A Report on the October meeting of Resolfen History Society

A small if enthusiastic audience attended this month’s speaker which featured Anne Marie Thomas of Swansea. Mrs Thomas has specialised in the history of Gower and has spoken to the Society on two previous occasions. However, this year’s talk strayed from Wales to England, the Angevin kingdom of what is now most of France , Ireland and Scotland. The fascinating story included the machinations of the de Breos family and King John, ending in the establishment of a permanent settlement in the Magna Carta at Runnymede, in June 1215. Mrs Thomas pointed out that the famous joke about the Magna Carta being signed at the bottom was incorrect , since it was “sealed”, because it is doubtful if the erratic King John was literate at all.

King John has had a bad press, however when Mrs Thomas began researching his character, she found he was far worse than that. He was the youngest in a family of four boys and his three older siblings were killed enabling him to ascend the throne, though he disputed the right to the throne with the son of an elder brother, Arthur of Brittany. This was crucial to the tangled tale told in her book the “Broken Reed”, in which William de Breos fell in and out of favour, and the feudal tangle involved Llewelyn Fawr (the Great) who was in turn married to King John’s daughter.

Mr David Woosnam thanked Mrs Thomas for a fascinating tale, and hoped she would return next year to speak on the subject of the Magna Carta itself.

The next meeting of the Society will be on Monday 13^th November at 7:00 when Mr Keith Tucker of Neath will conclude his fascinating talk on the “Images of Neath”.

Trefor Jones

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Neath September Fair is the oldest in Wales and the 4^th oldest in Britain. We at Resolven District News have been featuring the event every year in words and with pictures.

Our RDN photographer Mike Davies covered the event brilliantly.  Sadly, Mike is no longer with us, but this year his talented daughter Ruth, continued the family tradition and visited the Fair for us.

This is her report

These are my father’s good friends,. the baby wear stall holders outside the market.  My dad met up with them and took a picture every year for 15 years.  They didn’t know he  had passed away.

Haven’t really been anywhere since Dad, so it’s been an epic day.

I really had a good time

REPORT and PICTURES by RUTH DAVIES

Resolfen History Society kicked off, with an annual meeting at the Church Hall on Monday 11^th September. Annual meetings are not usually well attended for obvious reasons, though it is encouraging to note that attendance was slightly up on last year. Luckily, with minor adjustments the committee is still intact and eager to get on with this year’s activities including monthly history lectures and a 40^th anniversary celebration around St David’s Day.

Over the summer many people had made enquiries as to whether the Society was still functioning, and their intention to attend when hearing the affirmative. As was stated last year when the Society struggled to get into first gear after Covid19, it is your Society and if you want it to get into second gear then please come and attend its meetings. The membership, is a bargain at £10, attend four meetings and you are literally in pocket. We have a full programme for the coming months but we need an audience. As David Woosnam, the re-elected Chair noted, “use it or lose it!”

Trefor Jones

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Meet with Age Alliance Wales  
 

Age Alliance Wales, an alliance of 26 national voluntary organisations committed to working together to improve the lives of older people, is running a series of community-based engagement events across Wales. Members include Age Cymru, Care and Repair Cymru, Age Connects Wales, Cymru Versus Arthritis, RNIB, Stroke Association, Royal Voluntary Service, MS Society, Deafblind Cymru, Cruse Bereavement Care, Carers Wales, Parkinson’s UK Cymru, Volunteering Matters, Action For Elders and Alzheimer’s Society Wales. 

On 12^th September 2023 we’ll be visiting St Anges Church, Neath, Port Talbot, between 9:30am and 1:30pm. If you would like to pop in to find out more about the work of our members and the services and opportunities they provide between those times, you’d be most welcome.