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The most popular photos on Aberdare Blog for the past week have been those of Tabernacle Chapel, Aberystwyth.
Sadly the Chapel was destroyed in a great fire and subsequently demolished last Saturday.
This is such a waste. But perhaps we can draw a useful lesson from Aberystwyth by looking at our own communities and considering the empty buildings on our own doorstep!
We draw your attention today to a magnificent building several times larger than Tabernacle Chapel, Aberystwyth… the old school on the outskirts of Aberdare.
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Adrian Shepherd is fighting for the survival of the Allotment Gardens at Trallwng, near Pontypridd.
This is the second allotment site in Rhondda Cynon Taf threatened with closure.
It defies common sense that in a time of rapidly rising energy costs, places to grow food locally are being stolen from communities in Rhondda Cynon Taff.
Read the full story on Valleys Green.
Principal Librarian Norma Jones based at Aberdare Library has vowed to catch up on her reading after retiring from the job after 42 happy years.
Staff at Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council’s Libraries and Museum Service gave their favourite colleague a magical send-off in a special retirement party this week.
Gill Evans, Head of Libraries and Museums said: “Norma’s warmth and keen sense of humour made her a firm favourite with staff and users alike and her enthusiasm and commitment enabled the Library Service to deliver a wide range of special projects in addition to day to day normal services.
“As a published poet herself, she was responsible for producing the hugely popular library poetry anthologies, while her musical interests also led to the creation of the recently published brass band music catalogue. Life at Aberdare Library just won’t be the same without her!”
The Ferndale-born mother said: “At the moment it feels as if I’m on holidays and it hasn’t quite sunk in that I’ve actually retired.
“I have no firm plans as yet, but will probably have more time on my hands to enjoy a good read! But I will certainly miss my friends at the Library Service, they really are excellent members of staff and I wish them all the very best.”
Rhondda Cynon Taf Council have confirmed that around 100 trees are to be cut down in Aberdare Park… “for safety reasons”.
According to RCT Council, the elderly Leylandii conifers have been shedding branches across busy Cemetery Road, adjacent to the park.
They will be replaced later this year with a mixture of trees which will have brightly-coloured spring flowers, summer berries and vibrant shades in the autumn. These trees will attract wildlife and enhance the overall landscape of the park.
Staff from Rhondda Cynon Taf Parks division will begin removing the conifers in early March.
Children with disabilities in Rhondda Cynon Taf will have more opportunities to play sport this year in new football, swimming and badminton schemes, according to Rhondda Cynon Taf Council.
A new swimming initiative for children with mild learning disabilities will start in Aberdare next month. The 10-week block of disability swimming lessons begins at 4pm on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 in Aberdare Pool.
If you would like an application form to enable your child to take part in the lessons, please contact Rhondda Cynon Taf’s Disability Sport Wales Development Officer, Shelley Coster, on 01443 490242
Aberdare Badminton Club is holding an open day for people with disabilities at Aberdare Leisure Centre on Saturday, February 16, from 10am-midday.
The club will open its doors to anyone over the age of five who would like to take part. Wheelchair users are also welcome, as some sports wheelchairs will be available on the day.
There will be an opportunity for anyone interested to become a member of the badminton club – which usually runs on a Saturday evening from 7pm.
Regular hour-long football sessions for children of all ages are also currently being held at Pontypridd High School on Sundays at 10am.
Shelley hopes to eventually put together a team of players from these sessions. This will allow participants to take part in festivals and matches throughout South Wales.
“The football sessions follow successful ‘taster’ days held in Autumn 2007. Any children who did not attend the taster days but are interested in playing are welcome to join the sessions,” she said.
For more information on the swimming, football or badminton sessions, please contact Shelley Coster on 01443 490242
Want to get out and get more active in 2008? Then come along to Dare Valley Country Park, Aberdare, on Wednesday, January 23, where there will be guided cycle rides and walks for all ages and abilities – with bikes provided free of charge – from 10am-1pm.
Activities lined up include :
· A guided bike ride to Cwmaman along the old tramway – six and a half miles there and back along the flat – which will take up to an hour and a half.
· Short bike rides around the lake, with people on hand to help those who haven’t been on a bike for some time and would like to try again. Go around once, or as many times as you like.
