Thank you ...........

Thank you for the comment left on the entry. 'A decision has been made ........'. It is appreciated. I didn't attend Tredegar Grammar school, but my sister did, so I will speak with her.

A small start!

This photograph was taken earlier in the week at Wentwood Forest.

My oldest friend telephoned last night to say she would be coming to visit next week. This always gives me huge pleasure, but more so this time as she still lives in Tredegar (we were school friends) and as I have made the decision to do some research work on the town she will be a huge help with memories and contacts. I would like to commence this way, rather than rely on someone else's work, good and factual though it may be, from the Internet. Also, I would like to explore and personalise memories. The history of the Chapel I attended (three times a Sunday!) for many years for example, and our schools and so on.

Well this is the plan! However for now, back to the present. Mrs. H, the lovely MS.A and myself are going out for the evening and I must get ready. Undoubtedly this will provide more to write about in due course!

Friends of ..........

I have written this week about 'Friends of Tredegar House' and 'Friends of the Transporter Bridge'. In my local nightly paper there is an advertisement this evening asking if any members of the public would like to become a 'Friend' of any of the municipal parks in the City?

Membership benefits include having your say as to how the parks are developed. Their aims and objectives are to encourage interest in the ornamental parks of the city and promote a wide range of educational and cultural activities.

I was a 'Friend' to my local Church & Churchyard where I worshiped some years ago. However, that was more geared to raising money, encouraging non practicing Christians to help look after the fabric of the Church (which everyone wants in tip top condition for when they do need it for weddings, baptisms and funerals etc.) even if they didn't attend regularly. I enjoyed that and saw it as a challenge and part of my Christian service to God, but parks.....I'm not sure!

For all you masses out there that are reading this Blog (Huh...I wish!) the contact address is: fnopmembership@googlemail.com

I have found the nightly paper quite informative this week. I had better review my thoughts on this once grand paper....... perhaps it is not such a 'rag' as I thought it had become!

Autumn Thoughts

The day has been wonderful weather wise today, after yesterday's damp, misty day the sun has been shining today, showing the autumn in all it's beauty. I sometimes feel melancholy this time of year. Another summer come and gone, no long periods of sunshine this year, and suddenly Christmas is on the horizon.

The clocks go back this weekend, so there are long dark nights ahead of us; but I always think that in eight weeks or so it will be the shortest day, the winter solstice, and then the nights will gradually get lighter as we travel forward to Spring

A Decision has been made .........

The photograph above is the Nye Bevan Memorial Stones, which were erected after his death, at Bryn Serth on the top of Sirhowy Hill in Tredegar where in years gone by he used to address his constituents. When there was a major event in the town he would come to Wales and stand just inside the town clock (too cold to stand outside!) with his wife, fellow socialist MP Jennie Lee. I spent many a night shivering away in the Circle with my Nanny Jones as she cheered and sang with the crowds while the Bevans looked on!

I have decided tonight that I will definitely do some research over the winter months of the history of Tredegar and surrounding areas. My mother's family were all Tredegar people and my father's family all from Ebbw Vale, another small industrial valley town situated about three miles, as the crow flies, from Tredegar. My parents were married in Tredegar and both my sister and I were born in Tredegar, so I feel a strong urge to know as much about Tredegar and Ebbw Vale as possible.

It probably will be more difficult than it sounds, but it will give me pleasure and satisfaction, and anyway, who said life was easy?

My Personal Roots Chat ...

After posting the previous Blog on the Cholera cemetery in Tredegar, of which I have much more information now, I thought that I needed to address the balance for the good folk who still live in Tredegar.

The picture above is the Town Clock situated in the Circle and Tredegar's most famous attraction. Symbolic of the heart of the town, standing 72 feet high, it's what most people know Tredegar for. Of course, as I have mentioned before, the towns most famous son is Nye Bevan and therefore the birth of the NHS is attributed to Tredegar. It also boasts a whole ton of coal all in one piece, a very ornate band stand, the lovely Bedwellty Park and the much more recent Bryn Bach Park and lake.

