March 2026 Newsletter | Abertillery And Dist

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What’s On at The Met

Wed 18th March Lunchtime Theatre presents ‘Anne Bonny’ The Life She Sailed’ 1 pm. £7.50

Fri 20th March, The Cast Off Kinks 7.30 pm. £25

For more information on these and more visit:

https://awenboxoffice.com/the-met/whats-on

or tel 01495 533195

Museum Opening Times

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

Thursday to Saturday 10 am – 1 pm

Contact us

Museum phone number 01495 211140

Email: abertillerymuseum@btconnect.com

Web: www.abertilleryanddistrictmuseum.org.uk

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abertillerymuseum

Contact Names

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

Vice Presidents (Annual Subscription £25)

Rev Roy Watson

Mrs Carol Brooks

Mrs Margaret Cook

Mrs Margaret Herbert

Ms Michele Dack

Mr Ross Leadbetter

Dr Graham Eyre-Morgan

January 100 Club

January’s prize numbers (postponed from last month) were drawn by member Wendy Thomas and the lucky winners are:-

No. 09 Chris Budd £20

No. 84 Colin Ewers £10

February 100 Club

And February’s prize numbers were drawn by member Anne Jones and the lucky winners are:-

No. 36 Denise Ewers £20

No. 27 Jean Leyshon £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.

Digital Photo Frame

Visitors to Abertillery Museum may be unaware that we have over 4000 photographs in our archive that we are unable to display; until now that is. Thanks to a new digital photo frame, some of these photographs can now be seen for the first time. You will find it near the café area so that while you enjoy a hot drink, you can now also enjoy our photo slide show!

The Empire State Building

The Empire State Building is a 102 storey skyscraper in Manhatton, New York and was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon. Standing at 1434 ft (including its antenna and lightning rod – 1250ft without) it was, at that time, the world’s tallest building though it must be said that its design was changed no less than 15 times to ensure it was the tallest. Construction began on 17th March 1930 and, in an amazing feat of engineering, was completed just over 13 months later, opening on 1st May 1931. Two years later, in 1933, it featured in the iconic movie ‘King Kong’ and since then it has featured in over 250 films and TV series.

The building was the first in the world to be more than 100 storeys high though only the first 86 are useable. The first 85 floors, comprising over 2 million square feet of space, are used as mostly commercial offices while an observatory occupies the 86th floor and is open to visitors. The remaining 16 floors make up the spire while a second observatory occupies the 102nd floor. A third observatory opened in 2019 on floor 80. Because of it size, the building is one of 43 buildings within New York that has its own zip code.

Visitors enter the building’s main lobby (shown here) through its entrance on Fifth Avenue and travel to the observation decks by one of its 73 elevators and, while you ascend, the ceiling of the lift comes to life and shows you the building being constructed ahead of you as you ascend. My daughter Sarah along with friend Stacey, visited the attraction in December 2025 and a video of the elevator experience is available to view on the museum’s Facebook page.

As of 2025 the building is the 8th tallest in New York, the 10th tallest in the USA and the 59th tallest in the world.

All photos courtesy of Sarah Murphy and Stacey Hopkins

The sun sets over the Hudson as seen from the Empire State Building.

Sally Murphy

Quiz Answers (from page 1)

Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan
COVID19 declared Global pandemic by WHO
The assassination of Julius Caesar...beware the Ides of March!
Brussels Treaty – a precursor to NATO
He became first person to walk in space

Chessington World of Adventures

Continuing our look at theme parks, this park is the smallest of the Merlin run parks at 128 acres. It has a rich history with the mansion at the heart of Chessington dating back to 1348. During the English Civil War the mansion was burnt to the ground by Oliver Cromwell’s men and was rebuilt as an inn, the ‘Burnt Stub’. In the 18th century it was re-built again in a neo-gothic Victorian style by the Vere Barker family but even today it is still known as the Burnt Stub.

By 1931 the Chessington estate was owned by a Reginald Stuart Goddard who had purchased it to showcase his private collection of wild animals which was the largest private zoo in England. Goddard died in 1946 so the Pearson Publishing Company took over the management of the zoo until 1978 when its subsidiary company, the Tussauds Group stepped in. By 1984 the number of visitors to the zoo was declining and Tussauds commissioned a team to look into developing Chessington into a theme park. The team included John Wardley, a British theme park ride developer who would, in 1994, design the Nemesis rollercoaster at Alton Towers which is still there today. Under his guidance, Chessington World of Adventures officially opened as a theme park on 7th July 1987 with Prince Edward in attendance at the opening ceremony.

