I am pleased to confirm that our Society continues to thrive with a stable membership and good attendance at our monthly presentations.
We currently have 61 paid up members.
It has been a good period generally and we are grateful to the Trustees of the Pontardawe Heritage and Visitor’s Centre for their continuing support. We are looking at the options at present to store our records, archive files, artefacts and equipment. There is some urgency in achieving this.
The Society has appointed two new officers to the Committee, a Secretary and Newsletter Officer. These new posts will help considerably in the running of the Society. Their keenness has been much appreciated. During this review period we have been fortunate to have a number of high calibre speakers. This is due to the excellent work of our Deputy Chair, Helen Hallesy
We are in the process of developing a Society Logo. Committee members have suggested some design options and we will involve local schools in it’s production. We are aiming to design something that is representative of the area but not over complicated.
Review of presentations:
Sept.20th Bad Boys Rogues and Vagabonds. Elizabeth Belcham
Oct. 18th Alfred Russell Wallace. Gwilym Games
Nov.15th The History Of Our Landscape. David Lewis
Dec.20th Christmas Tales and Traditions. Debra John
Jan. 17th 2024 Farms and Families of the Upper and Lower Clydach Valleys. Jeff Childs
Arranged :
Feb.21st Swansea and the Museum during World War 2
What happened to all the collections ? Helen Hallesy
March.20th How well do you know Wales and the Welsh ? Alun Griffiths.
April. 17th Illustrated talk on Cilybebyll. Liz Mc Sloy
May. 25th What did our Victorian ancestors eat ? Sarah Lever
Sale of books, prints and other gifts will be held at the Heritage and Visitor’s Centre on Sat. 3rd Feb.2024 between 10-2pm.
We propose to arrange a 90 minute trip up the River Tawe from Swansea’s Maritime Quarter in June 2024.
We had a stall at the Royal Institute of South Wales on 28th October 2023.
Promotion of the Society’s activities are maintained through our Newsletter, Facebook, Website, Pony Mag, Circulation of posters and notification following every monthly presentation.
Our communication process is regularly reviewed and is currently effective.
Some of our Society members who are local historians, are currently working on a fourth edition of ‘Around Pontardawe’. Previous editions have proved to be very popular, and contain a wide range of old photographs and captions relating to life around Pontardawe.
I would finally like to express my gratitude to our Committee Members for their enthusiasm and commitment, in making this Society so successful. In addition my thanks go to the general members who regularly turn up, whatever the weather !!
DA Jones
Chair, Swansea Valley History Society. Jan. 2024
Swansea Valley History Society 