Wales in Space 25 October 2019 Looking at the Moon What is the Moon? The Moon is Earth’s only natural satellite. It was formed 4.5 billion years ago and is around 240,000 miles from Earth. The Moon orbits Earth once every twenty seven days, the same time as it takes for the Moon to rotate once. As a result, the Moon does not seem to be spinning but rather appears to us on Earth as almost completely still. Neil Armstrong was the first human to walk on the Moon in 1969. Eleven other astronauts have followed in his footsteps. There are plans for humans to return in the near future, with NASA hoping to build a base there by 2028. Sir William Lower (c.1570-1615) Born in Cornwall, Sir William Lower moved to Trefenty, Carmarthenshire, around 1601 following his marriage to Penelope Perrot. In 1607, he observed Halley’s Comet with his naked eye and used a cross-staff to measure its position in relation to the stars. He shared his findings with other astronomers of the period, including Thomas Harriot, with whom he became a close friend. Lower’s observations were greatly improved by the invention of the telescope in the Netherlands in 1608. Within a year, British astronomers such as Harriot were making telescopes for themselves and sending them to other observers such as Lower. Using his telescope, Lower became interested in studying the Moon. In 1610 he observed its irregular surface, likening it to a tart that his cook had made – ‘full of bright and dark stuff’. This discovery was not published by Lower and the famous Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was credited with the finding. John Dillwyn Llewellyn (1810-1882) John Dillwyn Llewellyn was born in Swansea in 1810 and was the eldest son of Lewis Weston Dillwyn, a prominent local businessman and naturalist. He first became interested in photography during the 1840s and pioneered the so-called Oxymel process – a way of preserving images with honey and vinegar. Llewellyn’s other great passion was astronomy and in 1851 he built an observatory in the grounds of his estate in Penllergare. The observatory was a birthday present for his daughter, Thereza, who shared his interest in the night sky. Thereza assisted her father in his experiments and in 1857 they produced one of the earliest photographs of the Moon. Their efforts led to the site becoming a popular place for stargazing among local astronomers. In 2013, the Penllergare Trust embarked upon a project to restore the building to its former glory. Arthur Mee and the Astronomical Society of Wales Arthur Mee was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in October 1860. Shortly after, he moved to Llanelli before settling in Cardiff in 1892, working as a journalist for the Western Mail. Mee displayed a keen interest in astronomy from a young age. When he was seventeen he acquired a telescope and observed Solar System objects such as the Moon and Mars, making detailed drawings of their features. Mee also played a prominent role in encouraging amateur interest in astronomy in Wales, establishing The Astronomical Society of Wales in 1895. The Society organised regular lectures on astronomical subjects and published a journal under the editorship of Mee. At its peak, membership of the society numbered 200, although it disbanded with the outbreak of the First World War in 1918. Mee Crater on the south-western side of the Moon honours his contribution to astronomy. Hugh Percy Wilkins (1896-1960) Wilkins was born in Carmarthen in December 1896. His interest in astronomy was evident from a young age and he first produced astronomical drawings at the age of thirteen. Following his involvement in the First World War, Wilkins moved to Llanelli where he became greatly interested in studying the Moon and its surface. He completed his first Moon map in 1924 and subsequently published a number of larger and more detailed maps over the next ten years. In 1938, Wilkins began work on a much larger map. This map was finished in 1946 and is his most famous work. It was over 7.6 metres (300 inches) in diameter and revealed hidden regions of the Moon and previously unknown features. The map was subsequently used by NASA to decide where to land during the Apollo missions of the 1960s. Unfortunately, Wilkins did not live to see this, but a crater on the Moon is named in honour of his contribution to lunar observation. Solar Eclipse, 2015 On 20 March 2015, Britain witnessed a very rare event, a solar eclipse. