Adroddiad Blynyddol Archifydd y Sir
Annual Report of the County Archivist
2017-2018 A joint service for the Councils of the City and County of Swansea and Neath Port Talbot County Borough
Gwasanaeth ar y cyd ar gyfer Cynghorau Dinas a Sir Abertawe a Bwrdeistref Sirol Castell-nedd Port Talbot
West Glamorgan Archive Service West Glamorgan Archive Service collects documents, maps, photographs, film and sound recordings relating to all aspects of the history of West Glamorgan. It is a joint service for the Councils of the City and County of Swansea and Neath Port Talbot County Borough. Our mission is the preservation and development of our archive collections, to safeguard our documentary heritage and to enable research in order to further our collective knowledge. We are committed to providing information and the opportunity to engage with archives to everybody.
West Glamorgan Archive Service Civic Centre Oystermouth Road Swansea SA1 3SN
Front cover: Castle Bailey Street, Swansea, circa 1910, The occasion is thought to be a march for women’s suffrage (P/PR 7/3/21)
01792 636589 westglam.archives@swansea.gov.uk
www.swansea.gov.uk/westglamorganarchives
Connecting People and History
Archivist Katie Millien with Christopher Pavey from the Swansea Vale Resource Centre and Teresa Hillier from the Legacy of Longfields Project during a session held in October. The Longfields project is examining and sharing the heritage of the Longfields Association, a pioneering disability charity established in Swansea in 1952. This annual report provides a round-up of the many and varied activities undertaken by West Glamorgan Archive Service over the past year, including our partnership projects, our service to schools and work on building and preserving our collections. During the year, we have worked with a range of partners, groups and educational institutions, in many cases through imaginative and innovative ventures which engage with new users of archives. We have been helped in this work by several grants from outside bodies, including this year from Welsh Government and the Friends of the National Libraries, and have worked with other groups in partnership where they have received external grants for their projects. The picture above was taken when we welcomed participants form the ‘Legacy of Longfields’ project, an HLF-funded project which both uses existing archive material held here to help unlock hidden histories and one which will create new archive material for us through the recording of oral testimonies. This outreach activity takes place, however, against a continuing backdrop of trimming our core service provision to meet the reduced budgets of both our parent authorities. Like other Council departments, the Archive Service continues to feel the effect of reducing budgets with consequent pressure to further rationalise and restructure the service. 2017/18 saw a further cut to the Archives budget which, while relatively modest, puts into jeopardy some of our basic work such as
continuing conservation work on the archive collections. These budget pressures are increased by the technological challenges and cost implications of the need for the long-term preservation of born-digital records. Some developments over the year have though been more positive. While we continue to make plans to leave Swansea Civic Centre in the longer term (for example through boxing and barcoding the contents of the archive strongrooms), Swansea Council has extended the timeframe for the Civic Centre’s working life. This allows the Service some latitude for further consideration of how we can best make use of our current storage space in the building. It also gives us more time to develop a coherent strategy for how we combine local history resources to meet the future needs of researchers. Reduced opening hours at our Neath branch introduced in 2016 have now been in place for nearly two years and, although numbers attending the facility have fallen by around 35% in that time, this fall has not fully replicated what one might expect from the halving of our opening hours, indicating that some researchers were prepared to modify their pattern of visiting to accord with the new opening times. Assistance from an archivist is now available on a Monday, which is particularly useful for researchers using the extensive Neath Antiquarian Society collections, while the Thursday opening provides a focus for family history research when our Family History Centre supervisor is on hand to provide expert advice to genealogists. Pupils from Ysgol Bae Baglan who were involved in the ‘Visions of Steel’ project (described in last year’s annual report) attended the launch of the book associated with the project at the Tata Steel Visitor Centre, Port Talbot, in May. They are seen here on the Visitor Centre stairs displaying their own artwork, which was used to illustrate the book.
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The Gower Landscape Partnership Oral History Project
During the year, a project has been underway to record oral testimony from people living on Gower. Something similar was conducted by J. Mansel Thomas, one of the founder-members of the Gower Society, during the 1960s and 1970s in preparation for his book ‘Yesterday’s Gower’. A seminal work, his recordings captured the stories of people who could remember a Gower before mass tourism, and they describe a landscape of resilient, close-knit, rural communities, small-scale subsistence farming, quarrying and fishing, delivered in an accent and dialect that once marked Gower out as different, but is now rarely heard. Gower people were also interviewed by the Swansea Tape Recording Local History Project in the mid-1970s, and the Gower Society conducted a further series of interviews during the 1990s and 2000s. This year’s project was established by the Gower Landscape Partnership, funded largely by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Its purpose and direction were originally quite fluid, and, after some discussion, it was decided that it should explore the many facets of what Gower means to its residents today. This would include, not just agricultural families, but incomers, commuters and entrepreneurs, to give a broad picture of present-day Gower. Emily Hewitt was appointed project officer. A qualified archivist with family roots in Gower, she worked for several years in the Oral History Department at the British Library, before taking up her current post at the Richard Burton Archives, Swansea University. The project was publicised at the Gower Show in August 2017, and work began in September with the recruitment of a team of volunteers to act as interviewers, a team which included Andrew Dulley. Training took place later in the month, and the interviews began in the autumn. Some fascinating stories have been told, full of insights about wartime evacuations, ploughing and harvest, holidaying, surfing and sailing, hunting, commons, farming methods and the way social life has changed in the villages. Modern equipment has improved greatly. Because the recordings from the 1960s and 70s were made on cassettes or reel-to-reel tapes, the sound quality - though generally good - can vary due to the limitations of the original recording process. These recordings have been digitised as a preservation measure. In contrast, the devices used by the Gower Landscape Partnership project are Zoom H5 devices, solid-state digital recorders with two directional microphones on top, about the size and weight of a pack of butter. In operation they are compact and unobtrusive, and record in stereo with excellent clarity. The project will finish in early summer 2018. Its target was to create thirty recordings, and this has already been exceeded. In the longer term, the intention is that the work will carry on after the formal end-date. With the equipment and expertise gained through the project, it will be possible to continue to record oral histories for many years to come. The recordings will be transferred to West Glamorgan Archives. Alongside the earlier recordings, they will be a valuable resource for students, tourists, local residents and anyone with an interest in Gower.
Building and preserving our collections
A generous grant from Friends of the National Libraries in 2017 has enabled the digitisation of a number of engineering drawings from the Neath Abbey Ironworks collection. These drawings will be displayed on the website ‘Casgliad y Werin: People’s Collection Wales’. The featured images will include 3D visualisations of two of the early railway locomotives built by the Company. Here is a draft version of the 3D visualisation of the locomotive ‘Speedwell’ taken from the collection. The original drawing from which the 3D image was created is reproduced on the next page. The primary role of the Archive Service is to preserve our documentary heritage for the benefit of future generations, receiving additional gifts and deposits of archive material while maintaining and developing the greatest degree of access to the collections in our care. Additionally, new accessions of archives often arrive in poor condition through adverse storage conditions prior to their deposit such as exposure to damp, and with accumulations of dust and surface dirt. This necessitates a continuous programme of conservation on our collections. Currently, our conservation work is outsourced to Gwynedd Archives and Glamorgan Archives. We use Gwynedd Archives for intrusive conservation work and Glamorgan Archives primarily for box-making. During the year, we have continued our programme of boxing all loose volumes and other items such as small rolled maps in acid-free packaging, with the aim of having no loose
unboxed or unwrapped items within our strongrooms by the time we are required to move out from our current premises. This packaging both provides support to the items and protects against the further build-up of dust while in storage. A Welsh Government grant awarded in 2015 has enabled us to barcode all our packaged material and this work is progressing steadily. It is envisaged that this barcoding will be integral to future repository management, offering increased intellectual control in an environment where our collections may be stored alongside those of partner institutions.
