PETER RICKETTS MBE – REMINISCENCES of YOUTH & CANAL RESTORATION.
Family:
The Ricketts’ family life in Cwmgwrach was of short duration, only 30 years in the history of the village.
I am Peter Ricketts born in Church Crescent, Blaengwrach in January 1933 and spent my youth living at The Lodge to Ynyslas in Church Crescent, leaving the village in 1958 to serve my National Service in the RAF, not returning following my demobilisation in 1960, initially moving to Port Talbot to continue my employment with the South Wales Electricity Board.
My brother Barrie was born in August 1936 in The Lodge, Church Crescent and lived there until 1954, leaving the village to attend Southampton University to study electrical engineering. Less than one year at Southampton he decided engineering was not for him and abandoned his studies there. He was then called up for his National Service in 1957, serving in the Royal Navy as librarian in the naval base of Valetta in Malta, and demobbed on medical grounds (rheumatic fever) in 1957. He chose then to study economics at Bristol University and after gaining his degree became a statistician with London Transport. He bought a large house in Leinster Square, London and converted it into four self contained flats living in one himself.
While working at London Transport he became involved in the private coaching of students about to sit their exams and enjoyed the experience of teaching so much he studied, in his own time, for a degree in physics and became a full time lecturer in physics at the Barbican branch of London University. At this time he decided to move out of London and bought a house in Ashford, Kent. He finally progressed to be head of the physics department at the Barbican. On his retirement he moved house to Winchester, overlooking the cathedral, living there until his death in 2009.
My father David Evans Ricketts was born in North Wales in 1892 and at an early age following the death of his father in a quarry accident was taken in care by an aunt, Gwenllian Morris, living in Mountain Ash, who later moved to Cwmgwrach and became Post Lady of the village. My father’s first job in Cwmgwrach was as a general labourer at the Empire Colliery, gradually through his union activity and self education becoming check weigher at the colliery, progressing to a company clerk at the “Bottom Office,” located at the bottom of Empire Avenue, then being promoted to head clerk at the Ynyslas office.
My mother, Alice Mabel Jones, came from Great Malvern, meeting my father at her mother’s guest house where he was staying on holiday in company with his friend Wm Rees and family of Cwmgwrach. My father and mother were married in the Wesleyan Church, Malvern and set up home in Cwmgwrach, my father’s home village, living in rooms at his friend Wm Rees’ house in Church Crescent, where I was born in 1933. We moved shortly afterwards to The Lodge in Church Crescent, the former gatehouse to Ynyslas, at this time both properties were in the ownership of the C&E Colliery Co. with Ynyslas being their main colliery office.
Ynys Las Lodge:
The original site of the Lodge to Ynyslas, the former hunting lodge of Lord Dunraven, was approx 100metres west of its present location and demolished to make way for the building of the Empire Colliery railway sidings, sited alongside the VoN Railway and the rerouting of Bridge Street, the only access road into Cwmgwrach, to the new rock cutting alongside the sidings. A new Lodge of almost identical layout and appearance to the original was built in Church Crescent with a large single gate across the drive to Ynyslas. Part of the original Lodge garden remained, located between the drive to Ynyslas and the steps down to Bridge Street, and bounded by an overgrown hawthorn hedge, apple and pear trees and large gooseberry bushes, which were still in situ until the new road to transport opencast coal from Cwm-rhyd-y-cae was built over Ynyslas drive.
One of my earliest memories at the age of 4-5 years of living in The Lodge is of being knocked down by a car driven by Mr Wm Rees, Empire Colliery manager, at the entrance of the drive to Ynyslas. Luckily for me the car was going very slowly having just turned into the Ynyslas drive from Church Crescent, I only suffered minor cuts and bruising.
I also have memories of standing with my mother and brother Barrie on the canal lock side at Chain Road to watch the Royal motorcade of King George V1 and Queen Mary as they travelled to Neath and Swansea on their tour of Wales following the coronation of King George in 1937. The Royal train was unable to travel the Vale of Neath line as the locomotive, a king class, was too large and heavy for the line. The King and Queen waved to the people of Cwmgwrach from their open back Rolls Royce.