Sadly the town centre itself has become quite run down as big supermarkets move ever closer and have forced the traders out. I don't know why this has been so prolific in Tredegar as neighbouring towns such as Blackwood and Ebbw Vale have not suffered such a devastating effect.

I have become quite interested in Tredegar's history in recent years and have decided that I will find out more about it as a small research project for the winter months.

Undoubtedly there will be more to talk about on Blogger!

Something I didn't know about........

............... Tredegar, my home town!

I read tonight in the local paper that the largest of the two cemeteries in Tredegar, the Cefn Golau cemetery, was originally the Cholera Cemetery for the county. It was in a small section of the paper called 'Past Times'. I simply chanced upon it.

Tredegar is 24 miles away from this City where I live now and I thought I knew most of what there is to know about my home town. Yet it seems that this isolated site, set on the bleak mountainside in Tredegar is one of the most evocative sites in the South Wales Valleys.

Mortal remains of at least 200 people who were cholera victims are buried there. The article says...

There were two major cholera epidemics in Tredegar, the first in 1832 and another one in 1840. There was a smaller outbreak in 1866. There are still 26 gravestones standing, surrounded by broken fragments of many others. Cefn Golau Cemetery is a scheduled ancient monument and is protected by law.

Well, I never knew that! I wonder if my Aunt, who died aged 96 years earlier this year, new about this. She, like me, was a valley girl in her youth. I feel another photo opportunity coming on! I simply must do that.

Mr Jaguar!

Yesterday I went out to lunch again with a friend who has now been nick named (by my friend Miss L) ...... Mr. Jaguar. -Why?..... because he owns two Jaguar cars and I never know which one he is going to turn up in!


The lunch was lovely and so was the car, a hard top car yesterday, not as nice an experience as the soft top one when we had the hood down, but very nice all the same. He asked me if I wanted to buy this one as he is thinking of selling it. I laughed all the way home!!!

Second Severn crossing.......

I couldn't write about the Severn bridge (see previous Blog entry) without mentioning the second Severn crossing pictured above.

Just like the Aust-Beachley ferry the original Severn bridge eventually became swamped by the level of traffic using it over the years and was unable to cope with congestion efficiently.

Planning on a second Severn crossing commenced in 1986 but it was to be another six years before the second bridge was opened. In 1996 Her majesty the Queen opened the second Severn crossing situated just downstream from the original bridge. To date both bridges are servicing the traffic from England into Wales ( and vice versa) efficiently and are now part of our everyday lives.

Before the bridge.

The pictures above, which I took last week, are the jetty of the old Aust Ferry with the original Severn bridge in the background and the toll gate where the foot passengers paid their toll. This ferry closed in 1966 when the Severn bridge opened and has just been left to rot and decay.

The ferry was the only way to get across to Wales unless you drove 50 miles around Gloucester, a terrific distance in the 1940's and 50's, to access Wales that way. This small ferry operated between Aust on the English side of the river Severn and Chepstow on the Welsh side where it was generally known as the Beachley ferry after the small village where it docked.

There were three ferries working and the largest carried just 17 vehicles! The distance is just over a mile and the tides run swiftly there. During the summer months cars had to queue for hours to get on the ferry and there was a school of thought it was quicker to 'drive around' than to queue up. By the 1960's the Beachly-Aust ferry was swamped.

The Severn bridge had been a decade in the planning stage. The idea of a bridge across the Severn had been a dream for many years, but it took modern technology to solve the foundation problems. When it was finally opened by Her Majesty the Queen in 1966 it's span was the seventh largest in the world.

While were were photographing all this history my friend recalled queueing for the ferry on a school trip in the 1950's and dropping a half crown ( a huge amount of money then) down through the planks. We had a quick look to see it it had surfaced over the years but alas ....... no luck!