Remedial and preventive conservation work carried out in 2017/18 1 large poster 3 maps 11 volumes 1,519 volumes individually boxed
Conservation work carried out by Gwynedd Archives Conservation Unit Gwynedd Archives has conserved a number of documents for us over the past year. The pictures below show conservation work proceeding on volume TC130/10, Swansea Corporation’s copy of the Townhill Enclosure Act of 1762,
The Archives Hub: a project to widen access to our catalogues 2017 saw the beginning here of a project to make catalogues of archives held at West Glamorgan Archives and Neath Antiquarian Society Archives more widely available by mounting them on the Archives Hub. It has progressed through the year and is due to be completed in June 2018. The Archives Hub began in 1999 as one of a number of collaborative projects to collate and present searchable summary descriptions of archive collections online. These were groundbreaking at the time and were vital in opening up access to collections that had been hidden from view. The original scope of the Archives Hub was for archive collections held at universities and other institutes of higher education. Collection summaries, however, were only the first stage: the Hub began to experiment with ways to add multi-level descriptions, with a view to creating a crossrepository interface to enable researchers to find descriptions of individual items rather than merely summary descriptions. In 2013, a collaborative project began with a view to exploring the possibility of extending the scope of the Archives Hub to include catalogues of Welsh archives. There were some logistical problems to overcome and the level of support from the record offices had to be assured before the work could commence. In 2016, Stacy Capner was appointed project officer, and in March 2017 work began on our part of the project at West Glamorgan Archives. Catalogues of archives are held on our CALM database, an industry-standard archive system. This is then fed through to an outward-facing server so it can be searched online from our website. Most of the record offices in Wales do the same, but each one has developed their own methodology, and the first part of Stacy’s task was to identify the standard variations between the requirements of the Archives Hub and local practice in the record office. A script was then built to convert our catalogues on CALM into Encoded Archival Description (EAD) files that could be accepted by the Archives Hub. The process was helped because, since we began the task of retro-converting our catalogues and uploading them into CALM, we have worked to ensure that the catalogues are uniform and standard. With the script in place, we began the arduous task of converting the catalogues. Each collection must be processed separately, and a number of checks are necessary to ensure compliance with the Archives Hub. Any errors are flagged up and must be rectified before the resulting conversion file can be uploaded. To date, over 2,000 collections have been converted and uploaded, containing a total of over 180,000 individual descriptions. A presence on the Archives Hub has many benefits for the Archive Service. Primarily, it has a much better search capacity than the CALM system. The Archives Hub search engine links descriptions at different levels, which CALM does not. So, for example, a search for “Bishopston Manor Court roll” would yield the relevant results on the Archives Hub, but not on CALM, because “Bishopston Manor Collection” (the collection title) and “Manor court roll” (the item description) are at different levels in the catalogue. This is a major step forwards and will yield much better search results for users. There is the added benefit that results on the Archives Hub will show up from a Google search, which will bring wider and more general users to our catalogues who are new to archives. Furthermore, as this is part of a Wales-wide project, it will enable information to be accessed about collections from the same source held at different Welsh record offices. A growing presence on the Archives Hub has been matched by an increase in the number of search hits. Statistics are sent by the Hub on a three-monthly basis and have grown exponentially quarter-on-quarter, showing that the Hub is a very useful tool and is resulting in a higher profile for the Service. The Archives Hub can be accessed at https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/.
Engaging new audiences
Artist in residence at University of Wales Trinity St David, Joe Moody, created a short film about West Glamorgan Archives for the UK-wide ‘Explore Your Archive’ marketing campaign in November. The film has been placed on the Archives Wales YouTube channel and you can see it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4SX6wgkHgM&t=2s Engaging the wider community is one of our core activities and, to a large extent, whether or not the people we engage with in our outreach work subsequently use the archives is not our primary concern. The Archive Service business plan is aligned with the objectives and priorities of both our parent authorities and, through our external funding applications, with those of Welsh Government. Measures of success in our community outreach work are qualitatively the contribution we make towards helping to strengthen cultural identity and community cohesion and quantitatively the number of people we reach with our work, both as participants and audience. Our major outreach activity during the year has been to plan for the celebrations of the centenary of the granting of the vote to women in 1918, a partial but significant victory in a decades long campaign for women’s suffrage. We have been working with Swansea Museum, Richard Burton Archives Swansea University, Dylan Thomas Centre and Women’s Archives of Wales to create this exhibition, which will be created in several versions. While a static version will display in Swansea Museum from September to December, two portable exhibitions suitable for adults and children respectively will be available for use by community groups throughout the year. It will be available for the Women’s Archives of Wales conference on this theme in September. Simultaneously, the University of Wales Trinity St David is creating a film on the subject of the women’s suffrage campaign and its relevance today to a younger generation. The film will include a recording of the suffragette anthem ‘The March of the Women’ sung by a Swansea women’s choir. It was composed in 1910 by Ethel Smyth for the Women’s Social and Political Union.
While the availability of our genealogical resources online has led to more family historians working from home, we have been able to use social media to attract new users in family history sessions advertised online. Pictured below are members of the Facebook group ‘Our Swansea Family Tree.’
Just wanted to say a huge thank you for coming in to school over the past two weeks. The children thoroughly enjoyed the work and learnt so much from it. In my class we've used the census data to develop time lines for each house. We've used Venn diagrams to sort languages spoken by the residents. We've written first person Welsh monologues pretending to be someone on the census and next week we're using the census returns to build our own online databases. We are going to use them to learn how to ask different types of questions. The parents love the display we've put up in the corridor and we've received more photographs and information about the Row in the 1950s and 60s. The children, especially in my class, are totally enthused by it. (Penclawdd Primary School)
Our work with schools, colleges and universities
Archivist David Morris running a session on archives relating to the First World War at Cefn Hengoed School, June 2017 The Archive Service provides an education service to schools in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot, primarily for primary schools but to a lesser extent for secondary schools at KS3. In September 2017, we started to charge a fee in cases where we go out to schools to deliver a session. The service remains free, however, for all visiting school groups. The charge has seemingly not deterred schools from booking sessions with us. The schools service has been particularly busy with locality studies this year, with a number of primary schools celebrating significant anniversaries (for example, at Tre Uchaf and Morriston). Such events are a great way for schools and their surrounding communities to get together to appreciate the history of their local area. We have also welcomed a number of student groups visiting the searchroom during the year. Students from both of Swansea’s universities who have been studying a range of subjects have used visits and tours of the archives as a means to find archival resources which assist them in their coursework and dissertations.
2017/18 ARCHIVE EDUCATION STATISTICS Total numbers attending archive education sessions: Teachers and school pupils University students Sessions held in the Archives Sessions held in schools and universities
895 339 13 11
Clockwise from top: education sessions held for Geography undergraduates from Swansea University (led by Assistant County Archivist, Andrew Dulley); Penybryn Special School and Penclawdd Primary School (led by Archivist, Katie Millien)
QR codes and the HistoryPoints project Historical information about many places in West Glamorgan is now available on the spot, thanks to mobile phone technology and a non-commercial project called HistoryPoints. West Glamorgan Archive Service is among many organisations which have provided valuable input. At each featured location, a small plaque or window sticker displays a unique QR code which can be read by smartphones or tablets (various QR scanner apps can downloaded and installed free of charge). Each QR code connects your device to the relevant page on the HistoryPoints website. All of the information is free to view (other than any data charges in your mobile phone contract) and can also be browsed on the internet at www.historypoints.org The most recent place in West Glamorgan to be featured is the site of a tollgate in Pontarddulais near what is now Station Road. Smartphone users can discover how and when the gate was attacked in the Rebecca Riots, and how the three ringleaders were later transported to Australia. On the plinth below the anti-aircraft gun at New Cut Road, Swansea, there is a QR code plaque which links to information about the city’s bombing in 1941, including the names, addresses and other details of around 400 people who died. This research would not have been possible without records from the Archives. Numerous buildings on Swansea’s Wind Street reveal their often surprising past through the QR codes on display there, and the web pages are linked together to form a self-guided walking tour up and down the street. The Archive Service’s Lorna Crook has been instrumental in arranging for QR codes to be displayed at several locations in the Swansea Valley, with help from Clydach Historical Society and others. Among the featured locations in Neath Port Talbot are the YMCA, where Sir Anthony Hopkins had his early experience of acting (and found that he rather liked it) and Neath’s former Mechanics’ Institute (now the Neath Antiquarian Society Archives), which was designed by the polymath Alfred Russel Wallace. HistoryPoints began in 2012 in the walled town of Conwy and has since produced QR codes for 1,400 locations of interest spread across Wales. The project’s direct costs, such as printing and website hosting, are covered by donations from businesses which sponsor some of the pages. Hopefully the ease with which historical information can be instantly accessed has opened a few more eyes – and minds – to the appeal of local history.
How we performed in 2017/18
The total number of individuals and groups recorded by West Glamorgan Archive Service at its Swansea, Neath and Port Talbot service points in 2017/18 was 5,661, which was a reduction of just over 4% on the previous year’s figure of 5,915.
