West Glamorgan Archive Service: Annual Report of the County Archivist 2016 2017

Adroddiad Blynyddol Archifydd y Sir

Annual Report of the County Archivist

2016-2017 A joint service for the Councils of the City and County of Swansea and Neath Port Talbot County Borough Gwasanaeth ar y cyd ar gyfer Cynghorau Dinas a Sir Abertawe a Bwrdeistref Sirol Castell-nedd Port Talbot

West Glamorgan Archive Service West Glamorgan Archive Service collects documents, maps, photographs, film and sound recordings relating to all aspects of the history of West Glamorgan. It is a joint service for the Councils of the City and County of Swansea and Neath Port Talbot County Borough.

Our mission is the preservation and development of our archive collections, to safeguard our documentary heritage and to enable research in order to further our collective knowledge. We are committed to providing information and the opportunity to engage with archives to everybody.

West Glamorgan Archive Service Civic Centre Oystermouth Road Swansea SA1 3SN 01792 636589 westglam.archives@swansea.gov.uk

www.swansea.gov.uk/westglamorganarchives

Front cover: The Berlei factory, Church Street, Pontardawe, mid-1960s (Evening Post collection, ref. D37 F2)

Connecting People and History

Assistant County Archivist Andrew Dulley presenting a copy of an archive film to the Lord Mayor of Swansea, Cllr David Hopkins, on 26 July 2016. The film records the inauguration ceremony thirty years previously of his mother, Cllr Lilian Hopkins, as Lord Mayor.

This annual report provides a round-up of the many and varied activities undertaken by the Archive Service over the past year, including our partnership projects, our service to schools and work on conserving our collections.

In 2016/17, we have continued to seek out new ways to connect people and history through imaginative and innovative ventures which, in many instances, engage with newcomers to archives and communities outside our core user base. In the activities described below, we have worked with a range of partners, groups and educational institutions to spread the message contained within our mission statement that “archives are for everybody�.

In July, West Glamorgan Archive Service was awarded accredited status for its Swansea service point under the UK Archives Accreditation Scheme. Archive Service Accreditation defines good practice and agreed standards for archives across the UK, thereby providing external validation for the direction and development of each service. The award of our accredited status is valid for five years, with a review of developments due in July 2018.

The Panel commented that West Glamorgan Archive Service is delivering well across its remit and specifically commended the effective use of collections in developing and delivering outreach.

They noted, above all, our impressive work with schools and the positive way this is shared beyond the Service to wider sector benefit. They also noted that the Service is also building on work done in the past to improve collections care and that we display an obvious ongoing commitment in this area.

There are however some formidable challenges facing the Service, not the least of which is declining use of the Service by individual researchers. With a total of 5,915 individual and group visits on-site, the past year saw the decline in individual archive users reach one half of the peak figure of 11,890 from only six years ago in 2010/11. The fall has been a sustained one and is partly accounted for by successive reductions in opening hours in each of our public facilities in Swansea, Neath and Port Talbot, the most recent of those cuts being in August last year in our Neath branch from four to two days a week.

Ironically, over the same six years, statistics from Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) show that the Service has maintained its position in the table of UK archives measured on this significant performance indicator, meaning that the decline in use by individual researchers is a national trend, just as are reductions in opening hours and shrinking budgets.

Another reason for this decline is the increased availability of our archives online. This does have benefits for us in that digital use will in turn become a new means of measuring our performance.

Our new contract with Ancestry puts three million individual records online and encompasses nearly all of the name-rich records in our collections. For the first time, we will be able to accurately record virtual access to these images from our collections. This contract also provides an income stream from royalties linked to the number of views on the Ancestry website.

Whether or not our archives are placed online commercially or free of charge, digital access to our collections will undoubtedly constitute an important element of the Service in the future.

In April, the Archive Service created a small exhibition to celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday, which was displayed in Margam Orangery at an event for local people who were also born in 1926. Seen here with the display is HM Lord Lieutenant of West Glamorgan, D Byron Lewis.

Building and preserving our collections

Extensive conservation work on the Neath Abbey Ironworks collection has continued during the year as a result of a generous ÂŁ16,600 grant from the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust, with support from Welsh Government (as reported in our 2015/16 annual report). In the picture above, archives staff are being shown how to interleave the plans within folders to better preserve them from accidental damage during handling. All the recent conservation work on this collection has been carried out by conservator Rowena Doughty of Gwynedd Archives Conservation Unit.

The primary role of the Archive Service is to preserve our documentary heritage for the benefit of future generations, receiving additional gifts and deposits of archive material while maintaining and developing the greatest degree of access to the collections in our care. This necessitates a continuous programme of conservation on our collections. Additionally, new accessions of archives often arrive in poor condition through adverse storage conditions prior to their deposit, such as mould growth from exposure to damp and with accumulations of dust and surface dirt.

Currently our conservation work is outsourced to Gwynedd Archives and Glamorgan Archives, although the advent of a paper conservation studio in the newly-extended Glynn Vivian Art Gallery offers new opportunities for keeping much of this work in-house.

During the year, we have continued our programme of boxing all loose volumes and other items such as small rolled maps in acid-free packaging, with the aim of having no loose unboxed or unwrapped items within our strongrooms by the time we are required to move out from our current premises in 5-10 years’ time. This packaging both provides support to the items and protects against the further build-up of dust.

A Welsh Government grant awarded in 2015 has enabled us to barcode all our packaged material and this work is progressing steadily. It is envisaged that this barcoding will be integral to future repository management, offering increased intellectual control in an environment where our collections may be stored alongside those of partner institutions.

Remedial and preventive conservation work carried out in 2016/17 1 bundle of documents 1 box of glass slides 3 rolled plans 18 volumes 319 engineering drawings from the Neath Abbey Ironworks collection 1,279 volumes individually boxed

An example of the task facing the conservator in the repair of the mine engine engineering drawings which were the focus of the NMCT-funded project repairing and conserving the Neath Abbey Ironworks collection. More pictures from the project are on p23.

Engaging new audiences

On 25 August, Radio 4 broadcast live to an estimated radio audience of 2 million from Swansea Civic Centre in a special edition of ‘The Listening Project’ which focused on the value of libraries and archives. It was hosted by regular programme presenter Fi Glover (seen here left of picture).

Engaging the wider community is one of our core activities and, to a large extent, whether or not the people we engage with in our outreach work subsequently use the archives is not our primary concern. The Archive Service business plan is aligned with the objectives and priorities of both Swansea and Neath Port Talbot Councils and, through our external funding applications, with those of Welsh Government - in particular the requirements of the new Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. Measures of success in our community outreach work are the contribution we make towards helping to strengthen cultural identity and community cohesion.

We were delighted to be invited to contribute in March towards a festival of Welsh culture and multiculturalism entitled ‘Our Abertawe: Celebrating Swansea Together’. With a Welsh Government grant from the ‘Changing Cultures’ funding scheme, we created an exhibition celebrating the contribution its diverse communities have made to the economic and cultural life of Swansea, as well as the history of refugees arriving in Swansea over several centuries. We launched this exhibition at the event in March and have since arranged to loan the panels to community groups, museums and other institutions. Like our other exhibitions, the panels are available to community groups for display, more details of which are available on our website. On the following page are some of the comments in the visitor’s book from the day of the festival.

Archivist David Morris talking to a visitor to our exhibition in the ‘Our Abertawe’ Festival marquee On 19 March, the website Ancestry launched its West Glamorgan collection, the largest collection of online digital images from any local authority archive in Wales on their website so far. The collections available include electoral registers, poor law and prison records.

‘THE LISTENING PROJECT’ VISITS SWANSEA

For a week in August, West Glamorgan Archive Service and Swansea Libraries cohosted the mobile Listening Project booth which is part of BBC Radio 4’s ‘The Listening Project’. Around twenty conversations were recorded for the programme while the recording booth was parked outside Swansea Civic Centre, culminating in a live broadcast on 25 August.

Our Education Service 2016/17 ARCHIVE EDUCATION STATISTICS Total number of teachers and pupils attending archive education sessions

1,291

comprising

Sessions held in the Archives and National Waterfront Museum Sessions held in schools

6 15

Previous page: pictures taken during education sessions for the project ‘Visions of Steel’ (described below) This page and following: some of the posts on social media made by schools after their education sessions with Archives staff

Sandfields pupils visiting the National Waterfront Museum during the ‘Visions of Steel’ project

‘Visions of Steel’ ‘Visions of Steel’ was a project led by Swansea University and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The aim was to disseminate more widely the discovery of a large collection of historic photographs documenting the history of the steel industry in Port Talbot. The project partners were Swansea University Department of History and Classics; Richard Burton Archives, Swansea University; National Waterfront Museum Swansea; People’s Collection Wales; Port Talbot Historical Society and West Glamorgan Archives.