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly between Earth and the Sun, blocking direct sunlight and turning a day into darkness. In the last 500 years, there have been only eight total eclipses that could be seen from the UK, the last in 1999. In 2015, a partial eclipse could be seen from Wales, covering around 85% of the Sun. People gathered to watch the eclipse at specially organised events around the country, one of which was held here at the National Waterfront Museum. Over 200 interested amateurs, astronomers and schoolchildren watched the event from the Museum’s garden using telescopes and homemade viewers. Special glasses were required to view the eclipse safely. Some of those that were used by observers at this museum had been made by Dr Howard Miles of Port Talbot, who was one of the leading manufacturers of solar viewing glasses. Wales, the Stars and the Planets Archaeoastronomy Part of the belief system of our ancient ancestors revolved around significant rising or setting positions of the Sun, the Moon, or stars. They built monuments to mark these events. Studying these sites is called Astroarchaeology. There are a number of these important sites in Wales, including Bryn Celli Ddu in Anglesey. The monument, near the town of Llanddaniel Fab, was built around 5000 years ago. It was initially used as a ritual enclosure and later became a burial chamber. Bryn Celli Ddu is the only burial tomb on Anglesey that is accurately aligned to coincide with the rising Sun on the longest day of the year. At dawn on midsummer solstice, the rising Sun enters the monument’s passageway and lights the inner burial chamber. This sunlight was believed to bring warmth and life to those who used the chamber. Joseph Harris (1702/3 - 1764) Joseph Harris was born in Trefecca, Powys. His interest in astronomy was evident from a young age and he is known to have made a number of instruments for his observations. This interest continued into a professional career when he moved to London at the age of twenty two. While in London, Harris developed his reputation as an instrument maker, testing a number of his inventions on two voyages to the Caribbean; one between 1725 and 1727 and another between 1730 and 1732. During these voyages, Harris made a number of important observations regarding global positioning and the positions of the planets. In 1761, with deteriorating health, Harris returned to Trefecca to witness one of the most important scientific events of the eighteenth century – the transit of Venus across the Sun. According to one historian, Harris was the only observer to watch the event from Wales. Nathaniel (1725-1804) and Edward Pigott (1753-1825) Nathaniel Pigott was born in Middlesex, England. A keen amateur astronomer, Pigott was close friends of famous astronomers such as Charles Messier and William Herschel. Through these connections and on the back of a successful career in law, Pigott was able to buy some of the best scientific instruments and telescopes of his day. In 1777, Nathaniel and his Son, Edward, moved to Frampton House near Llantwit Major, in the Vale of Glamorgan. Within the grounds of this estate they built an observatory which was widely regarded as the best in Wales until the early nineteenth century. This building and the range of observational instruments it contained put Wales firmly on the astronomical map. In 1770, Nathaniel discovered the existence of ‘double-stars’ – two stars which appear close to each other when viewed through a telescope. In the same year, Edward noted a nebula within the constellation of Coma Berenices. This is the only object noted from Wales that appeared in the famous Messier Catalogue of Astronomical Objects. Isaac Roberts (1829-1904) Isaac Roberts was born in Groes, Denbighshire. He moved to Liverpool at the age of fifteen to pursue a career as an engineer. Roberts had a keen interest in astronomy and pioneered a form of long-exposure photography which allowed him to track astronomical objects with unprecedented steadiness. During his life, Roberts photographed many star clusters and galaxies, revealing previously unknown details about the shape, size and organisation of stars. His most famous photograph is of the Great Nebula in Andromeda, which he took in 1887. This photograph showed that the galaxy had a spiral structure, which was unexpected at the time, and revealed new information about the formation of galaxies. The importance of Roberts’s work has been recognised internationally. In 1895, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, while a crater on the Moon has also been named in his honour. The Spaceguard Centre Based in Knighton, Powys, Spaceguard UK is the only organisation in the UK dedicated to addressing the hazard of Near Earth Objects (NEOs). NEOs are meteoroids, asteroids and comets that come close to, and sometimes collide with, the Earth, potentially having devastating consequences. The centre is run by Jay Tate, one of only a handful of astronomers in Britain studying these objects. Acceptance of the threat posed by NEOs has risen in recent years following the explosion of a meteorite over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013. The work of organisations such as Spaceguard UK is crucial for assessing potential risks and for conducting research into how threatening impacts could be avoided. One possible way of dealing with NEOs is to ‘nudge’ them off course by using a rocket or controlled explosion. Brecon Beacons and Elan Valley Dark Skies Dark-Sky Reserve Status is an award given by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) to areas with an outstanding quality of night sky. The Brecon Beacons National Park was awarded this status in 2013 and is one of only eight sites worldwide. To achieve this title, a survey was taken of thirty six sites within the 520 square mile National Park to gauge levels of light pollution. One of the best