Guardian Lantern Event 2015

Event Date – 9^th December 2015

5.30pm to leave for Guardian  

6.00pm Abertillery Band x 4 carols at Guardian

6.30pm Nativity

7.30pm Choir at Bethany

9.00pm Finish

·         There will be arts and crafts stalls on the car park opposite Ty Ebbw Fach and stalls in the upstairs meeting room.

·         Santa’s grotto will be in the garden of Ty Ebbw Fach, with access through the side entrance, which should accommodate people queuing.  Santa and Mrs Clause will arrive at 6pm. There will also be a professional photographer taking photographs. The cost will be £2.50 for photograph and selection box.

·         Communities First will provide soup and a roll as in previous years.

Prior to the event there will be 3 workshops for the community attend to make lanterns for the evening.

Dates are  -

20.11.15 Six Bells Community Centre 5.30pm – 7.00pm

23.11.15 Bethany 5.30pm – 7.00pm

26.11.15 Brownies Salvation Army (closed session for Brownies only)

Please check all dates and times before attending:  tel: 01495 211732

Six Bells Pit Party, South Wales

Pit Party 2016

Saturday, 21st May 2016

Weather permitting, there will be stalls, rides, local radio and much much more. 

This could be the last Pit Party as Blaenau Gwent Council are 

planning to build a school on Parc Arael Griffin, previously the site

of the Six Bells Colliery.

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Bad weather has been forecast for Saturday.  Please ensure 

this event is taking place before travelling any distance.

22 August 2015

Sure it will be well worth the wait !!

Gillian Clarke to Six Bells

Fiftyfive years since the largest post-war UK mining disaster we are proud to announce an event by Gillian Clarke.

Tickets will be available at the door.  This is the first event of this type. Please spread the word and support. Thanks.

Cruises to Six Bells, South Wales

Ever since I heard of the large contingent of Sea Cadets that were based in Six Bells, I knew there was a connection with the sea!

Now the cruise ships coming into Swansea and Pembroke are planning on bringing their passengers to see Guardian as well as other attractions around the Valleys. They will, of course, arrive by coach rather than cruise liner.


http://www.itv.com/news/wales/2015-04-21/cruise-ship-passengers-to-go-on-valleys-excursions/

Guardian Illuminated, Six Bells, South Wales

December 10th 2014 was the second occasion that the people of Six Bells met for a Lantern Parade along the pathway to Guardian, the Miners' Memorial.

It was a fine cold evening with plenty of warm scarves and furry hats, but best of all, many many smiling faces. A brass band greeted the crowd as they arrived at the statue and everyone joined in with well-loved Christmas Carols.

Hot soup was handed out to everyone and children enjoyed decorating gingerbread biscuits. A little Christmas shopping was done at other stalls around the site and at Ty Ebbw Fach Heritage Centre and the Cafe.

Bethany Chapel organised an outdoor Nativity Play with an unusual theme of Health & Safety around the stable and Bethlehem.

Both Santa and Mother Christmas enjoyed time with the children and many families will have photographic proof that they met Santa.

A wonderful friendly evening which I hope will be repeated for many years to come. Well done everyone who helped to make it a success.

Guardian Lantern Festival

Ty Ebbw Fach Heritage Museum, Six Bells

These miners' lockers now tell a hundred different stories

At the bottom of a deep valley used to lie one of the largest mines of the South Wales Coalfield at Six Bells. In its early life it had been called Arrael Griffin, but ooh on the name of the village in the 1940's with the accession by the National Coal Board (NCB).

Closed in 1988, it suffered the largest post-war mining disaster in the UK. Forty five men out of a total of forty eight working in "W" District were killed.

To honour these men and inform future generations of the history of Six Bells the community has created a 20 mtr high memorial on the pit site as well as this small museum.

Touch screen and a push-button story chair hold stories told by local people of their early lives and experiences. Cabinets hold lamp checks, old photographs and mining memorabilia and relate the stories of the artists Valerie Gantz and 'Chopper' Davies. The latter was a miner at Six Bells and when  his bosses realised his talent they encouraged him to speak on Health and Safety using his images.

Ty Ebbw Fach was previously known as the Coach and Horses, an old coaching inn with an archway where the horses would have been taken through to be fed and bedded down. The community with the aid of Communities First and other bodies refurbished the burnt out building and it is now run by Six Bells Regeneration, a social enterprise consisting of volunteers.

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The building also houses offices and a conference room with a smart screen which is available for hire. With easy parking opposite the building there is also a cafe run separately, which provides excellent refreshments. The whole site has disabled access, including the miners' memorial, Guardian.

