Just a Quick Note – 06/10/22
Just a Quick Note
6th October 2022
The e-newsletter of the Twmbarlwm Society
Hello Folks
It would appear that Autumn is well and truly upon us – the colours on the trees of the Forest Drive and viewed from the top of Twmbarlwm are amazing – now’s the time to get up there to see.
The past few e-newsletters have been all about the Archaeological Dig and I’m afraid I’ve nothing to add to that report as yet. We hope to hold a presentation of the report when it is published by the archaeologists – I will let you know as soon as we have any news.
The blog of the dig is still online if you have missed out on what it was all about – please be sure to check it out – CLICK HERE
THE SWARD MANAGEMENT PLAN & BIO-BLITZ
… is another initiative that the society has been involved in since the wildfires of 2018 and the latest event we organised towards this scheme was the Bio-Blitz we held on 11th September. (there was more info on the plan in last month’s newsletter – available here).
The idea of the bio-blitz was to record and catalogue the flora and fauna found on the mountaintop – to help us identify the best way to manage the area in the future.
Together with Andy Karran from Gwent Wildlife Trust we organised two walks during the day and we had about 15 people join us. At the end of the day Andy had recorded over 100 different species and he will produce the results in a downloadable report later in the year – I’ll let you know when it’s available,
We invited along local experts to enlighten participants in the walks. Dave Jandrell, a local geologist, who identified and explained some of the fossils to be found on the mountain, and Andrew Morgan, who is an expert on the history of glass. Andrew’s speciality is glass bottles, particularly the sort of which we find plenty of shattered remains on the mountain – proof that the local community has been visiting the mountain for centuries as an ideal place to take their picnics.
It was a great shame that when the CTS Team arrived in the morning to host the event, the car park was strewn with rubbish and there was a large fly tip in the middle of the car park which had been set alight and was still very hot and smouldering. Our “guest experts” were very good and helped us litter pick the area before all the people who were taking part in the bio-blitz arrived. We gathered 7 or 8 bags of rubbish but could not touch the smouldering ashes of the fire – we were grateful to CCBC who came along to collect the gathered rubbish the following morning.
CLICK HERE to see some photos of this event
and here’s a link to some photographs of the last time we did a bio-blitz on Twmbarlwm
UPCOMING EVENTS
We haven’t been able to hold any talks for the past couple of years for obvious reasons – so this autumn and winter we are hoping to hold a talk every month – all with an interesting historical theme – and if we can work in a tenuous link to Twmbarlwm so much the better.
So please don’t forget this coming
Monday 10th October
we are presenting what I’m sure will be a very interesting talk on
NEWPORT CASTLE
by Will Davies of Cadw.
It’s at Crosskeys Rugby Club – the doors open at 7.00pm
See the website for more information or the attached poster – if you could print it out and display it where everyone can see it, so much the better.
Other talks we have booked include:
2nd November 2022 – Being Santa, the history of Father Christmas and life in the grotto – Roger Morgan
7th December 2022 – Christmas Quiz
1st February 2023 – The Lost Farms of Mynydd Maen – Rob Southall
1st March 2023 – The Newport Transporter Bridge – Speaker to be confirmed
5th April 2023 – The Newport Medieval Ship – Jeff Grosvenor, Friends of Newport Medieval Ship
The talks will be held at Crosskeys Rugby Club – dates and times are yet to be confirmed.
Entry will be £3 per person – or free to paid up members of the Twmbarlwm Society (you could pay £10 to become a member on the night and so get free entry to all future talks).
Visit our website https://www.twmbarlwm.co.uk for up to date information and be sure to follow our the archaeology blog to see photos and download reports as they are published.
More info available on our website.
Many Regards
TERRY EVANS
Chairman Cymdeithas Twmbarlwm Society
Address general queries to: twmbarlwmsociety@gmail.com
CLICK HERE to download this newsletter as a PDF file
These details are posted on our website and on FaceBook – but if you know of anyone who is interested but don’t get their news through the internet – could you please let them have a copy of this message.