locations to observe the night sky within the park is the Usk Reservoir. There is great potential to promote the tourism value of the National Park for stargazing – so-called ‘Dark-Sky Tourism’. Efforts have already been made to further reduce unnecessary lighting in the Park, including street lights, which will result in even darker locations. In July 2015, the Elan Valley Estate in Powys was granted silver-tier status by the IDA. It is the world’s first privately owned but publicly accessible Dark-Sky Park. The Welsh in Space Tecwyn Roberts Tec Roberts was born in Llanddaniel Fab, Anglesey, in 1925. After briefly serving in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, he began work as an aeronautics engineer, moving to Canada in the early 1950s to further his career. Roberts joined NASA in 1959 as a Flight Dynamics Officer. As part of this role he was responsible for controlling the movement of spacecraft when they were in orbit, being based firstly at Mission Control in Cape Canaveral and later Houston, Texas. Tec popularised the phrase ‘A-OK’ to denote something that was ‘in perfect working order’. Roberts was closely involved in the Apollo missions during the 1960s and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by NASA, their highest honour. Tec retained close ties with Llanddaniel Fab during his career and returned to the village on several occasions before his death in 1988. George Abbey George Abbey describes himself as a ‘Welsh American’. He was born in Seattle in 1932, but his mother was born in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, before the family emigrated to North America during the 1920s. While serving as a pilot in the US Air Force, Abbey applied to be an astronaut, although he was not accepted. He nonetheless joined NASA and in 1976 was named Director of Flight Operations, giving him overall responsibility for human spaceflight. Later in his career, Abbey was appointed Director of the Johnson Space Centre and played a crucial role in the creation of the International Space Station. During his time at NASA, Abbey arranged for a photograph of Dylan Thomas to be taken from the Boathouse Museum in Laugharne into Space on board Space Shuttle Colombia. Abbey continues to make regular visits to Wales and recently gave the annual Richard Burton Lecture at Swansea University. Joe Tanner Joe Tanner was born in Danville, Illinois, in 1950. Despite his American upbringing, Tanner had close connections with Wales. His mother grew up in Tregaron, Ceredigion, while his grandfather worked as a head teacher in neighbouring Llanddewi Brefi, which Tanner himself visited in 1995. After working as a pilot for the US Navy, Joe joined NASA in 1984. As part of his astronaut career, he flew on four Space Shuttle missions, spending over forty three days in Space. He also performed a number of spacewalks, including one to repair the Hubble Telescope. In 1994, Tanner became the first astronaut to take a Welsh flag into Space. This flag was later donated to the National Museum of Wales and is displayed as part of this exhibition. Joe’s experiences in Space also provided the inspiration for a collection of poems written by Gwyneth Lewis. She was the first National Poet for Wales and is Joe Tanner’s cousin. Dafydd Williams Dafydd Williams was born in Saskatoon in Canada. His father was born and grew up in Bargoed in the south Wales valleys, before emigrating to North America when he was thirty. After working in the medical profession, Dafydd was selected by the Canadian Space Agency in 1992. Three years later, he joined NASA as a mission specialist astronaut. He flew on two Space missions, the first on board Space Shuttle Colombia in 1998 and the second on Space Shuttle Endeavour in 2007. He completed three spacewalks as part of his career. Despite his Canadian upbringing, Dafydd remains proud of his Welsh heritage. On his first mission in 1998, he took a number of Welsh items with him including a Welsh flag, a rugby cap worn by Sir Gareth Edwards and Mr Urdd, the Eisteddfod mascot. He also conducted a live television interview from Space with BBC ‘Wales Today’, during which he became the first person to speak Welsh in Space. ISSET The International Space School Education Trust (ISSET) was founded in 1998 by Chris Barber in the Vale of Glamorgan. ISSET uses Space exploration to inspire young people to choose careers and education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. ISSET’s flagship competition, ‘Mission Discovery’ gives students the chance to work alongside NASA astronauts, designing an experiment that could be carried out in Space. The winning experiment is launched to the International Space Station. There, the astronauts carry out the experiment and feed the results back to Mission Control in Houston. In 2014, the first winning experiments began their journey into Space, with two groups of students from Wales being chosen to have their experiments tested on the mission. One experiment looked at the effect of weightlessness and another on the development of Alzheimer’s disease. By 2017 ISSET will have launched more experiments into space than any other UK organisation with a majority of them