West Glamorgan Archives teamed up with Richard Burton Archives, Swansea University to provide the formal education element of the project and were fortunate to receive a Welsh Government grant under the ‘Changing Cultures’ grant scheme to create an exhibition. Our willing collaborator was Sandfields Comprehensive School, Port Talbot, in its last year of existence before it merged with nearby schools to form Ysgol Bae Baglan. We had previously worked with Year 9s at the same school to create the exhibition ‘Sandfields: A Community built on Steel’.

Under the guidance of teachers Michael Larkman and Lloyd Williams, class 7.1 created their own response to the archive images based on their research and conversations with family members and neighbours who had knowledge of the steelworks. The children’s writings and paintings were used to create the exhibition, two panels of which are shown on the following pages. Their artwork went on to be featured in a book which was distributed free of charge to local people through libraries, the Port Talbot Historical Society and Tata Steel. The quality of the children’s work is a shining testament to the enthusiasm and dedication of both teachers and pupils to the project.

The project involved work with a wider local audience and project participants were delighted to receive a visit from Stephen Kinnock, MP for Aberavon, when we held a consultation event in Aberafan Shopping Centre in May 2016. Seen here, from left to right, are Elisabeth Bennett (Richard Burton Archives), Kim Collis, Prof Louise Miskell (Swansea University), Stephen Kinnock MP, Damian Owen (Port Talbot Historical Society) and Hazel Morgan (People’s Collection Wales).

Cynefin: Mapping Wales’ Sense of Place

Progress map from May 2017 of the digitisation and web-mounting of the tithe maps of Wales onto a soon-to-be-launched National Library of Wales (NLW) platform called, ‘The Places of Wales’.

Gaps in the overall map are either shortly to be filled or else signify areas of Wales which are not covered by a tithe map. A large blank patch on the map affecting the outline of West Glamorgan is the result of the absence of a tithe map for the parish of Margam.

(Picture by kind permission of Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru: National Library of Wales)

In September 2013, Heritage Lottery Fund Wales announced a grant of £486,000 to Archives and Records Council Wales for a three-year project to digitise the tithe maps of Wales and to present the geo-referenced maps with their accompanying apportionments as a searchable online resource. This is the largest tithe map digitisation project in England and Wales to date.

Tithe maps represent what are often the first large-scale maps of Wales covering almost the whole of the country by parish. They were produced in the 1840s across England and Wales under the Tithe Commutation Act 1836 as part of the process to commute to a monetary payment the system of tithes in kind. Each map is accompanied by an apportionment or award which divides the tithe rent-charge over the lands in the parish and which as a result lists landowners and tenant farmers in the parish at the time of the agreement.

Three copies of each tithe map were made. Over the past three years, project staff based at the NLW have worked to conserve, digitise and web-mount the diocesan copies of the maps held there, while recruiting a small army of online volunteers to geo-reference them and transcribe the apportionments. As the project draws to a close, it is worthwhile taking stock of the scale of the achievement of the core project: 1,223 maps digitised representing 1,091 Welsh parishes; 28,000 pages of tithe apportionments transcribed; a peak of 1,688 online volunteer hours contributed in one month (in March 2016). Meanwhile six local projects spread across Wales have each taken a different theme from the maps and worked with volunteer groups in the locality on their particular aspect, such as our Gower-based project, ‘Exploring Gower’s Ancient Woodland’.

As the project draws to a close, and as chair of the Cynefin Project Board, I would like to record here my especial thanks to the Project Manager, Einion Gruffudd, without whose skill, dedication and hard work this ambitious project would not have achieved the impressive result that it has.

Children from Bishopston Primary School joined project volunteers in the Roundhouse in Bishop’s Wood Nature Reserve in March at the end of the Cynefin local project ‘Exploring Gower’s Ancient Woodland’. It was a wet day on Gower which in no way diminished the children’s enthusiasm!

How we performed in 2016/17 The number of visits by individuals and groups recorded by West Glamorgan Archive Service at its Swansea, Neath and Port Talbot service points in 2016/17 was 5,915, which was a reduction of just under 17% on the previous year’s figure of 7,110.

Total members of the public visiting the Archive Service during 2016-2017: 5,915

2016/17 IN NUMBERS 119 family history starter sessions given 184 reader’s tickets issued to new users 710 people visited our stalls at external events 1,291 school pupils attended our learning sessions 2,579 total attendees at our learning events 2,991 followers on social media (Twitter and Facebook) 5,585 individual visits to the archives 8,237 people reached during the year on and off-site 9,073 documents issued in our Swansea searchroom 13,441 hits on the Archive Service website 211,876 records in our online catalogue

Including: Swansea Neath Port Talbot Group visits

3,889 1,608 88 330

Figures for usage of the service are submitted annually to CIPFA, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. The figures which are published annually by CIPFA relate to the use of local authority archives in the UK in the previous year, in this case 2015/16.

Analysis of these statistics shows that, based on the number of individual visits to use the searchroom, West Glamorgan Archive Service was the 14th busiest local authority archive service in the UK in that year (up from 15th in the previous year).

Using this measure, which excludes school and group visits, we ranked between Northumberland and East Sussex in the table.

Within Wales, we were still by far the busiest service in terms of individual visits, with figures 70% higher than Gwynedd Archives in second place. Our figure of 6,782 individual visits in 2015/16 accounted for 31% of the 21,650 individual visits recorded by Welsh local authority archives in that year.

One conclusion to be drawn from this is that, although the number of individual visits to West Glamorgan Archives is falling, the rate of decline is still broadly in line with national trends.

Who is using our service?

The pie chart above shows the distribution by postcode of those of our researchers who have obtained an Archives Wales reader ticket from us since the ticket scheme started.

Only users of original documents need a ticket. The percentages do not take into account family historians, mostly, who use the Swansea and Neath service points without having a ticket.

Increasingly, people have already registered at one of the other participating offices, which also under-counts users at Swansea and Neath who are from the rest of Wales.

Archivist Katie Millien’s ‘Pride in Penderry’ exhibition at the National Waterfront Museum, October

Staff As was anticipated in last year’s annual report, two long-serving members of staff based in Neath, Michael Phelps and Liza Osborne, left the Service during the year through voluntary severance.

Michael was given a generous send-off at the end of July by officers and members of the Neath Antiquarian Society in appreciation of his cataloguing work on their collections and assistance to customers.

The Archive Trainee for 2016/17 is Thomas Anderson from Swansea. Tom is a former postgraduate student of the University of Bristol from where he holds an MA in History.

In May 2016, County Archivist Kim Collis was awarded a Distinguished Service Award by the Archives and Records Association of the UK and Ireland for career-long achievement and contribution to the archives sector.

Volunteers during the year have included Alan Gardiner, Jane Atzori, Kay Renfrew, Stuart Martinson, Jamie Veale, Milly Watts-Williams, Megan Davies, Elina Iliadou, Caitlin Hannah, Gavin Thomas, Morwenna Williams and Susan McGuire, who have between them notched up over 1,000 hours of voluntary work over the course of the year. We are all very grateful to them for the work they have done.

Acknowledgements This year we have been fortunate to receive grants for specific projects from the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust and from the Museums, Archives and Libraries Division of the Welsh Government, to both of whom we are most grateful.

The Archive Service could not provide the level of service outlined here without the enthusiasm and dedication of its staff in Swansea and Neath. In particular this year, I would like to highlight Archives Reception Assistant Rebecca Shields, who in February was named Archives Marketing Champion of the Year at the Marketing Excellence Awards for Museums, Archives and Libraries in Wales. The picture on the left shows Rebecca at the ceremony in Aberystwyth with her award.

Nowadays, volunteers are playing increasing supporting roles and our most long-standing arrangement is with the Neath Antiquarian Society. I would like to thank the Society’s volunteers, with whose regular contribution we are able to continue to provide a service in Neath: Christine Davies, Jonathan Davies, Robert Davies, Philip Havard, Josie Henrywood, Annette Jones, David and Olive Newton, Hywel Rogers, Gloria Rowles, Irene Thomas and Janet Watkins.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the chair and members of the West Glamorgan Archives Committee for their interest and support during the year. …………………………………………..

Kim Collis West Glamorgan County Archivist May 2017 …………………………………………..

