{"id":930,"date":"2011-04-22T23:47:38","date_gmt":"2011-04-22T20:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.garwheritage.co.uk\/?p=930"},"modified":"2017-08-16T00:59:04","modified_gmt":"2017-08-15T21:59:04","slug":"always-a-garw-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.garwheritage.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=930","title":{"rendered":"Always a Garw Boy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Keith.A.Brocklebank.\u00a0 BA (Hons;) A.R.P.S.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Archivist for \u201cThe Garw Heritage Society\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I was born on 17th of November 1938, one of ten children living in a three bedroom house in Lower Church Street.\u00a0 It was a bit of a squeeze but we managed as we had to then.\u00a0 I remember my first day at school in Pontycymmer Infants in Ivor Street, at 4 years old my sister Ruth took me.\u00a0 She had a handful of old pennies and halfpennies to pay for me to have milk.<\/p>\n

There was a big rocking horse in the corner of the class which was a lot taller than us, if you were good you could have a ride on it.\u00a0 Our teachers name was Miss Maddocks, who was Mr.Merlin Maddocks\u2019 Aunty, she was strict with us even at 4 years old.\u00a0 The house opposite the main gates had a front garden with a rose bush in it and I still remember the smell of that rose that hung over the wall.<\/p>\n

When I was about 8 years old I went to the boys school, which is no longer there.\u00a0 It used to be below the Secondary Modern, later to become the Garw Grammar School and now Ysgol Cwm Garw.\u00a0 It was strange at first as there were only boys, though the Infants school was mixed. Some of the boys looked huge to me and it was a bit frightening as I was very small.\u00a0 I remember the woodwork teacher well Mr.Stan Evans, he was really good at his job.\u00a0 I was very good at making things thanks to him and it became my favourite subject.\u00a0 It put me in good stead for later on in life at DIY, and it saved me a lot of money over the years.<\/p>\n

We loved our play times, one of the games nearly all the younger boys played was marbles.\u00a0 We used to have pockets of them by winning the games.\u00a0 One big boy used to play for me and he was good, we called him \u201cGinger\u201d Holmes because of his red hair.\u00a0 I never did find out his first name.\u00a0 On games day we would play rugby in the Winter months and cricket in the others.\u00a0 We had one teacher who was in his early 20\u2019s who used to take us in cricket his name was Mr.David \u201cBonker\u201d Morgans.\u00a0 He loved to bat and would hit the ball all over the school yard, laughing at us running all over the place, until we had one boy who started school at a later age his name was Gerald Jones.\u00a0 He was a really good fast bowler, this annoyed \u201cBonker\u201d Morgans as he couldn’t bat against him.\u00a0 Gerald was too fast and \u201cBonker\u201d wouldn\u2019t allow him to bowl.\u00a0 This was where his bad sportsmanship showed.\u00a0 He was a childish teacher, as he always had to win, if he didn\u2019t he would sometimes stop the game and make us go back into class.<\/p>\n

Money was very short so we children had few or no toys.\u00a0 We were taught from a very young age to save.\u00a0 I used to have a little book to stick 1d (0.5p) stamps in and when I had 12, I could get a national savings stamp book that held 6d (2.5p) stamps.\u00a0 This was big league saving.\u00a0 With this training that my mother had given me, I was able to save and buy things later in life without having to borrow.<\/p>\n

We used to make our own fun building \u201cshanties\u201d (small sheds) up on the mountain, out of clods of earth and old corrugated iron sheets.\u00a0 We would then have a small fireplace in it to boil anything we could lay our hands on, such as potatoes, blackberries, rhubarb and gooseberries.\u00a0 These we used to get from an old allotment that we thought had been neglected.\u00a0 We had many a stomach ache after eating our concoctions.<\/p>\n