stemming from Welsh pupils. Hefin Jones – Wales Space Campaign Hefin is a London-based designer who grew up in Cardigan. His ‘Welsh Space Campaign’ project explores how Welsh culture, skills and traditions could be applied in a cosmic context. As part of this project, Hefin created a Space suit that is made entirely from Welsh-sourced materials. The wool used to make the suit has been sourced from the last remaining wool mills in Wales while a traditional clog maker has made Space clogs instead of Space boots. Hefin’s brother, a qualified plumber, also built a pressure system designed to support life in outer Space. In 2013, Hefin was awarded the Christine Risley award for outstanding work relating to textiles. He is currently working on a number of associated Space design projects, including a new Space suit and designing fictional astronaut training centres in abandoned collieries. Welsh Technology in Space William Grove William Grove was born in Swansea in 1811. A lawyer by profession, Grove was also a keen amateur scientist. He was closely involved with the formation of the Royal Institution of South Wales in 1835. In 1842 he invented the hydrogen fuel cell, which produced electricity. This was achieved by placing electrodes in sulphuric acid and separately in hydrogen and oxygen to produce an electrical current. By linking several cells together a higher voltage could be achieved. A hundred years later, Grove’s invention provided the basis for the fuel cells used by NASA for the Gemini Earth orbit missions and the Apollo Moon landings. More recently, this technology has been used to power the Space Shuttle and satellites. In 2015, Swansea City Council unveiled a Blue Plaque close to his former home in Grove Place to honour his achievements. A crater on the Moon is named in his memory. Beagle 2 Beagle 2 was a British Space probe that was launched in 2003. Its purpose was to search for signs of life on Mars, past or present. The project was managed by the National Space Centre in Leicester and the robot was developed by a large team of experts. Scientists from Aberystwyth University were responsible for developing Beagle’s robotic arm. This arm was designed to collect samples of soil from the planet. It would then return them to the robot’s on-board laboratory to search for signs of life. The University also developed a computer simulation of the surface of Mars to help its movement. The robot was due to land on Mars on Christmas Day 2003, though no message was received to confirm that it had landed safely and it was assumed lost. In 2015, however, detailed images developed by scientists at Aberystwyth University showed that Beagle had successfully landed on Mars but had failed to deploy properly. Herschel The Herschel Space Observatory was launched and operated by the European Space Agency. It was active between 2009 and 2013. It is still the largest infrared Space telescope ever launched. Building the telescope was an extremely complicated challenge and drew upon the expertise of individuals from across the globe. Scientists from Cardiff University played an integral role in this process, taking the lead for producing one of the telescope’s three cameras, named SPIRE. SPIRE was a camera and low-resolution spectrometer that was capable of seeing light from stars and planets that were billions of light-years away. It was powerful enough to detect the glow of a 100w light bulb a million kilometres away, or a low energy 20w bulb on the Moon. This allowed scientists to study distant galaxies and look more closely at how stars are formed. In April 2013, the liquid helium used to cool the telescope’s instruments ran out and the satellite was turned off in June of that year. Qioptiq Qioptiq Space Technology is a specialist manufacturer of sheet cover glass for the Space industry. Based in Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire, the company is one of only two facilities in the world that produces the ultra-thin glass used on the majority of the world’s satellites. The glass is used to protect the solar cells which power the satellites against the harsh environment of Space. Although the glass is as thin as a human hair it is extremely strong. It can be bent double without breaking. During the four decades that Qioptiq has been making the glass, it has been used on the Hubble and Kepler Space telescopes, the International Space Station and the Spirit and Opportunity Mars Rovers. More recently, it has been used on the Rosetta mission to land a probe on a moving comet, achieved in November 2014. Wales and Space: The Future Welsh Space Strategy In July 2015, the Welsh Space Strategy was launched. This document outlines the role that Wales hopes to play in future Space exploration and the contribution it will make to the growth of the UK Space sector. The areas identified for growth in Wales include unmanned aerial systems, rocket propulsion, satellite manufacturing and Earth observation. Developing these areas will improve the technology we rely upon for telecommunications, weather reporting, environmental analysis and national security. A large number of companies and universities, as well as Aerospace Wales Forum