Monthly Newsletter
May 2026
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What’s On at The Met
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15th May 7.30pm Troublemaker – The Olly Murs Experience. Prices from £15
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For more information on these and more visit:
https://awenboxoffice.com/the-met/whats-on
or tel 01495 533195
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Museum Opening Times
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The Museum is open to the public, free of charge:
Thursday to Saturday 10 am – 1 pm
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Contact us
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Museum phone number 01495 211140
Email: abertillerymuseum@btconnect.com
Web: www.abertilleryanddistrictmuseum.org.uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abertillerymuseum
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Contact Names
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Mr G Murphy Curator
Mrs P. Bearcroft Deputy Curator
Mrs E. Ewers Chair
Mrs K. Pratley Treasurer
​Mrs Jen Price Secretary
Mrs S. Murphy Newsletter
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Vice Presidents (Annual Subscription £25)
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Rev Roy Watson
Mrs Carol Brooks
Mrs Margaret Cook
Mrs Margaret Herbert
Ms Michele Dack
Dr Graham Eyre-Morgan
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April 100 Club
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This month’s prize numbers were drawn by visitor Mr David Griffiths and the lucky winners are:-
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No. 01 Nicola Hayward £20
No. 70 Richard Greenaway £10
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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.
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The Easter Raffle​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
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The Easter Raffle was drawn on 11th April and all winners have been notified. The winning ticket numbers are detailed below with the first prize going to Mara, and she is pictured here accepting her prize along with brother Tate.
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Prize Ticket no. Serial No.
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First Yellow 921 AD394671
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Second Green 631 AB162880
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Third Green 626 AB162880
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Bunny Hunt
Raffle Orange 20 AD448539
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Ongoing Work
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We are hopeful that the car park in front of the museum will be re-opening shortly. In the meantime we are still open though visitors will need to enter via the side, fire escape, door. We apologize for any inconvenience.
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Condolences
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We are sad to report the loss of long-standing museum supporter, Mr Richard Tillings. We offer our sincere condolences to his family and friends and in particular to his wife Carol.​​​​​
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The Lochs of Scotland
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Recently I was lucky enough to have a short break in Scotland on a coach tour. The hotel was just outside Fort William overlooking Loch Linnhe which I learnt was 31 miles long and at its widest around 1.2 miles wide. During the holiday the coach took us on a trip each day to a different location, the scenery was amazing especially one morning when we woke up to snow on the mountain tops!
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As you can imagine I learnt a lot along the way and found it really interesting. Firstly the word Loch is derived from the word for lake in the Scottish Gaelic language. There are Lochs in both Ireland and Scotland and can be natural lakes, sea inlets or man made with a wide range of shape and sizes. They are a very big part of the landscape especially in the Highlands and it is estimated that there are over 31,000 spread over the country!
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Some of the most notable lochs are –
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Loch Lomond - a fresh water loch located about one hour from Glasgow forming the heart of the Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park, it spans 24 miles and reaches a depth of 620ft.
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Loch Morar –a freshwater loch and the fifth largest and deepest loch, it is thought to have been carved out by glaciers during the last Ice Age and at 310m deep (10m deeper than the height of Eiffel Tower!)
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Loch Fyne – a sea Loch off the Firth of Clyde is the longest Loch in Scotland at 40 miles long and famous for sea food particularly oysters, mussels and kippers. It is situated in Argyll and also famous as having Inverarary castle, the ancestral home of the Duke of Argyll based on its shores.
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Loch Shiel – This loch was most recently made famous as the location for Hogwarts Black Lake location in the Harry Potter films.
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And naturally I couldn’t leave out what is probably its most famous loch and that is of course Loch Ness!! Loch Ness has a volume of over 7,450 million cubic metres and contains more water than all the lakes in England and Scotland put together! Urquhart Castle overlooks Loch Ness; a large ruin dating from 1509...but of course, the most famous thing about Loch Ness is the Loch Ness monster!!
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Karen Pratley
*Editors Note
The story of Nessie featured in our April 2023 newsletter and you can read it on our website at the link below:
https://www.abertilleryanddistrictmuseum.org.uk/april-2023-newsletter
Quick Quiz (answers on page 4)
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What world famous horse race takes place 1st Saturday in May?
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“Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May” was written by whom?
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The annual cheese rolling competition of Brockworth near Gloucester uses which type of cheese?
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According to a famous nursery rhyme when in May should we gather nuts?
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What major eruption began on an Indonesian Island on 20th May 1883?
The BBC will be filming an episode of their Antique’s Roadshow at Caerphilly Castle on Saturday 18th July. It you have ever fancied attending such an event, either for an appraisal or as a spectator, then now is your chance. Tickets are free but are limited and must be pre-booked by visiting their website on the link below:
https://lostintv.com/tv-show?id=1417
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The Old Isolation Hospital
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When I was a child I remember that on the lower mountain slope above Gelli Crug there was a flat platform where the old isolation hospital used to stand. I don't know why but just recently I wondered about its history and, as ever, Graham Bennett’s website Out of the Blue Artifacts came up trumps. This article is based on the information on his website as is the photo, so thank you Graham for allowing us to share it here.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, isolation or fever hospitals were relatively common. These were the days before vaccinations and antibiotics or proper sanitary arrangements in towns. If an infectious disease struck, it could spread very easily and one way to try to combat this was to place the patients in an isolation or fever hospital some way out of the town or, as in this case, part way up a mountain. Diseases such as typhoid, smallpox and diphtheria were understandably feared and it was a smallpox outbreak in Blaina which first led to talk of an isolation hospital in Abertillery, a facility which was considered even more necessary following an outbreak of typhoid and diphtheria in Abertillery itself in 1898.