Conservation work under way in Caernarfon on the Neath Abbey Ironworks collection, 2016

West Glamorgan Archives Committee As at 31 March 2017 Chairman HM Lord Lieutenant of West Glamorgan D. Byron Lewis Esq. CStJ, FCA Vice-Chairmen City and County of Swansea Councillor R. V. Smith County Borough of Neath Port Talbot Councillor D. W. Davies Representing the City and County of Swansea Councillor E. J. King Councillor K. E. Marsh Councillor P. M. Meara BA, MSc, DPhil, FRSA Councillor C. Thomas JP

Representing the County Borough of Neath Port Talbot Councillor J. Dudley Councillor M. L. James Councillor P. A. Rees Councillor A. Wingrave Representing the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon A. Dulley MA, MSc Representing the Diocese of Llandaff Ms S. Perons BA, MSc Representing Swansea University Prof. L. Miskell FRHistS Representing the Neath Antiquarian Society Mrs J. L. Watkins City and County of Swansea Head of Cultural Services Ms T. McNulty MA Neath Port Talbot County Borough Director of Finance and Corporate Services H. Jenkins IPFA

West Glamorgan Archive Service

STAFF As at 31 March 2017 West Glamorgan Archives Civic Centre, Oystermouth Road, Swansea SA1 3SN Tel. (01792) 636589

Neath Antiquarian Society Archives Neath Mechanics Institute, 4 Church Place, Neath SA11 3LL Tel. (01639) 620139

Email: westglam.archives@swansea.gov.uk Website: www.swansea.gov.uk/westglamorganarchives

County Archivist ...........................................................................................Kim Collis MA, DAS Assistant County Archivist ....................................................... Andrew Dulley MA, MSc (Econ) Archivist........................................................................................David Morris PhD, MSc (Econ) Archivist.......................................................................................... Katie Millien BA, MSc (Econ) Archive Trainee .........................................................................................Thomas Anderson MA Production Assistant .............................................................. Anne-Marie Gay MA, MSc (Econ) Family History Centre Supervisor .......................................................................... Lorna Crook Archives Reception Assistant ....................................................................Rebecca Shields BA Office Manager ...................................................................................... Don Rodgers MA, PGCE

Records Management Service (City & County of Swansea) Records Officer ................................................................................. Andrew Brown MSc (Econ) Records Assistant .................................................................................................... Linda Jones

Neath Constitutional Club

Records of the Neath Constitutional Club were received by the Neath Antiquarian Society when the Club finally closed its doors at the end of 2016. Here archivist Katie Millien describes the collection, now held in the Neath Mechanics Institute, and outlines the history of the building pictured above which is a Neath landmark.

Neath Constitutional Club was forced to close on 31 December 2016 due to dwindling membership. The records of the Neath Constitutional Club were however saved and now form part of the Neath Antiquarian Society collections. Staff from West Glamorgan Archives have worked hard to clean, repackage and catalogue them in order to make the records available to the general public at the NAS Archives, situated in the Neath Mechanics Institute on Church Place.

The website of the Association of Conservative Clubs explains the ethos of these clubs: it states that ‘the title of your local Club could either be Conservative, Constitutional, Salisbury, Beaconsfield or Unionist, or any combination of these titles, but these Clubs all have one thing in common…they share similar objects in promoting Conservatism and providing social and sporting venues for their members’1.

The formation of a Conservative Club was initially discussed in a meeting of the local Conservative Party in connection with the Neath Parliamentary Debating Society in November 1883. After the meeting Mr Howel Gwyn of Duffryn made an offer of any property in his possession in the town of Neath which might be suitable for a constitutional

club. Mr L.J. Kempthorne was then ‘appointed to visit Swansea and report upon the working of the club there2, so that the necessary arrangements to form a club might be made without delay’3.

Neath Constitutional Club was formally established on 1 January 1884 in Bank Chambers, New Street Square. The club was formed to serve as a meeting place for Conservatives of Neath and neighbouring areas. The original site on Orchard Street (in a building formerly known as The Bazaar) was described as ‘a very excellent suite of rooms, consisting of reading, billiard, and retiring rooms, have been furnished, and being most centrally situated, will be very useful to the members. It is said that the club now numbers about two hundred members, and that an attempt will be made to have the premises opened on Sundays, but to this there will be a strong opposition’4. By April 1884 just 4 months after the Club was officially formed there were around 370 members on the club books5.

In 1885 members of the Neath Constitutional Club set up the Neath Constitutional Club Building Company, Limited to ‘provide a Club House and other conveniences for the use of the members…and to fit and furnish and maintain the same’6. On 25 June 1885 the cornerstone of the new building was laid by the wife of Howel Gwyn.

The new building on Orchard Street was opened on 19 August 1886, by Sir Stafford Henry Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh at a cost of nearly £3,000. The building, of red brick relieved with Bath stone dressings, consisted of a large reading room, dining, smoking and billiard rooms and a hall for entertainments which could seat about 250 people. There was also a library containing about 900 volumes7. Baths were added in 1891.

The first Annual General Meeting in January 1885 records 386 members and a balance of £150 in the bank. By 1887, the numbers had risen again to 490 and by 1895 there were a reported 550 members8. By 1926 the number had dropped to 4509.

In the early days, much of the social aspect of the club came in the form of smoking concerts.

Smoking concerts were musical performances, which sometimes included other entertainment such as magicians. The concerts were for members only, where men could smoke, talk politics and be entertained. There were also tournaments of various games such as billiards, skittles, whist and chess played against members of other Conservative clubs as well as against members of local Liberal and working men’s clubs. Certainly, by the turn of the century, women were welcome to attend the lecture series at the Neath Constitutional Club, as is evident from local newspaper articles of the time. Many other Conservative clubs, however, remained strictly gentleman-only until recent times.

Neath Constitutional Club was the third club of its kind to close in the area in four years. Mumbles Conservative Club closed in 2013 and the building converted into flats. The Salisbury Club on Walter Road in Swansea closed in January 2015: it has recently been converted into offices and flats. The current plans are to convert Neath Constitutional Club into a public house. Although the use of the building will inevitably change, the history of the club and its members will live on through the records.

The records in the collection consist mainly of minutes and various accounts, and complement similar records previously deposited with the Neath Antiquarian Society and with West Glamorgan

Archives in Swansea. The documents are available to view during our public opening hours at Neath Mechanics Institute weekly on Mondays and Thursdays. ………………………………………………………

Katie Millien Archivist ………………………………………………………

Footnotes 1. Association of Conservative Clubs (ACC) http://www.toryclubs.co.uk 2. The Constitutional Club in Swansea was formed in 1881 3. South Wales Daily Post, 21 November 1883 p3 4. The Cambrian, 18 January 1884 p7 5. The Cardiff Times, 19 April 1884, p3 6. WGAS D/D Z 447/3 The Neath Constitutional Club Building Company, Limited Memorandum and Articles of Association, 1885 7. Kelly’s Directory of Monmouthshire and South Wales, 1926 8. Kelly’s Directory of Monmouthshire and South Wales, 1895 9. Kelly’s Directory of Monmouthshire and South Wales, 1926

Extract from the OS map of 1919, showing the Club lower right

Hanes llafar a barddoniaeth Danny Thomas o Greunant

I’r archifydd, mae casglu dogfennau swyddogol a masnachol yn rhywbeth pwysig dros ben: hyn sydd yn cofnodi’r trafodion a dyfarniadau sydd wedi effeithio ar ein hanes ni a hanes ein hardal.

Hwy sy’n ffurfio sylfaen hanes, a hebddynt byddai popeth yn achlust a dyfalu.

Serch hynny, nid ydynt yn gallu dweud y stori cyfan, ac efallai dylwn ni ehangu diffiniad archifau i gynnwys cofnodion sy’n lenwi’r bwlch rhwng ffeithiau sych a phrofiadau personol. Pwy fyddai’n dweud, er enghraifft, bod cofnodion swyddogol yn unig yn gallu dweud stori y Blits Tair Noson yn Abertawe? A ydynt yn awgrymu’n iawn y teimlad oedd gan bobl y dref wrth weld y strydoedd cartrefol, tai eu ffrindiau, hoff siopiau ac eglwysi wedi’u troi yn rwbl i gyd a’r dref yn ei newid am byth? Yn y cofnodion hyn, rydym yn gallu darllen, er enghraifft, faint o bobl cafodd eu lladd a ble syrthiodd y bomiau; bod Freda Hughes wedi marw yn nhy mawr yn Heathfield, bod ei dad wedi dod i adnabod y corff, bod Beibl yn ei phoced, a chladdwyd ym medd heb gareg ym Mynwent y Cocyd; ond maent heb ddweud effaith ei marwolaeth ar ei theulu a’i ffrindiau. Dim ond trwy siarad i’w hen chwaer pan roedd yn ei naw-degau roeddwn yn gallu clywed y stori gyfan.