and the Welsh Government have committed themselves to working together to ensure that Wales promotes its potential internationally and continues to attract new investment. By 2030, it is hoped that Wales will generate 5% of the UK Space industry’s turnover – a £2bn opportunity per annum. Welsh Spaceport Commercial Space travel is already a reality. In 2001 the Russian Space Agency began transporting ‘Space tourists’, with journeys costing over twenty million dollars. Space tourism is set to grow in the next ten years, with companies such as Virgin Galactic offering the chance for paying passengers to undertake flights outside the Earth’s atmosphere. The British government want to capitalise on this market and are in the process of selecting a suitable site to base a UK spaceport. From an original short-list of eight sites, only three remain: Prestwick in Scotland, Newquay in Cornwall and Llanbedr in Gwynedd. If selected, the development of a spaceport in Llanbedr would create hundreds of jobs and pave the way for further investment. Campaigners, however, have been less enthusiastic, arguing that the scheme would spoil the outstanding natural beauty of the area. A decision on the location of the spaceport is expected early in 2016. Airbus Planetary Penetrator Wales is home to a number of important testing facilities, including the world’s second longest test track in Pendine, Carmarthenshire. Operated by QinetiQ, a defence technology company, this test track allows objects to be accelerated to high speeds before hitting a target. Recently, UK engineers have been testing a projectile technology they believe could be used to explore the Solar System. A steel penetrator developed by Airbus Defence and Space was fired at a 10-tonne cube of ice to simulate the surface of Jupiter’s Moon Europa. The penetrator travelled at nearly the speed of sound and remained completely intact following impact. When the penetrator is fired into Europa, it will drill into its crust and take samples for analysis in an on-board laboratory. These results will then be communicated back to Earth. Further testing is taking place and it is hoped that the penetrator will be launched in the next few years. Aberystwyth University and ExoMars The ExoMars rover is a robotic Mars explorer due to be launched in 2018. The mission will search for possible signs of life on Mars, past or present. It will also examine the planet's surface to try and better understand its evolution. The mission is led by the European Space Agency and combines the expertise of a number of organisations and institutions. A team at Aberystwyth University are responsible for developing new colour calibration techniques for the rover's Panoramic Camera. These techniques will ensure that the images sent back to Earth are a true representation of the natural colours of Mars. As with the Beagle2 mission, the Aberystwyth team will also provide a terrain map of the planet to identify possible landing sites for the rover. This will be done using images taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Glyndwr University and the European Extremely Large Telescope Scientists from Glyndwr University in Wrexham are currently working to develop the mirrors for the European Extremely Large Telescope. The Telescope, due to be completed in 2024, will be situated in Chile. It will gather fifteen times more light than the largest telescopes around today, allowing it to see further into the universe. Mirrors are an essential part of a telescope. Their quality determines the sharpness and clarity of the images they are able to produce. The size of the mirror required for this telescope – around half the size of a football pitch – means that it is not possible to build in one-piece. As a result, scientists are using many smaller mirrors pieced together as a jigsaw. Each edge of these mirrors needs to be polished very finely to ensure that they fit together securely and that no light is lost. The team at Glyndwr University recently received world-wide acclaim when they polished the edge of a prototype mirror down to 7.5 nanometres – less than one millionth of a millimetre. Cardiff University and Twinkle Due for launch in 2019, Twinkle is an ambitious mission that will provide new insights on the formation and evolution of exoplanets. An exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star other than the Sun. These planets are outside our Solar System. Although 2,000 exoplanets have already been discovered, we know very little about these distant worlds. Twinkle will analyse the atmospheres of at least 100 exoplanets in the Milky Way and tell us whether they could, or indeed are, supporting some form of life. Cardiff University is playing a key role in the project, taking responsibility for developing the satellite’s instrumentation. The team is led by Dr Enzo Pascale who is working with undergraduate and postgraduate students to develop this technology. This collaboration is strategically important for Wales, providing training for the next generation of scientists.
