Easter Greetings
Happy Easter to all our readers from the RDN team
Image by Mike Davies
Happy Easter to all our readers from the RDN team
Image by Mike Davies
Nik Samuel, formally of Cory Street, shares some childhood memories with us in these charming verses
Sweetman’s Field
This is looking good
Mr Morgan just came in
He smiled at Miss Norton
And she gave him a grin
He did that thing he did with the chalk
I think he thinks it’s funny
But all I can say
Is that if he was a magician
He wouldn’t make any money
Anyway, she looked our way
And announced to us all
That Mr Morgan wants us in the hall
So we put away our books
And shuffled in behind her
While Bill Lloyd carried on playing best slider
Now Reggie was a lovely man
Full of nonsense and fun
He always had a joke or a pun
But that day he declared it was too hot for school
And told us we could go
On a ramble
And we let out a great roar
Mrs Lewis made sure we had some pop
Because it was a fair old walk to the top
We held hands and off we went
Over the stile and over the stream
There was no chance at all of coming home clean
We passed Bluebell Island
It looks the same today
I go there now to look
But we went then to play
We were told don’t pick the foxgloves
They were poison Miss Vasil said
They weren’t really but they made you’re hands go red
“How far is it now, Miss?”
The girls began to shout
“Not far cariads. We’re nearly at the top
We can have our picnic when we stop”
The sky was clear and the sun was hot
It really was a wonderful spot
We played best fallers
Some girls joined in
The others played rounders
And the teachers sunbathing
Some places had some funny names
Like The Tump, The Dram Road
Cockle Alley and The Turn
But this was Sweetman’s Field
A place of adventures all to learn
They lived in the house and let us play
And as far as I know they live there today
Fun at Pentwyn
Oh that really hurt
I’ll try not to cry
I’ll have another go when I clear my eye
I knew I was going too fast
When I went through the gap in the railing
But all the Gang said it was spectacular
Even with the brake failing
Good effort though
I never been down this far
Would have gone even further if it weren’t for that car
So what do you need to build one?
Well some pram wheels
And some planks
And maybe an orange box
Some rope and a bolt to steer
And a stick to help you stop
Some were painted
Some were named
We had one called “Lightening”
And it shot around the lanes
There was even one called
“Shit Streak”
And anther “Tommy Gun”
But it didn’t really matter
They were just so much fun
If you built one for a kid today
They would stare in dismay
But give me “a go”
And I’d “gambo” every day
Cockle Alley
There’s a place in the valley, it’s called Cockle Alley
I played there as a child, we played and we smiled
It was a magical place where the brook met the river
And sometimes we’d shiver
A romantic name from a romantic past
Visions of ladies getting off the “half past”
Them washing their wares and sometimes their cares
In the cold clear water
Even as a child there were shells all around, some in the brook and some on the ground
All gone now but still in my mind the sound of the brook
The shells under feet and the damming of the stream in the warm summer heat
All lovely memories from when I lived in my street….
NIK XX
Thanks for the delightful trip Down Memory Lane, Nik
April’s full moon has been labelled the Pink Moon but it may not appear in the night sky the same colour that its name suggests.
Named after a distinctive spring flowers that appear in April, the Pink Moon will reach its peak on Friday just after midday.
I captured this full moon and the motorway at 4am April19th 2019
MIKE DAVIES
Hi, I’m Karen Teal and I have been an Art and Textiles teacher for 33 years. I am passionate about all forms of art and textiles and about working with learners young and old to develop skills, concepts, understanding, creativity and confidence.
I come from North Wales originally but I’ve lived and taught art and textiles in China for 4 years and Switzerland for two years before returning home to Wales and a move to Resolven in August 2018. to join my partner Simon Pierce..
I hold workshops for small or large groups and I’m holding workshops locally in Glynneath, Bridgend, galleries in Swansea and Neath as well as one open to all in Resolven.
Along with practical workshops I give talks to groups on my trips to Asia and the textiles that abound in those areas. I also continue to volunteer at a school in Uganda and can give an interesting insight into the life of the people there, volunteering and supporting staff and students in a small village school in Nabugabo.
DANIEL JERVIS Goes for Gold….. Again
At only 22 years of age, Daniel (from our village of Resolven) continues to gain a reputation with his successful career in the swimming world.
His list of swimming achievements is already an impressive record to be proud of.
He gained the title of European Junior Champion.
He has held several British Titles over the past few years.
He won gold medal in the Men’s 1500 Free Style British Championship in April 2018.
He was a Medalist in the Commonwealth Games held in the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre in Australia in 2018.
The British Swimming Championships of 2019 is being held in The Tollcross International Swimming Centre, Glasgow and only the best in the swimming calendar will have the necessary qualifying times to compete.