Aberpergwm Powerhouse:
I have mid 1930’s memories of looking from my bedroom window in The Lodge across the river to the Aberpergwm colliery powerhouse all lit up at night . The powerhouse, situated adjacent to the Aberpergwm branch railway and Chain Road on the Aberpergwm bank of the river, had two main buildings. Viewed from the river, the building on the right was the boiler house with an older boiler house and a small stone chimney. behind. The generator turbine steam condensers were also at its rear.
A steel stack towered between the boiler house and the left hand building, which was the turbine and switchgear building, later to become the compressor house. Below the base of the stack was a large square opening leading to the steam boiler grate with a large tram visible in the opening and one could see the spent hot ash cinders falling from the boiler grate into the tram. The tram was drawn out by horse regularly and the spent cinders emptied behind the powerhouse to be taken away by rail.
During the steam era, depending on the fluctuating load on the electricity generator, any excess steam generated was vented out into the river in a cloud of steam and a roar..
In the morning, early afternoon and late evening the steam hooter, mounted on the boiler house, sounded at 6,00am as an alarm call then half hourly unlit 7.00am which marked the start of the colliery day shift, it sounded again at 11.00am and 11.20am for the morning break. The 2.30pm blast sounded the end of the morning shift and start of the afternoon shift and again at 10.00pm at the end of the afternoon shift.
The steam hooter was also used as the initial air raid warning for a short period following the outbreak of the war in 1939 until replaced by a standard air raid siren. The siren permanently replaced the colliery steam hooter when steam power generation of electricity generation was phased out.
Cooling water for the generator’s steam condensers and boiler water was fed via a pipe from a weir across the River Neath on the Lamb & Flag side of Chain Road and piped underground to the condensers. The cooling water system was retained for cooling the air compressors on the conversion from electricity to compressed air working of underground colliery equipment. The weir and its metal stone guard provided an ideal platform for fishing off for eels and trout by local lads.
Electricity for the driving the compressors and surface machinery at Aberpergwm, along with the transmission of a 11,000 volt supply by overhead lines from Aberpergwm to Rhigos Colliery and Glyncorrwg Colliery was then supplied by the South Wales Electricity Power Co’s substation at the rear of the compressor house, following nationalisation of the electricity industry by the South Wales Electricity Board.
An unfortunate accident:
A tragic accident happened one Sunday afternoon {1940/41} when a group of boys from the Lamb & Flag climbed the steel electricity “H”pole, located behind the Ynyslas stables, of the 11,000volt overhead line to Rhigos Colliery. One of the boys reached the top of the pole and touched a live conductor and was electrocuted and burned. Barrie, my father and I, while playing in the Lodge garden, heard a loud bang and saw a flash from the area of the Ynyslas stables. My father ran up to investigate, saw the electrocuted boy at the top of the pole, realised the overhead line was still alive, telephoned the South Wales Electric Power Co. at Upper Boat Power Station from Ynyslas office informing them of the incident. Later a group of linesmen arrived, removed the body and following site investigation carried out repairs.
The Ynyslas stables were situated approx 200 metres north east of Ynyslas house, consisting of a coach house and a few small terraced servants cottages. In the 1940’s the intact coach house was used to garage the Empire Colliery ambulance, driven and maintained by Charlie Caswell, but the cottages were totally derelict. A garden, enclosed by a dwarf stone wall with an earth bank topped with hawthorn was located alongside the terraced cottages.
In the 1950’s Ynyslas house, stables and some surrounding land was bought by Tal Williams of Ynysgron farm, who started the demolition of Ynyslas, selling fittings, doors and internal woodwork etc. as building salvage. The house was totally demolished later and Tal built a prefabricated bungalow on the old tennis court located in front of Ynyslas, moving into the bungalow on completion . Tal set up a coal business on the stable site on what used to be the stable yard
Helping out on the farms:
I spent a considerable time in my pre school days at Ynysgron Farm. The farmer there was John Thomas who I always knew as Uncle John and his wife I called Boba Thomas, they had two daughters Vera and Doris. My father would take me up to the farm on his way to work at Ynyslas and pick me at the end of his working day. On Saturdays I would travel with the Thomas family to Neath cattle market by train, Uncle John’s day out and Bopa shopping day. We would all meet for lunch at the Welsh Produce cafe for a lunch of brawn and chips, a real treat.