Brethyn Llwyd Mark Lucas, 15 October 2019 Lloyd George’s poetic idea'I should like to see a Welsh army in the field. I should like to see the race that faced the Norman for hundreds of years in struggle for freedom, the race that helped to win Crecy, the race that fought for a generation under Glyndwr against the greatest captain in Europe. I should like to see that race give a good taste of their quality in this struggle in Europe and they are going to do it'On 29 September 1914 the Welsh National Executive Committee was formed to recruit a Welsh Army Corps of 40,000 to 50,000 men. The recruitment was based on the Corps's unique Welshness, with the encouragement of Welsh-speaking officers and Welsh-language recruitment posters.Equipment ShortageDue to the rapid expansion, the British Army faced a severe shortage of uniforms and equipment. To overcome the shortage the Committee decided in October 1914 to reinforce the national identity of the Welsh Army Corps by tendering for Welsh Grey homespun cloth “Brethyn Llwyd” for uniforms from the woollen manufacturers of Wales.David Morgan of Cardiff was the main contractor, with all finished material sent to their offices in Cardiff before being made into uniforms by Messrs Masters. The woollen manufacturers of Wales were in desperate need of these new contracts as the industry was in decline due to worker unrest and competition from the larger mills of Northern England.Production problemsThere were early supply problems from the woollen manufacturers; Brethyn Llwyd is made by blending fleece from black and white sheep. Each mill had its own unique colour for Brethyn Llwyd; they therefore sent samples to the Committee to agree the colour.The cloth produced by the mills was sent to Bristol for finishing and returned to Cardiff adding to the cost and time to make a complete uniform. A Brethyn Llwyd jacket was more expensive than traditional khaki, a Brethyn Llwyd jacket cost almost £1 and a khaki Jacket cost 14s 6d.Factories re-equippedBy 1915 the mills were being re-equipped in anticipation of large orders for Brethyn Llwyd. Cambrian Mills Dre-fach Felindre (Now the National Wool Museum) built a new weaving shed, other mills invested in new equipment and staff. David Lewis of Cambrian Mills claimed he was able to produce 3,500 yards of cloth a week in February 1915 enough for 1,200 uniforms. Demise of Brethyn LlwydUnfortunately this increased capacity came too late and production of Brethyn Llwyd was short-lived due to extra cost and the now ready availability of Khaki forcing the Committee to only order 8,440 uniforms in Brethyn Llwyd. The mill owners sent many letters to the Committee pleading for orders. Brethyn Llwyd uniforms never saw active service but due to their hard wearing qualities the uniforms were re-used repeatedly by the Reserves at Kinmel Park Camp until at least November 1916. In August 1915 the War Office took over the Welsh National Executive Committee, the raised units were formed into the 38th Welsh Division and the dream of a Welsh Corps vanished.Supplying the AlliesBrethyn Llwyd was not the only war contract for woollen manufactures of Wales, woollen manufactures across Wales produced blankets for the army. One of the largest orders was secured by Ben Evans of Swansea for 15,000 blankets.Welsh woollen manufactures also secured orders from foreign governments, for example in 1917 the Romanian Army ordered large quantities of Welsh flannel. The North Wales stocking industries supplied 300,000 pairs of socks to the allies during the war although these contracts only benefitted the larger manufactures.Labour ShortageWith conscription of men into the army mill owners struggled for labour, before the war unlike English mills Welsh mills employed predominately men and the weavers worked one man one loom. The weavers threatened to strike over pay finally resolved with the intervention from the War Office in favour of higher wages but for more output.Mill owners attended tribunals arguing for their workers not to be conscripted into the army because they could not be replaced, women preferred to work in the munitions factories and other heavy industries for higher wages than work in the woollen mills. Weavers at warMany workers from the mills volunteered for the army or were conscripted. Willie Evans worked at Cambrian Mills Drefach Felindre, he joined the royal artillery serving on the western front and in Russia, Willie returned to Cambrian mills after the war.David Emlyn Jones was a weaver at Ogof Mill Cwmpengraig he was conscripted into the army in 1917 to the Welsh regiment. David was killed on sentry duty on the Western front 12th December 1917 he left behind 4 children including a baby that he never met. David's last letter home, written in Welsh arrived after the letter in English informing his wife of his death.Post war decline and fires'[Mill owners who made vast profits from war contracts] made no attempt to set their mills on a sound financial basis, content to bank the money or buy seaside cottages'Geraint Jenkins 1967, the Welsh Woollen Industry, p. 278After the war 12 million yards of surplus flannel was sold on the open market by the government at ridiculously low prices forcing woollen manufactures to also cut their prices. Flannel shirts for example sold at 52s 6d a dozen in 1916 by 1923 the price had dropped to 38 shillings. In Dre-fach Felindre 21 factories closed and 7 more burnt to the ground including Cambrian Mills, arson was suspected but never proven.Unfortunately no Brethyn Llwyd uniform has been found, all that exists are the samples sent by woollen manufactures to the committee to decide the final colour, the choice they made remains a mystery. The samples are now part of the Welsh Army Corp collection held at the National Library of Wales.
Yama – The mining art of Sakubei Yamamoto Ceri Thompson, 27 September 2019 At the age of seven years old, Sakubei Yamamoto (1892–1984) moved with his family to the coal mines of the Chikuho region in Kyushu. He was apprenticed to a colliery blacksmith at the age of twelve, and later worked as a mine blacksmith and coalminer until the age of sixty-three in 1955. He then became a colliery security guard when he started painting his memories of the mining industry. He had little formal education but, from the age of 21 in 1913, began keeping notebooks and diaries in which he recorded events. These influenced his later painting. "The yama [the miners' term for the coal mines] is fading away, leaving 524 mountains of rubble in the Chikuho region; and as for me, I'm no spring chicken. I've decided to leave behind something of the work and feelings from the yama for my grandkids. It'd be faster just to write something down, but after a couple of years, who knows, maybe the notes would just get thrown out during spring cleaning. With pictures, though, so much can be taken in just with a single glance – I've decided to paint." In 2011, Sakubei Yamamoto’s coal mining paintings and drawings were registered in UNESCO’s Memory of the World programme. This exhibition focuses on a small selection of the 2000 drawings and paintings by the artist. They are very Japanese in style but any Welsh mineworker can recognise the type of work and the characters depicted.
Wheels in Wales Ian Smith, 17 September 2019 When you come into the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea, there are usually around 2,000 artefacts for you to see, but this makes up only small fraction of our collection! Even though we refresh parts of the museum periodically there are many objects which never make it to the display stage. Why do you collect them then? I hear you ask. There are many reasons why something might not be on display. Curators collect things that are important to our heritage and very often these things are in poor condition, so an artefact might need a lot of expensive conservation work before it can be presented to the public. When we collect objects our first priority is to preserve them and stop any deterioration to their condition. Restoration for exhibitions or display takes a back seat until finance can be found for projects – especially large objects like cars and buses. In the Industry Collection of the National Museum of Wales there are many different forms of transport and each one has to have a strong connection to Wales – by manufacture, inventor or usage. The ones not on display are kept at Nantgarw, near Cardiff, until their turn comes. From helicopters to horse-drawn hearses and electric cars to steam rollers, the National Collection Centre in Nantgarw sometimes resembles a child’s toy box – but on a grand scale! Delicate objects are stored in acid-free boxes or specially made crates, but how do you store a bus or helicopter? Of course they can’t be kept in boxes, but are lined up like a supermarket car park and are arranged quite randomly as size and shape dictate. There is access to the stores for group visits by appointment, where you will see that some of the vehicles look quite dilapidated whilst they await the magic touch of our conservation team. Meanwhile, back at the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea one can still see quite a variety of transportation and in our Networks Gallery is the story of transport links in Wales. This gallery has a host of models of vehicles of all kinds and large digital displays of how the transport networks have grown – from sheep drovers’ pathways to the M4. Just outside ‘Networks’ can be found a ‘sociable tricycle’ from the 1880s and a Benz ‘Duc’ motorcar first registered in Monmouthshire in 1904. The sociable was exactly that with a side-by-side arrangement of seats and was a special favourite of courting couples! The Benz was owned by a Dr Cropper of Chepstow who kept it until 1910 when he donated it to the Science Museum. It was taken into the care of the National Museum of Wales in 1911 and once fully restored took part in a number of London-to-Brighton rallies. Hanging overhead is one of the star attractions of the museum. The ‘Robin Goch’ or ‘Red Robin’ has a strong claim to be the first aeroplane to fly in Wales. It was built by Charles Horace Watkins, an amateur airman, around 1908. I has a wooden structure braced with piano wire. The cockpit looks distinctly home-made, including a kitchen chair for the pilot’s seat and simple household objects for instruments. Indeed, Charles navigated by using an egg timer – he would turn the timer over, fly straight ahead until the sand ran out then turn 