PORTHCAWL

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David Newton-Williams

42 Suffolk Place, Porthcawl, CF36 3EB. 01656 451844 davidnewtonwilliams1929@gmail.com

Griffin Park Table Top Sale: The Grifin Park Table Top Sale is back in a Covid safe form on Fridays with the usual stalls and facilities.

Doors open at 8.30am and then it is open until lunchtime.

If you want a table to sell things yourself, then tables are available at £5 per event and information on this and other events in Griffin Park can be obtained by contacting Barry Morse on 07883 065 507.

I am also told that they hold other events in Griffin Park including exercise classes for people who have undergone hip surgery.

I also believe that there is a branch of the Food Bank organized there on a Tuesday (I believe) which runs in parallel with the one in the YMCA in John Street.

Kenfig Nature Reserve: The Kenfig Nature Reserve is now under new management and beginning to take shape again.

There is an Open Day being held on the site on Saturday, July 3, when from 10.30am, you and I can go along and see what has been done so far and find out what plans they have for the future.

Book News: I know that I talked about books that I had found in the Garage last week; but one I am still looking for is called ‘Ben Evans:

The Hermit of Kenfig’ tells the tale of a onetime colliery timberman from Kenfig Hill.

Ben Evans was a one time a colliery ‘timberman’ who following a visit to the area chose to live there in a series of huts and dugouts that he built himself in the sands of Kkenfig and where he lived for some 15 years.

To quote from the book, ‘I have been here for 10 years’, he said, ‘twice my lair has been destroyed by fire but there is an old saying that there are three tries for a Welshman – so this is number three and as you see this time it is a dug-out.

‘I was born at Kenfig Hill and I never married.

‘I worked as a timberman for 40 years and then one day I decided that civilized life no longer held attractions for me, so I left and came here to live with nature.

‘I have discovered that life is full of beautiful things he said, and I am very happy.

‘I have the ‘old age’, and all my needs are satisfied.’

He hunted for rabbits and he fished off the beach and exchanged his catch with local farmers for vegetables.

He lived happily there with two feral cats.

He walked over to Port Talbot on a Monday to collect his pension and he always called into Bendall’s, the Ironmongers in Taibach for a cup of tea on the way home.

He dug a well for water and became fully self-sufficient.

There are photographs of him in ‘The Prince’ in Kenfig, but it would be nice if he could be remembered somehow in the centre.

The Veteran’s Hub: This is an organization set up to enable ex-servicemen to meet with their peers and get advice on issues that they might come up against in ‘civvy street’.

It works closely with other service organizations including the Royal British Legion, the RAFA and SAAFA.

Up until lockdown they had been meeting in the Community Building by the tennis courts in Griffin Park; but because of H&S issues with the floor, they had to find other premises.

Luckily, they have now been given the opportunity to move into the Bowl’s Pavilion in Griffen Park which is only a hundred yards away if that.

They meet on a Saturday morning at 10am and are there until lunchtime so any one of you who was in the services either as National Servicemen or indeed as Regulars and would like to meet up with others who have been in the services then this is the place for you.

A bacon roll and a hot cup of tea await you in the Bowl’s Pavilion in Griffin Park every Saturday morning.

National Blood Service: I’ve reported before that all our favourite charities are struggling for donations and some will never make up the loss, meaning that research will suffer.

But it should also be noted that the National Blood Donor Service is suffering and has had to reorganize – there are now fewer centres open and different opening times, but those of you who have been regular donors please get back in touch with the service to start donating again and remember, you can’t catch the virus from the process.

I was delighted to see in the national press the other day that the public fund set up to develop a National Memorial and Book of Remembrance in

West Minster Abbey for those who tragically died of the Covid virus has now passed its target figure of £2.2m.

I still think that we should be seriously considering a similar memorial here in Wales and no better place could be found than the Welsh National Botanical Gardens in Llanarthne.

‘More of G&S is Possible’: So said the headline on one of the countries favourite tabloids one day last week.

I must admit I wondered who had told them that the Mid Glamorgan Savoyards were putting on a production of The Mikado for one night only this coming November.

I was halfway down the column when I realized it wasn’t about the Mikado at all – it was actually about Porthcawl’s own ‘Funny Girl’ Ruth Jones and whether they were going to produce another episode (or two) of Gavin and Stacy.

Personally, I hope they do.

I came to that G&S late in the series, but I must admit I enjoyed each episode more as the series progressed and I can certainly empathise with Uncle Bryn.

Let’s go back to my original thoughts though. ‘What’s occurring?’

Well, the MGS is rehearsing on Zoom for a one-off production of The Mikado in the Grand Pavilion here in Porthcawl on Saturday, November 20.

You know! The one with ‘Three Little Maids From School’ and ‘I’ve Got a Little List’ in.

I don’t think the box office is open yet but I will let you know when I find out.

The MGS under their MD Roger Hudd, have produced one show a year for nearly 20 years now and raised almost £60,000 for charity in that time.

So if you want to see a great show with a stage cast of over 40, a pit chorus of nearly the same number and a full orchestra of 26 players then be at The Grand Pavilion on November 20.

Computers For Schools: Steve

Flett and some of his colleagues in the computer repair business have got together and repaired and reprogrammed some 60 odd tablets, laptops etc and passed them on to local schools.

So if any of you out there have a tablet or a laptop you don’t need let me know and I will pass them on to Steve for you.