When Uncle John died in the early 1940’s the family moved out of Ynysgron farm to Heol-y-felin in the village, Later I went on Saturdays to Blaen Clairch Farm, helping on the farm with herding of the cows for milking and turning the butter churn. The farm had been run by Ned Heal and his daughter Hanna who following the death of her father married Mr Watts who was the Empire Colliery mechanical engineer. One job I always enjoyed at the farm was the trip down to the Empire mine to borrow Bess, a large surface working horse and the bareback ride back and fore to the farm. The farm house always fascinated me as the rooms were very large, the front room was full of antique furniture and much silverware.
Mrs.Hanna Watts was a fearsome person. When the Electricity Board were carrying out the reorganisation of the electricity supply to the village, it required the building of a new 11,000volt overhead line across Blaen Clairch farmland. Mrs Watts refused access by the Electricity Board to her farm for the survey and construction of the overhead line. To gain access to build the line, vital for electricity supply to Cwmgwrach, the Board obtained a compulsory access order to enter her property to survey and buildbuild the overhead line.
When the construction team attempted to gain access, Hanna Watts threatened any trespass with a shot gun. I was at this time carrying out part of my apprenticeship in the Way-leave department at Forestfach and the way-leave officer on site, knowing of my connection with Cwmgwrach and Hanna Watts, sent a panic message for me to proceed to Cwmgwrach to attempt conversation with Mrs. Watts in an effort to calm the station. Fortunately when I arrived at Blaen Clairch things had calmed down with many people thronging about including a squad of police. Work was allowed to progress with no further interruptions.
Church Crescent development:
In my youth, housing in Church Crescent ended opposite the end of the church grave yard at the then start of Parish Road. Three new blocks of council houses were built, extending Church Crescent by two blocks of semi detached and one detached residence. The Evans family moved into the first of the semis and James family into the adjoining semi, the detached house was specially built for the large Collins family, the Pritchard family moved into the semi of the second block of semi’s with the Jenkins family into the adjoining semi. Council houses were also built at the top of Empire Ave with gardens back to back with those in Church Crescent.
Memories of World War 2:
When the WW2 was declared on Sunday morning the 1st. September 1939 our family were on our summer holiday in Malvern, I remember listening with family to the declaration of war on the radio, it caused some concern resulting in us catching the first train home on the Monday morning. On crossing the Crumlyn Viaduct the train travelled slowly and through the open carriage window I saw helmeted soldiers on the viaduct with fixed bayonets standing guard.
Then came the war preparations, issue and fitting of gas masks in the hall of the “Big School,” the building of a blast wall across the windows of classrooms of the “Big School” overlooking the infants school and other defensive structures. The time when children and some adults gathered outside the school to witness the arrival of refugee children with their bags and cases for allocation to the families who had volunteered to accept them into their homes. We as children were fascinated with their funny way of speaking, we soon became familiar with their accent and became good friends.
Then came the building of an air raid shelter under the Empire Colliery tramway at the bottom of Empire Ave, probably for colliery employees, a very dark, damp and dismal experience inside.
Large square blocks of concrete were placed at strategic locations at Chain Road and on the old A465. On a Sunday the Home Guard would man the blocks and with a wooden barrier across the A465 stop cars travelling along the road and a demand to see the occupants’ identity cards. It was a regular pastime for us local boys to watch this exercise of the Home Guard and to see the frustration of the drivers being held up in the traffic halt.
During air raid warnings, some false, we initially sheltered under the stairs and I remember my father looking out of our lounge window down the valley during a raid on Swansea and seeing the glow, remarked “Swansea are having it bad tonight.” It was the raid when the oil storage tanks in Jersey Marine were hit by incendiaries, the smell of burning oil caused some nose and throat irritation in the valley for days.
Following the raid, in a radio broadcast by Lord Haw Haw on German propaganda radio, he stated that:
“Rheola Aluminium Works was a target”.
Lord Haw Haw
and as we were living opposite the Aberpergwm Power House which local people thought possibly could be another target, it was considered that Ynyslas, my father’s office, was a safer refuge during an air raid. We could make the short trip to Ynyslas and shelter in the previous servant’s quarters, now the living quarters of the caretakers, located underground. The first few air raid siren soundings resulted in us getting out of bed at The Lodge and walking up the drive in the cold and dark to Ynyslas.