Daniel’s schedule at Glasgow is as follows:-
Tuesday 16th April 2019
Session 1 Men’s 400 Freestyle (Heats)
Session 2 Men’s 400 Freestyle Final
Thursday 18th April 2019
Session 6 Men’s 1500 Final (Daniel is due to swim at 6.30pm)
Sunday 21st April
Session 11 (a.m) Men’s 200m. Freestyle (Heats)
Session 12 (p.m) Men’s 200m. Freestyle Final
~ ~ ~
To see The British Swimming Championship LIVE STREAM
In your Browser type in
{The following are screen captures/grabs, NOT Links}
Scroll down and click on
‘DEEP END LIVE’
Scroll Down
Click on the ‘PLAY’ Triangle
~ ~ ~
RDN wishes Daniel every success in his quest to be the best.
~ ~ ~
Presentation by Lorna & Hugh {RDN Team}
CLYNE FREE MISSION EVANGELICAL CHURCH
2019 EASTER CELEBRATION
‘And that believing you may have life in His name‘
———— Please join us for our ————
EASTER SERVICES
GOOD FRIDAY 19th April at 7.00 pm
Speaker: Pastor Peter Mitchell
AND
EASTER SUNDAY 21st APRIL 11.00am & 6.00pm
Speaker: Pastor Peter Mitchell (Clyne)
A WARM WELCOME IS EXTENDED TO YOU
Clyne Free Mission Lletty Dafydd Clyne SA11 4BW
www.clynefreemission.org.uk
The Remarkable tale of the Coombe Tennants of Cadoxton
Before commencing on the report it is only fair to note that the meeting began in sombre mood following the death of Society President and founder Phylip Jones. In the absence of Chairman Gwyn Thomas, the Society’s Secretary Trefor Jones, after a minute’s silence, gave a short address regarding Phylip’s contribution to the study of history in the village.
This month’s speaker was Mr Bernard Lewis of Cimla, a local historian who has written several books on an eclectic variety of topics including Neath Rugby Club and the workhouses of Swansea. His topic, the Coombe Tennants of Cadoxton Lodge revealed a remarkable tale of mysticism and valour, summed up in the title of the talk “From Cadoxton to Carnage”. In particular, Mr Lewis focussed on the fortunes of the sons of Charles and Winifred Tennant, Christopher and Henry.
Mr Lewis began by explaining how the Tennant family came to the Neath area, when in 1817 George Tennant a Lawyer, bought what was then a redundant canal and extended it to Swansea at Port Tennant where a fortune was made in exporting the industrial goods of the area. The Tennant Canal remains in the possession of the Tennant family and still supplies water to a local tissue works. In 1895, Charles Tennant (notice the name Coombe did not appear until the year1929) married Winifred Margaret Pearce Serocold a well-connected local woman, JP and friend of David Lloyd George the future prime minister.
In 1897 their first son, Christopher was born and at aged nine he was sent to a preparatory school near Winchester. It appears that Christopher was a very sensitive child and he was badly bullied and very homesick. His academic prowess was mixed and he missed out narrowly on a place at Cambridge. His parents bought him a commission in the Welsh Guards (he was a tall man) however, before he could take up that post he had to attend Sandhurst in 1916. In 1917, he went to the Tadworth Army Camp where he drilled troops and acted as the paymaster. Following a visit home, he was sent to the Western Front. His mother, a noted spiritualist, was convinced that she was able to contact the deceased and that the human spirit survived death. She convinced her son that whatever happened in the War they would remain in in contact. In fact Winifred spent over thirty years of her life in disguise as her alter ego under a pseudonym, Mrs Willett.
He was posted to Belgium, and fought in the most deplorable conditions. He was not devoid of initiative and once on the orders of his superior had to inspect the forward positions twice in one night thus crossing “no man’s land” and returning twice! His luck however was about to run out since in September 1917 he was killed by a stray shell, ironically while crossing the duck boards on his way to some leave in Paris, at only nineteen years of age. Back at Cadoxton Lodge (now the housing estate Stanley Place) his distraught mother tried to contact her son via spiritual “automatic writing”. Memorials were placed to him in several places including Ypres and at a restored church near the spot of his demise in Flanders.
Mr Lewis now turned to the life of the far more charismatic Henry Coombe Tennant, the story also takes a more bizarre twist compared to that of his sibling. Firstly, Charles was not the natural father of Henry, who was born in April 1913. Winfred hosted the luminaries of the day at Cadoxton including H M Stanley, Lloyd George and Gerald Balfour (brother of former Prime Minister A J Balfour). Gerald was indeed henry’s natural father and had been “instructed”, by the spirits to perform the deed in order to spawn a “New Messiah”. It appears that Charles who was very hard of hearing was present in the house at the time! The secret was not discovered by Henry until 1941.
Henry proved a very precocious child and even described himself as “the wise one”. Following Eton, where he taught himself Chinese, at Cambridge he studied under Ludwig Wittgenstein and John Maynard Keynes. He also went on a tour of China in the 1930s, a very dangerous place, in the company of renowned polymath journalist and diplomat/spy Gareth Jones. Jones was himself a very interesting character who had exposed the great famine in Russia much to the wrath of Stalin, and also met Hitler. He was later killed by bandits in China.