One day I was in what I thought was nobody\u2019s allotment picking gooseberries, and was chased by an old man shouting that it was his allotment.\u00a0 I jumped through a hole in the hedge and ran home sneaking in and going straight upstairs.\u00a0 I started to play quietly, the Cornet that I played in the Salvation Army Band, as I knew the man would follow me home.\u00a0 He lived not far from our house.\u00a0 About 5 minutes later there was a knock at the door, my mother answered it and there was this Mr Gronnow.\u00a0 He told my Mother the story about the gooseberries and my mother replied that I hadn’t been out as I was practicing on my cornet all afternoon upstairs.\u00a0 That was what she honestly thought and she had convinced Mr.Gronnow.\u00a0 I, was a good boy really.<\/p>\n

Another pastime we had was building \u201cgambo\u2019s\u201d which we sat on and rode down the paths of the mountain into the street below.\u00a0 We used to have races with pit stops just like they have in Formula 1 today.\u00a0 We didn’t change wheels though as they were hard to come by, you were really lucky if you could find 4 wheels the same size to fit your gambo. \u00a0We had the run of the place in those days as there was only 1 car in the whole of the street.\u00a0 We could play anywhere in complete safety, and didn’t have to worry about traffic or being accosted.<\/p>\n

Another of our favourite games was \u201cTin Can Copper\u201d, played with a tin of course.\u00a0 The person who was \u201cOn It\u201d would have to find the ones who were hiding.\u00a0 If they caught someone they would have to hit the tin on the ground and shout \u201cTin Can Copper\u201d and the persons name they had spotted, they were then out of the game, unless one of the other persons hiding could get to the Tin first (which was in the middle of the road)\u00a0 before the \u201cOn It\u201d person and throw it as far as possible to release the ones who were caught.<\/p>\n

It was a happy childhood even with all the hidings we had for not doing what we were told as our upbringing was strict at home and in school.<\/p>\n

Later on in the year we used to start collecting for \u201cBonfire Night\u201d November 5th.\u00a0 We, mostly boys, would start collecting at the end of September.\u00a0 Rubbish was collected from the shops in Oxford street and by the time Bonfire night came there would be a huge pile of car tyres, trees, logs, mattress\u2019s and all kinds of other combustible material.\u00a0 What pennies we had earned doing errands were saved to buy fireworks.\u00a0 Most of which would be bangers as they were the cheapest firework.\u00a0 The fires used to be all over the valley and there was a competitive spirit to see who could get the biggest.\u00a0 Needless to say, our rivals would try to set ours alight before Bonfire night.\u00a0 We had to be on our guard most nights leading up to the 5th.\u00a0 This was all part of the fun and we thoroughly enjoyed it.<\/p>\n

One old character named Evan \u201cLlandovery\u201d, I never heard his surname spoken, used to parade up and down Oxford and Meadow Streets.\u00a0 He was always dressed in a torn trilby hat and an old dirty gabardine raincoat tied with cord around the waist.\u00a0 His shoes had holes in the bottoms and his socks\u00a0 had holes big enough to put your fist through.\u00a0 He would shuffle back and fore the streets with\u00a0his arms going like a steam engine action, every now and then he would mark a cross on the road with a piece of chalk.\u00a0 This was to protect the area from being bombed by the Germans he said.\u00a0 It was he who stopped them from bombing the Congregational Church, as it was the church that he lived near.\u00a0 Children would stop him in the street to ask him how many stars would be out tonight Evan, and he would reply 67 or a similar number, as he wasn\u2019t quite a full shilling as the saying goes.<\/p>\n

He was only a small built man but was very fit for his age (55 to 60).\u00a0 When a miner had his free ton of coal delivered, a lot of them used to have Evan Llandovery to take it in for them.\u00a0 He charged half-a-crown or 2s 6d (12.5p) to carry it in through their houses to the coal cwtch in the back.\u00a0 This was really hard work as it had to be filled into buckets and carried in most cases up a dozen or more steps.\u00a0 He would do this 6 to 8 times in a day.\u00a0 Most of his money was given to the church he worshipped in (Noddfa) as he was a bachelor with no known relatives.<\/p>\n

