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This is a decidedly difficult sculpture. An imposing steel rocket-like structure on the edge of Merthyr town.
When the late Charles Sansbury created this massive installation way back in 1975, little did he realise how unloved his gangly child would become.
Logic and reason suggest that it is difficult not to notice this work at a height of approximately 20 feet. The fact is, most people do not notice it.
The sculpture was installed at the edge of Merthyr main car park, in front of Merthyr College, and at the entrance of the footbridge leading into St Tydfil’s shopping centre.
Although it was guaranteed a daily audience of thousands of passers-by, few noticed when it was recently moved to the Caedraw roundabout as part of a town landscaping project.
And the colour seems to have changed. It was previously painted in dark matt colours, now it’s been stripped of colour. To better effect, in our opinion.
The new location causes difficulty. It sits in the middle of Merthyr town’s busiest roundabout, near the T Mobile call centre and Welsh Assembly buildings. The onlooker and photographer is distracted.
The steel sculpture is difficult to like because we don’t think it reflects the reality of Merthyr’s industrial history. This sculpture doesn’t tell us any story about the struggles of working people who created Merthyr’s vast industrial wealth.
Enjoy Photos of the Charles Sansbury ‘rocket’ in the Gallery
There is a wonderful set of photos on Flickr entitled The Day Tower Colliery Closed by local Welsh photographer Trelewis.
What would the late and great Phil Weekes have to say about the closure of Tower Colliery this week ?
In 1974 at a Conference held during the Year of the Valleys, Philip Weekes described himself thus :
I have all the contrasts, the contradictions, the cussedness, the emotions that you will find in the typical valleys miner, which is what I claim to be. My devotion to the Valleys has no logic that I can discover; it seems to be rooted in emotion. An emotion that made me demand that I be removed from an exciting job as Director-General of Mining in London – to run the largest, geologically-toughest, most unprofitable coalfield in Britain, and probably, Western Europe.
Weekes was a genius communicator but even he would now find it difficult to articulate his disappointment at the demise of our old way of life in the Valleys.
Photos of Neath Abbey are now available in the Gallery.
Neath was a Cistercian Abbey founded in 1129. Dissolved in 1539.
According to Rod Cooper in his book Abbeys and Priories of Wales (Christopher Davies, Llandybie, 1992) pg. 69-71 : “Neath deserves particular attention because there is some evidence that it was the most noteworthy ecclesiastical building in Wales in terms of architecture. Its origins date from the first Norman invasion of South Wales and in the eyes of the Welsh the foundation was another facet of that invasion.”
“Today the ruins present some of the most complete remains of a Cistercian abbey to be found in Wales. Much, however, is badly ruined.”
A little over two hundred years ago saw the first steam locomotive haul a load on rails. Cornish Engineer Richard Trevithick’s steam locomotive ran with five wagons for five miles along the rail tramroad, from Penydarren to Navigation, Abercynon, with 70 men and 10 tons of iron on board. It was a historic journey.
What were the thoughts of the people who witnessed this noisy iron monster ?
Did they feel in awe of this spectacte and terrified by the sight ?
The Cambrian Newspaper commented on Trevithick’s terrific invention thus : “It is not doubted but that the number of horses in the kingdom will be very considerably reduced, and the machine, in the hands of the present proprietors, will be made use of in a thousand instances never yet thought of for an engine.”
Richard Trevithick’s achievement is remembered in many places in the Valleys, including a memorial at Abercynon, a memorial at Pontmorlais, Merthyr Tydfil, and a mural at Tesco’s Merthyr Tydfil. Photos of all these sites are available in the Gallery.
Sculptor Robert Thomas has the privilege of having 4 of his works in Cardiff Queen Street, including The Miner.
Why are there so very few monuments to miners in places like the Valleys where mining shaped a whole community ?
Other places in Wales do it.
David Annand’s ‘The Arc – y Bwa’ sculpture in the middle of Wrexham is a worthy reminder of Wrexham’s industrial heritage.
What has Aberdare got ? Some old rusty pit winding gear at places like Cwmdare (Nant y Melyn) and Mountain Ash (Deep Duffryn).
Postscript
There are 4 Robert Thomas sculptures in Cardiff Queen Street : (1) Nye Bevan statue; (2) the Family; (3) a Miner; and (4) Mother and Son.
There is also The Girl by Robert Thomas at Gorsedd Gardens, in front of the National Museum.
Penrhiw Chapel formely of Dre-Fach Felindre now re-located to the
St Fagan’s National History Museum in Cardiff.
It was re-opened at St Fagan’s in 1956. Click here for a photo of the opening ceremony on the Gathering the Jewels project.
According to the Museum : ” This Unitarian chapel was moved from Dre-Fach Felindre, Dyfed, and is typical of early Welsh nonconformist architecture. It is a simple, severe, structure reflecting the experience of the early congregations which often met in barns. An earlier structure was adapted for the purpose and opened in 1777, when the first lease was granted. It originally had a loft but no galler. In the early years of the nineteenth century the loft was removed and the present gallery built, to increase accommodation without adding to the size of the building.
The pews were made for the chapel : the differences in detail suggest that each family must have been responsible for its own pew. The pulpit illustrates the last stage in the ‘three-decker’ type: the arcaded pew next to the pulpit appears to have been designed for the elders and the one in front of it for the deacons. The floor of the pulpit was raised when the gallery was built.