Total members of the public visiting the Archive Service during 2017-2018: 5,661
2017/18 IN NUMBERS 182 reader’s tickets issued to new users 460 people visited our stalls at external events 895 school pupils attended our learning sessions 1,578 total attendees at our learning events 3,360 followers on social media (Twitter and Facebook) 5,254 individual visits to the archives 7,202 people reached during the year on and off-site 9,229 documents issued in our Swansea searchroom 15,361 hits on the Archive Service website 226,489 records in our online catalogue
Including: Swansea Neath Port Talbot Group visits
4,136 1,035 83 407
Figures for usage of the service are submitted annually to CIPFA, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. The figures which are published annually by CIPFA relate to the use of local authority archives in the UK in the previous year, in this case 2016/17. Analysis shows that, based on the number of individual visits to use the searchroom, West Glamorgan Archive Service was the 18th busiest local authority archive service in the UK in that year (down from 14th in the previous year). Using this measure, which excludes school and group visits, we ranked between Derbyshire and Westminster in the table. Within Wales, we were still by a significant margin the busiest service in terms of individual visits, with figures 53% higher than Gwynedd Archives in second place. Our figure of 5,585 individual visits in 2016/17 accounted for 20% of the 27,494 individual visits recorded by Welsh local authority archives in that year. The statistics show that, although the number of individual visits to West Glamorgan Archives is still falling, the rate of decline continues to be broadly in line with national trends.
Who is using our service?
The pie chart above shows the distribution by postcode of those of our researchers who have obtained an Archives Wales reader ticket from us since the ticket scheme started. Only users of original documents need a ticket. The percentages do not take into account family historians, mostly, who use the Swansea and Neath service points without having a ticket. Increasingly, people have already registered at one of the other participating offices, which also under-counts users at Swansea and Neath who are from the rest of Wales. Former staff member Liza Osborne helping as a volunteer at the Family and Local History Fair, National Waterfront Museum in May 2017
Staff In October, Archivist David Morris took a year’s sabbatical. His post has been filled for the duration by Robert Hillman. Rob has a degree in Economics from Swansea University and a Masters in Archives and Records Management from Liverpool University. The Archive Trainee for 2017/18 is Aoife Cremin from Cardiff. Aoife is a graduate of Swansea University from where she holds BA in English and History, and an MA in Childhood Studies. Volunteers during the year have included Jane Atzori, Ffion Daniel, Lydia Evans, Alan Gardiner, Stuart Martinson, Kay Renfrew, Olivia Rogers, Katie Thomas and Jamie Veale, who have between them notched up over 839 hours of voluntary work over the course of the year. We are all very grateful to them for the work they have done.
Acknowledgements This year we have been fortunate to receive grant for specific projects from the Friends of the National Libraries and from the Museums, Archives and Libraries Division of the Welsh Government. The Archive Service could not provide the level of service outlined here without the enthusiasm and dedication of our staff in Swansea and Neath. I would also like to thank the Neath Antiquarian Society volunteers, with whose regular contribution we are able to continue to provide a service in Neath: Christine Davies, Jonathan Davies, Robert Davies, Philip Havard, Josie Henrywood, Phillip John, Annette Jones, David Newton, Gloria Rowles, Irene Thomas and Janet Watkins. The chair and members of the West Glamorgan Archives Committee have continued to show their interest and support for the work of the Service during the year, for which I am grateful. Particular thanks go to David Michael, Neath Port Talbot CBC Head of Legal Services, who retired at the end of March. We all wish him a long and happy retirement. ………………………………………….. Kim Collis West Glamorgan County Archivist June 2018 ………………………………………….. HRH Prince Charles talking to one of our former volunteers, Susan McGuire,at a PRIME Cymru award ceremony at Craig y Nos Castle in July. PRIME Cymru was founded by the Prince to provide free support to individuals aged over 50 to help them set up in business and remain economically active. Sue says “Following on from my experience at West Glamorgan Archives, I was encouraged to start up a family history research service.” She was shortlisted in the New Business category.
West Glamorgan Archives Committee
As at 31 March 2018 Chairman HM Lord Lieutenant of West Glamorgan D. Byron Lewis Esq. CStJ, FCA Vice-Chairmen City and County of Swansea Councillor R. V. Smith County Borough of Neath Port Talbot Councillor P. A. Rees Representing the City and County of Swansea Councillor P. M Black Councillor L. S. Gibbard Councillor L. R. Jones Councillor E. J. King
Representing the County Borough of Neath Port Talbot Councillor W. F. Griffiths Councillor H. N. James Councillor R. L. Taylor Councillor A. N. Woolcock Representing the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon A. Dulley MA, MSc Representing the Diocese of Llandaff vacancy Representing Swansea University Prof. L. Miskell FRHistS Representing the Neath Antiquarian Society Mrs J. L. Watkins City and County of Swansea Head of Cultural Services Ms T. McNulty MA Neath Port Talbot County Borough Head of Legal Services D. Michael County Librarian W. John
West Glamorgan Archive Service
STAFF As at 31 March 2018 West Glamorgan Archives Civic Centre, Oystermouth Road, Swansea SA1 3SN Tel. (01792) 636589
Neath Antiquarian Society Archives Neath Mechanics Institute, 4 Church Place, Neath SA11 3LL Tel. (01639) 620139
Email: westglam.archives@swansea.gov.uk Website: www.swansea.gov.uk/westglamorganarchives
County Archivist ...........................................................................................Kim Collis MA, DAS Assistant County Archivist ....................................................... Andrew Dulley MA, MSc (Econ) Archivist.............................................................................................. Robert Hillman BA, MARM Archivist.......................................................................................... Katie Millien BA, MSc (Econ) Archive Trainee ................................................................................................. Aoife Cremin MA Production Assistant .............................................................. Anne-Marie Gay MA, MSc (Econ) Family History Centre Supervisor .......................................................................... Lorna Crook Archives Reception Assistant ....................................................................Rebecca Shields BA Office Manager ...................................................................................... Don Rodgers MA, PGCE
Records Management Service (City & County of Swansea) Records Officer ................................................................................. Andrew Brown MSc (Econ) Records Assistant .................................................................................................... Linda Jones
Let us perfect the art of friendship: Swansea and District Association of the British Federation of Women Graduates
Founding members of the Swansea and District Association of the BFUW, 1968 While this year we celebrate nationally the centenary of the granting of women’s voting rights to women over 30, there are other aspects to the campaign for greater gender equality that are less well known and celebrated. One of these is a long campaign for equality of educational opportunity. A collection received during the year throws light on a local aspect of this. In June 1868, the University of London became the world’s first university to accept women by allowing them to sit the General Examination. However, women received a Certificate of Proficiency and not a degree. Ten years later and the same university became the first institution to open its degrees (except for medicine) to both sexes on an equal basis. While some activists and campaigners for women’s education believed higher education was necessary to make women more effective wives, mothers and teachers, others saw education as a means to change women’s lives and to give them the same opportunities as men. The likes of Emily Davies, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Millicent Fawcett believed that education was the key that underpinned their other campaigns for women’s rights. It was not until 1920 that women were finally awarded degrees at Oxford, and Cambridge did not award women degrees on an equal basis to men until 1948, partly because if women had degrees they would also have the privileges of equal status that came with them, such as voting rights and a share in the governance of the institution. When University College, Swansea opened in 1920, it welcomed 89 students, eight of whom were female.
