The Cynffig Chronicles project web site has now been updated with specially designed enhancements to help the teachers and children from our local schools record the history of Cynffig in their own words.
It also has new picture Gallery section, where you will find a copy of the many photographs that have been loaned by members of the public to the schools involved in the Chronicles project. Here you can see glimpses of what life was like before the motorcar, when our streets were filled with shops of all kinds, and railway trains ran through Kenfig Hill. From the collieries of Aberbaiden and Pentre to the Cornelly show, the photographs provide a fascinating insight into our Community in years gone by.
If you have old photographs you would like to share with the schools and perhaps have them included on our web site or if you can give us more information about any of the photographs already there, we would love to hear from you. Please get in touch with your local school or ring us at 07870 277359. We promise to take very good care of your photographs and return them promptly.
Recently, teachers and school history coordinators, representing all the schools in the Cynffig area came together in a one-day workshop, as part of the Cynffig Chronicles history project.
The teachers brought with them examples of the work being done on the project by children at their schools and they were able to share the experiences they have been having with their classes, when collecting information from the public.
Most of the schools are now ready to start putting the children’s work onto the Chronicles web site, so that all the community can share the information collected. During the workshop the teachers were shown how to use the specially designed software tools that have been developed for the project. These tools allow the teachers and their pupils to easily post their work on the web in their own special pages.
Look out for these as they begin to appear over the next few months.
As we start the New Year, the children taking part in the Bro Cynffig Chronicles project are resuming their hunt to uncover the history of the area around their schools.
There can’t be many people in Cynffig who don’t know about Kenfig Castle, but the children of Cefn Cribwr Primary have found that Cynffig can boast of having two castles.
They have discovered that our second castle was a motte and bailey castle, built around 1150 by Geoffery Sturmy, a French Lord who came to Cynffig with the Norman invasion. He built a village called Sturmiestown with a church and a castle to defend it. It didn’t do him much good because just 25 years later the monks took the font from the church to Margam Abbey and the area was abandoned. Surprisingly the remains of the castle motte can still be clearly seen today as a raised circular mound of earth in the valley between Stormy Down and Cefn Cribwr at Stormy Farm.
In November Mynydd Cynffig infants held their history week, and it proved a great success. All the people who came to the school during the week commented on how much they enjoyed talking with the children and how interested the children were in their stories.
As part of the history week, a group of children from the school visited the newly refurbished Talbot Institute in Kenfig Hill to see its large collection of old photographs. The children made videos of the visit using the special equipment provided as part of the project. Meanwhile at Mynydd Cynffig Juniors, they having been busy making maps of the area around their school and searching for things to put on their history trail.
We look forward to seeing their efforts on our web site in the next few months.
The Bro Cynffig Chronicles project is now beginning to gather pace as more and more children are getting involved. They are our History Hunters and with the help of local people they are finding out all about the history of Cynffig.
Mynydd Cynffig Infants are holding a special history week in November when they are inviting local people to come to the school to be interviewed by the children and tell them what it was like when they where children. The History Hunters of Pil Primary are off to find the exact location of a well dating from the Tudor period that they have discovered is near their school, and at Corneli Junior they searching for old wedding photographs taken at Maudlam and Capel Y Pil to see how tastes in fashions have changed.
The pupils of Cynffig Comprehensive are investigating the effects of the Second World War on the area and are keen to speak with anyone who can help them find out more about the gallant men and women whose names are on local cenotaphs.
Did you know that Highwaymen once held up and robbed travellers at Pyle? Did you know that there might have been a Viking settlement where Cynffig Comprehensive School now lies? And would you be surprised to learn that a man called Llewyllyn ap Griffith was hanged at Kenfig. These are just some of the things the children of Cornelly, Pyle, Kenfig Hill and Cefn Cribwr are finding out as they take part in the Bro Cynffig Chronicles Project.
The two-year project, funded by the Heritage lottery, aims to record the story of the history of the Cynffig area, through the words, drawings and activities of its children.
Every school in the Cynffig area is participating in the Project, including Cefn Cribwr Primary, Mynydd Cynffig Junior, Mynydd Cynffig Infants,Pyle Primary, Afon y Felin, Ysgol y Ferch o’r Sger, Cornelly Primary and Cynffig Comprehensive.
The children will be interviewing people, collecting old photographs, and producing history trails of the area around their school. If you can help they would really like to hear from you.