On 24th May 2014 the site hosted the Queen's Baton for the Commonwealth Games.

The team who carried the baton up to Guardian for the blessing.

Valerie Gantz and Six Bells, South Wales

Back in the 1980's the artist Valerie Gantz stayed for a while in a row of cottages overlooking the Six Bells Pit.  It was in full working order at that time and she gained permission to go down with the men to make sketches.

At Ty Ebbw Fach Heritage Centre, Six Bells is an evocative image of hers of miners against the glow of street lights. In June we had a print of another of Valerie's images donated by Mr & Mrs A James.

Copyright of Valerie Gantz, Six Bells Pit, 1986.

This is a wonderful scene of the Six Bells Pit in 1986. All these buildings were removed and the shafts capped in 1990's and it has now been nominated a nature conservation area.

'Guardian' a twenty metre high monument has been erected on the site to commemorate a mining disaster in 1960 when 45 men lost their lives.

Sebastien Boyesen's 'Guardian' erected 2010

Queen's Baton Relay at Guardian Six Bells

After the Queen's Baton landed at Cardiff Airport, Six Bells, Abertillery was the first site to receive the honour of parading it for the public.  Heavy rain was forecast, but everyone came dressed for the weather and made the most of the day.

The Queen's Baton bearers at Ty Ebbw Fach Heritage Centre before the event.

Crowds flocked to the cafe and Heritage Centre, enjoying stalls located in the Conference Centre away from the elements. Abertillery Museum, and Big Pit Coal Museum enjoyed interest from the families interested in local history.

Queen's Baton at Guardian, Six Bells

A Bridge to the Past

Images from a past world



In Six Bells, if you walk through the tunnel beneath the cycle path, which was the old railway line, and then up a short steep hill you come to another bridge where you can walk under the busy Aberbeeg to Abertillery road.











A few years ago the community created a series of images which are mounted on the walls beneath this bridge. They reflect life when 'coal was king,' when the community felt its future would lie securely in coal, hill farming and smallholdings.


Now the community has had to learn to diversify and look for employment in a few local factories, or perhaps commuting to the cities of Newport and Cardiff or the relatively new town of Cwmbran.

The Coach & Horses pub - now Ty Ebbw Fach Centre

I understand that one of the original pit wheels from Six Bells is sited in the grounds of Abertillery Comprehensive School. 

The local bus depot was located nearby at Warm Turn, a strange name which, no doubt has a history of its own. The owner had once been a miner but saw a need for transport in the valleys and forms a company, employing his sons as well as local people.

Medals for Six Bells Mining Hero

On the 21 October 1948, Arthur Bobbett from Aberbeeg risked his life to crawl beneath a fallen roof support at Six Bells Colliery to help rescue a fellow miner, Hubert George Light.  Despite pleas from comrades and superiors to desist, Arthur continued over 45 minutes to free the trapped Hubert.

According to an article in the London Gazette, Arthur was so exhausted he had to be taken home via ambulance.

Sadly within six weeks, Arthur was also killed by a roof fall in Six Bells Pit.

But his bravery did not go unseen.  Posthumously he received the Edward Medal for gallantry from the King, the Order of Industrial Heroism from the Daily Herald and a contribution from the Carnegie Hero Fund Trust.

For the full story click below on the Abertillery Museum website.


http://www.abertilleryanddistrictmuseum.org.uk/bobbett.html

The Durham Mining Museum provides an account of these events from the London Gazette.

http://www.dmm.org.uk/galantry/z448.htm

Arthur Bobbett's medals are proudly on display at the Abertillery museum.

Abertillery Museum is full of interesting displays. Beware the lady scrubbing her front step, or the miner bathing in front of the fire. You may be able to scrub his back!

Look in the local press for details of interesting speakers.

No attribution could be found for this newspaper clipping. Should anyone have a problem with my
using it, it can be removed immediately.

Mervyn ‘Sandy’ Griffiths (1909-1974)

January 2014 saw Sandy receiving local recognition for his work as an international football referee. A blue plaque was unveiled on the wall of Ty Ebbw Fach Heritage Centre in his honour.  It was not possible to place it on his home (possibly on Aberbeeg Road) as it has been demolished.

copyright of Worldreferees.com

Benjamin Mervyn ‘Sandy’ Griffiths first took up a teaching post in Devon but soon returned to Newport, South Wales and began his refereeing career in 1934 in local leagues. Within five seasons (1939) he was appointed to the Football League list as a linesman and, after the War, refereed the England versus Scotland clash in 1949, and then the 1953 FA Cup Final, otherwise known as the Matthews Final. It was his decision, with two minutes remaining, that enabled Stan Mortenson to equalise from a free-kick awarded just outside the penalty area.