Holl-bwysig, felly, ym myd ac yn ardal sy’n newid yn gyflymach nac erioed, ydy recordio a chadw atgofion pobl â stori diddorol i ddweud sy wedi byw trwy’r newidiadau yn yr ardal lleol. Mae’r Gwasanaeth Archifau wedi derbyn nifer o recordiadau swn ar dâp dros y blynyddoedd, yn dechrau gyda rhai a wnaed yn y 1970au gan Dr John Alban a phrosiect Hanes Llafar Abertawe, a’r prosiect tebyg gan J. Mansel Thomas yng Ngŵyr, yn cario ymlaen yn y 1980au gyda gwaith Cymdeithas Camlas Abertawe ym Mhontardawe, ac yn barhau heddiw gyda recordiadau digidol a wneir gan nifer o grwpiau lleol. Mae rhein yn cofnodi i’r dyfodol leisiau pobl o’r gorffenol, lleisiau sy’n siarad efallai mewn acen neu dafodiaeth anghyfarwydd, am ffordd o fyw sy wedi syrthio o’r cof. Tra bo’r blynyddoedd yn mynd heibio, ni fydd eu gwerth ond tyfu: wedi pedwar deg o flynyddoedd, mae’r lleisiau a recordiodd J. Mansel Thomas ym mhentrefi Gŵyr yn glir i’w clywed o hyd, lleisiau pobl y ganwyd y mwyaf ohonynt yn oes y Frenhines Fictoria.

Pan ydym yn siarad am hanes llafar, rydym yn meddwl fel arfer am recordiadau swn. Ambell waith, mae rhywbeth yn dod i law sy’n fath o hanes llafar, ond ar yr un pryd yn hollol wahanol.

Cynigiwyd i’r Gwasanaeth Archifau gasgliad o farddoniaeth gan Daniel William (Danny) Thomas, ac roedden ni’n falch i’w dderbyn, oherwydd mwy na chaniad yn unig oedd e, mewn ffordd mae’n hanes llafar mewn barddoniaeth.

Ganwyd Danny Thomas yn y Creunant yng Nghwm Dulais ym 1935. Yn eithaf anwybyddus yw yr afon hon, yn rhedeg i lawr o fryniau garw Onllwyn, rhwng Mynydd March-Hywel a Hirfynydd, i ymuno ag Afon Nedd ger Aberdulais. I lawer, rhoddodd y glofeydd eu cyflogaeth; ond roedd

ffermydd yma hefyd, caled eu tir i’w ffermio, yn wlyb ar waelod y cwm ac yn addas i ddefaid yn unig ar ael y bryn. Glöwr oedd tad Danny Thomas yng Nglofa Blaennant, ond ni welodd ef erioed ei fab ifanc, oherwydd marwodd mewn damwain dan ddaear cyn i’r bachgen gael ei eni. Roedd Margaretta, ei fam, yn ferch John a Margaretta Jenkins o Ynys-Fadog, fferm bach yn y cwm ar bwys yr afon yn cynnwys 25 erw o ddolau. Pan oedd yn blentyn, treuliodd ei amser ar y fferm, ac mae ei farddoniaeth yn llawn o’i atgofion amdano.

“O feini caled codwyd y ffermdy Y man lle cefais i fy ngeni Er unig ymhlith caeau gleision R’ol amser maith rwy’n dal atgofion Am blentindod ar lannau nant Llawn chwaraeon anturus plant Lloriau gwastad o lechau glan Grisiau troellog wrth ymyl tan…”

Aeth Danny i Brifysgol Aberystwyth, a phan oedd yna, cyrddodd â Hywel Teifi Edwards, yr academaidd, darlledwr a hanesydd, ac aeth y dau yn ffrindiau agos. Mae’n debyg mai ei gyfeillgarwch arweiniodd ef i ddechrau cyfansoddi. Dengys eu cyfeillgarwch yn nifer o’r cerddi.

Cymerodd ef i gyfansoddi barddoniaeth yn hwyr yn ei fywyd, yn edrych yn ôl ar blentyndod yn ystod, a syth ar ôl, yr Ail Ryfel Byd, pan ddaeth llawer o newidiadau i’r cwm. Mae disgrifiadau o waith y fferm, y capeli, y rheilffyrdd, ei deulu a rhai o’r cymeriadau a oedd yn eu nabod. Hefyd mae’n siarad am y newid penodol oedd yn effeithio yn fawr ar y bryniau a ffermydd yn ei ardal.

Gwelodd nifer o’r ffermydd lleol a llawer o’r hen borfa ar ben y bryniau yn ymollwng i goedwig gonifferaidd. Wrth gwrs, gellir ddweud mai gan y bardd Gwenallt yw y gair ddiffiniol ar y pwnc yn ei gerdd Rhydcymerau; ond nid y gair olaf. Mae gan Danny Thomas lawer i ddweud amdano o safbwynt lleol: yng ngerdd Ffermydd y Creunant er enghraifft, mae’n disgrifio’r hen ffermydd a oedd yna yn ei ieuenctydd, gan ddweud: “Nawr coed pinwydd ym mhob man Gorchuddio mynydd cyfan Hen hanes yw gweithgarwch dyn Codi tyddyn a chorlan.”

Nid oedd Danny Thomas yn fardd glweidyddol, nac ydy’n ddicllon yn ei farddoniaeth. Mae’n disgrifio ei brodiadau a’r hen lefydd mewn ffordd ddiaddurn ond disgrifiadol, ac ag ychydig eiriau cartrefol mae’n peintio llun mewn ffordd effeithiol iawn. Yma ac yn y man, am effaith arbennig, mae’n syrthio yn ei dafodiaith lleol am air neu ddau, i ni glywed hen ddyn yn siarad yn hyrtrach na bardd yn canu: “Nid yw’r cartref annwyl nawr yn bod Yr unig weddill yw’r llwybr trwy’r co’d Stim gliced i godi i rhoi mynediad…”

Hyn sy’n dod o gerdd Y Fferm lle cefais fy ngeni. Yn y cerdd hwn mae’r awdur yn dweud wrthom ei bwrpas yn ysgrifennu, sef i gasglu ei atgofion: “Tynged fy nghartref yw meini mewn crugiau Ond coleddaf atgofion nes daw gwely angau” Mae’r llyfr yn cynnwys 15 o gerddi, ac mae’n werth nodi bod y rhan fwyaf ohonynt o’r ffurf triban, sy’n gysylltiedig yn arbennig â Sir Forgannwg. Gwers o bedwar llinell ydy triban, o saith, saith, wyth a saith syllaf yn eu tro, a gall fod nifer o’r gwersi hyn yn sawl gerdd. Mae’n fath o son disŵn i farddoniaeth draddodiadol yr ardal.

Bu farw Danny Thomas yn 2014, gan adael ei lyfr bach o farddoniaeth, heb ei gyhoeddu, i ni fwynhau a chadw fel atgofiad o’r hen ddyddiau, yn hen iaith y Cwm. Er bod hyn yn llyfr bach o farddoniaeth, pwy a ddywed ei bod yn llai werthfawr fel adnodd hanesyddol am fywyd Cwm Dulais na hanes llafar traddodiadol ar dâp? Mae’r awdur yn cofnodi ei atgofion cynnar o’i gartref a gwaith y fferm; mae’n dweud ei stori am ddiwedd yr hen ffordd o ffermio, yn rhoi llais i feddyliadau fyddai gan lawer o’i gymdogion, nid yn hen iaith y Cwm yn unig, ond yn ei dafodiaeth hefyd. Er na chafodd ei chyhoeddi, mae ei farddoniaeth yn swynol i’w darllen a diddorol i’r hanesydd hefyd. ………………………………………………………

Andrew Dulley Cynorthwy-ydd Archifydd y Sir ………………………………………………………

Archifau Mae llyfr bach Barddoniaeth Danny Thomas gan William Daniel Thomas, 1935-2014, yn Archifau Gorllewin Morgannwg, cyfeirnod D/D Z 1020/1.

Capel Bethel, y Creunant, lle oedd Danny Thomas yn addoli.

Swansea’s unbuilt Lido

Most people who are interested in the history of Swansea will know that the 1950s was a decade when the town centre was reconstructed in the wake of the Swansea Blitz of 1941. However, fewer people are aware that the 1930s was also a decade of significant urban change. In 1933, a new state-of-the-art power station was constructed at Tir John in Port Tennant; in 1934, Swansea Guildhall was officially opened and in 1936 Swansea benefited from a new main drainage system.

These large projects were not simply born out of the need to improve Swansea’s ageing infrastructure: they were conceived during a decade of mass unemployment, when local government was encouraged to engage in capital expenditure as a means of alleviating poverty and deprivation.