· A walk of about a mile and a half around the park with an experienced ranger who can tell you all about the history and natural features in the park. This will take up to an hour – and you can have a go on a bike afterwards!
There will be a warming bowl of soup and a roll provided in the cafe between 12 and 1pm for everyone who has taken part. If weather conditions are bad, please come along anyway to find out about forthcoming outdoor activities. Participants will also get a chance to have their say about the type of outdoor activities they would like to join in their area.
For more information, contact Eleanor Rothwell on 01443 490206 or email eleanor.rothwell@sustrans.org.uk
We have prepared a collection of Aberdare Grot Spots using photos from a variety of locations across Aberdare and Rhondda Cynon Taf.
One of the ugliest grot spots is perhaps at the top of the Mountain overlooking Aberdare. Hereabouts people dump their fast-food flotsam.
Visitors coming to Aberdare via Maerdy in the Rhondda are greeted by the sight of wrappings from the local junk food merchants.
In fairness to Aberdare’s local Council, they clean up the mess left by other people pretty soon, but perhaps, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council should prosecute a few more litter-bugs to ‘get the message across’.
Local recycling mascot Rhyscycle does an excellent of educating young people about the importance of recycling. Maybe it is now time to invent a similar cartoon character to help educate the Neanderthal adults in our midst who have not yet discovered the modern invention called a dust-bin!
Click on the thumbnail photos to see larger versions.
Member of Parliament Ann Clwyd officially reopened the children’s room in the Library which has been revamped amidst much excitement for the many thousands of children who use it every year.
The Library on Green Street, Aberdare opened in 1963 and has remained virtually the same until recent refurbishments to improve access to the building.
A lift has been installed to the reference and local studies department upstairs to allow better access for members of the public, the foyer has been remodeled with a first-class reception area and a new teenage area has also been created.
The children’s room itself has been transformed with a bright and colourful underwater mural painted on the walls, which has delighted youngsters and parents alike.
The Cynon Valley MP also presented prizes to the local area winners of the “Big Wild Read” reading challenge.
Now in its ninth year, the summer reading challenge is the UK’s largest promotion of children’s books and aims to encourage children to read more and use the library regularly.
Aberdare Caradog School were crowned the Champions at a gruelling schools challenge held recently at Rhondda Heritage Park.
The pupils were all finalists in The Construction Skills Challenge with each team set a challenge to build a bridge with a 50cm span using K’NEX.
Of the 10 schools who participated, Caradog Primary School, Aberdare were crowned the Construction Champion.
Trecynon will get a good spring clean in the latest round of Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s street care ‘blitzes’.
Cleansing teams will be in Trecynon on Thursday December 6th with a range of equipment – including chewing gum removal machines, road sweepers and graffiti removers.
The street blitzes were launched three years ago, as part of the campaign to make Rhondda Cynon Taf a cleaner and safer place to live, work and visit.
Rhondda Cynon Taf Council have confirmed their festive Santa parade for Aberdare town as part of the Council’s winter events programme.
Reindeer will replace camels this month as the camels cannot travel in to Rhondda Cynon Taf from Oxfordshire following the recent blue tongue outbreak, so reindeer will lead the festive parades through Aberdare town centre on Thursday, November 22.
So that’s a date for Aberdare for your diary : Thursday, November 22, 5-7pm Aberdare. A Reindeer parade through the town centre, accompanied by Scooby Doo; switch on of Xmas lights, plus Santa’s Grotto and children’s funfair rides.
In the photograph : Cheerful staff at Les’ Golden Kitchen, Aberdare
Aberdare MP Ann Clwyd (Labour, Cynon Valley) came to Aberdare Town today November 11th 2007 for Remembrance Sunday to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in Aberdare, along with representatives from other groups in the Community and several hundred of her constituents.
Photo : Laying the wreath at Aberdare Cenotaph – Ann Clwyd MP and Rhondda Cynon Taff Council Deputy Leader, Councillor Anthony Christopher
Glynhafod School lies at the foot of a mountain.
It was closed last year. The Local Authority, Rhondda Cynon Taff Council, claimed there were too many spare places.
They gave the usual marketing mumbo-jumbo excuses about “rationalising”.
It was reported in the Cynon Valley Leader that the property was sold in an auction in London.
The buyer was one Ian Roberts, a local man who is manager of Cwmaman Institute.