The caretaker of Ynyslas, Mr Godsall, a friend of my father suggested we spend each night at Ynyslas and sleep in one of the spare bedrooms and shelter downstairs in their underground living quarters during any raids. This situation prevailed until air raid warnings became very intermittent and we abandoned sleeping at Ynyslas and returned home to an almost normal life.
The only bombs to fall in the area were two bombs jettisoned from a German aircraft fleeing pursuit, the bombs failed to explode on impact at the foot of Graig-y-llyn in the boggy ground behind the old Coedcae colliery. I have some memory of an army bomb disposal squad turning up to defuse them. On the way home from school some days later there were two loud thumps heard, the bombs had been safely detonated.
When the Home Guard was formed my father was Quarter Master Sergeant in charge of supplies and when the first delivery of boxed rifles came, they were delivered to Ynyslas, the local Home Guard’s main office. I, my brother Barrie, Jean Godsall and a number of locals helped in the unscrewing of the lids of the boxes of rifles and removing them. The rifles had been wrapped in thick greasy brown paper and smothered in a brown grease since the end of the first World War. Our job was to clean off the surface grease and pass them to Home Guard members for their final clean and inspection.
One day an army lorry with some soldiers of the Pioneer Co aboard arrived in Church Crescent and started digging, they were the advance party involved in the building of a pill box. On completion of construction of the concrete pill box a corrugated iron shed was built over the pill box to totally camouflage it. Removable sections of corrugated iron sheeting covered the gun apertures which were easily removable if or when required. The entrance was via a flimsy wooden door which gave access to us local children, but not on Sundays when the Home Guards used it in their exercises along with a water cooled Browning machine gun mounted in front of the Empire Coll’y carpenters shop in Church Cres’.
An identical pill box was built on the refuse tip on Parish Road overlooking Ynyslas, this pillbox was securely locked and used to store bullets and molotov cocktails. (a glass bottle, filled with liquid which when thrown, broke and burst into flame)
Other wartime memories include the rush to Tom Hopkins’ chemist shop when word spread that he had taken delivery in his shop next door to the Johns’ fish & chip shop of a stock of sweet “spanish root,” a liquorish flavour woody root, which did not require sweet coupons, a good alternative to sweets which did.
Many of my other war memories were about aeroplanes. The first was of hearing and seeing an Avro Anson flying very low up the Neath Valley at breakfast time. We learned later it was in trouble and had crashed near Ystradfellte, the crew safely bailed out. I paid a visit to the site with my father and we took a small piece of aluminium from the aircraft.
Another memory was seeing a barrage balloon drifting up the left side of the valley, several people were out watching it when a Hurricane fighter appeared and flew around it, eventually shooting it down “rat-rat-tat” over the Rheola — Pentreclwyda area of the Rheola forest. It was necessary to ground the balloon to prevent possible damage from its trailing cables.
A sadder incident was of while playing around Pond Patch we heard an aeroplane flying low over the area. It was a low cloud overcast day and the plane seemed to be flying quite low in the clouds when suddenly there was complete silence, It was only later in the day we learned that Len Collins’ father, as part of a search party, had located a plane that had crashed a few hundred yards west of the peak of Graig y Llyn and that it was a Spitfire. The pilot was killed. We decided when the weather improved to investigate, but on arrival near the site of the crash we were turned away by officious looking men.
On our later visits to Graig y Llyn, picking wind berries, we would climb up to the crashed Spitfire and sit on the starboard {right} wing to eat our picnic sandwiches. The cockpit, engine and most of the fuselage was totally smashed and embedded in the peat with the tail and wings intact above ground.
Toward the end of the war in 1944, one night my mother woke up my brother and I to witness the almost continual droning of aircraft passing overhead, I remember my mother remarking “there’s something big going on tonight with that many aeroplanes.” The following day, the 6th June 1944, we learned of D.Day. The aircraft of the night before were bombers from South Wales and the Midlands area flying over South Wales and the west of England on their way to assist in the D. Day landings. There had been hundreds of aircraft flying that night.