It was against this backdrop that plans were drawn up in 1934 to create a new open-air swimming pool on the Swansea seafront. Long-uncatalogued architect’s plans, previously stored in the Guildhall, have recently come to light and are reproduced here: they will shortly be available to researchers in our archive searchroom.

The 1930s were the heyday of open-air public swimming pools in Britain: notable examples had already been opened in south Wales at Cold Knap in Barry in 1926 and at Ynysangharad Park in Pontypridd in 1927. In Swansea, the firm Mouchel & Partners Ltd were engaged to design a new open-air swimming pool on the foreshore near the Slip Bridge. The firm had previously been employed on a number of nationally-acclaimed building projects, including the Michelin Building in London in 1910 and Battersea Power Station in 1931.

Minutes of the Corporation’s Parks and Burial Committee of January 1934 reveal that 200 guineas was set aside for this purpose. The minutes also reveal that the Town Clerk was instructed to make an application to the Ministry of Health for permission to borrow the funds needed to complete the project. Just over a year later, in March 1935, Mouchel & Partners submitted the finished plans to the County Borough Council and a total of £29,600 (equivalent to almost £1.5m today) was set aside to finance the construction.

The project was not cheap; but then again Mouchel & Partners were not proposing to build any ordinary outdoor pool. The plans that they had presented envisioned a sleek modernist lido complete with sun terraces, covered walkways, promenades, deck chair accommodation, a diving

well, refreshment rooms, men’s and women’s changing areas, locker rooms, a filtration plant and pump room.

In the end, the grand project never made it further than these architect’s proposals. By the mid-1930s, it was clear that opposition was growing in certain quarters against any new large-scale Corporation building projects because of the accrual of municipal debt.

Any remaining plans to construct a Swansea Lido were shelved when war was declared in 1939.

In the post-war period, the vision of an open-air pool or Lido on the foreshore did not resurface. However, something of the concept was partially realised when a small boating lake was constructed at Blackpill in the mid-1950s, a facility which was later changed to become a children’s paddling pool. It was given the name of Blackpill Lido.

Cartoon from the Herald of Wales of 10 February 1934, lampooning the Corporation’s spending on capital projects ………………………………………………………

David Morris Archivist ………………………………………………………

Sources: Swansea County Borough Council: Parks and Burial Committee minutes (TC 3/Committee/55) Plans for a proposed Blackpill Boating Lake (BA 51/6)

Memories of the Aberfan Disaster fifty years on

The section of Aberfan cemetery set aside for the victims of the 1966 disaster (photograph by the author) The following personal narrative was written by local historian Jeffrey Griffiths in 2016 on the fiftieth anniversary of the Aberfan disaster. It records his memories of the student volunteer effort to help the stricken mining village and is reproduced here with his kind permission.

I had started at university in Aberystwyth barely a few weeks before the Aberfan Disaster happened. On Friday 21 October 1966 a colliery spoil tip slid down the mountain killing 116 children and 28 adults in this south Wales coalfield village. Word of the catastrophe spread through the student body and a meeting was arranged for that same evening. We were addressed by a student who told us that his cousin had been in Aberfan's Pantglas Junior School when engulfed by the tip slide. An appeal had gone out for volunteers to help the Aberfan rescue effort and the meeting decided to send a party to assist from Aberystwyth's student body.

I had no hesitation in volunteering to join this rescue party. Coal mining was then still part of the culture of south Wales in the 1960s and evidence of the coal mining industry, past and present, was still all around. Abandoned local colliery buildings and old coal waste tips had been part of my childhood playground. My uncles were coal miners just as an earlier family generation had been. The infrastructure of colliery buildings, coal carrying railways and the now all-butdisappeared pit head winding wheels then still defined the south Wales landscape.

Those students who had volunteered met up late that evening. We found our transport was to be an ex-Army truck which had been used by the College's Exploration Society that summer to travel across the Sahara. We set off late at night to travel to the stricken village near Merthyr Tydfil, many miles south-east of Aberystwyth. I remember it as an uncomfortable, sleep-deprived journey as the truck took us over the Cambrian Mountains in the darkness. I guess each volunteer silently wondered what we would experience the next day after hearing of the mounting death toll.

We arrived in Aberfan before dawn on Saturday October 22. Our student party was directed to a community building on a hillside above the stricken village. Here we were kitted out in National Coal Board overalls and wellington boots. We could see lights piercing the darkness below and hear the hum of heavy machinery. That day dawned bright and crisp but a mist hung in the valley bottom. As the mist lifted we had an eerily clear view of the valley below with a huge black scar of coal slurry engulfing the school and terraced houses in its path. We set off once it was light enough and trudged through streets running with water and crowded with emergency service vehicles.

The group was put to work in the partially-collapsed Pantglas Junior School and in the adjacent Moy Road where a number of its residents had been killed in their terraced homes. On seeing the height and mass of the tip slide close-up it seemed unlikely that anyone was still left alive, which proved to be the case. Our task was to pass from hand-to-hand in a human chain hessian bags filled with slurry by the helmeted miners who dug into the tip slide. Every so often a screen of hand-held blankets was formed when bodies were found in the ruined school. A whistle was blown and everyone paused in silence as another blanket-covered small body was stretchered away. I particularly remember one still-standing classroom wall which carried a road safety poster with the message 'Halt, Look and Listen', so sadly ironic in the circumstances.

Our student volunteer party was later directed to work on the partially-collapsed waste tip which had caused the tragedy. A stream that was flowing copiously down its slope needed to be contained by sand bags. On the tip had been installed what looked and sounded like old Second World War air raid warning sirens. These were activated as we worked as it was feared a further collapse was imminent. By the afternoon, with professional rescuers pouring in from all parts of the country, we volunteers were told to cease our efforts and leave the disaster scene.

On returning to Aberfan in 2016 and visiting the long row of hillside graves, I am reminded that we students were not at the time much older - some of us being still in our teens - than many of those who perished there half a century ago.

Jeffrey Griffiths

Building St John’s Church, Clydach

The parish of Clydach was created in 1847 from parts of Cadoxton-juxta-Neath and Llangyfelach parishes, and a church dedicated to St John the Baptist was built in the same year. Today it is in the Benefice of Clydach in the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon, but back then the creation of the new parish out of two parishes situated in different dioceses necessitated the alteration of the diocesan boundary. At the time, the parish was rural and the population low. Clydach itself was hardly a village, more a group of cottages down by a bridge over the river of the same name.

In common with many churches in the area, comparatively little is known about how St John’s Church, Clydach came to be built and who was involved in the process. In the archives, however, among the Royal Institution of South Wales collections, is a bundle of receipts relating to the building of the church which help to tell the story of its construction.1 The cost of the original building totalled £1,473 10s 4½d. Such sums are notoriously difficult to translate into modern building costs, but suffice it to say this was not an excessive amount for a new church at the time. By contrast, St David’s in Neath and St Peter’s in Pontardawe, both built some two decades later, cost around £10,000 each. Of the total amount for St John’s, £200 was given by central grant funding but the remainder was met by public subscription and from local benefactors. The major donors, and also the administrators of the collected funds, were the local landowner Richard Hill Miers of Ynyspenllwch and colliery proprietor John Joce Strick of Ynystanglws. Both are buried at St John’s.

The receipts show that local contractors were used for much of the building work. For example, carpentry work was carried out by David Jones: the 1851 census shows him as a house carpenter living with his wife Anne and family near Quar Farm, Graigfelen.

The records also reveal a relaxed attitude in the 1840s to consuming alcohol while at work.

Receipts from Margaret Jones show us how the needs of the thirsty workmen were met as she supplied the mason labourers with beer while they worked on the church. Contemporary licensing records show that she was the licensee of the Three Compasses public house on Clydach Square, having taken over the licence from John Phillip Jones in 1846.2 Not surprisingly, building a church required work more complex than local craftsmen could provide. The receipts give us more information about some of the specialist companies that were used: for example, there is one from the Patent Wood Carving Company, situated in Ranelagh

Road, Thames Bank, London. The company was founded in 1843 by Samuel Pratt and their catalogue of 1845 lists ‘Decorations in wood in the classical, ancient and modern styles ... practically useful to architects, builders, decorators, upholsterers, shipbuilders, piano-forte manufacturers, cabinet and frame makers and others.’ Examples of the Patent Wood Carving Company’s work, so the proprietors claimed, had by then already found their way into ‘the mansions of many of our nobility ... and several churches in London and the West of England.’

The Builder journal of 1845 confirms that other work done by the company featured in Ravensworth Castle, Great Malvern Church and Sir George Gilbert Scott’s newly-completed church of St Giles, Camberwell.3 Richard Miers’ choice of company to provide the bell provides further evidence that, where it mattered, corners would not be cut. The company he chose was none other than Mears & Co. of London, now known as the Whitechapel Bell Foundry.4 One of its most famous bells is the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, USA. Established in 1570, the company can lay claim to many other bells in iconic places such as Westminster Abbey and the Great Bell of Montreal Cathedral.

