BRIDGEND TOWN
Send Your News To: 7 Lon-Y-Bugail, Llangewydd Court, Bridgend 01656 663041
Bridge Mentoring Plus: (Zone) Queen Street have organised as a fund-raiser a bus trip to Abergavenny Food Festival on Sunday, September 17. The cost of the trip is £12 and will leave Cheapside, Brackla Street. The time of departure is yet to be decided, if you wish to reserve seats contact Manuala Hiett on 07505 530567 or Sara Grinnell at Bridgend Mentoring Plus on 01656 647891.
Play Scheme: Once again this summer, BCBC supported by Bridgend Town Council are running a free school holiday play-scheme. Active 4 Life offers youngsters aged 6 to 12 the chance to enjoy sports, games, arts, and creative activities. All of the sessions are free and parents/guardians will need to complete registration forms on each day.
Held at Bridgend Life Centre the scheme will run until Friday, August 25, and sessions are daily Monday to Friday from 10am to 2pm. Full details of all the summer programme activities can to found at www.bridgend. gov.uk/schoolsout.
Bridgend Residents: Young and older, are taking part in a World War II heritage project that will ensure we do not lose the stories of our past generations.
The people of Bridgend are welcome to attend the second Community Drop-In day at Carnegie House (former Library) Wyndham Street on Saturday, September 9 between 11am and 2pm.
The War Time reenactment event which took place recently by Bridgend Town Council attracted more than 3,000 people to Bridgend Town Centre.
The project is working with schools and communities in the town to gather new evidence of people’s experiences of the war, in the form of oral histories, photographs and memorabilia.
These will be recorded by a team of young history students from Bryntirion Comprehensive, who are being trained as historians.
One of Year 12 pupils involved, James Taylor, who is also a member of the Air Cadets, said:“This project is so important because it’s creating a local archive for Bridgend to help us preserve this information for generations to come, so its not lost.
“We have grand histories but we also want to remember local histories about the people of this place”.
Other key outcomes of the project will be a new website, which will connect to The People’s Collection of Wales and a short heritage walkway in Bridgend town centre with information panels on Island Farm, Royal Ordnance Factories in Brackla and Waterton, RAF Stormy Down and HMS Urge.
John Dunkley-Williams, Local and Family History librarian at Ty’r Ardd, added: “Bridgend has an incredibly rich history that is largely unknown, going from one of the four main market towns of South Wales in its day, through the industrial revolution, hosting a good 30 coal mines or so, to a quiet suburb, conveniently situated between two cities.
“Projects like this one that bring in young people, gives us an opportunity not only to celebrate but to educate and make sure all of this local history is never forgotten”.
Please follow the project on Facebook Wartime Bridgend page or get in touch with the Project Manager Tracy Evans on wartimebridgend@gmail. com.
This project is supported by Bridgend Town Council and Heritage Lottery Fund.
Bridgend Male Choir: The men hold their next public performance, a Concert in Aid of Breast Cancer Wales at the Royal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells on Saturday, August 19.
The choir will be in concert with Builth Wells Ladies Choir and soprano Sally Ann Kingsbury. The concert commences at 7.30pm with tickets at £5.
A lifelong lover of music Debbie Nichol attended the recent performance of Bridgend Male Choir’s concert at St David’s Hall and here is her report.
“There are few times in life when you can say you were ‘there’. I was there last night at the Welsh Proms in St David’s Hall, Cardiff to hear the wonderful trophy-winning Cory Band playing a selection of melodies by composers including Verdi, Arnold, Respighi and Tchaikovsky.
“Accompanying the band was a massed male choir just shy of 200 voices, comprising the Bridgend Male Choir, Cardiff Arms Park Male Choir, Ogmore Valley Male Choirs and Côr Meibion Morlais under the everattentive baton of the charismatic Owain Arwel Hughes CBE.
“In essence, quite a tour de force of Welsh musical tradition gathered in one place.
“The pride, passion and commitment shown by these choirs who, sung their hearts out showing a depth of feeling the singers from the gentle contemplation of Parry’s Myfanwy to the rousing verses of Hartsough’s Gwahoddiad.
“A sense of time and tradition invoked in every melodic phrase and turn music that seems as familiar, comforting and deep-rooted as the communities from which it emanates, with a real sense of community, wonderful, spirited men singing with their musical brothers to bring the audience into their wide and loving family.
“Honest, simple, straightforward singing from the heart and the soul, and we were blessed just to see and hear it. The singing was made even more poignant as we shared in the tribute to Owain Arwel Hughes’ daughter Lisa, who passed away just a month ago with breast cancer.
“That Hughes was even on the platform conducting the band and choir such a short time after an unimaginably sad family event was remarkable enough in itself.
“But to hear the dedication to Lisa in the form of Eli Jenkin’s Prayer (Troyte’s Sunset Poem) sung by the massed choir and conducted by Hughes himself was possibly one of the most moving musical experiences I’ve ever had. It was a real privilege to say I was there.”
Many thanks to Debbie who, is not only a lifelong lover of music, and who, when not working as a freelance marketing specialist in Bristol, sings with a chamber choir and a barbershop quartet. Thanks again Debbie.