O! Ganu Bendigedig

Bu’r Eisteddfod Genedlaethol yn yr ardal hon ddwywaith yn ystod y ganrif ddiwethaf, sef yng Nghastell-nedd yn 1934 ac ym Mhentreclwyda yn 1994. Un o’r atgofion melysaf sydd gen i o’r wythnos ddifyr honno yn 1994, oedd y Gymanfa Ganu dan arweinyddiaeth Alun Tregelles Williams. Erys yr atgofion am ganu grymus y noswaith honno ( Nos Sul olaf yr Eisteddfod, nid y cyntaf fel heddiw) yn y cof am byth. Mae copi o glawr rhaglen 1994 uchod, ond beth sydd o ddiddordeb i ni fel cymdeithas hanes ydy’r rhagair a ysgrifennwyd gan ein Llywydd, Mr Phylip Jones, sef Cadeirydd Pwyllor Cerdd yr Eisteddfod honno.

RHAGAIR

Ffrwyth llafur caled mudiad y tonic sol-ffa a’r ysgol gân yw’r canu cynulleidfaol pedwar llais a gysylltir â Chymru. Dysgwyd gwerin i ddarllen cerddoriaeth lleisiol, a daeth canu mewn cynghanedd yn beth digon naturiol.

Magwyd cerddorion a gyfrannodd yn fawr i ganiadaeth y cysegr yn yr ardal hon. Ystyrid David Evans a T.Hopkin Evans ymhlith arweinyddion mwyaf y gymanfa ganu yng Nghymru yn eu dydd.

Ysywaeth daeth tro ar fyd. Peidiodd y llafur mewn ysgol gân, a’r gweithgarwch i berffeithio moliant Seion. Daeth dirywiad yn y canu pedwar llais yn ein capeli. Yr ydym yn gollwng gafael ar un o drysorau ein cendl heb wneud dim. Oherwydd hyn, rhaid oedd hepgor tonau da gan gerddorion lleol o gymanfa fel hon.

Serch hynny i gyd, y mae arlwy dda wedi ei pharatoi ac mae gan y rhan fwyaf o’r emynau neu tonau gysylltiadau lleol.

Hyderaf y bydd arddeliad yn y canu, a bendith i’r sawl “ a ganant â ysbryd ac a’r deall hefyd”.

Cyflwynwn y gymanfa i’r Hwn biau’r mawl.


PHYLIP JONES

Cadeirydd y Pwyllgor Cerdd.

Da felly yw nodi bod y rhaglen deledu, Dechrau Canu Dechrau Canmol, a ddarlledwyd ar y 15fed o Dachwedd eleni o Gapel Jerusalem, yn meddu ar lawer o’r rinweddau a nodwyd gan Phylip yn ei rhagair. Y gwahaniaeth amlycaf y tro hwn ydoedd bod bron yr holl eitemau â chysylltiad cryf naill ai gyda’r ardal neu’r tri doethur enwog. Efallai nad oedd pawb yn gwybod eu rhannau’n berffaith neu’n gyfarwydd iawn a’r emynau , hyd yn oed yn y galeri lle’n draddodiadol dylai pawb bod yn sicr o’r gwaith ( fe wnaeth Phylip nodi hyn yn gwrtais yn ystod yr “egwyl”answyddogol a gafwyd oherwydd tostrwydd i un o’r gynulleidfa). Er hyn roedd y canu o safon uchel, wedi bodloni Aled Madog yr arweinydd ac yn sicr mewn pedwar llais.


Hyderaf fod cyfraniad Cymdeithas Hanes Resolfen, ac yn enwedig ymdrechion diflino Phylip Jones wrth hyrwyddo hanes a chadw gwaith y tri doethur yn fyw, wedi chwarae rhan yn llwyddiant y rhaglen.


Trefor Jones


(For translation of article see Trefor Jones)

Mel de Lloyd

Mel de Lloyd (bottom right)

The saying “going north”, would probably mean little to the current generation of rugby union players. However, prior to the professionalization of the game in 1995, it was a sad and depressing sight to see the cream of the national side and even good club players disappearing to the north of England to play an alien game. Often these players would achieve fame and fortune yet this would go largely unnoticed in their home communities, and league players were even banned from attending rugby union clubhouses. Resolven is not unusual in this regard and has produced a pantheon of famous rugby league players including Reg Lloyd, Mel deLloyd and more recently Mel James. However in the 1930s it was often a case of an economic necessity to “Go North” in order to avoid the desperate privations of the time

Mr Gwyn Bishop recently brought the story of Mel de Lloyd to the notice of the History Society when he chanced upon this notice on the Keighley Cougars Rugby League Hall of fame.