Griffiths represented Wales at the 1950, 1954 and 1958 World Cup Finals. In the first of these he appeared in the opening fixture, and in the second took charge of the semi-final between Hungary and Uruguay and assisting William Ling in the final. In the closing minutes of the match, and with the score at 3-2 to the West Germans, Griffiths flagged Hungary's Ferenc Puscas offside, just as he beat Toni Turek in the German goal.

He was the first Welshman to referee an international at Wembley, the first from his country to referee an FA Cup Final, and the only Welshman to appear in a World Cup final.

http://www.monra.co.uk/history.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Griffiths

Sandy was active internationally from 1949 until 1958. He ended his domestic career in 1959. In January 1974 Benjamin Mervyn Griffiths (known as Sandy), died at the age of 65.

'Guardian' book signing, Sebastien Boyesen

Sebastien Boyesen,

(Update) 

Everything went to plan on Sunday.  Fans of Sebastien and admirers of Guardian queued to purchase a pictorial history of the memorial's creation.  Then they queued to meet Sebastien for a personal signing.  He greeted everyone with a genuine smile and spent time to find out a little of who they were. 

As an artist who spends his life creating sculptures, he feels Guardian is something special. He mentioned getting goose-bumps as he drove down the road within sight of it.

A few signed copies of 'Guardian' are still available for sale at Ty Ebbw Fach, Six Bells. They would make a wonderful Christmas present, or just a coffee table book to browse through.

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(Previously)

The renowned artist Sebastien Boyesen, will be signing 1st edition copies of his new book.

Why not come along and meet the sculptor who designed and built
this magnificent iconic statue.


‘GUARDIAN’ 

on

Sunday 8th December 2013

at

Tŷ Ebbw Fach. Chapel Road, Six Bells, NP13 2ND

4.30pm – 7.30pm

ALL WELCOME

Come along and get a 1ST Edition signed copy of this beautiful photographic record of Guardian, Six Bells Miners Memorial.

The Café at Tŷ Ebbw Fach will be open for beverages and home made cakes.


Free car parking opposite.

All profits from sales go towards supporting the regeneration of Six Bells.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Cafe-at-Ty-Ebbw-Fach-/149557788572722?fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialTyEbbwFach

People of Six Bells Miners' Memorial (sandstone)

Strange how information on public objects can disappear into the ether. I have been trying to learn the history of the sandstone miners'  monument sited at Six Bells. Not Guardian, but its predecessor, erected to commemorate the disaster on 28 June 1960 when 45 miners were killed in an explosion in'W' District. It is sited close to the Six Bells Colliery site, but not actually on it as the site had not been cleared.

Below I have included a few images  of the engravings on the memorial. They are disappearing due to erosion and, lichen, moss, etc. Do you know any of these faces?  Can you put a name to them?  If so, please add a comment to this blog, or call in to Ty Ebbw Fach, Six Bells and let them know, before the information is completely lost to the community.  There are twenty-eight in all which need identifying.

Prior to the Guardian project, in the late 1990's CADW was invited to check on this monument to see if it could be restored as erosion had taken its toll. Unfortunately ground water and weathering meant it could not be saved. It was this conclusion that started discussions on a suitable replacement memorial. 
The outline of the miner's lamp and the pit wheel are already heavily pitted and damaged.

On the side walls the artist has carved portraits of local people. I recently met a man walking his dog and he pointed out his portrait - a really excellent likeness. This started me wondering about the rest of the faces, who they are - and more about the piece itself. 

Showing the hillside position.

I will add to this article if I discover more, but these are the details so far.

It was erected by Blaenau Gwent Borough Council, probably around 1986/7. Two gentlemen played a major part, Paddy Burn and Jim Watkins, I believe both their portraits are carved here. 

The scheme was delivered by a Cardiff based artist by the name of Cassidy (not sure of his first name) He wandered the streets of 6 Bells sketching people that he met and designed them into the monument. (Some say he photographed people who passed the monument as he worked. 

There was an on going consultation process that lead to the final design and I think a time capsule was buried somewhere within the monument that captures all the background. 

The Community Council leased the monument and took over its maintenance for the 30th and 40th anniversaries, but it has since reverted back to the Borough Council.

Sandstone memorial with Guardian visible on the colliery site

http://www.pinterest.com/margaretgurney/guardian-six-bells/