The coal he put in was delivered by horse and cart.\u00a0 The haulier in charge would have a team of two or three horses depending how steep the hills were.\u00a0 They would be linked together one in front of the other and would almost gallop at the hill to get a good start.\u00a0 All of the hills had a cobbled section from bottom to top, which was about six feet wide.\u00a0 This was so the horses could get a good grip going up the hills.\u00a0 When they got to the delivery point, the haulier would unhitch the horses leaving one to pull the cart back to the colliery.\u00a0 The other one or two horses would then stroll off down the street back to the colliery on their own.<\/p>\n

The Pontycymmer Cooperative also had horses.\u00a0 They were a big shop for it\u2019s time, with 22 branch shops.\u00a0 They also had their own bakery in Meadow Street where Merlin Maddock\u2019s Magic Workshop is now.\u00a0 There were two double doors in the building for loading the bread carts with bread and cakes.\u00a0 These doors used to be left ajar sometimes to allow the bread and cakes to cool off.\u00a0 We children used to seize on the opportunity to get a free cake as we could never afford to buy one.\u00a0 The bakers used to shout at us but never chased or reported us as they knew we would only have one cake.\u00a0 In 1947 when we had the heaviest snow on record, in two nights 4 feet of snow fell.\u00a0 There was no traffic on the streets only horses pulling sleds with either milk or bread.\u00a0 Everything was centred on the bakehouse in Meadow Street and\u00a0 everyone had to go there for their supplies.<\/p>\n

At Christmas time they used to cook the poultry for the Housewives as they had big ovens that were empty during the day but still had to be kept warm with coke fires.\u00a0 This was both economical and made sense as it took a long time to cook poultry in those days with coal fired ovens in the houses.<\/p>\n

All houses had coal fires, which were nice and warm while you sat by them but if you moved away it was cold.\u00a0 They had to be lit every morning with paper and stick, but before that you had to rise the ashes from the day before which was a dirty job.\u00a0 The dust used to go everywhere when you put them into the ash bucket.\u00a0 If you had forgotten to dry the sticks the night before you had one hell of a job to get the fire going.\u00a0 The ashes were then put out in the street every day for the \u201cAshman\u201d to collect in his cart.\u00a0 He used to be covered in ash.\u00a0 When he had to go down the hill in front of where I lived to High Street, he would hang on the back of the 2 wheeled cart and lean under the cart to wind the brake on so it wouldn\u2019t run away.<\/p>\n

When I visited the Garw after being away for a few years the first thing I noticed was most of the chimneys had gone.\u00a0 There was little or no smoke coming from the remaining chimney pots.<\/p>\n

Another person with a \u201cnick\u201d name was the local undertaker Griffith Jones, or otherwise known as \u201cDai Coffin\u201d.\u00a0 He was a very well dressed person and always had a pleasant personality.\u00a0 One of my friends who lived near him in The Avenue used to lie in the coffins to hold them still while they were being sanded down.\u00a0 In those days the undertaker made his own coffins.\u00a0 Anyone who had passed away would have their names and addresses put on the wooden lampposts to say when their funeral was taking place.\u00a0 Very few people were cremated then, it was all burials and not one complained.<\/p>\n

At the time of the eleven plus examinations, I was in what was the Ffaldau Girls School, which had become Ffaldau Mixed, now the Ffaldau Junior School.\u00a0 All schools were mixed from 1948.\u00a0 When I was 11years old I passed the exam for the Garw Grammar School.\u00a0 This was a big thing then as it was a chance of a better education.\u00a0 To me it was the worst time of my life.\u00a0 From day one I was treated by the headmaster of the time as one of the poorer children who were looked down on.\u00a0 Time after time he blamed me for things that I hadn\u2019t done, and was caned regularly.\u00a0 I can remember on more than one occasion having 15 canes in one go, 5 on each hand.\u00a0 You then had to open the big oak door of the headmasters study, which had a big shiny brass knob, your hands throbbing with pain, to fetch a chair from the hall to have another 5 on the buttocks.\u00a0 Then return the chair to the main hall, going through the pain of opening the door again, so everyone knew what had happened, but I would never cry.\u00a0 This made me rebel and I no longer wanted to be in that school.<\/p>\n