Mel De Lloyd – Warrington R.L

Debut 26th September 1936
Last Game 11th October 1947

Starts: 176

Tries: 24

Drop goals: 7

Goals: 27

Points: 140

It states “Another notable player who “guested” with Keighley from Warrington during the war and who later signed for the club was stand off Mel De Lloyd. In 86 war time appearances with Keighley, he kicked 95 goals and scored 13 tries (229 points). From 1947 to 1952 he played in a further 100 games and added another 30 goals and 15 tries to his scoring record.

He had one particularly memorable game during the war years on the 13th of November 1943. In the first leg of the Yorkshire Cup semi final at Lawkholm Lane against Huddersfield, Mel De Lloyd dropped three goals, added another three goals from place kicks and scored a try – a tally of fifteen points, Keighley won 21-0.

He also suffered at the other end of the scale. On January 7th 1942, the Disciplinary committee suspended him sine die. In the game against Hull, four days earlier, Mel was ordered from the field after disputing a decision by the referee, Mr L Dolby, who alleged that De Lloyd had later “struck him”. However the suspension was lifted in October 1942 and De Lloyd resumed playing having only missed 14 games.


The History Society contacted Mr David de Lloyd, Mel’s nephew for some more information and this is his report on the life of his uncle.

Melville De Lloyd was born on April 2nd 1917 at 12, Commercial Road, Resolven. He was one of seven children, four sons and three daughters, however only two sisters now survive.

In those days Resolven RFC would often field three of the de Lloyd brothers in the first team. Mel went on to play for Llanelli at the age of 17. He was spotted by the rugby league scout Mr Eddie Waring and went on to play for Warrington Rugby League Club.

Eddie Waring was a good friend to Mel during his playing days and of course went on to become the “voice of rugby league” on BBC Grandstand. He always gave Resolven a mention in his commentary when there was an ex Resolven player on the field, the last one famously being Mel James.

There were of players from Resolven playing up “North” for Keighley, before, during and after the Second World War.

Iory Herbert (Keighley) of 1 Heol Herbert

Mel de Lloyd (Warrington and Keighley) of 12 Commercial Road.

Reg (Wolla) Lloyd of railway Terrace

Llew Bevan ( Keighley) of Cory Street.


Following many successful seasons for Warrington, Mel transferred back to Keighley, finishing his playing days with that club in the 1951-52 seasons.

Mel made a number of friends in both codes. Bill Clement, the long serving WRU Secretary was his inside half when he played for Llanelli. I remember Bill and Mel meeting at the Angel Hotel on an International day, in those days the two codes did not mix! I met one of his friends the great Jim Sullivan, at his home on one of our many visits with my family. He lived in a small terraced house, the front room of which was a bar, the smallest pub I have ever seen!

Another good friend was Fred Higginbotham who played in the centre with Mel at Warrington and Keighley. Last year, by sheer coincidence my wife and I met a man in Barcelona at a bus stop; I got talking to him and asked where he came from. He answered that he came from Warrington. I told him that my uncle had played for Warrington, and on saying his name, his mouth dropped and he told me that he was a friend and former team mate and even lived next door to Mel’s former wife. I met up with Mr Higginbotham again as we were on the same cruise ship. He told me a number of tales about Mel’s playing days. In one anecdote Warrington were playing Wigan and Fred was marking a famous welsh player. Mel told Fred before the game the game started to “hit the Welsh bas++++ as hard as he could”, he would laugh at this because he knew how proud a Welshman Mel was.

Melville de Lloyd died aged 68years in 1985. He is buried alongside his wife May in St. David’s Cemetery, Resolfen.

Behind the Coal House

The November meeting was rather unusual in that it featured Hywel and Rose Griffiths, one of the families in the BBC living history series “The Coal House at War”. Rather than being a lecture, the nature of the evening was an interactive session of questions from members regarding their experiences in the programme, which is now being re-shown on BBC 2 Wales.

