, retired to a monastery in Finisterre in Brittany. St Malo, born in Gwent in 520, eventually became a hermit on the island of Aleth off the coast of Brittany. The island was later renamed St Malo in his honour.
 

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​​You may also be interested to know that the Welsh national anthem and the Breton national anthem share the same music. Our Breton cousins borrowed the music and when writing, the lyrics also used the words of our anthem. Have a listen on YouTube using this link:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=BRETON+NATIONAL+ANTHEM

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​And here is a photo of a modern Celtic cross which has been erected at a location very close to the westernmost tip of France in Finisterre – the end of the world!
Jen Price
 

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​Richard Trevithick

Richard Trevithick was born in Cornwall in 1771 and from a very young age had an interest in mining and engineering. He is credited with being the father of the steam locomotive. In 1804, he made history when his steam locomotive, the first to travel on rails, hauled ten tons of iron along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil and it all started with a wager…

In 1797, at the age of 26, Trevithick had become an engineer at the Ding Dong mine in Penwith, Cornwall and there, in conjunction with another engineer Edward Bull, he started to work with high pressure steam. Over time he realised that improvements in boiler technology meant that he could safely produce high powered steam that could move a piston. As luck would have it, Trevithick was living next door to a man by the name of William Murdoch and Murdoch had built a model of a steam carriage in 1784 which he had demonstrated to Trevithick and it could be argued that Murdoch deserves some credit for the invention too.

Trevithick began by building models before building his first full-size steam (road) locomotive engine in 1801 near Fore Street in Camborne, Cornwall. He called it the ‘Puffing Devil’ and on Christmas Eve that year he demonstrated it by pulling six passengers up Fore Street and onto Camborne Hill and then continued on to the nearby village of Beacon. Unfortunately this locomotive broke down during more tests three days later and because it boiled dry, it overheated, caught fire and was completely destroyed. Fortunately Trevithick was not put off by this early failure and put it down to experience. Another failure was the ‘London Steam Carriage’ (another road vehicle) which attracted much hype when, in 1803, it was driven from Holborn to Paddington. Unfortunately it proved to be costly to run and too uncomfortable for its passengers and was abandoned. That same year one of Trevithick’s stationary pumping engines at Greenwich exploded killing four men and in response to this Trevithick introduced safety valves to release steam if the pressure became too high.

Which brings me back to this stories link to Merthyr. In 1802 Trevithick had built a stationary steam engine to drive a hammer at Penydarren Ironworks. Under the supervision of the proprietor, Samuel Homfrey, and his employee, Rees Jones, the engine was mounted on wheels and turned into a locomotive. Homfrey was so impressed with the engine that not only did he buy the patents to it from Trevithick but he also made a bet of 500 guineas (£525 – which was more than most people earned in a lifetime) with another ironmaster, Richard Crawshay, that Trevithick’s engine could pull ten tons of iron along a ten mile stretch of tramway from Penydarren to Abercynon. Challenge accepted, it would be the first time a steam engine would run on rails and many were sceptical that the iron wheels, being smooth, would be able to grip the equally smooth rails.

On 21st February 1804, with much public interest, Trevithick’s locomotive was linked up with five wagons carrying ten tons of iron and in addition there were 70 men on board. It took just over 4 hours at an average speed of 2.4mph but it made it! Some of the tramway’s iron rails broke under the weight as they had only been built to carry light horse-drawn vehicles but nonetheless the bet had been won and history made.

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A full-scale model of Trevithick’s 1804 locomotive is on display at the National Waterfront Museum at Swansea where several times a year it is run along a 130 foot stretch of rail outside the museum. While in Merthyr, a monument (pictured here) marks the spot at Penydarren where the epic journey began. It was erected in 1933, one hundred years after his death, and is built from stone and rails recovered from Penydarren Tramroad. The monument reads: Richard Trevithick 1771-1833. Pioneer of high pressure steam built the first steam locomotive to run on rails. On February 21st 1804 it traversed the spot on which this monument stands on its way to Abercynon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Trevithick

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-68210255

Sally Murphy