'Up and Running' ...........

The picture above is a photograph of the alter at St. David's chapel at Llantony Abbey mentioned in my Blog entry earlier today and taken yesterday in the Black Mountains.

I have now had my 'lost' files restored....I think I have most of them anyway...

I may even try to redesign my Blog page now that the 'add a gadget' section is working. I wish I could say that I learned a lot from what was done for me this evening, but sadly most of it went over my head. I explained this to the person who was helping me out and she commented that it is unlikely I will need to know anything this complicated again. Let's hope so!

A Helping Hand!

For all I have said earlier in this Blog, I managed to talk my cousin (on the phone) through finding an address through Google and how to put something in 'My Favorites'. It's a funny old life, I didn't know those things myself not so long ago. It's a nice feeling when you can help someone else. Keep going cousin W!

Frustration and Thought!

How can a reasonably intelligent person not get a 'knowledgeable grasp' of the basics of computer technology ? My sister says it's because we all have different strengths and weaknesses or because I, like her, don't have the kind of mind that can sit for hours on end assimilating stuff that is in the main surplus to requirements. Maybe a bit of both. The methods and devices used in this particular field are beyond me. So much so I have been seeking help from wherever I can get it on the liberation of my files from the old folders to the new!

To this end, I had to go and weigh in at Weight Watchers this morning rather than this evening as yet another person is coming to help me with this computer thing tonight. I have lost 2lbs again this week. This is incredible that I have lost nearly a stone in just over a month, but I was warned this morning that it WILL slow up from here on in. My difficulty is that when this happens, I will need to sustain the equilibrium to continue with the eating programme and not get despondent.

Mmmmm........easier said than done!

Stress & The Black Mountains.

This photograph was taken in the chapel of St. David at Llantony Abbey and added to the Blog after the text, and after my Pictures were restored to my computer.

This afternoon my friend Ms A and I went for a drive through the Black Mountains. I needed to get away from my immediate problem, the computer, and Ms. A just needed a different environment. I can empathise with that.

As we drove through the magnificent countryside we talked; although she is recently widowed and I am divorced, there are a lot of similarities in the aftermath. The same rejection (one case because he left and the other because he died and left anyway) the same hurt, the wishing that you could enjoy self esteem and be confident calm and relaxed again. Still believing in the Power of Positive Thinking and wanting to gain control of your emotional life and move beyond your disabling emotions, but underestimating the power of the sub conscious mind.

The small Chapel of St. David at Llantony caused me to reflect on the peace on this earth, it's not all tumult. When we moved on we got a cup of coffee in the small bar that used to be the cellars for the Abbey and my spirits began to lift. We then travelled through the wonderful Black Mountains to Hay-on-Wye where we had a very late lunch of Mediterranean fish stew. WOW! If I could eat like that all the time I wouldn't need Weight Watchers! It was fantastic.

When we got back to the City we both felt better for our afternoon out. Ms A. went home and me ....back to the computer for the stress to build up again!

Technology - Ugh!

I have been offline for the last four days! A 'Windows' update was trying to load itself onto my computer and therefore slowing it down to 'almost non exsistant' mode. I loaded it eventually (taking two and a half hours) and then the computer would not re-boot. A trip to the computer specialists was required. Fortunately they are just around the corner from where I live, but it was still a pain to have to disconnect it all, take it around (it was heavy!) and then be without it while it was repaired. I then asked them to phone me when it was ready ...they didn't ... I chanced upon it by calling in and asking where they were at with the repair! I duly paid over £40, got it home to find they had taken all my data and stored it somewhere else, so I now have to find out where it all is and somehow put it back where it is suppose to be!

Now I am not the greatest at this kind of thing so it could take quite a while. Well ....it will keep me out of mischief for a few days!!!

At least now my 'Add a Gadget' window is working..........YES! What I have to do next is find my photos! Ah....life's a challenge!

A moan about my Landlord!

At Easter my cold water tap in the bathroom seized up. I duly reported it to my Landlord, a nice young man of about 28 years old, and he mumbled something at me about not being a plumber. Since then several people have had a look at this tap and offered various opinions. Last week when I was feeling pretty peeved at an unrelated matter, my Landlord rang about something else and he got the full storey again, chapter and verse, about the damn tap!

He rang yesterday and said he would be around to assess the matter at 5.pm this evening. Sure enough he came on the dot! He then proceeded to shrug into some overalls and started to do the job himself there and then. Boy was I glad the taps were being done! No more cleaning my teeth in the bath tub with my back seizing up if I was down there too long!

It is now 6.45 and he is still up there. Anyone who has ever tried to diet seriously will know that if you get too hungry you will end up eating more than you planned. As I write I have no water, no heating, a lounge full of junk from under the stairs where he needs to go to get access to the stop cock and I am starving! What price my diet tonight I wonder? B-----y men!

Photo scanning!

I have resumed my photo scanning programme today, but after I had finished the chores. No ducking and diving between the two like last week! Being a photographer of many years standing, albeit not digital, I have thousands of photographs. This job is going to be a long one as predicted.

The picture above is the Transporter Bridge, an aerial ferry that spans the river Usk and is situated about half a mile from where I live. I see it every time I drive out of my street, so thought it fitting for this Blog! I have literally dozens of photos of it but this one was taken with my new camera.

It is a Grade 1 listed structure and it's historic importance stems from it's unusual design. Sadly I cannot write that it was designed by a Welshman because it wasn't. The chap who designed it was French, Ferdinand Arnodin.


I know very little else about it's history only that it was commissioned in 1902 and completed in 1906 and was opened by Viscount Tredegar (the Morgan family again ...... from Tredegar House). The bridge celebrated it's centenary in September 2006, my son and grandson when to the 'jollies' and said it was good fun.


When I first came to Newport from the Valleys I would hear people under stress say 'I'm going to jump off the Trannie'.........I didn't have a clue what they meant, but was quickly 'filled in' on the local slang. Due to it's height and breadth sadly some people, who were obviously ill, climbed to the top of the structure and jumped off....... thus the saying! The slang continues in this City to this day!

As with Tredegar House there is a group of people called 'Friends of the Transporter Bridge' they are getting a lot of media coverage locally at the moment to try to pressure the City Council to speed up the repairs to the bridge and reopen it, as their repair contract has overrun by almost nine months. This group of people are a Registered Charity and dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the Transporter Bridge. Long may they continue.

You have to laugh.....

Settling down with my local evening paper I came across an advert for Valentines Day.... We are barely in mid October and there it is in a large block advert 'Valentine's Weekend' ......Book Now!


I had to smile....does this mean I have missed Halloween, Bonfire night, Christmas and New Year?

It has to be up there with Christmas cards on sale in July?

Financial Crisis

Chatting with a friend this morning on the telephone we got talking about the UK financial situation. We were wondering how it effects us directly, what to do with savings and the cost of living etc. I have to admit I don't have a financial mind, managing my own affairs is a challenge to me!


The way I understand it is the tax payer is bailing out the banks, this week alone to the tune of £37 billion for three of the UK's biggest banks, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds/TSB and Britain's biggest mortgage lender the Halifax. My friend and I went on to discuss whether we should move our savings and the answer is we are unsure as no one seems to know which bank/building society is a safe bet.


The press tell us that we should never have been in this mess in the first place but your average 'Joe Public' does not know about the problems within the banking institutions until there is a crisis.


What I think for what it is worth, is that if no lessons have been learned from this then it is only a matter of time before it happens again.

Weight Watchers - Week 4

Another 2 and a half pounds. I am well pleased with that! I expect it will tail off a bit now as my body adjusts to less food, but still, to shed over 11 lbs feels good.