Monthly Newsletter
June 2024

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What’s on at the Met Cinema

Fri 21st Jun at 7.30pm ‘Fleetwood Shack’ tribute band £12

Tue 25th Jun at 7pm Buds of May (play) £11

For more information visit or Tel 01495 533195

Museum Opening Times

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

Thursday* to Saturday 10am – 1pm

May 100 Club

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

No. 55 Sally Murphy £20
No. 26 Peter Rosser £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.

Summerfest Saturday 29th June

This summer’s festival is being held on Saturday 29th June and will run from 10am until 5pm. The museum and its café and gift shop, will be open right through until 5pm and as well as our usual ‘Treasure Hunts’ we will also be having a Pokemon Hunt (50p per child with sweet treat).

Commemorative Plaque

It is fair to say that our museum would not be the success that it is today without the enormous efforts of our late curator, Mr Don Bearcroft. He was the curator for thirty years and to honour his memory a commemorative plaque will soon be on display at the museum.

The Cuckoo Clock

The first cuckoo clock is thought to have been made by German, Philipp Hainhofer, in 1629 though the cuckoo clock did not become popular until the 1850s when they were made in abundance, mainly in the Black Forest area of Germany. Even today it is the favoured ‘souvenir’ to be brought back from anyone visiting Germany, Switzerland or Austria. The design of the clock hasn’t changed much over the years. While some are designed to sit on a mantelpiece, most are made to be wall hung and take the form of a chalet or birdhouse, usually with elaborate carvings. The ‘cuckoo’ pops out from behind a small door to mark a new hour, with the number of ‘cuckoos’ dependant on the hour of the day.

While Abertillery museum is sadly lacking a ‘cuckoo clock’, that cannot be said of Cuckooland Museum in Tabley Cheshire, home to over 700 such clocks covering over 300 years of history from the 18th to the 21st century. The museum was set up in 1990 by brothers Roman and Maz Piekarski. Both brothers trained as clockmakers in Manchester at a young age and so began their fascination with clocks. They realised that an important part of European clock-making history was in danger of being lost and so they started collecting quality pieces that were of historical significance in the development of cuckoo timekeeping. To quote Roman Piekarski, ‘When we started collecting in the 1970s, no-one wanted them because battery and electric clocks were all the rage. We picked up many for next to nothing.’ One of their clocks is a ‘cuckoo and echo’ clock which emulates the whistles and bellows made by the cuckoo. It is thought to be one of only six in existence.

Visits to Cuckooland Museum in Cheshire is by appointment only (telephone 01565 633039).

Read more here and here.

And while on the subject of unusual clocks, the Wishing Fish Clock of Regent Arcade Cheltenham deserves a mention. It was created by author Kit Williams and built by a local clock maker by the name of Michael Harding. It features a duck at the very top and a fish at the bottom. To mark the hour, balls travel down a track until they enter the main body of the clock before returning to the top. Unfortunately it has not been working on my last few visits to Cheltenham but I live in hope!

Sally Murphy

Wishing Fish clock Cheltenham

Photocopying

For all your photocopying needs, visit Abertillery Museum; charges below:

Black & White

A4 15p

A3 20p

Colour

A4 60p

A3 £1

Witch Hunts

Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I’m no fan of the Welsh language but,

if you lived during the middle ages, being able to speak welsh may well have save

your life…

In the UK, witchcraft was first defined a crime in 1542 by Henry VIII and was

punishable by death. It was usually women who were accused of witchcraft

by men. They were usually old and frail and were either single or widowed

and often living with a pet, most likely a cat, which is why we tend to associate the ‘black cat’ with a witch.

Accusing someone of being a witch was a very convenient way of stealing a woman’s assets and this was usually the motive behind the accusation. Often they were arrested and thrown in prison on the word of just one man and while awaiting trial any assets they might have were stolen. First the accused would be ‘tested’ to see if she was indeed a witch. This might involve looking for birthmarks (the sign of ‘Satan’). As very few people have perfect skin they would always find ‘the mark’ which would then be subject to ‘pricking’. If it did not bleed or cause pain then she would be declared a witch and probably hung or burned at the stake. The really unlucky ones would be tested using water. The accused would be stripped naked, tied up and thrown in deep water. Drown and you were innocent, survive and you were guilty. Either way the outcome was not good.