90 degrees and fly ahead again and repeat the turn twice more so that he ended up back where he started! To help him judge his height when landing two pieces of weighted string one 20’ and one 10’ long were hung on the underside so when the first weight touched ground he knew he was at 20’ and when the second at 10’. Not everything in this section is over one hundred years old. You’ll find two examples of the Sinclair C5, one for display and one for use by the public to sit in and get the feel for it. On high days and holidays (and weather permitting) this model is used in our garden and any visitor can try it out. The C5 is pedal-powered with battery backup for hills or if the driver became tired. With a top speed of around 15 mph the C5 was produced secretly in 1985 at the Merthyr Hoover factory. It was so secret that a tunnel was built under the road between the factories to keep prying eyes from discovering the design. Different component manufacturers only saw their plans, not the whole car. It was launched with wide public expectation but proved a flop as it was deemed too small to be safely driven in heavy traffic. A brilliant concept and years ahead of its time, it might yet make a comeback one day when cycle paths are more widespread We have many vehicles brought in for temporary exhibitions and displays. In recent years these have included a caravan and a number of boats and quite a few concept electric vehicles, but one of my favourite vehicles is actually a child’s toy car. In our ‘Made in Wales’ Gallery is the Austin J40, a blue pedal car made in Bargoed in 1959. In 1947 Parliament passed an act that recognised that many miners who were suffering from pneumoconiosis (coal dust in the lungs) could no longer work underground. So it was proposed that new factories be set up to provide lighter cleaner work to employ these men. The Austin factory at Bargoed was just one of these. The factory, which opened in 1949, stopped making the little cars in 1971 but between those dates about 36,700 were produced! All the museums in the Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales family have free entry. Visiting to the National Collections Centre in Nantgarw is by appointment only; contact them on (029) 2057 3560 for availability.
Drapers’ Shops 11 September 2019 In the early twentieth century the high streets of Welsh industrial towns looked very different to the ones that we see today. Stores were individual and specialized in their trade, rather than large stores selling a variety of goods. Drapers’ shops were an essential part of the high street, selling cloth and fabrics by the yard. Clothes were made at home or by local dressmakers or tailors, so rolls of cloth were cut to meet individual customers’ specifications. Local demand for fabric and haberdashery was constant and the days of mass-produced clothing were yet to come.With the development of coal mining and the iron industry in south Wales during the nineteenth century, many people left rural Wales to seek employment. Emlyn Davies was one such young man; born in Newcastle Emlyn, he moved to Dowlais and worked as a shop assistant for J. S. Davies, Drapers. In 1898 he opened his own draper’s shop. Emlyn Davies was primarily a flannel merchant and purchased most of his stock from Cambrian Mills in Dre-fach. David Lewis, the owner of Cambrian Mills, would travel through the south Wales valleys collecting orders for flannel; the woollen cloth would then be sent to Dowlais by train from Henllan Station. The flannel would be made into shirts and underwear for the local colliers and workers at the iron works. Emlyn Davies annual staff outing to Abergavenny, 1912 Colliers and iron workers wore Welsh flannel because it was extremely hard-wearing and excellent at absorbing the sweat of heavy labour. Working conditions were hard and the workers were in constant danger from fires. Wool is a natural fire retardant and Welsh flannel was the clothing of choice until the 1920s. Emlyn Davies staff and family, 1914 Emlyn Davies was a credit draper, meaning that his customers would buy their goods on credit terms, paying small amounts off their bill each week. He would travel to the nearby towns collecting orders and delivering the goods the following week. He also had a market stall at the weekly market in Brecon. Emlyn Davies silver jubilee 6th May, 1935 The flannel drapers enjoyed prosperity until the 1920s. The introduction of knitted underwear produced by the hosiery manufactures of the East Midlands, combined with the influx of cheaper printed cotton and mass-produced ready-made clothing, marked the beginning of the decline. This, combined with strikes, political unrest and the Great Depression in the industrial valleys, saw many drapers close down. Emlyn Davies’s business peaked in 1920, but from there it was in a steady decline until his death in 1937. Thereafter his daughter Miriam ran the business, selling cottons and mass-produced clothing, and the business finally closed when Miriam retired in 1962. Miriam Davies in front of her father’s draper’s shop in East Street Dowlais c. 1917 Emlyn Davies outside his shop with friends and family Coronation Day 12th May, 1937