I had a job when I was 13 years old as a goods delivery boy for the Star grocers in Oxford Street.\u00a0 I had to carry all the goods I delivered as the Manager of the Star was too tight to have the shop bike repaired, it required a new tyre but was too expensive he said.\u00a0 One of my deliveries was to Fforchwen Farm, which I had to deliver to on Friday nights and Saturday mornings.\u00a0 This was up past the cemetery and over the top of the hill for about a quarter of a mile.\u00a0 There were a number of times when I was chased by young bullocks across the fields and had to throw the box of goods over the fence and jump after them.\u00a0 Mrs.Hopkin would ask me how the bag of sugar had burst and when I told her about the bullocks she would just laugh and say \u201cThey won\u2019t hurt you bachan they are only playing\u201d.\u00a0 I used to tell her I didn\u2019t like playing with things weighing half a ton as I was only 6 stone. This took my mind off the time I was having at school.<\/p>\n

As soon as I was 15years old I stopped going to school and played snooker in the Pontycymmer Institute until I could officially leave school in December 1953.\u00a0 I became very good at playing billiards and used to play against the miners in their Christmas tournaments.\u00a0 I had a friend David Trigg from Waun Bant who was also as good as myself and we would share our winnings.\u00a0 These could be either money or boxes of chocolates.\u00a0 We became so good that we would have to give our opponents a start of 40 in a game up to 100.\u00a0 But we would still beat them, this helped me with my Xmas presents for my family.<\/p>\n

Summer times were happy times as the weather was better.\u00a0 We would have periods of 5 to 6 weeks of hot sunshine.\u00a0 That was when the Garw used to have big Carnivals.\u00a0 There would be lots of floats with people on and lots more on foot.\u00a0 Jazz Bands were all the go then.\u00a0 They used to come from miles around to compete against the local Jazz Bands.\u00a0 The competitions would go on all day, long after the carnival had finished.<\/p>\n

We had street parties, and someone would take charge of collecting the monies.\u00a0 Everyone could be trusted then and we never locked our doors at night or when we went out.\u00a0 One party we had was for \u201cThe Festival Of Britain\u201d in 1951.\u00a0 It was more or less to celebrate Britain arising again after the war.\u00a0 My brother Tony and I took photos of the party and processed them ourselves (black and white only, no colour then).\u00a0 We sold them at 4d (1.5p) each and made nearly \u00a32.00 which was a nice sum.\u00a0 That was when I became interested in photography, I was 13 years old.\u00a0 I graduated in Photography and computer imaging some 54 years later at Glamorgan University.<\/p>\n

I started work as a miner on the 27th of December 1953 and first went down a pit on 1st of January 1954.\u00a0 It was the Wyndham colliery in the Ogmore Valley where I had to do 3 months training at the training centre called \u201cNewmarket\u201d near to the colliery.\u00a0 For a young boy of 15 it was very exciting, I felt as though I was now a grownup.\u00a0 My wages for the week was \u00a32\u00a0 2s\u00a0 6d (\u00a32.12.5p) when at the training center and \u00a31\u00a0 19s\u00a0 6d (\u00a31.97.5p) when in the NCB school.\u00a0 I used to walk over the mountain from Pontycymmer to Ogmore training center to save the 10 shillings (50p) I had to pay bus fare per week.\u00a0 I did that for 10 weeks in the rain and snow.<\/p>\n

The NCB school became a big part of my life as I was now able to study what I chose.\u00a0 I continued with my schooling until I was 30, as I had a number of breaks from it.\u00a0 I gradually worked my way up on the courses to a level where I was to go to University to sit my Managers certificate.<\/p>\n