There is a brief ‘walk-around’ video clip on Glynhafod School on Youtube.
The development at Glynhafod is reminiscent of what happened to the site of the old Aberdare Boys’ School : an old school site was sold off in a questionable manner by Rhondda Cynon Taff Council only to be developed for hyper-profits by some local developer/entrepreneur.
It is the Grammar of Capital thing again.
The house-building economy has to expand. It is an imperative of the capitalist system. The conversion of schools into housing estates is perfectly normal in a system which must expand, exploit, and dominate.
Imagine Cynon Valley as an orange being squeezed …
The latest pips to squeak are from Abernant
Residents in Abernant are infuriated by a proposal to build on the local village green.
People from across Cynon Valley can sympathise with their plight because building overdevelopment is a key feature of the Cynon Valley economy today. It is spurred on by a planning system which favours the developer-capitalists and the mammoth planning bureaucracy of the local County Borough Council who have a vested interest in continued overdevelopment.
Individuals and communities who dare to argue “no, enough is enough… where is this development leading?” are simply trodden on like unwelcome cockroaches in their own communities.
Yesteryear we might have argued the case ‘for’ or ‘against’ in the local newspaper, but in 2006, Aberdare has no free press where such a discussion could take place. Freedom of speech in Aberdare is a luxury for a political and commercial elite. It has been completely marginalised and shunted to the sidelines into online forums, websites, blogs and the occasional meeting in a local Chapel organised by annoyed citizens.
The media are, as Noam Chomsky argues, adjuncts of the powerful. The media exist to ensure we consent to what the elite have decided is in their best interest. To question economic overdevelopment, whether it is the overdevelopment of houses, roads, or any form of overdevelopment, would be to question the very basis on which the Cynon Valley economy rests : capitalism.
Corporate media do not reflect any anti-capitalist sentiment today because it is, again to quote Noam Chomsky, beyond the “bounds of the expressible“. The media only permit a spectacle or charade of free and open discussion. Thus we can read about opposition to wind turbines in the Cynon Valley in the local newspaper – wind turbines do not, after all, generate much advertising revenue – but we are unable to read about the mass opposition to overdevelopment or to the duelling of the Heads of the Valley road near Hirwaun, a Welsh Assembly Government project. That is beyond the bounds of the expressible. It might upset the capitalist apple-cart and people might get the wrong idea and start engaging in a real democratic debate.
In Abernant, if we look back thirty years, we might find lessons there. Thirty years ago, services at Aberdare were being downgraded and moved to Prince Charles hospital. Thousands took part in rallies and marches. Such expressions of solidarity are nowadays rare. We can but marvel at these mass movement in history books.
Today bourgeois capitalism reigns triumphant and the very last thing the rich and powerful and their newspapers would admit is that there are pips squeaking in every corner of the Cynon Valley. That might give working people a sense that they had something in common . The last thing the bourgeosie want is a conscious working class… it would be bad for business.
Forget the Monty Python joke about Cheesemakers…
Aberdare Blog discovers two real cheesemakers from Caerphilly…
Pictured : Julie (on left) and daughter-in-law Helen from Caerphilly
Helen and Julie are familiar faces at Farmers Markets across South Wales selling their tasty homemade craft items, including their legendary speciality cheese balls.
“Helen came from Canada and married my son,” explains Julie. “She brought her Canadian ideas and flair for cooking with her. We use local ingredients for our homemade craft items… and what better to use in Caerphilly than cheese.”
The cheese balls are a mixture of soft and hard cheeses, crushed in with various toppings, black pepper, walnut, cranberry and many other tasty treats. They are gaining quite a reputation and following across South Wales. We asked for the recipe but was told “it’s top secret… a Welsh Canadian recipe!”
The family-run business own a health-food shop in Caerphilly called The Source - see the website at http://www.healthstore24.co.uk/ – in the middle of Caerphilly town. For the Christmas season, Julie and Helen will be selling speciality packs of cheeses, flat bread, and other homemade craft foods.
You can see them at many local Farmers Markets, and they hope to be at Penderyn Farmers Market on 26th November 2006 10am until 2pm at the Community Centre Penderyn.
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The most popular photos on Aberdare Blog for the past week have been those of Tabernacle Chapel, Aberystwyth.