The park initially had five themed areas, Calamity Canyon, Mystic East, Toy Town, Market Square and Circus World and cost around £12 million to build. Its original attractions included The Runaway Mine Train (now gone), a log flume called Dragon’s River (still there and currently called Tiger Rock – see photo above), a monorail called Safari Skyway (a ride that gave you a bird’s eye view of the zoo area but now gone) and a dark ride called 5th Dimension (now re-themed as Tomb Blaster).

The following year another themed area was added, Smuggler’s Cove, but it would be the opening of the new Transylvania area with its Vampire rollercoaster in 1990 that would get my attention and inspire me to make a visit. The ‘Vampire’ was the first rollercoaster in the UK to be suspended from a track so that your feet were swinging freely and would make you feel like you were flying. The track layout was designed by John Wardley and built by American firm, Arrow Dynamics. When the ride was showing its age in 2001 and had to close it was thought the closure would be permanent as by then Arrow Dynamics had declared bankruptcy. However another firm Vekoma was able to come up with a solution that allowed the ride to reopen in 2002 and it is still in operation today.

In 2007 the Tussauds Group merged with Merlin Entertainments and they took over management of Chessington with a new hotel being built on site, turning the theme park into a resort. The Safari Hotel was quickly followed by a co-joined second next door, The Azteca Hotel, with guests of both hotels getting privileged, out of hours, access to a part of the zoo known as Wanyanama Reserve.

Today the park is still a popular attraction and continues to evolve and expand. In 2023 it opened yet another themed area, ‘The World of Jumanji’, with a launched shuttle wing coaster called Mandril Mayhem pictured here

(anyone familiar with the Jumanji film franchise will understand the significance) while the mansion house itself is home to an attraction called ‘The Room on the Broom’.

Sally Murphy

Easter Eggs with a Difference

By Jen Price

My daughter-in-law, Nina, is Austrian and the Austrians have a tradition of lovely Easter decorations, Nina's comprising beautifully decorated eggs hung on a tree sprig (or small branch if you are thinking of something bigger), garlanded with ribbons. You can buy ready-decorated eggs made from card, papier mâché, china or glass but Nina decorates her own as does her mum. She either buys blank china eggs which she paints herself or paints 'blown' eggs. Have you ever blown eggs? No? Well here is how.

Take your chicken egg and wash it.
Use a needle or skewer to make holes at the top and bottom, with the bottom hole being slightly larger.
Insert the needle far enough to pierce the yolk.
Blow through the top hole and catch the eggy mixture in a bowl ready for scrambled egg or an omelette.
Rinse and clean the egg with soapy water and leave to dry.
You are now ready to decorate your egg and glue a bit of ribbon

to the top so that you can hang it on your sprig.

Nina also makes marbled eggs for breakfast at Easter time although you

can also use the marbling technique on blown eggs. Here is how you marble.

Add water, oil, vinegar and food colouring to a bowl but don't mix them.
Dip in the egg to produce a marbled effect on the shell.
If using hard boiled eggs be sure to use edible food dye and completely submerge the egg.
If you are using a blown egg you may find it easier to dip it in a bowl using a skewer, turning it to get the effect you want.

The photographs here are all of Nina’s wonderful creations and with Easter just a few weeks away, now is the perfect time to make one for yourself.

The Abertillery Kid

I often find myself thinking of all the changes Mam and Dad saw in their lives. They lived through the turmoil of war and saw technology advance on all fronts. From their very poor origins typical of Abertillery folk during the Depression they enjoyed the comparative prosperity of later life but I think the biggest symbol of change for me is not that they eventually got on an aeroplane but that they saw the development of the motor car virtually from the beginning and were able to become car owners themselves. They saw Abertillery change from a settlement where there was only a handful of vehicles to a place where the main difficulty seems to be not how to put food on the table but how to find a parking space if you go to town.

The above is an extract from Abertillery Kid by Rob Atkins and is available to purchase from the museum for £7.99. It would make a great Easter gift!