I started in the Ffaldau in March 1954 as a boy on the training coalface with a man called Cyril Eynon, he was a really good worker and taught me a lot.\u00a0 We had to do 3 months coalface training and then went on to the production face with a \u201cButty\u201d (Your Workmate).\u00a0 I was put to work with Robert Swift, his sister was the local nurse in the surgery who was a good person to know.\u00a0 We had to cut and load 6 yards of coal per shift by hand, which was approximately 20 tons as the 6 yards was a block of coal 6x2x2 yards.<\/p>\n

When we were afternoon shift, we worked extra hard to clear our coal (called a stint) so that we could go out of the pit early.\u00a0 The only way you could go up the pit when they were winding coal, was if you were ill or had an accident so my Butty used to say he was ill.\u00a0 That was where his sister the nurse was a good person to know.\u00a0 I would have to go to the surgery the morning after we came home early and ask her for a doctors paper to say her brother was ill the day before.\u00a0 This would save him being cropped wages for coming out early.\u00a0 At the end of the week on Fridays we would be paid and if you had good a \u201cButty\u201d he would give you \u201cTrumps\u201d. \u00a0That was for helping him to clear his \u201cStint\u201d of coal every day and it could mean you getting \u00a31.10s.0d (\u00a31.50p) to \u00a32.0s.0d (\u00a32.00p) extra if you were a good worker.<\/p>\n

I did this until I was 17 years old and then went on to nights as I didn\u2019t like the thick black dust on dayshifts and I could get some piecework on nights, which to explain was, you got paid by the amount of work you did.\u00a0 I could earn up to \u00a316\u00a0 0s\u00a0 0d (\u00a316.00p) on nights, this was an outstanding wage for a 17year old.\u00a0 I soon saved up enough money to buy my uncle\u2019s motorbike, this was the thrill of my life.\u00a0 When I passed my test I was able to carry a pillion passenger, \u201cgirls look out\u201d.\u00a0 I met a number of fellow bikers in the next few years and we used to race off to Barry Island at weekends to go roller skating as there were plenty of girls there.\u00a0 We also used to go over to Maesteg in the next Valley quite a lot, where there was a little cafe called \u201cThe Mercury Cafe\u201d that had a juke box and it was there that I met my wife Nesta, and we have been married for 50 years on the 1st of July 2011, with 3 children, 7 grandchildren and 1 great grand daughter.<\/p>\n

My biking career came to sudden stop one day on Shwt bridge when I hit a car head on, and it was not my fault.\u00a0 Luckily I only broke my nose and a few scratches, but I decided that was enough and 3 weeks later I bought my first car.\u00a0 It was a Morris Minor, 1949 model and at the time you could drive without a competent driver by your side as The Suez crisis was on going, in 1956 Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser had blocked the Suez Canal by sinking ships in it.\u00a0 Petrol was rationed but it was still easy to get without coupons at Billy Braunds\u2019 garage in Lluest.\u00a0 Petrol was only 1s 6d (7.5p) a gallon until the crisis in the Suez Canal, this caused the tanker ships to have to go around the Cape of South Africa, they were only around 80,000 tons .\u00a0 This made the price go up to 2s 6d (12.5p) per gallon.\u00a0 I still have an unused book of coupons today.\u00a0 The tankers now are around 300,000 tons.<\/p>\n

My first outing in my car was with my girl friend (now my wife) to Porthcawl.\u00a0 The car used 5 pints of oil to get there and back, the smoke screen behind us was really thick.\u00a0 It cost me \u00a313\u00a0 10s\u00a0 5d (\u00a313.52) to have the engine completely overhauled, from valves to big ends with Billy Braund.\u00a0 After that she was one of the best cars I have ever had, we went everywhere in it.\u00a0 There no modern comforts in it, in winter time the passengers had a blanket over them.\u00a0 I had to get out to clean the windscreen every so often.\u00a0 The indicators were little flag type things that used to flick up from the side of the doors.<\/p>\n

