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SWANSEA VALLEY HISTORY SOCIETY SUMMER NEWSLETTER – JULY 2020 Hello to all our members! I am pleased to send you each our Summer Newsletter, keeping you in touch with our latest news. It has been a difficult year in many ways with all our meetings and talks cancelled from last March. Due to continuing Coronavirus…
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Review Period September 2023 – January 2024
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…
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2nd Lt John Howard Davies RWF
FROM PONTARDAWE TO YPRES 2nd Lt John Howard Davies RWF A few years ago I gave a presentation to the Swansea Valley History Society about a Pontardawe man who made the ultimate sacrifice during the Great War. My journey started one November afternoon whilst walking up Glan – Rhyd Road, Pontardawe. Approaching the All…
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ANNUAL REVIEW
I have pleasure in providing a review for the period April 2022 to April 2023. GENERAL It has been a good period for us, with a steady increase in membership. We now have an average attendance at our presentations of 38 and 67 paid up members. As with most societies we have a…
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ANTIQUES QUIZ EVENING
Wednesday 21 December at the Heritage Centre 7pm. ANTIQUES QUIZ EVENING Hosted by Helen Hallesy Come and join us for a fun evening Prizes, raffles, tea and coffee, mulled wine and mince pies. (Please bring a pen)
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Event: Swansea Bad Girls: Crime and Punishment
Wednesday 27 July 2022. ‘Swansea Bad Girls: Crime and Punishment Meet at 7pm at the Heritage and Visitor Centre, Pontardawe An illustrated talk on the lives and crimes of women prisoners in Swansea Jail 1870s – 1914 The speaker will be Elizabeth Belcham, Local historian. Contact Helen on 01792 865451 or email helen@hallesy.com
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Llangiwg – The lost name & history of the Swansea Valley
By Leon Vincent. If any of you have stumbled across old maps of these parts (as you do), then you’d notice that the names Ystalyfera, Clydach, Morriston and Pontardawe are relatively new. For over one thousand years, Llangiwg (with various spellings) was the geographic identity of the mid-lower Swansea Valley and I worry that we…
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SAY GOODBYE TO THE CUCKOO
Ask most people what they know about the Cuckoo, and the response probably would be that it is a bird that lays its eggs in other bird’s nests. Absolutely true, but there is much more to this bird. The bird’s scientific name is Cuculus Canorus. What a great name. Imagine that this Cuckoo lays an egg…
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A Book review: Cefn Celfi
A forty page booklet has been written by B. M. Lodwick of Neath Abbey on the history of Cefn Celfi Farm, Rhos, Pontardawe. He starts with the 3 ancient stones mentioned in ‘Llyfr Du Caerfyrddin, the Black Book of Carmarthen; a collection of early Welsh poetry where the 3 stones with the names Cynon Cynfael…
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To begin at the beginning – of Pontardawe
Most people living in the present village or small town of Pontardawe probably consider that it has always been here. That is not in fact so – Pontardawe is a relatively new town only about two hundred years old. Three maps in particular show how the communities in the Swansea Valley including Pontardawe developed. In 1729 Emanuel Bowen produced his New and Accurate Map of South Waleswhich is now considered to be not at all very accurate. (See Around Pontardawe1996 for this map). However, he does identify places that are pertinent to this article. At the location we refer to as the Cross area of Pontardawe Mr Bowen has marked a Pont Cledach, and about…
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Swansea Valley History Society 