School Workshops

All of the 'pre-animation' workshops have now taken place.

Geraint Williams and Ivor Williams met with the children in Tirdeunaw school on Tuesday 26 March and Geraint and I met with the children in Bryn Tawe on Thursday 28 March.  They all know have lots of information about Daniel James which they will be using in conjunction with the animation company Turnip Starfish.  Gwenno Ffrancon also visited Bryn Tawe where she inspired the children with her talk on their forthcoming work with the animation.

In addition to the above, some of the project team were put to the test on Friday 22 March by pupils from Tirdeunaw.  We were quizzed on topics which included Daniel James (of course), Mynyddbach Chapel and local history.  It was a great effort by Ivor, Geraint, Kate, Catrin and myself and of course the pupils!  They took lots of notes and were really interested in the topics and were well informed.  They had already been out to visit some of the sites of interest and shared their information with us.

The next steps for the project will be the animation after the Easter holidays so things seem to be moving at a fast pace.

Gwyrosydd School Visit

I went back in time to Gwyrosydd School last Friday 22 March - it is where I attended school as an infant and a junior!  

Geraint Williams, Catrin Haines Davies and I spoke to a class of children about Daniel James.  This group are going to be involved in the animation process.  I had prepared some slides giving information on different aspects of Daniel James's life  and we used these to illustrate our talk.  The children were very interested and asked lots of questions.  They are going to be doing some further research on Daniel James before the animation day and will be using the slides and this blog as part of their research activities.

School Workshops

The project team is looking forward to forthcoming workshops at:

 

•  Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg, Tirdeunaw
•  Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bryn Tawe
•   Gwyrosydd Primary School

These will take place in the next two weeks with the children and the project team focusing on the research completed and gathering information together for the animation.  These workshops are an important milestone in the life of the project and a fantastic opportunity for all involved to work together to achieve our goal!

 

 

 

 

Lesson on Mynyddbach Chapel

Nice article in the Evening Post on Saturday (9th) regarding pupils from Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Tirdeunaw.  They have been finding out about the history of Mynyddbach Chapel and have visited the West Glamorgan Archive Service for information.

Great to see interest in this wonderful Chapel receiving newsprint again!

Connected Communities Come Together

As part of Swansea University's Research Week, an event was held yesterday afternoon to celebrate the continued development of local community-based research through the Connected Communities project.  Professor Huw Bowen who leads the project spoke of how the research will help to shape the future development of the Swansea Valley which includes the regeneration of the Hafod and Morfa Copperworks.

Each of the local community projects which secured Heritage Lottery Funding gave a brief talk about how their research and activities were progressing and our representative for The Daniel James Project was Ivor Williams.  Teresa, Catrin and myself were in the audience lending moral support!

It was a great event which allows the different groups to interact and share ideas in a positive environment.  Each group has a very different research goal but we all share a combined passion - a love of local history and a recognition that memories need to be preserved.

Animation Progress

We met with Nick and the animation team at Mynyddbach Chapel on Friday.  Despite bone chilling temperatures, we soon had the chapel warm and welcoming and the meeting went really well.

The Daniel James Project team spent an enjoyable two hours chatting through Daniel's life to enable the animation team to put together a storyboard for the film.  Although we can't get every piece of research into the animation (that would take many many hours of viewing!!!), we have all highlighted the important aspects that should be covered and which will be really interesting to watch.

Visit to Mountain Ash

Teresa and myself took a trip out to Mountain Ash on Wednesday to visit the town where Daniel James lived sometime after 1895, and before his final residence in Morriston in 1916. 

After losing his job in the mining industry at Blaengarw,  Daniel was befriended by his admirer Thomas Glyndwr Richards, who found him employment at Mountain Ash Colliery, where he worked for twenty years - fifteen years in Nixon’s colliery.
   Richards was a conductor of the famous Mountain Ash Royal Male Voice Choir, which toured America at the close of the 19th century.

We were very excited to see that both of the properties where he lodged during his time at Mountain Ash are still standing - one at Richmond Street and the other at Aberffrwd Road.  

Daniel left the colliery when failing health became a problem. He took a job as a cemetery caretaker. It was interesting to note that a cemetery lay within a few hundred yards of Aberffrwd Road - perhaps this was the one he looked after. Further research continues!

View from the top of Richmond Street - Bev Rogers