By the time I was 22 plans were made to get married.\u00a0 We had very little money \u00a350.00 to be exact, but that didn\u2019t deter us.\u00a0 We were going to live in apartments with my parents, but 3 months before our wedding day my mother passed away.\u00a0 It was her last wish that we went ahead with our arrangements.\u00a0 On 1st of July 1961 we were married in Llangynwyd Church, the wedding reception cost me (as I was paying, my mother-in-law was a widow) \u00a326. 12s 6d (\u00a326.62p) in the Victoria Hotel Maesteg.<\/p>\n

We lived in Pontycymmer in Lower Church Street for the next 4 years and had 2 children while we were there.<\/p>\n

I was still following my schooling having 1 day a week release from work to attend, with full pay.\u00a0 By the time I was 23 I had my Fireman\u2019s Certificate which allowed me to do the work of one when I was 24.\u00a0 I was then in charge of a coalface and the men working on it.\u00a0 I had to book them in and make sure of their safety during the shift.\u00a0 They got their name (Firemen) from the early years when they used to set fire to the accumulations of methane gas in the coalface, they used to cover themselves in wet sacks and crawl to where the gas pockets were and ignite them with a naked flame on a long stick.\u00a0 This was highly dangerous and caused a number of fatalities.\u00a0 Later on came the \u201cDavy Lamp\u201d which could detect the methane without causing an explosion, the fireman could then put up tarred sheets (called brattice sheets) to direct the airflow to clear the gas safely.\u00a0 They are no longer called firemen but Deputies to the Manager.<\/p>\n

I did about a year shotfiring which was a responsible job as you were using high explosives.\u00a0 You had to charge the holes that the miners bored in the rock and coal with the explosives and fire the \u201cShots\u201d to release the coal and rock for filling, this again was a satisfying job as you didn\u2019t have to clear the mess you made.\u00a0 All these jobs had one big drawback, dust which all miners suffered from.<\/p>\n

In December 1965 I moved to Yorkshire to work, to get experience as a Deputy and for my studies to be a Manager, with power loading of coal as they were more mechanised than in Wales.\u00a0 I lived in Knottingley and worked at Kellingley Colliery known locally as \u201cBig K\u201d.\u00a0 Their weekly output was 45,000 tons, it was a very dusty pit and the Deputies had very little experience of gas in the coalface, which until I drew their attention to it, had never seen a deputies lamp blow out with the gas inside it (about 4%).\u00a0 They had all kinds of machinery and the amount of coal that one coalface could produced in a week (11,500 tons) was more than one colliery in the Garw produced in two weeks.\u00a0 I stayed for nearly 3 years and then moved back to Wales and our 3rd child was born in Maesteg Hospital.<\/p>\n

I worked as an overman at the Ffaldau colliery for 12 weeks under a Mr.Burton who was the manager, but had to move to Coegnant Colliery in Maesteg as we had bought a house there (my wife was from Maesteg) – no contest.\u00a0 I was still studying with the Coal Board and hoped to go to University for my Managers Certificate but my hopes were dashed when I quarreled with the manager.\u00a0 When it came time for me to go to University I had to appear in front of a panel to get my release from work for University and that is where the Manager Mr.Elvid Morgans stepped in and stopped me, he was one of the panel.\u00a0 I promptly told him where to stick his job and went straight down to The Bridgend Paper Mills and got a job there.<\/p>\n

They say once a miner always a miner and that is correct in the majority of cases as we all love to talk about our mining years.\u00a0 I loved working underground and the men who worked alongside of me.\u00a0 The camaraderie could never be found anywhere else.\u00a0 It was the same for the Garw Valley, the people were so friendly and helpful.<\/p>\n

One night we had a really bad storm with heavy rain, there was a knock at our door and a neighbour said come quick Bert Davies\u2019s garden had slid down into his back yard and lean to kitchen.\u00a0 Within 10 minutes there were 8 of us with picks and shovels clearing the landslip.\u00a0 It was completely cleared in 2 hours, Bert was speechless as he hadn\u2019t expected help so soon.\u00a0 That was the kind of neighbourliness that was all over the Valley back in the 1960\u2019s.\u00a0 My heart will always be in the Garw Valley.<\/p>\n