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The Council started looking around for sites. One suggestion was the Arael Mountain but that was dropped because it was too close to a route used for transporting milk. Attention then turned to a site in Six Bells but although negotiations reached an advanced stage, that site was dropped in favour of the site at Gelli Crug, known as Coed Cae Du.
In 1902 there were 32 cases of diphtheria, 12 cases of scarlet fever and 2 cases of typhoid. That same year tenders were sent out for the construction of an isolation hospital built of corrugated iron and wood and with a stone kitchen. The hospital housed two wards, each with six beds and each including a linen cupboard, bathroom and water closet, disinfectant apparatus and an ambulance cart. There were also offices and the kitchen. In 1909 the hospital was extended to provide residential accommodation for a matron and caretaker and the following year the hospital was
the hospital was ever present; in 1910 there were 39 cases of scarlet fever and one of diphtheria.
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In 1920, the Council organised the appointment of additional staff but only two years later there were reports that the hospital was outdated and too small and that maintaining the access road was proving problematic. There were suggestions that the hospital be relocated but it carried on until around 1930.
The Council decided in 1932 that it would remain closed but following a request from Gray Colliery Lodge that the hospital be re-opened as there were ill miners concerned about spreading disease to their families, the County Medical Officer issued a report which suggested shutting all the small isolation hospitals in favour of a large central hospital at Crumlin. Local concern led the hospital at Abertillery to be mothballed but, in the event, when there was an outbreak of meningitis 'spotted fever' in 1938, this was not something the hospital could deal with and patients were sent to the fever hospital at Bargoed.
The isolation hospital in Abertillery closed shortly afterwards, the building was demolished and the site cleared. However, there are still a few traces for those who are interested and care to look closely.
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There were also isolation hospitals at Nantyglo and Blaina and information on these can also be found on Graham’s website using the link below:
Nantyglo and Blaina Hospital for Infectious Diseases – Out Of The Blue Artifacts .
Jen Price
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Mobile Phone Theft
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These days are lives are on our phones so if we lose our phones to theft it can be devastating and mobile phone thefts are worryingly high, especially in big cities. So what can we do to protect our tech and what should we do if the worst happens?
Well firstly, thieves on bikes (for a quick getaway) are on the lookout for people actually using their phones whilst walking in the street. These days it isn’t just the resale value of the phone that interests them, but rather the apps they could potentially access; such as your banking app. So if they can snatch an ‘unlocked’ phone from our hands and keep it unlocked then all the better for them and the worst for us!
It’s always good practice to have a keypad lock, such as a 4 or better still 6 digit pin, or a biometric unlocking option such as a fingerprint or facial recognition. Biometric options are also a good idea for important apps such as your banking app. You should also set up a 4 digit code for your SIM too so that the thief cannot use your SIM card in another phone.
If your phone is snatched while unlocked, the quicker it will lock itself, the more difficult it will be for the thief to keep it open so set the time before your screen locks to a low setting such as 30 seconds. Android phones have a setting where, if there is a sudden jerk, the phone will lock automatically while iPhones have something called ‘stolen device protection’ which is worthwhile turning on as this adds an extra level of security when your phone is away from home.
All smart phones these days have a ‘Find My’ app pre-installed. It will allow you to track your phone from any other device you have of the same make or from the maker’s website (more information on this below). Every phone has a unique 15 digit IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number and you can access it by typing *#06# into your phone’s keypad. So last but not least make a note of your phone’s IMEI number and keep the note safe away from your phone. Your service provider
and the police will both ask you for this if you lose your phone.
Should the worst happen and your phone is lost or stolen there are a number of things you can do.
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From another device, using ‘Find My’ you should be able to track, lockdown or shutdown the phone. Don’t have a second device? Then you can do this from a PC or even a friend’s phone by visiting icloud.com/find for iPhones or android.com/find for Android devices.
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Contact your service provider and give them the IMEI number. Your service provider can use this number to render the phone unusable.
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Let your bank know so they can suspend any digital wallets you may have set up on the phone and also suspend your banking app.
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Report the theft to the police. They will give you a crime reference number for your insurer, if you have one. Also give them the IMEI number too; it will help them identify the phone if it is recovered.
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At the earliest opportunity change passwords on any things installed on your phone such as your emails and shopping apps etc.
There is plenty of advice to be found on the internet on this subject such as the one below from the BBC:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwygwnvdq23o
Sally Murphy
Quiz Answers:
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Kentucky Derby
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William Shakespeare – from Sonnet 18
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Double Gloucester cheese
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On a cold and frosty morning!
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Krakatau Volcano
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Margaret Thatcher became 1st female Prime Minister for UK