Hywel and Rose Griffiths with Mr Gwyn Thomas

Hywel explained that the family had initially applied to be in the series following the imploring of their grandson after the initial “Coal House” series in Stack Square, Blaenafon. The process of getting accepted was rather drawn out and involved aptitude tests and interviews including a session at Cwrt y Collen Army Camp. The Griffiths’s did not expect to be successful since Hywel was already a trained collier, however they were eventually chosen.

Sharing the speaking duties, Rose explained that the experience was a total immersion in the life of the 1940s and the privations of war. What you saw was largely as it was during the series, though they were a little disappointed that certain sections had been omitted especially the family singing in the evenings. Some conditions had been contrived especially electricity cuts and air raid which meant that they had slept overnight in a very cold and draughty hall. The rations were also authentic and even the occasional resort to the black market happened during the series. Life was genuinely hard and the Bevin Boys in particular had found it tough going , relying on her for cooking , cleaning and washing.

The scenes in the colliery were real and conditions were certainly very bad. Hywel explained that despite his bad cough he had been deliberately kept on the surface in order that he had not made it easier for the other “colliers”. His altercations with Mr Blandford ( who apparently in real life was not qualified to work on the coalface) were also contrived for the camera on occasion. It was also rather hectic with Hywel having to go to the Home Guard practice immediately after returning from a long shift in the pit.

Some of the more amusing ( but unseen) experiences during the filming involved chamber pots leaking through floorboards, a reprieve for the house rabbits, soap rationing and the unpleasant routine of visiting the “ty bach” in the middle of the night. However, the experience had been life changing and the family still felt emotional regarding their time in Stack Square. Following the talk the members were able to see a scrapbook of the material used by the BBC in producing the programme. The attention to detail was extremely impressive.

Mr Gwyn Thomas thanked Hywel and Rose Griffiths for a most pleasant and memorable evening.

Post Script:

1. Prior to the beginning of the meeting, Mr James Williams of Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council addressed the Society on a new source of funding under the Fforwm Wledig scheme. This will allow organizations to access funds for projects of up to £8,000 and is certainly to be considered in our future activities.
2. Mr Gwyn Thomas presented a framed photograph donated to the Society by Mr Howard Rees featuring the Blaengwrach and Resolfen joint Burial cemetery ( see previous posting - plus ca change). The plaque featured his grandfather Dick Geary. An invitation had also been given to the Society to visit the excavations at Rheola House.

Phillip Whitehead (1938 -2009)

Phil Whitehead was due to speak to the Society in our April meeting , unfortunately he lost his battle with cancer a fortnight ago. He spoke to us on two previous occasions and was due to come to speak on “Bloody Sunday” in this year’s lecture season.

His life was a history lesson in itself. Born in Hackney Workhouse in 1938 he was adopted by a couple from Oldham, Lancashire where he grew up. He had an interesting career which included National Service in the Royal Navy, a time in Northern Ireland and as a Nursing Officer. It was nursing that brought Phil and his family to Wales, first to Penarth and latterly to Pontypridd. Following retirement, he followed his son to the Neath area where he could indulge his passion for History and in writing historical novels. In 2003, he moved once again to Foelgastell, Carmarthenshire. Phil threw himself into his adopted society and he will be sadly missed by all his friends, and our sympathies are extended to his wife Gillian on her sad loss.

Gwyn Alf and Gramsci

Undergraduate studies in History included a range of topics and skills most of which I have either forgotten or if pressured could be dredged out from the depths of memory while watching University Challenge. However, one period of study which has never left me is the teaching of Gwyn Alf Williams during my third year in 1978, and in particular the role of Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci. Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937)

Professor Gwyn Williams was a marvellous figure who was an unique cross of a Welsh revivalist preacher, revolutionary communist, brilliant intellectual, expert on Goya and an approachable ordinary bloke. I enrolled in his course on International Socialism during my third year and was struck immediately that I was in a different world, an academic Everest confronted me. Professor Williams, diminutive even for a Welshman, distinctive with his shock of flowing white hair and obvious stutter would have stood out today, not only for his oratorical brilliance but by his habit of lighting a Gitane at the beginning of a seminar. His room stank of Disque Bleu, rather like a French café and he would immediately have been suspended in these politically correct days. This had its downside however since “Gwyn Alf” as he was universally known, was often a victim of bronchitis. Professor Gwyn A Williams

I will never forget the dread when I read the set essay title given out at the beginning of the course, “Marxism is a fusion of English Economics, French literature and German Philosophy”, discuss. Where on earth did you start, already struggling with Hegel, Feuerbach, Kant, Montesquieu, Mill and Smith, I was then confronted with dialectic, thesis, antithesis and synthesis! Somehow or other I finished the essay in my awful handwriting which Professor Williams described as “impenetrable as the Hegelian dialectic”, and it was marked with a figure of a haloed saint and a number, which approximated to its status in terms of degree. Seeing the number three I asked what it meant. First Class was the answer. Suddenly I was hooked on an approach of the study of history which has stayed with me all my life.

Towards the end of the course Gwyn Alf made the seminar group study the Italian communist Antonio Gramsci. Without wanting to bore the reader, (you can find the details easily on Wikipedia) Gramsci had been jailed by Mussolini in the 1930s as leader of the Italian Communist Party. The prosecutor stated that you needed to imprison Gramsci’s mind for twenty years since his ideas were so radical and brilliant. Central to his political philosophy was the concept of the Cultural Hegemony of a ruling class. In essence, Gramsci believed that social normality was set by the ruling class/elite of whatever period and he took the dominance of the medieval Roman Catholic Church as his prime example. The normality of heaven and earth, hell and purgatory, indulgences and penances were all used by the Church to instil into the general population as to what was “normal” to expect in life . To be burnt at the stake for disagreeing on a point of theology was thought perfectly normal and deserving by the general population. He also introduced the concept of the Historic Bloc, by which change would only happen if the social and economic conditions allowed it. For example, the Bastille was stormed in 1789 during the French Revolution when bread prices were at their height. Karl Marx himself had used the concept, but it had been enhanced by Gramsci in order to explain why the Communist revolution had not been successful beyond Russia in the 1920s. Bourgeois, capitalist values as now, were seen as what is normal to aspire to in general life and the scientific socialism of Lenin had failed to shake this cultural hegemony in most countries. The fall of the Warsaw Pact countries in 1989, was described rather prematurely as the “End of History”, which of course it was not, but it did signal the “triumph” of globalised capitalism and consumerism (bourgeois, capitalist values) over those of soviet style socialism and a command economy. Recently, globalised capitalism has experienced a rather bad hangover following its victory party with the present economic meltdown which started in 2008. I do not know if Antonio Gramsci had a sense of humour but I’m sure he would have uttered a chuckle if he was still here.

An exposure to Gramsci’s ideas, fortunately or unfortunately makes you sceptical of any new cultural hegemony. The current global warming/ climate change debate has certainly become the grand narrative of the current decade. In Gramscian terms, the population is bombarded with a new orthodoxy by the modern ruling elite namely the political ruling class, environmental pressure groups portraying the most extreme apocalyptic cases and a ravenous 24 hour media anxious for scare stories which sell papers and fill schedules. The subtle change of the UK Department of Energy to that of Energy and Climate Change, betrays a revision that Antonio Gramsci, Karl Popper and George Orwell would certainly have recognised (Ministry of Truth, Peace etc). This is all despite the fact that global temperatures have been static for the past eleven years, there are no more extreme events than in the past and fewer people are killed by them, world standards of living are rising and are expected to double over the next fifty years. The certainty of the priest preaching purgatory and hell is replaced by dodgy computer models cited as scientific consensus, discredited hockey stick graphs based on cherry picked data and assorted politicians, including failed presidential candidates forecasting doom and destruction for all while they fly around the world amassing fortunes. Carbon offsets are modern day indulgences and the use of the word “denier” and “heretic” in describing those who mildly or fundamentally disagree with the consensus is reminiscent of a religious order. However, as Antonio Gramsci would have foreseen this new cultural hegemony is beginning to fail, since the general population do not wish to give up their lifestyles in more than a token way. I wonder how this will pan out over the next few months and years as we lurch towards Copenhagen and a successor to the eminently unsuccessful Kyoto Protocol.

Gwyn Alf Williams went on to become a media personality himself in several high profile television documentaries including “The Dragon has Two Tongues” with Wynford Vaughan Thomas. He also published a new and very readable history of Wales – “When was Wales”.

Despite being a life long communist Professor Williams joined Plaid Cymru in his later years since presumably he saw a new political hegemony developing in Wales, and not to forget Gramsci, a new ruling class as well. He memorably coined the description Plaid “Gwerin” Cymru to describe his late political switch.

Gwyn Alf Williams died in 1995. Even in death, he remains one of Wales’s greatest and most influential historians.


Trefor Jones

Silver Jubilee Dinner

On Friday the 23rd of October, the Society celebrated the end of its Jubilee Year with a very convivial dinner at the Glancynon Inn in Hirwaun, which was attended by thirty members . This has been a very busy period for the History Society with events ranging from a Jubilee Concert to the unveiling of a plaque to the Three Doctors of Music.

Alun makes sure he can see his talk!

The guest speaker was Mr Alun Wyn Bevan. Mr Bevan is well known both as a previous Headmaster at Ysgol Gymraeg Cwmnedd, but also as a first class rugby referee, commentator and presenter. Mr Bevan, took the story of Frank Lloyd Wright as the basis for his talk and described how this American of Welsh extraction had become the greatest architect of his period (by his own admission), most notably exemplified in the building of the Gugenheim Museum in New York. Hopefully, Mr Bevan will come and give a fuller version of the story at a lecture meeting in the near future.

Alun speaks without notes!

Mr Phylip Jones, responded on behalf of the Society. He described how the History Society had grown from a public meeting in 1983 to its present healthy position. Only three of the original members were present at the dinner, Bob and Mair Norton and himself. He noted how the nature of the membership had broadened and he complemented newcomers to the village for taking an interest in their adopted community and its history. Mr Jones finished on a very positive note in stating that he would only be 97 years old when the Golden Anniverary of the Society would be celebrated in 2033!

Mr Gwyn Thomas concluded the evening by thanking the speakers and officials for all their efforts during a momentous year.

Thomas Alfred Oaten

Thomas Alfred Oaten

Thomas Alfred Oaten, was born in Taunton and came to Wales in 1897 when 17 years old. He was apprenticed to his uncle, who was the Head Gardener at the Hendrefoilan Estate in Swansea. A few years later he joined the Glamorgan County Constabulary and became the first police constable to join a sergeant in the newly built Police Station in Neath Road in 1901. The previous Police House was at 13, Railway Terrace. More recent incumbents.

My father related many tales of his policing career. One tale told of when he dived into the River Taff at Merthyr to re-capture an escaping prisoner. He was a strong swimmer so the prisoner did not get away. There was an area of Merthyr called China Town, an infamously rough area, so the policemen had to patrol the district in pairs. When a policeman in Merthyr; on off duty weekends (usually on a Sunday) Dad would cycle to Cardiff Railway Station in order to meet his sister who would travel from Taunton for the day. There they would catch up with family news. This was quite an effort on a basic bicycle with a solid saddle. Ouch!!

Another interesting tale included an episode when he was one of the mounted escorts of a Bristol judge from Cardiff to the Swansea Crown Court and back. One of the changing posts for the horses was the Yniscollen Arms, now better known as the Rock and Fountain on the old road to Neath.

I wish I had recorded so many of his tales, alas regrettably I did not,now they are lost for ever.

Josie Duke


Editor’s note:

This article gives insight into the social state of Wales at the turn of the twentieth century covered by Dai Smith in his history of Wales, “A People and a Proletariat”. It was a society growing and also changing in nature through mass immigration to the burgeoning industries of the period. However it was also a period of industrial unrest with large police stations built throughout the south Wales coalfield in order to suppress industrial unrest and keep general order over what was a volatile social mix of largely incomers . This came to a head famously in the Cambrian dispute of 1910, which led to the riots at Tonypandy.

“China”, in Merthyr Tydfil, would today be described as a shanty town .It was an admixture of various nationalities and languages,including notably Italians. This was a real melting pot in what was one of the earliest truly industrial towns. Merthyr had passed its economic height at this point with many of six ironworks closed or relocated but China with its reputed 3,000 public houses retained its notoriety.

The reference to the Crown Court Judge is also interesting. As mentioned, there was a railway between Cardiff and Swansea, yet the judge was paraded with a mounted escort. This would seem to point to a demonstration of power by the authorities, nervous as to the social changes and showing who was really in charge in turbulent times. Was the judge on his way to the Rhondda, who knows, the dates are not specific.