One organisation that was set up to promote women's opportunities in education and public life was the British Federation of University Women (BFUW). Founded in Manchester in 1907 under the motto "Let us perfect the art of friendship", its aims were as follows: • • • • •
To promote women’s work on public bodies To secure the removal of sex disabilities To facilitate the inter-communication and co-operation of university women To afford opportunity for the expression of a united opinion by university women upon subjects especially interesting to the group To encourage independent research by women
Now known as the British Federation of Women Graduates (BFWG), the organisation continues to work to improve the lives of women and girls worldwide. Here at West Glamorgan Archives we have recently received a number of documents deposited by the Swansea and District Association of the British Federation of Women Graduates. The collection consists of minutes, correspondence, membership lists, photographs, newspaper cuttings and accounts. The Swansea and District Association of the British Federation of University Women was officially recognised on 10 February 1968. By June the same year, Eileen Llewellyn-Jones, President of the Swansea and District Association, had written to Kathleen Johnston, BFUW Secretary, making a formal application to host the 1970 conference in Swansea. The Association had by that time a membership of 57 and hoped to double it in the coming year. Llewellyn-Jones stated that ‘our members are graduates of a wide range of universities, and come from a variety of professions. They are also of varying ages, ranging from the 20s to the 60s.’ A letter of acceptance to was received in July and the Association set about planning the event. The conference was held in Swansea in July 1970. Delegates stayed in the recently completed women’s halls of residence on the University’s Singleton campus. The main topics of discussion included the Geneva Protocol banning the use of chemical agents in war; human rights for the elderly; the testing of drugs; and the cost of nursery and primary education. To judge from the records in this collection, the conference was a considerable success. The collection includes letters of appreciation from various delegates for the great hospitality and programme of events. The Association originally held its monthly meetings on the University campus, but later moved to St Paul’s Parish Hall, Sketty. The topics of discussion varied from cultural, historical and sociological to medical and scientific issues. Several members were interested in international 10th anniversary party at Hendrefoilan House, 1978
friendships and so in 1973 the Association paired with a Dutch group from Amersfoort. Other members took part in friendship visits to Helsinki, Patagonia, Fiji and South Africa. In the 1980s, the Cardiff and Swansea Associations worked together to support the bursary scheme for Kenyan school girls which was organised through the Kenya Association of University Women. Other projects and interests included supporting the campaign to save the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital for Women in London, 1978-1988; meetings to discuss the Warnock Report into the Education of Handicapped Children and Young People, 1978; response to the Green Paper on the Future of the BBC, 1993; report on Childcare in the Swansea area, 1990; and a report on problems of litter and recycling in the Swansea area, 1990. Members were also actively involved in setting up the Wales Assembly for Women and the Wales Women’s European Network. The Swansea Association was also a member of the Wales Women’s National Coalition for women’s issues, especially with respect to health and education. The Swansea and District Association took the decision to disband in 2017, due to loss of members and failure to recruit new younger members. However, members stressed the importance of friendship and expressed the wish to continue to meet together regularly, especially as 2018 would have been the 50th anniversary of the Swansea Association. Today the Women Graduates Swansea University Society is carrying on the work started by the Swansea and District Association by continuing to promote and advocate women in higher education to progress in academia and achieve successful leadership roles. ………………………………………….. Katie Millien Archivist ………………………………………….. Archives Records of the British Federation of Women Graduates, Swansea and District Association, 19672013 (D/D BFWG) See our online catalogue for more information Carter, Philip: The first women at university: remembering ‘the London Nine’. Times Higher Education Supplement, 28 January 2018, accessed online 3 May 2018 Jones, Clare: Women’s access to higher education: An overview (1860-1948). HerStoria, 21 July 2012, accessed online 3 May 2018
Aberpergwm, a bonfire and a dramatic intervention
Just off the B4242, before the houses start, is Manor Drive, Glynneath. It is quite easy to miss. It passes through the square pillars that once supported a great wrought-iron gate, past St Cadoc’s Church and around a meadow. At the end is another elaborate gate, confirming the impression that this was once the carriage way to a great house; but look beyond it and you will see no welltended lawns or venerable mansion, for little survives of Aberpergwm House today except stark ruins. It was used as colliery offices by the National Coal Board in the 1950s, but vandalism starting in the late 1970s and a disastrous fire gradually turned it into an empty shell, a sad end to a building long associated with one of the area’s oldest families. The Williams family’s association with Aberpergwm dates back to the mid-sixteenth century. Like many of the Glamorgan gentry, they could trace their ancestry through Morgan ap Caradog ap Iestyn, lord of Nedd-Afan in the early twelfth century, back to his grandfather, Iestyn ap Gwrgant, the last ruler of the royal house of Morgannwg. The Aberpergwm Estate was situated up at the top end of the Neath Valley, and consisted in the main of a few very large upland farms and mountain pastures, with some better quality meadows and arable land in the river valley, along with plenty of valuable oak woodland. The growth of industry in the nineteenth century brought new challenges and opportunities. The estate, although no better than average in terms of its agricultural land, was rich in coal deposits. The potential for development was obvious: there was money to be made from leasing the minerals, from wayleaves charged coal transported on the tramways, and from rents for the colliers’ houses. The proceeds of this, coupled with their 3,917 acres of agricultural land, brought them considerable wealth and influence in Victorian times. The Williams family were proud of their Welshness and took a keen interest in the traditions and culture of their native land. Successive generations spoke Welsh, right down to Godfrey Williams,
the last of the family to live at Aberpergwm. Down the years, the family were sung to by many of the Welsh bards, and Rees Williams was arguably the last person to maintain a family bard, Dafydd Nicholas, who died in 1774. Maria Jane Williams (c. 1794-1873) was an accomplished musician and singer, who was instrumental in collecting Welsh folksongs. Other members of the family were fairly accomplished watercolour painters. The house also had an extensive library which at one time contained some important Welsh manuscripts. The estate’s records are not all in the same place. The National Library of Wales has early deeds and some correspondence while Glamorgan Archives holds a collection of plans and volumes. West Glamorgan Archives has for some time held the bulk of the estate records: these include deeds and leases, financial papers and correspondence, all standard estate office documents, and there are also some personal records of members of the Williams family, including diaries and correspondence. Finally, there are colliery records relating both to the minerals leased out to colliery companies and also to the Williams family’s own colliery enterprises. Part of this collection was listed in 1991 and the remainder in 2000. The catalogue was completed, bound and put on the shelf; we had no reason to expect that there would be more to come. Seventeen years went by. Then last summer, we were offered some boxes of material rescued from Aberpergwm some decades before in circumstances that were little short of dramatic, probably shortly after the National Coal Board moved into the house. Here the depositor takes up the narrative: ‘The story of how my father, Jack Thomas, came to have these documents in his possession is quite interesting. In the early 1950s, he was a teacher (later headmaster) at Alderman Davies School, Neath. His interest was local history and he often sought inspiration in the surrounding Neath Valley countryside. One day he drove up the valley and noticed a dense column of smoke rising among the trees. He drove up a driveway or lane to investigate and came upon Aberpergwm House. The owner was out at the front in the process of burning a mass of old documents on a large bonfire in the garden. ‘My dad asked why burn them? and asked if he could take some of the documents as they were of historical value. The owner readily agreed, telling my father “Help yourself,” and then disappeared up the steps back into Aberpergwm House. My dad loaded up the car with all he could save from the flames; and these documents are attached herewith, in quite good condition, despite their age. ‘In preparation for submitting an MA to Swansea University, my father contacted Mr Godfrey Williams of Aberpergwm House – Mr Williams was by then (mid 1950s) resident in Biarritz in France – so they arranged to meet when Mr Williams was next in London. The meeting eventually took place and Mr Godfrey Williams said he was very pleased to give my father, Jack Thomas, permission to use these Aberpergwm documents in his MA submission. Unfortunately, due to financial commitments, my dad dropped the idea of an MA, but kept the documents safe, referring to them as “My Treasures.”’
Jack Thomas’s treasures are a total mixture, which is entirely to be expected given the circumstances of their acquisition. As we boxed them up, we could see labour books listing the work carried out by estate workers from the 1850s onwards, the thatchers, hauliers, gardeners, masons and carpenters all getting a mention; there were bundles of receipts and personal correspondence, mixed in with rentals, diaries, books of musings and jottings, reports on the collieries, accounts, and a small number of maps and plans. In among the documents are a few leather-bound volumes that once graced the shelves of the library. These include a well-thumbed eighteenth century prayer book, which may have been used for family prayers. In the same vein, and rather more unusual, is a tiny volume, quite fragile in its condition, published in 1636. It is the Catholic order of service for christenings and funerals, in Latin, intended, as its title page tells us, for use in England, Ireland and Scotland. We wonder if this was used in the house at that time, or was it just a curiosity collected by later generations? Then there are the watercolours: many show local subjects, including family members and local personalities, such as Shân Tyn-Cae (pictured to the right), the wife of Tom Pengroes, who was drawn from life by a nineteen-year-old Lleishon Williams in 1858. There is a charming view of the oak-panelled drawing room at Aberpergwm (a section is reproduced at the top of this article): a lady reads by the fire while a girl sits in the window. There are finely-drawn project plans and elevations for ambitious Victorian building projects that never took place, as well as detailed descriptions of some of those that did. The one shown at the foot of this article illustrates William Williams’ provisional plan for a Tudor-style remodelling from around 1836. It was a beautiful idea, but destined never to be.
Another box yielded some unexpected treasures: there were several bundles of music and the words of songs, the majority either collected or transcribed by Maria Williams. The majority are not of immediate local significance, being songs she heard whilst in Naples or France, but they reflect the music of the household and help to tell us more about her interests. There are some however that have a distinctly local flavour and will repay further study. A few are well-known, such as Hen Forgan a’i Wraig (‘Old Morgan and his Wife’), while others, such as Y Ferch o Benderyn, (‘The maid of Penderyn’) and Farewell to Llanover are more obscure, and there may be songs in the collection that prove to be unknown elsewhere. The depositor’s account finishes thus: “Finally we hope the Archives Dept at the Civic Centre will find these documents of interest”. They are indeed of interest; not just to us as archivists, but to a wider public. This is not a connected and coherent collection, the sort that is kept in ordered series in the filing room of the estate office, but the result of a desperate bid to save some of Aberpergwm’s history. We can only speculate as to what had already disappeared into the column of smoke before Jack Thomas came on the scene; we are very grateful that he did. West Glamorgan Archives holds many estate collections, from the great ones like the Penrice and Briton Ferry estates to the more modest ones at Gelli-wern or Maes-y-gelynen, each consisting of a handful of farms. The records generally come either from the solicitor or the estate office, and they tell us how land was acquired, how it was sold and how it was used in the meantime. These records contain plenty of valuable information, but they generally tell us little about the people who owned the land, their interests or how they interacted with their local community. This collection is a gem, full of the unexpected and unparalleled, but above all, it is stamped with the personalities of the people who lived at Aberpergwm in the Victorian age, with all their hopes, regrets and aspirations. It is still in the process of being listed, but by late summer it should be available, and it is hoped that researchers will enjoy uncovering the story of the squires of Aberpergwm. ……………………………………………………… Andrew Dulley Assistant County Archivist ……………………………………………………… Archives Aberpergwm Estate Collections at West Glamorgan Archives, reference D/D Ab; at the National Library of Wales, reference ABERPERGWM, and at Glamorgan Archives, reference DABD
Pictures from Aberavon: making sense of photographs without context
This year the Archive Service was fortunate enough to receive a set of 28 glass slide negatives relating to the Aberavon area. They had been donated to Glamorgan Archives but were then passed on to us as they related to our geographical area. The slides arrived in a small strawboard box, with sets of 3 or 4 slides wrapped up together in long strips of thin paper. The only information we were given was that the individual who had donated the items had acquired them in conjunction with research they were carrying out on the history of Aberavon. However, no other information was given – the images were not labelled or indexed. Photographs that arrive with little or no context can be a headache for the cataloguer. Context is vital to any archival document for several reasons. Firstly, the context is crucial to describing the item. If the cataloguer has no idea what they are looking at, then the researcher is unlikely to ever find the photograph in the catalogue from the description. Secondly, context is crucial to understanding how and why a document was created – while the description of the subject of the photograph may be of some use taken on its own, a researcher would want to know as much as possible about how, when and where it was made, who by, and whom for. The picture’s subject matter alone tells the researcher nothing about the contextual history of the image.
So in a case like this, it becomes important to make the most of any contextual information available. In this instance, we knew that the slides seemed to be connected to Aberavon. Some of the photographs depicting street scenes looked like they may well have been taken in Aberavon, but this is a town which has seen considerable change over the intervening period. One image features posters in the background that mention towns near Aberavon, at least placing the photographs in roughly the right area. An obvious ‘out of area’ shot is one of the ancient Market Hall in Llanidloes. The slides came in a small box made out of thick strawboard, which was labelled ‘Wellcome’s Medical Diary and Visiting List 1902’. It had been delivered to an address in Aberavon, to a J. H. Williams. One can’t always read too much into the packaging, as archives frequently arrive with us in strange containers such as fruit crates or boxes of old pieces of equipment. However, the date and address on the box matched the contents, so it was worth investigating the possible identity of a J. H. Williams of Aberavon. In Edwardian Wales, amateur photography was not a poor man’s pastime. This point is reinforced by the fact that the individuals posed in the photographs appear mostly to be relatively well off. There is therefore a strong probability that the putative photographer J. H. Williams came from a professional middle class background and was photographing people and scenes with whom he would have been familar. Digging around in the census returns shows that there was a John Henry Williams living in Aberavon at the time, working as a surgeon, and at various times also serving as a councillor, alderman and ultimately (between 1901 and 1902) as mayor of the Borough. Interestingly, he was also born in Llanidloes, and seems to have had relatives there right up until his death. This could be an explanation for the view of Llanidloes market hall amongst the slides. Sometimes the photographic medium itself can provide clues as to the date and origins of an item – in this case, glass slides with neat, straight borders around the edge suggests that they are gelatine dry plates. This technology replaced the earlier wet-collodion plates which were far more complicated and messy to use, and which had to be developed immediately after exposure. Dry plates were most popular between roughly 1880 and 1930. In this case, it corroborates what the evidence of the pictures had already suggested and is not as precise when compared, for example, with dating the photographs based on clothing fashions.
Of course, the identification of the photographer with John Henry Williams, Mayor of Aberavon 1901/2, remains speculative at this stage and it is important for archivists to try not to put too much of their own interpretation onto the documents they are cataloguing. The role of the archivist is to impartially make the documents available so that researchers can interpret them in their own way. During the process of cataloguing and describing an archival item, there is an element of contextualisation and interpretation which can provide a place for speculation and suggestion. The key is to ensure that a researcher looking for pictures from Aberavon from around this time would still be able to find them, without limiting the researcher’s ability to interpret the images for themselves. ………………………………………….. Robert Hillman Archivist ………………………………………….. Archives Set of black and white glass plate negatives relating to Aberavon, circa 1902, reference D/D Z 1045
Appendix 1: Depositors and Donors The Archive Service is grateful to the following individuals and organisations who have placed local and historical records in its care during the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018. A Adams; Mrs M Adams; Dr J Alban; J Andrew; Mrs A Ball; R Barnes; Mrs E Battenbough; T Bazley; Mrs E Belcham; Mrs K Boyce; Revd P Brooks; Revd S Bunting; R Clarke; C Dale; Ms E Davies; K Davies; Ms S Davies; Mrs M Dawkins; C Dews; Ms M Dobbins; H Dunthorne; Ms S Emanuel; Mrs B Essex; R Essex; Mrs B Evans; Ms C Evans; Mrs J Evans; J Evans; Mrs M Eynon; B Fagg; M Fielder; Mrs J Forwood; Ms M Francis; G Gabb; G Games; Mrs M Gibbard; M Gibbon; Ms K Greene; D Gregory; Mrs K Griffiths; Mrs E Gruffydd-Evans; P Hall; E Harris; S Hathaway; P Hinder; B Humphreys; Mrs R Huting; Mrs V Hypher; Ms E Jarvis; Ms Y Jenkins; Ms L John; Mrs C Jones; Ms E Jones; G Jones; I Jones; S Jones; Ms T Jones; Ms V Jones; J Law; Ms A Lewis; C Lindley; Miss S Llewellyn; R McConville; S McCormack; D Michael; Ms W Miners; C Moon; Ms E Morgan; H Morgan; J Morgan; M Morgan; R Morgan; J Morris; Revd J Morris; P Myers; Ms Z Nichols; B Niedergang; Mrs E Niedergang; T O’Brien; Ms J Ogborne; D Owen; S Paltridge; J Parkhouse; Ms M Paul; C Peregrine; Dr C Phillips; M Piercy; Ms M Poole; Mrs A Potter; T Price; Mrs L Pritchard; C Reed; A Rees; T Rees; M Ridge; J Roach; Ms H Roberts; I Roberts; Mrs J Ross; Miss R Runciman; Mrs J Sabine; B Saunders; Ms J Scully; Revd L Sharpe; S Smith; Ms C Stevens; A Stewart; Mrs G Suff; Mrs A Swindale; N Taylor; R Taylor; Mrs H Thomas; J Thomas; M Thomas; Mrs N Thomas; H Tomos; K Tucker; S Walby; Mrs M Walker; Dr P Waymark; J Weston; R Wigley; Mrs A Williams; C Williams; G Williams; Ms J Williams ABM University Health Board; Benefice of St Thomas and Kilvey; Benefice of Three Cliffs; Bethany Baptist Church, West Cross; British Federation of Women Graduates; British Records Association; Ebeneser Newydd Welsh Independent Church, Swansea; former Glan Afan Comprehensive School, Port Talbot; Gower Festival; Gower Society; Gowerton Primary School; Hill United Reformed Church, Swansea; Llangennith, Llanmadoc and Cheriton Community Council; Llanrhidian Higher Community Council; Llwynderw parish; Memorial Baptist Church, Swansea; Merched y Wawr; Neath Antiquarian Society; NHS Wales; Pennard Community Council; Pennard Women’s Institute; Port Talbot Historical Society; Skewen and District Historical Society; Skewen Methodist Church; Society of Cirplanologists; Soroptimist International Swansea; South Wales Evening Post; South West Wales Industrial Archaeology Society; Swansea Bay Port Health Authority; Swansea Branch of the University of the Third Age; Swansea Free Church Women’s Council; Swansea Registrar; Swansea Tape Recording Society; Swansea St Barnabas parish; Tuscan Lodge 7267; Undeb Bedyddwyr Cymru; Women’s Archive of Wales; Ysgol Gynradd y Wern, Ystalyfera; Ystradgynlais Family History Society.