Henry VIII is thought to be responsible for around 1000 deaths of ‘witches’ in England but James VI of Scotland (James I of England) was a fervent witch hunter and he sent over 4000 Scots to their deaths. Curiously though only five welsh deaths due to witchcraft are recorded. Phil Carradice is a welsh author and historian from the Vale of Glamorgan, and he explores the reasons behind this lack of welsh deaths in his latest book ‘Witches and Witch Hunts Through the Ages’. He concluded that here in Wales, communities were spread far and wide and many were dependant on ‘wise old ladies’ for herbal cures for everyday ailments. With no doctors, rather than being distrusted for their potions, here in Wales they were more cherished. Another conclusion he reaches is that the numbers were so low because very few judges could speak welsh and this could well have saved many a welsh-speaking lady from a gruesome ordeal.

Phil Carradice’s book is out now and is available to buy from all good book stores.

For more information, click here and here
Sally Murphy

Voices of Abertillery

I remember William blunt, an old gentleman from Nantyglo and a first-class headmaster and a gentleman. The thing that sticks in my mind was when

mother and father and I were going on holiday to Gloucester and standing at the bus stop near the war memorial in Somerset Street when Mr Blunt came past

on his way to school. He stopped to ask why I wasn’t going and it was explained. ‘Well, if you’re going on holiday here’s something to help you along’ - a

thruppenny bit. That was the kindly gentleman he was.

In 1928 Bryngwyn was changed to a mixed school. [WGH]

The above is an extract from ‘Voices of Abertillery’ compiled by Simon Eckley & Don Bearcroft. It’s a compilation of memories from interviews of local people and is available to buy now from the museum for just £1 a copy. Pick up yours while stocks last.

Toast

There are few foods more versatile than a piece of toast. How do you like yours? - plain, buttered, topped with jam, marmalade, marmite, egg, beans? It really is one of those 'go to' comfort foods.

I know it's probably my imagination playing tricks but I still think the best toast was that which I had at my grandparents' house – a thick slice of white bread cut from a fresh Swansea loaf toasted over an open fire. We used one of those metal toasting forks with a retractable handle (similar to the one in the photo above which is one on display in the museum) and you had to be sure to skewer the bread securely and at an angle or it was liable to fall in the fire. In the Miner's Kitchen at the museum there is a different sort of toaster on display – a sort of metal cage, dating from about 1930, but also intended for use over an open fire (see photo below).

Nowadays most of us use toasters but when did toasters take over from open fires and grills? This is where the internet comes in handy. I was amazed to learn that the first toaster was made by an Essex company in, wait for it, 1893! It had bare wires which sound like a bit of a safety hazard and it doesn't seem to have been that popular. The first commercially successful toaster was made by an American company, General Electric, in 1909. Apparently it comprised a cage and is not unlike modern toasters in that respect but it only had one heating element and so it could only cook the toast one side at a time. Not that many people had electricity in their homes at this time and so the toaster was mainly used in restaurants. It seems that by the 1960s most American kitchens had an electric toaster and so I am guessing Britain was a few years behind that.

As with everything, as the years have gone by the toaster design has been refined and you can now choose your own particular shade of brown as well as having toasters which can cook several pieces of toast at one time and cope with different thicknesses.

After all that, time for a piece of toast I think, possibly with marmite. As an aside, did you know the word toast comes from the latin 'tostum' meaning to burn or scorch?

Jen Price

BANKS ON THE 159 SCHEME

The 159 service was first introduced in 2021 to combat banking fraud. Initially it was intended to be a one-year pilot scheme but it must have been successful because it is not only still running but the number of banks signed up to it have doubled. Anyone who receives a phone call claiming to be from their bank is advised to hang up and dial 159 to check if the call is genuine though, before doing so, it is important to check the previous call has been disconnected as scammers tend to keep the line open (call a friend first or better still use another phone). The banks now taking part in the scheme are as follows: