Review : Cambrian Inn, Aberdare

Cambrian Inn, Aberdare
Seymour Street
Phone (01685) 879120

A friendly pub in the middle of Aberdare town

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Father Christmas came to Aberdare

Father Christmas came to Aberdare and left a wonderful gift for Aberdare Blog…

… several trays of clementine oranges.

Santa Sings Carols with Aberdare Busy Bees

BUSY BEES sang CAROLS with SANTA outside Aberdare Woolworths today.

Busy Bees is the PARENT & CHILD playgroup held in Aberdare Church Hall,

All money collected was donated to Ty Hafan Charity by Santa.

Santa’s Helpers spotted in Aberdare Cafe

Aberdare Blog’s photographer spotted a group of Santa’s helpers huddled around a pot of tea in Les’s Golden Kitchen cafe in the middle of Aberdare today. Do you know the names of Santa’s Helpers ?

Santa Spotted in Canon Street, Aberdare

We thought sure we had caught the genuine Santa Claus outside the ‘Pound Shop’ in Canon Street, Aberdare, however this was a friendly Santa-lookalike.

Throw Santa out of Aberdare …

Only joking … it’s just a game. Requires Macromedia’s Flash Player.

See if you can beat 323 metres….

Click here for Throw Santa Game

A Child’s Christmas in Aberdare

Give a child a pot of paint and let them express their ideas of Christmas …

Click on the photos below for a larger photo. In the photo below there is a “Sion Corn” (Father Christmas), a “coeden nadolig” (Christmas tree), and a “baban Iesu” (Baby Jesus).

Aberdare Little Theatre

A link added to Aberdare Little Theatre. This theatre is a gem and well worth a visit.

Pc ‘Review’ … Aberdare Police at Christmas

Hello, hello, hello, what have we here then ?

Aberdare Blog meets PC Andrew and Ryan in Market Street, Aberdare.

These two wonderful PCs from Merthyr are on the beat in Aberdare during the Christmas period.

For an informal ‘review’ we have to give them full marks for presentation and professionalism.

Freecycle Cymru Wales 2005

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TooGoodToMiss…. TooGoodToWaste at Capel Farm, Tonyrefail

TooGoodToWaste will be holding a furniture roadshow at Capel Farm Resource Centre, Tonyrefail, on Thursday 15th December. Roadshow open to the public from 11.30 am until 12.30 pm

The TooGoodToWaste charity re-distributes donated furniture back into the community through showrooms based in Ferndale and Aberdare, and through regular roadshow events where the charity brings its furniture to various locations throughout Rhondda Cynon Taf, giving more people in the community an opportunity to access their quality affordable furniture.

The great thing about toogoodtowaste is that customers can purchase stylish recycled furniture at affordable prices and help the community and the environment whilst doing so.

Everyone is Welcome

For the first time, the roadshows can be accessed by all members of the public in Rhondda Cynon Taf, and not just those in receipt of a qualifying benefit. These include Capel Farm on December 15th. For any further enquiries please contact toogoodtowaste on 01443 733600.

Contact details

Capel Farm Resource Centre
Heol Ty Llwyd, Tonyrefail, Porth, CF398LW
NB. Parking for disabled, wheelchair access and accessible toilets
Telephone: 01443 671312

TooGoodToWaste
Unit 12, Highfield Industrial Estate, Ferndale (and Unit 3 Aberaman Industrial Park, Aberaman, Aberdare)
Telephone: 01443 733600 and 01685 886633

Help Finding Event Location

To help you find the above event location, we suggest you either
ring the organisers/venue for directions, or perhaps try one of
the ‘journey planner’ services at http://www.theaa.com/ or
http://www.rac.co.uk/

For street map information on the location, use http://www.multimap.com/

Cardiff Freecycle 1000th Member

Cardiff Freecycle will soon celebrate the 1000th member joining them.

This makes Cardiff Freecycle an excellent place to recycle your unwanted stuff at Christmas.

Tommorrow is exactly eight months since Simon Bradley started the group.

Well done Simon and thanks for all the effort over the months.

Cardiff Freecycle is one of sixteen other Freecycle groups in Wales.

Today there are 2266 members of Freecycle groups across Wales.

Cardiff will be celebrating a Golden Jubilee as the Capital City on December 20th, 2005.

Rhondda Cynon Taff Freecycle

Cynon Valley Freecycle and Llantrisant Freecycle merged today to form Rhondda Cynon Taff Freecycle.

Aberdare still says Coal not Dole

Today as Tony Blair signals his new-found enthusiasm for more nuclear power stations being built across the UK, one wonders why Cynon Valley’s MP does not speak-up in favour of our local coal industry ?

In the 1990s Ann Clwyd MP was happy to take part in an underground protest and latch-on to the miner’s campaign. I interviewed the late Glyn Roberts in the mid nineties… he was one of the people who joined Ann Clwyd MP in her underground protest. His son and grandson who both bear the same name still work at Tower Colliery.

Although Glyn Roberts was familiar with the deep-rooted corruption in the local Labour Party – he had long left the Party – I am sure he would be very disappointed by Clwyd’s current lack of public support for coal.

Perhaps it is time Ann Clwyd found her old miner’s lamp, visited her constituents and gave them some moral support when it matters.

For those with no understanding of the history surrounding Tower Colliery, here is a fair account of the Miner’s Strike of 1984 and subsequent events, from a book called Cynon Coal – History of a Mining Valley published by Cynon Valley History Society (Published 2001, Gomer Press, ISBN 0 95310 760 4) :

“In March 1984 there began the strike in the nation’s coal industry which was probably the most costly in British industrial history. One estimate of the cost came to £3.25 billion and this did not include the estimated loss to each miner of £9,000 and the loss arising from the 38 working faces out of a total of 490 which did not reopen. The leader of the NUM, Arthur Scargill, called on all members of the union to withhold their labour. In the resulting pit-head ballots only ten of the twenty-eight mines in South Wales voted to comply with the request. Nevertheless the strike went ahead. Many weary and impoverished months later the men marched back to their mine, defeated but not dismayed. But in the eighteen months since the strike ended twelve of the pits of the South Wales coalfield had closed including Maerdy, and, as Dr John Davies has remarked, at the end of the 1980s there were more Welshmen working in banks than in pits. The strike was stated above to have been the most expensive in British industrial history. Certainly it was one of the most important if only because the number of pit closures which occurred after the strike caused a decrease in the number of employed in mines which permanently diminished the status and power of the union.

In 1992 the last round of pit closures began and by April 1994 Tower Colliery was conspicuous for beign the last deep mine in South Wales and, though allegedly profitable, the necessary steps were being taken to close it down.

A public campaign began for the purpose of reversing the decision to close the pit, which succeeded in its purpose. However, British Coal hung on to their intention and the pit finally closed on the 23rd April 1994.

The actions which then followed to prepare and put into being a workers’ buy-out caught the attention and, indeed, the approval of people of all political persuasions up and down the country. Apart from valuable support from the Local Authority and the Wales Co-Operative Centre, enormous public backing was received from all those who had benefitted from Tower’s solidarity in the pasdt. But most significantly, £2 million was raised by the 239 miners who had pledged £8,000 each from their redundancy payments. On the 23rd December 1994 ownership of the colliery passed into the hands of Goitre Tower Anthracite Ltd. On the 2nd of January 1995 the Tower miners marched back into their pit and took possession of it.

The mine is owned by the above-mentioned company the shares of which are owned by the company’s employees equally. There are no other shareholders. The workforce are all highly trained and experienced in their duties, and most of them are doing the jobs they were doing previously under British Coal. The present working coalface is 600 meterse below ground and 3 miles from pit bottom and from this the colliery produces 500,000 tons of Anthracite a year, 75% of which is sold to Aberthaw Power Station. Two new faces are in preparation for mining reserves when the need arises. 290 persons are directly employed and a further 85 are employed by contractors underground and on the surface”.

Caerphilly Freecycle launched

Dean Kemp from Caerphilly has now launched an official Caerphilly Freecycle group.

Dean is an enthusiastic recycler who has recycled many things on Cardiff Freecycle group.

Caerphilly Freecycle is in excellent hands… so here’s wishing them all the best.