Appendix 2: Accessions of Archives, 2017-2018 The archives listed below have been received by gift, deposit, transfer or purchase during the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018. Not all items are available for consultation immediately and certain items are held on restricted access.
PUBLIC RECORDS SHRIEVALTY Declaration and order of ceremony for Roberta Louise Fleet JP as High Sheriff of West Glamorgan, 11 Apr. 2017 (HS/W 43/1-2)
H.M. CORONER Swansea Coroner: records relating to two cases that became litigious
HOSPITALS AND HEALTH Swansea Bay Port Health Authority: annual report, 2017 (PH 1/110)
PRISON SERVICE Various records relating to Swansea Prison Board of Visitors, 1964-2017 (D/D Z 653)
RECORDS OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND PREDECESSOR BODIES UNITARY AUTHORITIES City and County of Swansea Electoral Registers, 2017-2018 (CC/S RE 42-45) Council and committee minutes for the City and County of Swansea, 2014-2016 (CC/S CC) Land use and land allocation maps of Swansea County Borough, c. 1950 Aerial photographs of Gower including grid reference sheet, 1992 Nature and Conservation Team: aerial photographs of the area around Tycroes, Garnswllt and Gwaun-cae-Gurwen, August 2003 (CC/S NC 1/1-19) Order of ceremony for the inauguration of Cllr. Philip Downing as Lord Mayor of Swansea, 26 May 2017 (CC/S CE 11/4) Order of service for Honorary Freedom of HMS Cambria, 17 Mar. 2018 (CC/S CE 12/3) Microfilm containing aerial and oblique views of Swansea and surrounding area (images appear to include a map reference), n.d.
Various planning reports relating to Swansea Enterprise Zone, and 1991 and 2001 census reports, 1980s-2003 (CC/S Pl/X 14-23) Plans showing the retail environment in towns in the City and County of Swansea and historic sites in the Lower Swansea Valley, 2014-2015 (CC/S E Dev 12/1-2) Design and Conservation Team: various design plans, photographs, reports and publications, 1980s-2000s (CC/S CT 1-7) Bundle of consultation documents relating to various planning projects in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot, 2010-2016 (SL CD 1-8)
Neath Port Talbot County Borough Neath town centre: detailed proposals and design response relating to Neath town centre retail-led mixed use development opportunity, submitted by Simons Development, 2007 (CB/NPT X 50) Bundle of consultation documents relating to various planning projects in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot, 2010-2016 (SL CD 1-8)
BOROUGHS Neath Borough Title deeds and agreements relating to Neath Market and Neath Town Hall and to the Gwyn Hall, 1835-1960 (B/N L 1/1-5, 2/1-2, 3/1-30) Various deeds relating to properties in the Borough of Neath, 1786-1968 (B/N L 4/1-22, 5/1) Deeds relating to properties in Neath, 1831-1895 (B/N L 5/2, 4-21)
CIVIL PARISH/COMMUNITY COUNCILS Llangennith, Llanmadoc and Cheriton Community Council: minutes, 2014-2015 (P/109/24) Llanrhidian Higher Community Council: minutes and agenda, 2017-2018 (P/111/45)
EDUCATION RECORDS Dynevor School: ‘The Dy'vorian’: The Journal of the former pupils of Dynevor School, 2017 (E/Dyn Sec X 2/8) Glan Afan Comprehensive School: admission registers; log books; inspection reports; plans; photographs; ephemera, 1931-2015 (E/GAC) Gowerton Primary School: Gowerton Infants School admission register, 1924-1951; Gowerton Junior School admission register, 1991-1995, 1924-1995 (E/W 11/2/6-7) Gwyrosydd and Treboeth Primary School: photographs, 1953-2000 (D/D Z 996/3-4)
Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Llwynderw: minutes, correspondence and newspaper cuttings relating to the school, 2002-2009 (CC/S DS 1/1-2) Neath Boys’ Grammar School: photographs of pupils, 1959 (E/N BG Sec 6/1) Oxford Street Secondary School: attendance registers, 1966-1967 (E/S 23/7/1-2) Swansea Grammar School/Bishop Gore School: school photographs, 1938-1972 (D/D Z 1035/1-4) Townhill School: mounted photograph of Townhill School Senior Boys Swimming Team, Season 1934-36 (D/D Z 1052/1) Ysgol Gynradd y Wern, Ystalyfera: log books, admission registers, inventory books and other school records, 20th century (E/W 43/1/6-7; 2/1-2; 3/1; 4/1-4; 5/1-5; 6/1; 7/1; 8/1-3) Various records compiled by Miss Lilian Lloyd of Swansea, relating to schools including photographs, reports, programmes and teachers' records, and including Dyfatty Infants' School and St Helen's Infants' School, 1932-1962 (D/D Z 1042/1/1-4/1)
ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH RECORDS Abercraf and Callwen: photographs, scrapbooks and ephemera relating to St David's Church Abercraf, 20th century(P/300/CW/74-79; P/301/CW/20; P/331/CW 140-174); Historical notes on Callwen Church; CD-ROM slide show of the history of St David’s Church, Abercraf, 1993-2017 (D/D Z 1038/1-2) Kilvey and Swansea St Thomas: registers, PCC minutes, churchwardens' accounts and inventories, 1891-2016 (P/308/CW/35-60 and P/326/CW/142-172) Llwynderw: PCC minutes, accounts, marriages, banns, service registers, Mothers' Union records and records relating to the establishment of Holy Cross Church, early 20th century-2016 (P/310/CW/43-88) Morriston Hospital Chaplaincy Department: baptism register, 1961-1987 (P/312/CW/114) Swansea St Barnabas: minutes, finances, annual reports, and photographs, 1994-2017 Benefice of Three Cliffs and Clyne Deanery: Gower Deanery minute books, copies of the Gower parish magazine, church guide books and other published material, mid-20th century-2015 (D/D RD 4-5; P/117/CW/142-145)
NONCONFORMIST AND ROMAN CATHOLIC RECORDS Baptist Bethany Baptist Church, West Cross: chapel history, 2017 (Searchroom library) Dinas Noddfa, Plasmarl: 'Hanes y Ddinas Noddfa' (Searchroom library) Manselton Welsh Baptist Church: 'How firm a foundation'. A history of the chapel and the first minister, Evan Hermas Evans, 1920-1937, 2018 (Searchroom library)
Memorial Baptist Church, Swansea: minutes, contributions registers, photographs, war memorial plaques and other records relating to the chapel, 1873-2017 (D/D Bap 22/37-77) Tabernacle, Cwmrhydyceirw: marriage register, 1982-2009, (D/D W/Bap 26/2) Undeb Bedyddwyr Cymru: copies of 'Y Negesydd/The Messenger' newsletter; annual reports, 2017 Calvinistic Methodist Salem (Capel-y-Cwm) Chapel, Bonymaen: exhibition photographs, 19th-20th century (D/D CM 13/98-108) Independent, Congregational and United Reformed Bethania Welsh Independent Church, Cwmafan: records, 20th Century Brynteg Independent Chapel, Gorseinon: 5 photographs (mostly unidentified) from the Gorseinon area of groups of people, probably connected with Brynteg Chapel Ebeneser Independent Chapel, Swansea: list of graves at Ebenezer, High Street, Swansea 18491853 and church minute book for Henrietta Street Chapel 1895-1952; also order of service for induction of a minister in Carmel, Hebron and Salem chapels, Clydach, 2000, photographs of ministers and members of the congregation, 19th-20th century; minutes, photographs, accounts, members' book and annual reports from Ebeneser Chapel, 19th-20th century (D/D Ind 33/458-544) Fabians Bay Congregational Church, Swansea: photographs of people connected with the church (names included with many of them), early 20th century (D/D Z 1039/1-6); marriage register, 19722013 (D/D E/Cong 13/1) Hill United Reformed Church, Swansea: minute books and trust deeds, 1980s-1990s (D/D E/Cong 10/20-22) Mynyddbach Chapel: tercentenary history (Searchroom library) Swansea Free Church Women's Council: the final records of the Women's Council, including 1 minute book, 2 account books, 1 scrapbook, 1 handmade collection bag, 1 rubber stamp, 19872011 (D/D FCWC 1/8; 3/3-3/6) Methodist Brunswick Methodist Church: circuit plan and directory, 1951 (D/D Wes CP 62) Methodist Circuits in the West Glamorgan area: circuit plans, 1941-1958 (D/D Wes/CP 55-61) Skewen Methodist Church: records including church histories, financial records, pulpit notices, minutes and ephemera, 20th-21st century (D/D Wes/N 10/19-36)