Working in the Paper Mill was a whole new world to me.I had never worked above ground before and found it strange for a while but soon got used to it.\u00a0 The work I was doing was a piece of cake compared to underground.\u00a0 I ate my food at break time with clean hands for the first time in 17 years and could go home clean without having to shower at the end of the shift, but I still showered as I still can\u2019t break the habit to this present day.\u00a0 When I first started in the Mill I worked in production making paper.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t like it at all and took a job in the diesel generating plant which was more to my liking.\u00a0 The work was interesting but the people I had to work with were nothing like the men underground.\u00a0 There was no camaraderie at all, you had to be on your guard all the time or they would shop you to your boss for the slightest thing.<\/p>\n

I worked there for 13 and half years until the plant closed and then went up into the paper converting part of the mill.\u00a0 This again was to my liking as it involved machinery.\u00a0 I worked with the fitters changing over the machines as the production required, either toilet rolls or kitchen rolls.\u00a0 I found it very therapeutic and learned a lot about the paper industry.<\/p>\n

In1993 I had to finish through ill health as I could no longer do the bending and lifting required, through and old accident to my back.\u00a0 I also had dust (pneumoconiosis) from my 17 years underground which makes me short of breath.<\/p>\n

I felt a little lost at first in retirement until I went back to night school and took up photography again.\u00a0 I passed 5 City And Guilds Certificates all with distinctions, and then went on to do my HNC and HND certificates.\u00a0 I then went to Glamorgan University to do my BA (Hons;) degree in Photography and computers (Photoshop) and graduated in June 2005 at 67 years old.\u00a0 Since then I have done some teaching and a lot of voluntary work which involves quite a bit of photography and going into schools to teach.<\/p>\n

Since coming back to the Garw (I still live in Maesteg) doing voluntary work with my wife, and I became interested in the Chernobyl Children\u2019s Lifeline.\u00a0 Through them we have been host parents to a young boy from Chernobyl and hope to keep on doing so until we are no longer able to do it.\u00a0 The feeling of satisfaction when you see their faces after they are given the smallest of presents is tremendous.\u00a0 They are the most grateful children I have ever seen.\u00a0 I am hoping to go over to Chernobyl to their orphanage this year, 2011, to photograph the horrendous conditions they have to endure through everything being radioactive.\u00a0 Then I hope to convince more people to help these forgotten children.<\/p>\n

I have also become the Archivist for The Garw Valley Heritage Society which involves photography and manipulating photographs for the archiving.\u00a0 This I thoughroughly enjoy as no one can tell me what to do, I am my own boss at last.\u00a0 We are busy collecting all the old photographs we can lay our hands on (to be returned if requested), and it is my job to copy and save them to our archive for the youth of today to be able to see and use.\u00a0 We are finding that the really young children are very enthusiastic about our archive as they have never seen a working colliery.\u00a0 Some don\u2019t even know what coal is like.\u00a0 We are currently on a program of going into the valley schools to give talks on mining and the local heritage, using our large archive of photographs.<\/p>\n

Keith.A.Brocklebank.\u00a0 BA (Hons;) A.R.P.S.<\/p>\n

Archivist for \u201cThe Garw Heritage Society\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n


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By Keith.A.Brocklebank.\u00a0 BA (Hons;) A.R.P.S. Archivist for \u201cThe Garw Heritage Society\u201d I was born on 17th of November 1938, one of ten children living in a three bedroom house in Lower Church Street.\u00a0 It was a bit of a squeeze but we managed as we had to then.\u00a0 I remember my first day at school…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-stories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.garwheritage.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Self-portrait-plus-snail.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.garwheritage.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.garwheritage.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.garwheritage.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.garwheritage.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.garwheritage.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=930"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/www.garwheritage.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2907,"href":"http:\/\/www.garwheritage.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions\/2907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.garwheritage.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.garwheritage.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.garwheritage.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.garwheritage.co.uk\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}