After graduating with a double first from Cambridge, Henry could have chosen any career he wished, including that of a professional pianist. However, perhaps in deference to his late brother followed him into the Welsh Guards and served at Gibraltar. In May 1940, the Welsh Guards, in a crumbling Europe were posted to the Netherlands in order to hold the road between the Hague and the Hook before the blitzkrieg of Hitler. In doing so, they rescued the Royal Dutch gold. Later, the Guards were sent as the rear-guard at Boulogne to fight to the end to stop the Germans reaching the main British force at Dunkirk. On the 25th of May, Henry was captured by the Germans and sent to an Officers POW camp at Warburg. He then played a notable part in a break out from the prison when, 50 prisoners scaled the wire following the fusing of the camp’s lights and escaped into the darkness in teams of three in August 1942. Remarkably, Henry was only one of three who managed to make their way back to Gibraltar and home via an underground network of resistance fighters. Remarkably, the driver who met Henry Coombe Tennant to drive him was none other than a certain Princess Elizabeth, where he was entertained at Sandringham.
This was not the end of Henry’s military service, since he volunteered for the SOE (fore runner of today’s SAS) commando and became a member of an elite within an elite – the Jedburgh team. In 1944, in extreme weather he parachuted into the Ardennes in order to link with the resistance. This proved to be less successful, though there were several skirmishes with the Germans. He later re-joined the Welsh Guards and was involved in an attempted attack at Colditz. Following the war, he was posted to Palestine, helped in the formation of NATO and went to the Hague. He later joined MI6 where he worked with the traitor Kim Philby and ended his work with a deployment to Baghdad.
Remarkably, after such a full action packed life, Henry underwent a religious conversion and reverted to researching the spiritualism of his now dead mother. He finished his life as a monk, dying in 1989 – what a life!!
Mr Trefor Jones, thanked Mr Lewis for a very memorable talk which had indeed been a mystery to him until the meeting.
REPORT FROM TREFOR JONES
Our wonderful RDN photographer Mike Davies and his twin brother Pat are 75 years old this week.
Happy Birthday to both of you!
Here is Mike’s account of that day, 75 years ago, (as told to him later of course! ) But it was certainly a day to remember.
We were born in the front room of our house in the village of Abergarwed on April 5th, 1944. Our mum Maud asked the midwife a week before we were born, “am I having twins, as my father was a twin?” “Certainly not”, replied the midwife,” there is just the one heart beat”. So on the day itself, after I was born, no one was expecting another and our grandfather Joe was putting on his overalls to go to work, when the midwife said “you can take those off , there’s another one coming”. Ten minutes later my brother Pat appeared -a shock for Joe, the midwife, our mother and most of all for my dad Vernon, who was in Karachi serving in the RAF!
A single pram had been purchased in Cardiff a few weeks before we arrived. The single would have been far too small for twins, so a large twin pram was ordered, but before the pram shop went ahead, they wanted to see the twins’ birth certificates to verify that there were indeed twins before the pram was ordered. There was a steel shortage due to the war.
The pram was sent by rail and our grandmother and mother walked to Resolven station waiting for the new pram, which arrived at Resolven station by 9pm. They pushed the pram home to Abergarwed, but the following morning there was a lot of talk in the village. “What do you think that young girl from Abergarwed has just given birth to twins and was walking them in the evening air-they will catch their death” Needless to say, there was no twins in the pram as our grandad looked after us safe and sound!
We started attending Resolven school in 1947
Later on,we both played in the Glamorgan Youth Orchestra, . Then, for many years, we played in our father Vernon’s dance band and it was there we met our wives Both of us worked in the retail sector.
Pat and I ring each other every evening, I will go to the phone and Pat is on and the same with Pat. I think we have done remarkably well to survive to this special date. Let’s pray we can both go on for many years to come
The Abergarwed twins
There was a chance to learn how to use a debrillator in a class held last Thursday in Resolven Community Hall.
Friday March 29th had been scheduled for nearly three years as a momentous date in British constitutional history. However, Resolven Community Council had a far more important task to perform in unveiling a plaque at the community centre in memory of the unstinting service of Councillor Redvers Davies. Councillor Davies completed fifty four years as an active councillor, making him the oldest serving councillor in England and Wales before his death in 2018. Unlike Brexit, the long awaited ceremony took place on time, did not need a revocation of a council minute and certainly did not require a lengthy extension. Indeed it was a pleasure for the Community Council to welcome a large contingent of Redvers’s family to the unveiling under the supervision of Council Chairman Mr Aylwin Jones. This was followed by a reception with the delicious Welsh cakes supplied by Mrs Fran Jones
Fr
SUNRISE
A TOUCH OF FROST
RHEOLA LAKE AT SUNRISE
Our RDN photographer Mike Davies was up with the lark to provide us with these lovely images.
Many thanks Mike!