Roman Catholic The Cathedral Church of St Joseph: marriage registers, 2011-2016 (D/D RCC 2/2/1-2)
LEGAL, ESTATE AND FAMILY RECORDS Deeds for properties relating to the Pegler family in Swansea and Llangyfelach parishes, 18381893; deeds and leases regarding the Eaton family and Fairy Grove Farm, Swansea, c. 18011942; copy lease of lands in Swansea, 1831; deeds relating to lands in Llanrhidian, 1773, 17731942 Compulsory purchase document relating to premises in Llangyfelach Road, Swansea, 1902 (D/D Z 1030/1-2) Jones family of Garth, Pontardawe: correspondence; records relating to Cwmllynfell Tip; records relating to the Garth Estate; records relating to the Pendrill family, 19th-20th century; receipts, correspondence, photographs, maps, deeds, ephemera, wills; Rugby trials cap for Wales, 18th-20th century Bundle of pre-registration title deeds relating to properties in Pontardawe, Clydach and Trebanos; Papers relating to Llwyndu Colliery Company Limited, Mynydd Newydd Colliery Company Limited, and The Daren Colliery Company Limited; photograph of P. Griffiths of Alltwen, 1920-1996 (D/D An 25/1-19) Briton Ferry Estate: rental receipt books for Briton Ferry Estate properties in the parish of Michaelston, 1949-1950 (D/D BF 2241-2242) Aberpergwm Estate: records relating to the estate and the Williams family, including colliery records, estate accounts and correspondence, plans of the estate and Aberpergwm House, personal correspondence, notebooks and accounts of members of the Williams family, and paintings of and from the house, 18th-20th century; additional correspondence and watercolour paintings relating to the Aberpergwm Estate, 19th century CD-ROM containing facsimile documents relating to the Williams family of Maes-y-gwernen, Morriston, 2017 (D/D Z 1037/1) Collection of slides; deeds relating to Vrondeg and Belgrave Villa Belgrave Road, Loughor; various probate; various deeds; Land Authority for Wales documents relating to land in West Cross, 1900s-1980s (D/D Z 938/6/4-5; D/D Z 938/5/6-7, 9-13; D/D Z 938/7/1-121) Deeds relating to a property in Bishopston, 1856-1944 (D/D An 26/1) Deed relating to premises in Cwmafan, with transcript, 1864 (D/D Z 1040/1-2) Will of George Nancarrow, Letters of Administration for Nanny Elizabeth Nancarrow and Henry Tregoning Nancarrow, 1878-1882 (D/D An 28/1-3) Underlease of minerals in the parish of Glyncorrwg, 10 Aug. 1880 (D/D Z 1047/1) Llewellyn family records: letters between family members living at Baglan Hall and Cwrt Colman, 19th-20th century Small bundle of deeds relating to places in the Borough of Loughor, 1883-1933 Family papers of Gwen Thomas of Cwmafan, and her father William Rees: correspondence, poetry, family records and ephemera relating to the family and to the Cwmafan area, early-mid 20th century
BUSINESS, MARITIME AND INDUSTRIAL RECORDS Chart of Swansea Bay showing coastline and depth soundings, 1949 (D/D Z 1054/1) Documents from the estate of the late Dr C. W. Roberts (Briton Ferry Ironworks and Albion Steelworks), 19th-20th century Swansea Chamber of Commerce: minute book, 1925-1932 (D/D CC 1/1) Papers relating to Swansea Main Drainage Scheme. Mr W. G. Woolcock of Thistleboon, Mumbles was the engineer involved (father of depositor), 1936 (D/D Z 1049/1-3) Booklet entitled Reinforced concrete; 2 photographs of a group of workmen (concrete workers?); letters and testimonials to James Albert Horne who worked on the construction of the Lifeboat Station, 20th century (D/D Z 1046/1-5) 'Maritime Wales in the Middle Ages: 1039-1542' by Ken Lloyd Gruffydd, 2016 (Searchroom library) Map of Felin Fran Colliery workings, n.d. (D/D Z 1036/1-2) Maps showing the location of town-centre businesses and shops in Port Talbot in the period 19401960, 2015 (D/D Z 645/2a-b) Various Welsh coal contracts and correspondence, 1920s-1930s (D/D Z 1031/1) Day book of fisheries inspector Ken Huting checking cockle catches in the Burry Estuary, 1970 (D/D Z 1028/1) Two miner's compensation claim books, 1938 Book entitled ‘The Rise and Fall of the Penclawdd Canal and Railway or Tramroad Company 1811-1865’, 2018 David Evans department store, Swansea: staff magazine, 1961 (D/D Z 1033/1) Records relating to W.B. Trick, son & Lloyd, travel agents, estate agents and auctioneers of Neath; Briton Ferry Boys at the Front invitation to Ralph Diver to attend a Christmas Party; ‘Works and Wonders of the World’ booklet; two medallions, 1913-1952 (D/D Z 939/17-22)
WOMEN’S ARCHIVE OF WALES Merched y Wawr, Treboeth: members’ book; accounts and receipts, 1970-2013 (WAW 40) Papers of Edna Mair Thompson, 1932-1994 Ursula Masson collection: local history class walk, n.d, c. 1990s Box of papers and documents relating to Joanne Greenlaw, 1920s-1990s
SOCIETIES, ASSOCIATIONS AND THE ARTS British Federation of Women Graduates Swansea: papers and correspondence relating to the Swansea Branch of the British Federation of Women Graduates, 1970s-1980s (D/D BFWG 2/3-6; 4/1); minutes, agendas, correspondence, records relating to local events, and newsletters, 20th century (D/D BFWG 2/7-8; 4/2-12; 5/1-4; 6/1-4); obituary of a member, Marjorie Vanston, 2017 (D/D BFWG 7/1) Gower Festival: financial files, 2012-2015 Gower Society: newsletter and annual accounts, 2016-2017; newsletter and programme, 2017; Gower Society Newsletter Autumn, 2016 and Spring 2017; programmes, 2017; leaflets; press cutting; Gower Show catalogue, 2016; photographs and slides; miscellaneous items, c. 2016-2017 (D 56) Pennard Parish Hall: minutes, 1910-2012; sundry papers, 1950, 1910-2012 (D/D PH 1/1-2/1) Pennard Women's Institute: photographic scrapbook and album, 2013-2016 (D/D Xno 29/46-47) Skewen and District Historical Society: minutes and 20th anniversary brochure, 2016-2018 (D/D SHS) Soroptimist International Swansea: minutes, 2002-2011, and albums of photographs and memorabilia, 1933-2010, 1933-2011 (D/D SIS 3/1 onwards) South West Wales Industrial Archaeology Society: records relating to an archaeological dig of Scott's Pit, Llansamlet, including plans and photographs, 1970s (D/D IAS 3/1/1-3/6/9) Swansea Freemasons, Tuscan Lodge 7267: minutes of lodge meetings, signature books, declaration book, LOI minute book, committee minute book and documents relating to the history of the lodge, 1953-2003 (D/D FM/S 83-94) Ossie Morris, comedian: papers including scripts, correspondence, joke book and photographs, 20th century(D/D Z 1027) Scrapbook belonging to Gladys Robinson, actress. Many of the programmes, photographs and press cuttings relate to the Grand Theatre, Swansea, 1943-2000 (D/D Z 1034/1) Four exercise books, three containing handwritten plays and one with newspaper cuttings on the history of Glamorgan, c. 1900-1921 (D/D Z 1043/1-2) Programmes for performances at Swansea Empire Theatre, National Foreign Plays Committee and Swansea Grand Theatre, 1900-1936 (D/D Z 1032/1-39) Maurice Broady Collection: notes of interviews made in preparation for a history of Celtic Studios, Swansea (closed until 2032), 1991-1992; notes on Gower churches and their stained glass, 1990s; slides of stained glass windows produced by Celtic Studios, 1990s
FIRST AND SECOND WORLD WARS Documents relating to Neath Home Guard and particularly to Charles Leslie Thomas, and certificate from the Humane Society issued to Lewis Cobden Thomas, 1887-1946 (D/D Z 1044/17)
Telegram dated 8 August 1940 regarding an air raid on Neath; newspaper cutting, 1992, photograph, 1940-1992 (D/D Z 80/301/2-6)