At the time of its construction, St John’s was sited in open countryside close to Ynyspenllwch House. In the event, the village grew in such a way that the church always remained on the edge of the village. Such was the increase in Clydach’s population that a meeting was held in March of 1904, where it was decided to erect a new church with assistance from the Player family.5 St Mary’s was consecrated on 26th October 1905 on a site that was at the time in the centre of the village and, from then on, the congregation of St John’s slowly dwindled. Local community groups often used the venue during the 1990s and it eventually closed its doors to worshippers in 2006. In 2014, the church was purchased by Kerry Bowden, a local landlord with a long-standing family connection to the church. While many redundant churches are unsympathetically converted into housing, St John’s remains relatively untouched. It is leased to Yoga Place Abertawe, whose therapy sessions are held in its peaceful surroundings. All the original church windows remain, and at sunrise and sunset the beautiful cascade of colours still lights up the snow-white interior. ………………………………………………………

Lorna Crook Family History Centre Supervisor ………………………………………………………

Footnotes 1. The receipts are at West Glamorgan Archives, reference RISW Gn 3/306 2. Llangyfelach Hundred Petty Sessions records, reference P/S Lf 1 3. See Construction History, Vol. 8 (1992), www.arct.cam.ac.uk/Downloads/chs/vol8/article2.pdf.

4. An example of Mears & Co.’s catalogue is online at www.hibberts.co.uk/mearshist.htm 5. Planning meetings and progress with the new church were reported in the Cambrian newspaper during 1904-5, available online at http://newspapers.library.wales/

Appendix 1: Depositors and Donors The Archive Service is grateful to the following individuals and organisations who have placed local and historical records in its care during the period 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017.

J Abrahamson; J Andrew; Mrs A Ball; Mrs E Belcham; G Borsden; Revd P Brooks; R Brown; P Byfield; R Carmichael; Mrs J Cooke; R Cooper; Ms L Coysh; Miss L Crook; Ms S Croall; H Dare; Mrs B Davies; Ms E Davies; Ms J Davies; J M Davies; Miss L Davies; W J Davies; D C Dews; Ms M Dobbins; M Doyle; Ms S Emmanuel; Mrs B Essex; D Factor; B Fagg; Ms M Feeney; H Francis; S Francis; G Gabb; G Games; R Gammon; S Griffin; Mrs K Griffiths; M Griffiths; Mrs P Grove; Ms J Gruffudd; P Hale; Mrs R Harrison; Mrs P Hehir; K Hendy; M Hill; Ms T Holloway; P Holmes; S Houghton; Mr and Mrs J Howells; Miss E Jarvis; A Jobbins; Mrs J John; R John; W John; Revd A Jones; C Jones; Mrs E Knowles; Mrs L Lawrence ; B Lewis; Miss S Llewellyn; J Lythgoe; J McKie; Ms E Mahoney; D Michael; S Michell; Mrs L Millward; M Morgan; Y Parch J Morris; Mrs Morris; Ms L Nicholas; M Norman; Mrs L Palko; Ms K Palmer; S Paltridge; J Parkhouse; Ms P Pelosi; R Porch; A A Powell; T Price; Ms C Radford; C Reed; Ms A Rees; Mrs G Rees; J Rees; Dr P Rees; Canon D Roberts; Ms C Rowlands; Mrs J Sabine; Mrs V Sanders; Ms S Shannon-Jones; D Shopland; Mrs H Smith; D Sparks; C Spry; Ms C Stevens; Mrs J Taylor; W G Thomas; Mrs G Tremewan; K Tucker; B Watkins; Dr M Waymark; Mrs B Williams; C Williams; Mrs E Williams; G Williams; H Williams; J Woodland.

Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Local Health Board; Brynteg Independent Chapel, Gorseinon; Carmel, Eglwys yr Annibynwyr, Gwaun Cae Gurwen; City and County of Swansea; Clydach Historical Society; Cwmdeithas Hanes Plaid Cymru History Society; Dyffryn School, Port Talbot; Dunvant Male Choir; Dyffryn Clydach Community Council; Friends of the Hafod Morfa Copper Works; Friends of Mynyddbach Chapel; General Register Office; Glamorgan Federation of Women's Institutes; Glan Afan Comprehensive School, Port Talbot; Gower Society; Lee Shaw Partnership; Llangennith, Llanmadoc and Cheriton Community Council; Llanrhidian Higher Community Council; Neath and Port Talbot County Court and Family Court; Neath Antiquarian Society; Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council; Neath Port Talbot Libraries; Penllergare Trust; Pennard Parish; Pennard Women's Institute; Pontardawe Civic Society; Salem (Capel-yCwm), Bonymaen; Sandfields Comprehensive School, Port Talbot; Society of Cirplanologists; Soroptimist International, Swansea; South West Wales Industrial Archaeology Society; Swansea Bay Port Health Authority; Swansea Libraries; Swansea Register Office; Swansea St Nicholas-onthe-Hill and St Jude Parish; Traethmelyn Primary School, Port Talbot; Undeb Bedyddwyr Cymru; Upper Usk Regional Alliance; Women's Archive of Wales/Archif Menywod Cymru; Ystradgynlais Parish.

Appendix 2: Accessions of Archives, 2016-2017 The archives listed below have been received by gift, deposit, transfer or purchase during the period 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017. Not all items are available for consultation immediately and certain items are held on restricted access.

PUBLIC RECORDS SHRIEVALTY Declaration of Robert Michael Redfern as High Sheriff of West Glamorgan, 2015 (HS/W 41) HOSPITALS AND HEALTH Iechyd Morgannwg: minutes and reports of the board meetings and committees, 1990s-2000s (D/D IMH) Swansea Bay Port Health Authority: annual report, 2016 (PH 1/109) VEHICLE LICENSING Glamorgan vehicle registrations, 20th century COURTS Neath and Port Talbot County Court and Family Court: case registers, judge’s notebooks and case files, 1901-2008 (D/D PRO/NCC 1-4)

RECORDS OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND PREDECESSOR AUTHORITIES UNITARY AUTHORITIES City and County of Swansea Slides of Swansea economic regeneration areas, 19th & 20th century Land use and land allocation maps of Swansea County Borough, c.1950 Council and committee minutes, 2014-2016 Electoral registers, 2016 and 2017 (CC/S RE 40-43) Programme for the ceremony to grant Honorary Freedom of the City and County of Swansea to Christopher Patrick Coleman, 2016 (CC/S CE 12/2) Aerial photographs of the Swansea area, 1960s-2000s Assorted 35mm transparencies, photographic prints and VHS video tapes, 20th century Neath Port Talbot County Borough Various deeds relating to properties in the Borough of Neath, 1786-1968 Electoral register, 2017 (CB/NPT RE 40)

CIVIL PARISH/COMMUNITY COUNCILS Dyffryn Clydach Community Council: copies of 'Ymlaen' newsletter, 1974-1997, 2015 (P/242) Llangennith, Llanmadoc and Cheriton Community Council: minutes, 2012-2013 (P 109/23) Llangiwg: copies of vestry minutes (original volume held in private hands), April-July 1852 (D/D Z 173/2) Llanrhidian Higher Community Council: minutes, 2016 (P/111/45)

EDUCATION RECORDS Dynevor School, Swansea: programme for the rededication of the memorial tablet commemorating the Dynevor School Boys who died in two World Wars, 2016 (E/Dyn Sec 14/2-4); The Old Dy'vorian: the journal of the former pupils of Dynevor School, 2017 (E/Dyn Sec X 2/8); offprint of an Old Dy’vorians Association journal article ‘Dynevor Secondary School, Swansea: its name and building history,’ by Roger L. Brown, 2016 (E/Dyn Sec X 14/5) Glan Afan Comprehensive School, Port Talbot: additional records including photographs, 20th21st cent (E/GAC) Onllwyn School: admission register (Infants' School) and plan of the school, 1913-1961 (E/N 22/2/2; E/N 22/3/1) Penclawdd school photographs, 1915 (E/W 26/2/1-2) Port Talbot Secondary School (later Dyffryn School): records, 1899-c.1970 Sandfields Comprehensive School: admission registers, stock book, photographs and press cuttings relating to the school, 1950s-2000s (E/Sand Sec 1-3) Traethmelyn Primary School, Port Talbot: log books, brochure for the opening of the school in 1963 and photographs of damage to the school; also brochure for the opening of Sandfields Comprehensive School in 1965, 1963-2005 (E/PT 4/3/1-3; E/PT 4/4/1-2; E/Sand Sec 2/1) University of the Third Age, Swansea Branch (U3A): minutes, 1988-2016 (D/D U3A 1/1-3/1)

ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH RECORDS Caereithin: photograph of St Teilo's church choir, c.1958 (with Harry Secome's brother Revd. Fred Secombe); notes on the beginnings of St. Teilo's Church, "Early Days at Caereithin, 1939-1963"; miscellaneous papers relating to Mothers Union media office, 20th cent (P/334/CW/24-25) Clydach: photographs of plaques in St Johns Church, Clydach, 2016 (D/D Z 1022/1) Newton: marriage registers, 1991-2016 (P/313/CW/96-100) Oxwich, Port Eynon and Rhossili Parishes and Area Deanery of Clyne: St Illtyd, Oxwich, service register; Deanery of Clyne chapter minute books; Port Eynon PCC minute book; certificates of burial (Oxwich); Oxwich marriages; Rhossili marriages; Port Eynon marriages, 1887-2015 (D/D RD 2-3; P/114/CW/13-16; P/119/CW/94-96; P/121/CW/25-26) Pennard: papers relating to the establishment of the Benefice of Three Cliffs, graveyard survey and papers relating to the creation of the Millennium Window, 1978-2012 (P/117/CW/139-141)

Swansea St Jude and Manselton: marriage registers, 1993-2015 (P/320/CW/134; P/311/CW/93) Swansea St Jude: Roll of Honour recording names of those who served and fell in the First World War, n.d, 1920s Swansea St Mary: Mothers' Union minutes, 1947-2016 (P/123/CW/1376) Ystradgynlais and Abercraf: registers of baptisms, confirmations, banns and services, PCC minutes, churchwardens' accounts, burial plot plan for Abercraf, records relating to the building of Abercraf Church; photographs, 1910-2012 (P/331/CW/125-138 and P/300/CW/38-73)

NONCONFORMIST RECORDS Baptist Map of Adulam chapel burial ground, Bonymaen, 1903 Dinas Noddfa Chapel: correspondence relating to a Sunday school hut; volumes relating to the Sunday school, 19th-20th cent.

Undeb Bedyddwyr Cymru: annual report, handbook and newsletters, 2015-2016 Welsh Independent Mynyddbach: burial records, 1874-2009 (D/D Ind 24/79-81) Brynteg Gorseinon: Most recent records (graveyard records, minutes of deacons' meetings, trustees' minutes re. closure and sale of chapel) relating to Brynteg Chapel, Gorseinon, closed and sold Dec. 2014, 1816-2015 (D/D Ind 35/80-83) Carmel, Gwaun Cae Gurwen: contributions lists; one programme for Gwaun Cae Gurwen Welfare Amateur Choral and Operatic Society, 1953-2014 (D/D Ind 39); records including minute book, 1971-1984; financial reports, 1978-2006; collection records; miscellaneous papers, 1970s - c.2006 (D/D Ind 39/3/8-10; D/D Ind 39/9/7; D/D Ind 39/10/4; D/D Ind 39/12/6-9) Siloh Newydd, Landore: war memorial Capel Siloh Newydd, Glandwr, n.d, c.1920s; registers and miscellaneous financial records, 19th century Siloh Newydd, Landore; Brynhyfryd Baptist Church; Bethel, Penclawdd; Tabernacl, Penclawdd; Ebenezer, Gorseinon: records, including accounts, annual reports, photographs, building plans, membership records and correspondence, 19th-21st centuries Calvinistic Methodist Salem (Capel-y-Cwm), Bonymaen: exhibition photographs, 19th -20th centuries Methodist Methodist Circuits in the West Glamorgan area: circuit plans, 1941-1958

Other denominations and various Noddfa Evangelical Church, Pontarddulais: marriage register, 2008-2012 (D/D FC 8/1/1) Swansea Free Church Women's Council: minutes, attendance register, list of delegates, 19282000 (D/D FCWC 1/1-3/2) Various chapels in West Glamorgan: Annual reports and commemorative items, 19th-21st centuries

RECORDS OF OTHER RELIGIONS Swansea Hebrew Congregation: photographs relating to Ffynone Synagogue, Swansea, c.19601990 (DD SHC 36/69-80)

LEGAL, ESTATE AND FAMILY RECORDS Agreement for compromise and for a lease of a piece of land at Pontwalby, 1899 (D/D Z 966/2/9) Miscellaneous deeds relating to Swansea properties and sales particulars, 20th century Miscellaneous deeds relating to Swansea and Gower properties, 20th century Various deeds relating to properties in Swansea and Gower; photographs of Carmarthen Road and the old Infirmary, Oystermouth Road, 18th-20th centuries (D/D Z 938) Llewellyn family records: papers (correspondence, accounts, notes etc.) relating to Baglan Hall, Briton Ferry; Court Colman, Bridgend; Sir Godfrey Llewellyn; John Blandy Llewellyn; C K Andrews Garage, and the Llewellyn family tree, 19th-20th centuries Various title deeds in the Swansea and Gower area; photographs of properties in Swansea, 19th20th centuries (D/D Z 938) A history of the Landeg family of Gower, 2009 (D/D Z 754/55-56) Letter file (probably relating to the agent of the Duke of Beaufort), 1897 Plan of Penrice Estate taken from a sales catalogue, 1920 (D/D Z 938/4/1) Records connected with John Gwyn and William Gwyn of Neath, solicitors, 18th-19th centuries, including details of pews in Neath church, report on the Borough of Neath 1832, sales particulars of parts of the Neath Abbey Estate, 1838, Neath District Turnpike Trust ledger 1793-1801, and deeds and other records, 18th-19th centuries (D/D Z 1012/1-11) Legal documents and plans from sales catalogues relating to Plenty Farm, Llangennith, 19201925 (D/D Z 1016/1) Deeds relating to properties in Llangyfelach, Llangennith and, Cadoxton-juxta-Neath. Also a copy of a sales poster advertising an auction at the Bush Inn, Swansea, 1811-1893 (D/D Z 938/1/36-38; 2/6) Sketty Park Estate: estate maps, terrier of properties and other administrative papers, c.19201990s

BUSINESS, MARITIME AND INDUSTRIAL RECORDS Plans of railways in the Port Talbot area, 1968 (D/D Z 1019/1) British Railways (Western Region) sectional appendix to the working time table and books of rules and regulations: Swansea District, Pyle West junction to Fishguard Harbour and braches including Swansea (Victoria) to Builth Road and Swansea (St. Thomas) to Brynamman East, 1958 (D/D Z 1013/1) Bundle of records from Gregor Brothers Ltd, timber importers, South Dock, Swansea including newspaper cuttings, photographs, letterheads, brief history of the company, speech notes and correspondence, 1870s-1980s (D/D GBL 1-11) Arthur Rees Collection: records relating to Port Talbot Railway, Margam and Abbey Steelworks and other collected items relating to the history of Port Talbot, 19th-20th centuries David Evans department store, Swansea: staff magazine, 1961

WOMEN’S ARCHIVE OF WALES Women's Archive of Wales: Merched y Wawr, records of the Gorseinon branch, 1995-2010; pictures of the Ystalyfera branch, 2000s, 1995-2010 (WAW 34/3; WAW 44/1) Women’s Archive of Wales: 'Dare to be free': a programme for a pageant of famous women held in Swansea and Maesteg, 1910 (WAW 43/1)

SOCIETIES, ASSOCIATIONS AND THE ARTS Clydach Historical Society: graveyard survey of Hebron Independent Chapel, Clydach, 1988 (D/D CLH 1) Programmes and photographs relating to Cymdeithas y Ddrama Gymraeg, Abertawe, c.19191990s (D/D CDG) Cymdeithas Hanes Plaid Cymru History Society: papers and ephemera relating to Cymdeithas Hanes Plaid Cymru History Society, 20th-21st cent (D/D CHPC 1-3) Dunvant Male Choir: minutes of committee meetings, 2004-2015; assorted documents, 20052015, 2004-2015 Gower Society: newsletters and programmes for 2015/2016; 2015 report of the Trustees; agenda for the Annual General Meeting, 2016; South Wales Evening Post cuttings, 2015; Gower Show catalogue 2015; St Illtyd's Church, Ilston, Gower Flower Festival, 2015, (D 56) Glamorgan Federation of Women's Institutes: minutes, reports and scrap books, 20th century (D/D WI) Minutes of Mumbles Chamber of Trade, 1978-1998 (D/D MCT) Neath Conservative Association: minutes and ephemera, 20th cent. (Con/N 1/1-4/6) Penllergare Trust: minute book, 2000-2011 (D/D PT 61) Pennard Women's Institute: poems and financial records, 1950s-2000s (D/D Xno 29/28-45)