In 1941 my father passed away leaving me aged 7 and Barrie aged 4. To ease circumstances my mother took the job of cook at the newly opened British Restaurant in Edward St, Glynneath. Barrie and I spent some time at the restaurant during Saturdays and school holidays and were given little odd jobs to keep us out of trouble, sweeping up outside the restaurant and washing vegetables.
After the war, following the closure of the British Restaurant, my mother then became cook in the canteen of the Rheola Aluminium Works followed by a spell as cook in the Aberpergwm Colliery canteen. Finally she became cook manageress of the Empire Colliery canteen and became well known for her bread pudding and various pastries.
It was a busy time outside the pithead baths and canteen between 2.00 and 3.00pm with colliers on morning and afternoon shifts congregating outside. Some of the colliers arriving while others boarding the Aberdare U.D.C. buses used to bring men from the Aberdare, Hirwaun area.
One incident regarding my mother’s puddings was when David Thomas, who lived with his grandmother, Gweny Morris, went swimming in Pond Patch and got into difficulties. After rescue his rescuers used an indelible pencil and wrote on his chest,
“I promise not to eat Mrs Ricketts’
bread pudding before swimming again.”
He got into very hot water when he got home as swimming in Pond Patch was forbidden by his grandmother.
Retiring in 1963 my mother moved to Southampton where she spent a very happy retirement.
Land Girls and Forest Fires:
Later in 1942, two Land Girls, Gwen and, Mary, were billeted with us. They worked in the Rheola Forest between Glynneath and Ynysygerwn, felling fully grown trees for the war effort and replanting new areas with saplings. Another of the tasks performed was the maintenance of the fire breaks which run through the forest to help control the spread of fire. This method of fire control proved ineffective in a later fire that raged through the forest requiring huge effort by staff and fire service to bring it under control.
Len Collins and I were sitting on some tree stumps alongside the lane between Ynyslas and Ynysgron farm when we noticed across the valley, a bonfire in a field behind houses in Maesmarchog, close to the start of the Rheola forest. At the time we though nothing of it, except to remark it was near the forest trees. We wandered off for some time and later when returning back along the lane noticed there was some activity at the fire, much larger now, and again thought nothing of it. Later that evening the fire had taken hold in the forest and serious attempts were being made to control it.
By the following day the fire had spread and become an inferno.
The land girls Mary and Gwen, billeted with us, were involved in various duties associated with the fire and kept us informed of events. Concern was being expressed, what if German reconnaissance or bomber aircraft were to come over the area, the fire would guide then to targets like Rheola and Swansea. After huge efforts by firefighters, who had been recruited from outside the local area to assist in fighting the fire it was finally extinguished after three days when it had reached the forest opposite Melincourt
The Land Girls during their normal duties were involved with Mr Smith, the head forester, in developing a system of aerial ropeways to extract felled trees. The system they developed was so successful it was adopted throughout the Forestry Commission in South Wales.
One of the land girls, Gwen, lived in Brynmill, Swansea and usually travelled home on weekends, often I would travel home with her and spend explorative weekends in Swansea.
Gwen’s father was an engine driver with the GWR in Swansea. He periodically drove a coal train up the Vale of Neath line, then on to Pontypool and the Midlands. His train would stop with his engine opposite The Lodge at the start of the Glynneath Bank to await the banking engine to help take the train up the Glynneath Bank, he always gave us a special signal on his engines’ whistle to attract our attention.
The banking engine was housed alongside the engine shed at Glynneath Station, watered and steamed up always ready to assist with travel of heavy loads up the Glynneath Bank. Above the engine shed was a large water tank fed from two sources, both from man made ponds. One on the Parish Road near the entrance to the ash tip the other from a small concrete dam on the brook alongside the Ynyslas stables. Two men from the GWR walked up from the station to the two pond locations on a regular basis to clean out stone and mud from around the extraction filters.
Schooling and Railway station fire:
In 1944 Terry Edwards and I passed our matriculation exam for Neath Intermediate School (N.I.S) for boys (some referred to it as Grammar School) and we travelled to Neath each day on the ‘school’ train, along with a number of girls going to the N.I.S. for girls and a number boys to Neath Technical College. It was at this time that I lost my daily connections with Cwmgwrach as a result of leaving for Neath school at 8.30am and not returning home until 5.00pm and having homework to do each evening.
One morning arriving at the station we saw smoke coming from the roof at the rear of the railway station above the outside gent’s toilet. There was some activity by the staff of throwing buckets of water over the roof, our train came and off we went to school. On our return we were met with a burnt out station waiting room, ticket office and damaged goods office. We learned the next day that an engine standing at the rear of the station in the Empire colliery screens sidings, emitted red hot cinders onto the station roof, setting fire to the building’s eaves.
The station master’s office was converted to the ticket office and a temporary passenger shelter erected on the platform. The station office transferred to the up platform waiting room. It took some time for new passenger and staff accommodation to be built to replace the fire damaged buildings.
Tennis:
While at Neath Intermediate School I became interested in lawn tennis along with Jeff Jones, Byron Jones and Clive Phillips. Jeff and I spent most of our spare time cycling up to the Glynneath Welfare tennis courts, the only tennis courts available locally.
Cwmgwrach had two tennis courts which had fallen into disuse, the ash courts were weed ridden and the nets had rotted away but the lead line court markings still remained. We made a start to clear one of the courts of weeds and used a rope across the court instead of the net to enable us to practice our tennis. The local council became aware, through our efforts, of the need for some local recreational activity following our efforts to make the courts playable and organised the restoration of the tennis courts. Jeff, Byron, Clive and myself and many others made good use of the new tennis courts.
Other activities took place on the restored courts, the NCB held their area boxing championships there and I remember Mervyn Davies winning a cup for one of the championship classes.
Memories of Apprenticeship:
I left school in 1949 and took up an apprenticeship in electrical engineering with the Wales & Monmouthshire Industrial Estates at Treforest and to facilitate the daily travel I bought a motorcycle, a BSA 500cc A7 twin. I spent a year travelling to Treforest and found it quite an ordeal.
In October 1950, I was able to obtain an Electrical Engineering Student Apprenticeship with the South Wales Electricity Board and upgraded my BSA motorbike with a 500cc Vincent Comet , which became well known in the area.
My training was spent in various locations in the Swansea, Neath and Port Talbot areas and included power station practices at Carmarthen Bay and Tir John power stations and the last six months of my five year apprenticeship in learning aspects of factory management at the South Wales Switchgear factory in Pontllanfraith, Monmouthshire, where I met my wife, Gwyneira, who worked in the factory office. We were married in Aug 1958 at Pontllanfraith, Mon.
Just a short note — Another previous resident of Cwmgwrach also spent his working life in the Electricity Supply Industry. Glan Gwyn, son of Mr. & Mrs. Gwyn of Edward St, was an electrical engineer with Neath R.D.C., who, on the passing of the Electricity Nationalisation Act, moved across to the South Wales Electricity Board as an electrical engineer at Neath, progressing to Head Office, St Mellons and then to become Area Manager of West Wales Area at based at Tenby. Eventually he became Chairman of the Merseyside & North Wales Electricity Board (MANWEB) at Manchester.
While at South Wales Switchgear, Pontllanfraith, carrying out my training, I made friends with a local boy Michael Hicks, who worked in the drawing office of the factory, we became firm friends, so much so he was my best man at my wedding. One day he took me to meet his visiting uncle, who worked in the electricity supply industry, I had a shock to again meet up with Glan Gwyn, who frequently visited Pontllanfraith, his wife and Michael’s mother were sisters. Many evenings were spent in the local pub, the Ivor Arms in Pontllanfraith, with Michael & Glan’s families.
National service and Marriage:
February 1958 I reported for National service to RAF Cardington, then on to RAF Bridgenorth for square bashing, on passing out posted to RAF Locking for radar fitter training. It was while at Locking, Gwyneira and I got married and the only leave allocated to me for our marriage was a 48 hour pass with a 14 night sleeping out pass for our honeymoon.
My honeymoon entailed me leaving our hotel in Weston-Super-mare at 7.30am to catch a bus daily to camp, then in the late afternoon catch a bus back to the hotel for dinner. Gwyneira, my wife, had to while away each day of our fortnight honeymoon on her own.