The floor is of beaten earth except for the communion place which is boarded. Stone seats set against the bank in front of the building were used during preaching festivals.
At different times, both an elementary and grammar school were housed in the chapel : ink-bottles, quill-pens and a Welsh Not were found it in when it was dismantled.”
The
National Eisteddfod was held in Aberdare Park in 1954.
A Gorsedd circle of stones was erected to commemorate the event.
See also
The Tabernacle Chapel in Aberystwyth, was built in 1879, and closed in 2002. It is now apparently owned by a developer who intends to convert the Chapel into residential accommodation.
According to Capel, the Chapels Heritage Society, “the present Tabernacle Chapel is the fourth chapel to have been built on the same site by the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists in Aberystwyth. The first ‘Tabernacle’ Chapel was built in 1785 (facing Mill Street) although at that time it was referred to as ‘Capel y Groes’ (The Chaple of the Cross). It was the first meeting house (Ty+ Cwrdd) for those early Methodists in Aberystwyth who had formed themselves into a ‘Society’ to further their cause in the town. It should be noted that although the Methodist Revival in Wales is dated from Howell Harris’s conversion on Palm Sunday 1735, the movement did not secure a foothold in Aberystwyth until 1785.” (Source : Capeli, Local Information Sheet 11, Moelwyn I Williams).
In the gallery of images below, if you look closely, you can see the sandstone eroding, especially on delicate architectural features. Local sandstone was used to build Tabernacle Chapel, Aberystwyth. Some other chapels could import more expensive stone with more durable qualities from further afield. If you gently rub your hand against the walls, you can feel the sand fall away from the building…
Postscript :
On July 4th 2008 a fire at the Chapel caused extensive damage to all four floors.
On Friday 11th July 2008, the Chapel was demolished.
The walls of the
Disgwylfa Chapel in Merthyr Vale slowly crumble.
Cement and render peel away revealing the stone foundation underneath.
This Chapel was built one hundred years ago.
On this the Centenary year since it was built it seems to be ‘giving up the ghost’.
There is an eerie, ghost-like quality to this grimey old Valleys Chapel.
The Chapel is situated adjacent to the small village post office.
It is not difficult to imagine the former glories of this Chapel or what contribution it made to this village.
Climb the embankment a few feet from the Chapel and you can see the familiar site of a cemetery.
Therein lie the children’s graves in the nearby village of Aberfan.
Thousands of these Chapel buildings were built in Wales during the past two to three hundred years.
Merthyr Vale is not unique in having a Chapel crumble on its doorstep.
The same story is repeated the length and breadth of this country.
Thus day by day we are losing part of our national architectural heritage.
The Welsh word “disgwylfa” translates as “watch tower”.
It is painful to witness the Welsh Chapel walls crumble in our communities.
Twelve years ago many families in Aberdare were devastated after a coach crash at Raglan claimed the lives of ten people from Aberdare. Thirty three other people were seriously injured. A memorial garden and benches were erected at Aberdare Park in memory of those who suffered and died in the Raglan Coach Crash, July 1995.
Photographs of the Raglan garden memorial are available in the Gallery.
This photo (and others) of one the world’s oldest surviving railway bridges located near Aberdare uploaded to
Flickr and released under a Creative Commons license.
Heed the whispered warnings of ghosts, listen to their advice and co-operate with them. They tell us about the past and foretell our future.
In the photograph there is a misty view across the Cynon Valley, from Cwmbach looking down the hill near St Margaret’s Church, towards Aberaman and Aberdare. The photographer has failed to capture a ghost, so instead offers to sketch some notes.
In Cwmbach the first Co-Operative Society in Wales was formed in 1860. On this little Welsh hill there was a magnificent Co-Operative store that lay at the heart of a vibrant Welsh community ‘growing-up’ in the era of industrialisation.
Borrow a Welsh Mam today
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They’re so posh in Ponty… no graffiti on the walls, just the National Anthem.
Photograph of Mill Street subway in the centre of Pontypridd : “Hen Wlad fy Nhadau” – ‘The Land of my Fathers’ is the Welsh National Anthem. The words of the National Anthem are attributed to Evan James from Pontypridd, and his son James James. In May 2006 there was a concert held in Ynysanghard Park, Pontypridd as a celebration to mark the 150th year since the Anthem was written.
Her Majesty the Queen formally opened
Parliament yesterday and gave the customary Queen’s Speech outlining the government’s proposed policies for the new session.
Aberdare once had its own Queen Liz… an excellent local journalist called Liz Makin. She wrote for the Aberdare Leader newspaper, as it was then called, for a number of years.
Here’s a typical Liz Makin piece from Aberdare Leader, page 1, 21/7/77 :
Title : Traders’ noses twitch over curry and chips
The possibility of curry and chips being on sale in the town centre has been given a hot reception by Aberdare traders and residents.
They fear late-night rowdyism and vandalism and say vermin will be attracted. The pungent smell of spicy curry will affect trade especially at the clothes’ shop nearby, they claim.
It’s such an evocative title line and the audacity of rhyming “twitch” with “chips”.
No photo accompanied this story, because none was needed.
Queen Liz’s quip about noses twitching had done the job for the Leader!
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