Pontardawe Civic Society: Typescript history of the Pontardawe Civic Society, presented on the occasion of the winding-up of the society, 2016 (D/D PCC 4/1) Port Talbot Railway Club: minute books, 1927-1931 Skewen and District Historical Society minutes covering May 2015 to April 2016; "Hanes" publications covering October 2015 to March 2016 (D/D SHS) Soroptimist International, Swansea: Records including the original chain of office, the charter 1933, menus and programmes, attendance registers, photograph album, records relating to Soroptimist House, Swansea, and other records, 1933-2011 South West Wales Industrial Archaeology Society: report on the excavation of Scott's Pit, Llansamlet, by Barry Fagg, with supporting documentation, 1976-2017 (D/D Z 1017/1-2) Swansea International Festival: programme, 2016 (D 59/4/69) Album containing images of chess players in Wales, 1800s-1970s (including many from the West Glamorgan area), 21st century (D/D Z 112/3) Brangwyn Hall programmes, Swansea Festival programmes and two sales catalogues, 20th century

FIRST AND SECOND WORLD WARS Edward Vivian Yates of Ystradgynlais: military service records, 1940s Gower Home Guard: register of the Home Guard in Gower (the 15th Bn. Glamorgan Home Guard); volume believed to have been compiled by Ivor Rees Griffiths (p. 12, entry no. 39), 19401945 (D/D Z 1005)

LIBRARY AND MUSEUM RECORDS Swansea Library: bundle of pamphlets and booklets mainly relating to building societies and Swansea Education Committee,1846-1911, also includes a report on milk analysis, 1875; Brangwyn Hall programmes, Swansea Festival programmes and two sales catalogues, 20th century; pamphlets and booklets mainly relating to education; Glamorgan County Magazines, 20th century

PERSONAL PAPERS 'Barddoniaeth Danny Thomas' by William Daniel Thomas (1935-2014) - a book of unpublished poems in Welsh relating to the author's life in the Dulais Valley, late 20th century (D/D Z 1020/1) Various personal documents relating to Arthur George Raymond John and his military service, 1894-1947 (D/D Z 1004/1-10) 1869 diary; 1868 Certificate of Character and Certificate of Discharge for Thomas Stevens; French teacher's flyer, 1860s (D/D Z 1015/1-3) Autobiography of W. D. Williams, born in Alltwen in 1848; diary of W. D. Williams, 1884; picture of W. D. Williams, 1880s originals (D/D Z 1023/1) Pay packet relationg to the Baglan Bay Tinplate Co. and Mrs Doreen Jones, 1950 (D/D Z 1014/1)

Clive Reed collection: additional papers relating to the Pontardawe area, 1800-2004 Diaries of W. S. Williams and S. W. Williams of Brynaman and Cwmllynfell, and their family Bible, 1905-1973 Records relating to Edward Murphy (1892-1968) of 7 St Albans Road, Swansea, former teacher and president of Swansea Labour Association, 1930s-1950s (D/D Z 326 2-5)

NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS Plasmarl Community newsletter, 2015-2016 (N/Plas 2)

SOUND, FILM AND DVD Ethnic Youth Support Team (EYST): 'Chips, Curry and Cappuccino' - teaching pack including oral history CD ROM; copies of images of the Italian community (collected by Paulette Pelosi), c 1940s-1950s), 2016 (T 41/1) Upper Usk Rural Alliance: DVD recording the unveiling of a replacement plaque for one marking the opening of the Usk Reservoir in 1955, 2016 (DVD 8) Friends of Hafod Morfa Copper Works: oral history recordings relating to the copper industry in Swansea, 2016-2017 DVD recording of Treboeth residents talking about their memories of the Three Nights' Blitz in Swansea. Recorded at St Alban's Church Hall, Treboeth, 2016 (D/D Z 996/2) Reel-to-reel tape recording of Brinley Griffiths, a copperman from Swansea, born 1881, 1960s.

Also a copy of his birth certificate. (T 40/1-3)

PICTORIAL AND MAPS Photographs of Gorseinon and district, 20th century (P/PR/79; school collections; D/D Z 1003/1) Photographs of the installation of the 66" water pipeline from Dre-fach to Felindre (Towy Pipeline), 1970 (D/D Z 1006/1-7) Photographs and slides of Swansea and Gower, 20th century (D/D Z 1011) Mine maps, 1930s-1960s Photographs and negatives taken by Peter Knowles and photographs taken by George Vivian Knowles relating to Port Talbot and area, 20th century (D/D PK) Photographs of neolithic monuments on Gower, c.2000; postcards of Llangennith, c.1930s; family photographs on Gower, c.1920s-1930s, c.1920s-1930s Arthur Rees collection: CD ROM containing scanned images relating to Port Talbot steel industry taken from a series of slides held by the National Library of Wales, 20th century 4 glass slides of Swansea, c.1900 (D/D X 349/11/1-4) Slides connected with places in Pontrhydyfen, 1960s

Photographs of colliers at Penlan Colliery, 1914 and cast of the opera ‘HMS Pinafore’ at Penclawdd, 1932; Penclawdd school photographs, 1915, 1914-1932 (D/D Z 1024/1-3; E/W 26/2/12) Digital photographs of Neath Constitutional Club, 2016 (D/D Z 1021/1) Slides of various locations in the Swansea area, 20th century (D/D Z 1025/1-13) Aerial photographs of the Swansea area, 1960s-2000s

LOCAL HISTORY AND MISCELLANEA List of men from Sketty commemorated on a memorial in St Paul’s Church, Sketty with their entry in the Commonwealth War Graves and 1911 census, 2016 (D/D Z 817/5) Teacher's notebooks relating to Eastern Boys School; First and Second World War ephemera, ephemera relating to shops in Port Talbot; Gas mask and Special Constable’s armband, 19th 20th century (D/D Z 1002) Diploma in Local History dissertation on Llandeilo Talybont churchyard memorials, by John Andrew, 1991 Book entitled 'Sixteen tons of Clunes Gold: a history of the Port Phillip and Colonial Gold Mining Company', by John Woodland (relating to a piece of machinery made by Neath Abbey Ironworks), 2001 Scanned copy of a typescript regimental history entitled ‘The Pembroke Yeomanry in North Africa and Italy 1943-1945’, including a roll of honour, author unknown, c.1950 Magazine for Penlan School, 1966 and magazine for Morriston Hospital League of Friends, 1973, celebrating their 25th anniversary, 1966-1973 Records relating to Cwmtawe School, Emmanuel School, Pontarddulais Boys School, Gowerton Grammar School, Hermon Chapel, 20th- 21st cent. (D/D Z 961/2-5) Offprint of an Old Dy’vonians Association journal article "Dynevor Secondary School, Swansea: its name and building history" by Roger L. Brown, 2016 (E/Dyn Sec X 14/5) Briton Ferry Public Hall and Institute (a short history), 2016 (D/D Z 368/18) Letters written between Dorothy Rodham (Hilary Clinton's mother) and Rosemary Davies (former WGAS Principal Archivist) regarding family history research, 2000 (D/D Z 168/12) Article entitled ‘Mumbles Hill House’ by Jan McKechnie, 2016 (D/D Z 1018/1)

Gwasanaeth Archifau Gorllewin Morgannwg Mae Gwasanaeth Archifau Gorllewin Morgannwg yn casglu dogfennau, mapiau, ffotograffau, recordiadau ffilm a sain sy'n ymwneud â phob agwedd ar hanes Gorllewin Morgannwg.Mae’n wasanaeth ar y cyd ar gyfer Cynghorau Dinas a Sir Abertawe a Bwrdeistref Sirol Castell-nedd Port Talbot.

Ein cenhadaeth yw cadw a datblygu ein casgliadau o archifau, diogelu ein treftadaeth ddogfennol a chaniatáu ymchwil er mwyn datblygu ein casgliad. Rydym yn ymroddedig i ddarparu gwybodaeth a’r cyfle i gyflwyno’r archifau i bawb.

Gwasanaeth Archifau Gorllewin Morgannwg Canolfan Ddinesig Heol Ystumllwynarth Abertawe SA1 3SN

Back cover Houses in Edward Street, Pontardawe, awaiting demolition, mid-1960s (Evening Post collection, ref. D37 Y227)

01792 636589 westglam.archives@swansea.gov.uk

www.abertawe.gov.uk/westglamorganarchives

A joint service for the Councils of the City and County of Swansea and Neath Port Talbot County Borough Gwasanaeth ar y cyd ar gyfer Cynghorau Dinas a Sir Abertawe a Bwrdeistref Sirol Castell-nedd Port Talbot