Following training I was posted to RAF Henlow Wireless Base Station from where I travelled around the country installing Instrument Landing Systems at RAF airfields in Scotland and England, eventually becoming the team leader equipped with a Standard Vanguard estate car with a civilian driver.
On my return to civilian life in 1960, I resumed my career with the South Wales Electricity Board at Port Talbot and set up house with my wife in North Cornelly. It was while at Port Talbot I met up with an old friend, Clive Phillips. Clive lived in Porthcawl and set up a dental practice in Port Talbot and which I attended regularly until his early death in the 1960’s due to a viral infection.
In 1970 I moved to Swansea as Maintenance Engineer and finished my career as Unit Manager of the Neath area which covered Clydach and the Swansea Valley, Dulais Valley, Neath Valley, Cymmer Valleys, Port Talbot and Pyle. On taking up my post at Swansea I moved house from North Cornelly to Newton, Mumbles. I retired in 1992 and have enjoyed my living and retirement here at Mumbles and the Gower for the past 50 years.
Neath and Tennant Canal Preservation Society (1976 – 2010):
It was here living at Mumbles I learned through my daughters of the formation in 1974 of the Neath & Tennant Canals Preservation Society. One of their teachers, a founder member and secretary of the Society, fostered a strong association between the pupils and parents of Newton School and the Neath Canal.
I joined the Society in 1976.
Initially the work of restoration of the abandoned section of canal, between Resolven and Glynneath, by Society members, consisted of the removal of trees, brambles and a variety of vegetation and rubbish from the bed of the abandoned section above Resolven, along with the abandoned junction basin of the Neath and Tennant canals at Aberdulais.
A great deal of the heavy work carried out was supported by David Pugh of Pentre Clwyda Farm, formally of Venallt Farm. David also had a plant hire company and used a large G8 bulldozer to remove the large tree stumps from the canal bed.
The earliest excavation of the silted canal bed was carried out by Ateyo Wood using his company’s Hymac excavator for two weeks between Rheola and Resolven, only charging the Trust the cost of fuel used.
The Neath Canal Co. granted the then Neath Borough Council a licence to carry out restoration of the abandoned Neath Canal above Resolven and nominated the council as the Navigation Authority for that section of canal, which still exists to this day.
The Canal Society obtained grant aid for the salary of a Canal Officer to co-ordinate the restoration of the Neath Canal above Resolven, the grant was for four years which was extended for a further period by N.P.T.C.. The N.P.T.C., in partnership with the Canal Society, organised restoration work programs using YTS and Man Power Services schemes which gave local youths awareness of work experience.
Also at this time we started to give illustrated talks to many groups and societies and recruited many new members, very few from the locality of the canal. We failed to recruit from the Glynneath, Cwmgwrach or Resolven areas, most members came from the Neath – Swansea area with a number from the Aberdare area, even some as far away as Gt Malvern who attended work parties on a regular basis.
I became Vice Chairman in 1986 and Chairman in 1989, retiring as chairman in 2010. I am now the Trust’s Archivist.
As chairman I was active in circulating publicity and seeking finance through the Neath Canal Co., Neath Borough Council, Welsh European Office, Woodland Trust and various other national organisations to enable the carrying out of restoration of the canal between Ysgwrfa and Resolven. I became involved in giving slide show lectures on the restoration and history of the Neath & Tennant Canals at venues all over South and Mid Wales including Blaengwrach School whose headmaster Jeff Jones and I were firm friends, I even went on holiday with Jeff and his family to Weston super Mare while we were still at school.
Several international student work camps were carried out in the 1980’s on the Neath Canal north of Resolven. Students from Belgium, Germany, Holland, Poland and Spain attended, having self financed travel from their respective countries.
During the 1990s, weekly and fortnightly duration work camps were organised with volunteer groups from London, Kent and East Sussex and the National Waterway Recovery Group, accommodation for volunteers was provided in scout, church and chapel halls. One of the projects tackled by the visiting groups was the restoration of Aberpergwm Granary Lock chamber and bypass channel which was featured on television.
I have featured on many restoration and environmental television programmes featuring the Neath Canal over the period of my canal chairmanship which has given much welcomed publicity to our restoration activities.