LIBRARY AND MUSEUM RECORDS Swansea Reference Library: pamphlets and booklets mainly relating to education; Glamorgan County Magazines, 20th century(SL 63)
PERSONAL PAPERS Autobiography of W. D. Williams, born in Alltwen in 1848; diary of W. D. Williams, 1884; picture of W. D. Williams, 1880s originals (D/D Z 1023/1) ‘The Peregrine Falcon’: a compilation of genealogical information regarding the Peregrine families in Swansea and Carmarthen, 1977 (D/D Z 1026/1) Clive Reed Collection: further papers of Clive Reed, 1800-2004 ‘Stories from the Street’ CD; ‘Towards 1994: The Canal Society’ video; George E Williams grocer reciepts; copy share certificate for the Briton Ferry Chemical and Manure Company; photograph and newspaper cutting relating to the death of Lawrence Dalling, 1989, 1874-1994; framed photograph of Hopgood family 75th wedding anniversary; plans for refurbishment of Pontardawe Arts Centre, 1993; photographs of Pontardawe Town Councillors; miscellaneous records, 1956-1993 (D/D Z 80) Order of service for the funeral of Royston Harold Kneath, 5 September 2017 (D/D Z 168/13) Papers of Jack Thompson: draft scehedule for planning and development of the central town area (Swansea); leaflet re Oakleigh House Schools; photos of the Picture House, Swansea; Manselfield Estate catalogue; Vivian Estate, Bishopton (for sale), 1910s-1980s Typescript autobiography of Margaret Edmund (1881-1950) entitled ‘From Cambria to the Golden City’, c. 1950 (D/D Z 1041/1-2) Records relating John Thomas and John Wendell Rhys Thomas of Gorseinon, 20th century (D/D Z 1053/1-5) Papers of Gerald McCormack, 20th century
NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS South Wales Evening Post: bundle of team photographs mainly relating to Swansea Schools' Association League players and managers. Also three photographs of Swansea Schools' Cricket teams, 1940s-1960s (SWEP X 1-12) Newspaper cuttings, photographs, letters and notes used for research in articles written for the South Wales Evening Post, 20th century (D/D Z 738/12/1-37)
SOUND, FILM AND DVD Friends of Hafod Morfa Copper Works: oral history recordings relating to the copper industry in Swansea, 2016-2017 (T 42/1-4)
Recording of an interview with Dr John Alban, former Swansea City Archivist, about the development of Swansea City Archives, 3 Dec. 2017 (T 43/1) University of the Third Age, Swansea Branch: oral history interview by and of four members of the U3A, made in the searchroom at West Glamorgan Archives, 4 Oct. 2017 (T 44/1) Peter Hall film collection: footage of full guided tour of the birthplace of Dylan Thomas, 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Uplands; interview with Jesse Selengut, jazz musician from New York, 2017; film of an interview with Father Tim Ardouin, vicar of the parish of Llanrhidian with Llanyrnewydd, Gower, 2017; films showing aircraft at Fairwood Airport, and a collection of 13 short films about villages and historic locations in Gower, 2017; film about the castles of Gower, 2006; film entitled 'The Haunts of Dylan Thomas', 2004-2012; DVD containing short films relating to the Swansea Bay 1940s Museum (used on their QR code displays), 2018 (D/D Z 717) J Mansel Thomas tape collection: two cassette tapes - George Tucker on Gower dialect and a selection of extracts from the other recordings by J. Mansel Thomas, n.d, 1970s (T 3/37-38) Swansea Tape Recording Society: CDs containing recordings and oral history interviews relating mostly to Mumbles, 1962-1963
PICTORIAL AND MAPS Arthur Rees Collection: photographic slides and negatives relating to the history of Port Talbot and the surrounding area, 20th Century Slides of various locations in the Swansea area, 20th century (D/D Z 1025/1-13) Scanned photographs of Ernest Alex Woodward and his wife Henrietta and daughter Irene, c. 1916 (D/D Z 1029/1) DVDs containing aerial photographs of Gower, c. 2007 (CC/S G 1/1-6) Photographs of Killay House, 1999 (P/PR 45/9/1-12) Photograph of Norton House, West Cross, and a cartoon of Amy Dillwyn, c.1852-1904 (D/D Z 938/3/19-20) Aerial views of Felindre Works and Swansea Enterprise Park, 1990s Slides of various local places and personalities (D/D Z 938/5/1-5, 8, 14) Postcard views of Swansea and Neath, 1910s Photographs of Swansea, c. 1975; set of Swansea Museum reproduction prints, c. 1980, 1970s1980s 3 postcards of New Slip Bridge, Pentre-Mawr Road and South Dock, Swansea, 1915-1918 A card-backed print of a space-shuttle take off presented to City & County of Swansea; two folders of photographs including Dylan Thomas, Wenallt Coal, etc, c. 1900s-2003 A box of glass negatives showing scenes of Aberavon, 1890s (D/D Z 1045)
Painting of proposed redevelopment of Castle Square, Swansea, mid-20th century Colour slides and a CD of photographs of the Lower Swansea Valley, 1975 (D/D Z 1050/1-2) Photographs of Sketty Hall, 1950s British Iron and Steel Research Association, photographs of the staff, hall and plant, 1950s Two glass slides: Reynoldston Green and Manselton Road, 19th century Various prints, most relating to the Neath area, some also of Swansea and Briton Ferry, 18631980 (PIC 15/1-10; D/D Z 165/32-33)
LOCAL HISTORY AND MISCELLANEA Printed book: 'John Petherick (1787-1861)', by Donald Moore and Hilary Thomas, 2018 (Searchroom library) Butcher & Co.'s Directory (trade directory including Swansea), 1875-1876 (Searchroom library) Souvenir brochure of Swansea, 1922 (Searchroom library) ‘Hanes Soloam Brynaman’ by Marian Henry Jones and ‘O Amgylch Bro'r Glowr Dyddiau Gynt’ by William John Evans (Searchroom library) Booklet celebrating the conferment of an honorary degree of Swansea University on Hillary Rodham Clinton, and script for the bid for City of Culture 2021, 2017 (D/D Z 168/14-15) Copy of ‘John Humphrey: God's own architect’ by David Farmer; and a Bible with family history notes in front, 1930s-1997 Bundle of programmes and menu cards for various events mainly associated with the Tonmawr and Pelenna area, 20th century(D/D Z 709/17-20) Various programmes: Burma Star Association 1996-2008; Programmes for College Service and Swansea Festival of Music, 1950s; British Federation of University Women, 1970s; British Association of the Advancement of Science, 1970s; Llandeilo Talybont Old Church; newspapers, 1990s; records relating to St Mary's Church, Swansea, 1950s-2000s Swansea local plans 1980s-2000s; plan of Fairwood Common showing wartime structures; photograph of Pen-y-waun Farm, Llangyfelach, 1968, 1940s-2003 File regarding the safety of deaf swimmers in Swansea and Aberafan Leisure Centres, 1998-2008 (D/D Z 685/2)
Gwasanaeth Archifau Gorllewin Morgannwg Mae Gwasanaeth Archifau Gorllewin Morgannwg yn casglu dogfennau, mapiau, ffotograffau, recordiadau ffilm a sain sy'n ymwneud â phob agwedd ar hanes Gorllewin Morgannwg.Mae’n wasanaeth ar y cyd ar gyfer Cynghorau Dinas a Sir Abertawe a Bwrdeistref Sirol Castell-nedd Port Talbot. Ein cenhadaeth yw cadw a datblygu ein casgliadau o archifau, diogelu ein treftadaeth ddogfennol a chaniatáu ymchwil er mwyn datblygu ein casgliad. Rydym yn ymroddedig i ddarparu gwybodaeth a’r cyfle i gyflwyno’r archifau i bawb.
Gwasanaeth Archifau Gorllewin Morgannwg Canolfan Ddinesig Heol Ystumllwynarth Back cover: Abertawe Swansea’s first female jurors, c.1910 SA1 3SN Women’s Archive of Wales: Ursula Masson Collection (WAW 4/15) 01792 636589 westglam.archives@swansea.gov.uk
@westglamarchive
www.abertawe.gov.uk/westglamorganarchives
A joint service for the Councils of the City and County of Swansea and Neath Port Talbot County Borough and Neath Port Talbot County Borough Gwasanaeth ar y cyd ar gyfer Cynghorau Dinas a Sir Abertawe a Bwrdeistref Sirol Castell-nedd Port Talbot