On completion of restoration between Resolven and Ysgwrfa, the Society bought our custom built trip boat Thomas Dadford in 1990 and operated it on this section of canal before transferring our operations to Neath a more central operation to promote restoration from Neath to Abergarwed. Following completion of restoration many rallies and national events have taken place on this section.
Unfortunately our trip boat Thomas Dadford has had to be scrapped due to the deterioration of the hull steelwork, the cost of replacement proved prohibitive. Efforts are underway to try to purchase a new boat through grant aid.
The 2011 IWA National Trail Boat Rally, organised by the Trust, IWA and Neath Canal Co.and opened by Roy Noble was held on the restored section of canal between Neath and Abergarwed, despite the bad weather over the event the rally gave the canal significant publicity nationally. This section of restoration by the Neath Canal Co and N.P.T.C.B.C. was carried out through European funding in excess of £2m. Of the major schemes undertaken on this project were the complete rebuild of Ynysbwllog Aqueduct and excavating and disposal of 60,000tons of polluted silt from the canal.
Restoration carried out by the Trust has been recognised by Prince Charles,who awarded to the Trust and some individual members of the Trust, The Prince of Wales Award. I received the Prince of Wales awards on behalf of the Trust , at a ceremony in 1991 at the Parc and Dare Theatre, Treorchy.
The restoration carried out by Neath Canal Co. and N.P.T.C.B.C., the Trust and contractors, funded by European Grant Aid, has won two prestigious awards. The first was a Civic Trust Award in 1992 followed by an Europa Nostra Award in 1993. The Civic Trust award presented locally and the Europa Nostra Award (an international award) at the RSA in London.
Canal Restoration Awards:
In May 1994 my wife and I received invitation to The Prince of Wales Garden Party at Pembroke Castle. It was held to enable Prince Charles to meet at first hand the people involved in the voluntary, political and businesses sectors which made up everyday life in Wales.
My wife Gwyneira and I were invited to the Queen’s Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace in 2007, a wonderful day and a most memorable experience. We had the freedom of the palace ground floor rooms opening out into the gardens, which I had only previously seen on film and TV programmes. The gardens at Buckingham Palace extending to almost 40 acres are most interesting and beautiful. A buffet tea was served on the main lawn of the palace.
My second visit in 2009 to Buckingham Palace was to receive the award in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List of my M. B. E., presented by Prince Charles.
I was accompanied by my wife and two daughters, Caroline and Samantha, and felt it to be a great honour and very proud to receive my M.B.E., cited for “the preservation of the heritage in Wales.”
BP Chemicals, the major shareholder in the Neath Canal Co., sought to dispose of its shares in the Neath Canal Co. following the reconstruction of it’s interests in the UK, finally the shares were aquired by St Modwen Property Development Company.
Upon the transfer of the Neath Canal Co. shares from B.P. to St Modwen, the company restricted all maintenance restoration activity to only that carried out by their own staff and centred mainly in the Neath area, resulting in progressive dereliction of the restored Neath Canal, channel and structures from Tonna upward. Only towpath improvements on the lower sections of canal are being carried out under various grant aid funding, the canal only maintained as a water channel.
The original issue of Neath Canal Co. shares was under the Neath Canal Act of 1791 and under the Act the share holders were responsible for any call on major finance required as a result of breaches or flooding damage along with any charges resulting from legal claims. This liability on St Modwen, through ownership of the majority of company shares, was considered too high to allow volunteers to work on the canal. This limiting factor of share liability would also be a liability to local authority or any waterway recovery group wishing carrying out restoration work on the canal by acquiring the Neath Canal Co shares and having to take on the possible liabilities.
The Neath & Tennant CanalsTrust are the second largest shareholder in the Neath Canal Co. holding 22shares.
At the last Annual General Meeting of the Neath Canal Co., St Modwen declared application was to be made for the Neath Canal Co. to become a limited company, which will limit share holder liability. Hopefully under the present atmosphere of environmental issues and reducing liability to future shareholders, positive action is being sought to restore the Neath and Tennant canals to navigation in their entirety and provide a valuable amenity to both local people and visitors.
Opening day on the Canal:
References and Resources:
Article written and photos provided by Mr. Peter Ricketts MBE.
Additional photo’s of Ynys Las Lodge, King George travelling through Glynneath and the photo’s of the locks being opened
provided by Glyn Davies.