History of our Club
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History of our Club |
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After an area RA meeting in Newport in Mid-March 1967 it was decided by Ken and Brenda Smith along with John, Muriel and Angela Spence to try to arrange a public meeting with the view to start a local ramblers' group in the Pontypool area. The meeting would take place in "Mount Pleasant Congregation Church", Pontypool on 4 May 1967. Mr Andrew Dolby from RA Head Office was asked if he would open the meeting to which he agreed.
At the meeting a committee was chosen from some 30 people who had come along in answer to the many posters that Ken and Brenda had displayed and the advert which had been placed in the Free Press. At the meeting a walk was arranged for Saturday 6 May 1967. The walk was led by Mr Edgar Waring. It started from Pontypool Park taking in Garn-Wen, then onto Mamhilad and returned to Pontypool. There were 20 people on the first ramble.
At the inaugural meeting six programmes were planned and approved with rambles on alternate Sundays and Saturdays. In general these rambles were planned with half-day rambles on Saturdays and full-day rambles on Sunday. Within the first year the newly formed club visited the Brecon Beacons, Upper Neath Valley, Wye Valley and Symonds Yat. As a club most of the members preferred walking in the high mountains (Beacons). In the first year the average full days walk was 12 miles but on few occasions members would reach out and do 18 miles, bearing in mind that most of the members were relatively new to walking, there must have been a great deal of enthusiasm amongst them. Only on one occasion was a ramble called off due to the weather, but due to the Foot and Mouth outbreak the programme was suspended and for a while all the walks were mainly on the roads. In addition to the rambling activities which were planned to cater for all year round ramblers there was a winter social programme with slide show, talks, etc, organised by the social secretary, Mrs M Williams. Members ranged in age from 7 to 67 years and everyone took part in all activities.
The first annual dinner was held on 5 January 1968 and was a great success. By the end of the first year the membership had grown to approximately 60, with enthusiasm as high as ever plans were laid to visit the West Country and possibly venture further afield.
Members of the group started in the mid 1970s with Glen Price, Bill Fielding, Nelson Morton, assisting the Eastern Area National Park Warden, Wilf Davies on an Ad Hoc basis usually on Saturdays with the construction of stiles and general maintenance of the footpath furniture. They were later joined by Les Buckingham, Bert Hamer, and Derrick Hynam. In the mid 1980s the group started meeting on a regular basis on the first Wednesday of every month.
In 1990 other members of the club joined the group including John Sansom, Alan Cunningham, and Bryn Richards.
In 1991 the group merged with members of the Llwyn-Du group which had formed in 1989, to make two teams meeting on the first and second Wednesdays each month. This continues to the present time, although at the moment there are only two Pontypool members in the team, the rest of the team comprises of non RA volunteers. The team has worked with various members of the NP including Clive Williams (Area Warden), and Steve Smith (Ass. Area Warden).
Among the tasks the team have tackled are building stiles, bridges & board walks, hanging gates, erecting fencing, clearing & draining bridleways & footpaths, dry stone walling, cobbling, and tree planting.
In May 1991 a team was set up working with Tim Hancock, Gwent County Council Countryside service, meeting on the 3 rd and 4 th Wednesdays each month. The team comprised George Woodward, Dan Hadfield, Glen Price, Nelson Morton, and Derrick Hynam. These were soon joined by Bryn Richards and Robert King. In 1992 John Sansom joined the team, followed by John Breillat in 1993.
In February 1996 due to Local Government reorganisation Gwent County Council ceased to exist and two new authorities came into being :- Monmouthshire County Council and Torfaen County Borough Council. By this time the team had installed, built or repaired some 450 items, such as stiles, steps, fingerposts, fencing etc, including 260 new stiles and 20 bridges, as well as clearing
Footpaths and bridleways.
It was decided to support both the new authorities to carry out their footpath maintenance duties so the team split into two groups.
The Torfaen team comprised Dan Hadfield, Nelson Morton, Derrick Hynam, and George Woodward. The Torfaen team decided to meet every
Wednesday, thus dropping out from the National Park team. Since its formation the team has installed over 600 items, including 468 stiles,57 wooden bridges,80 field gates, also assembling and installing 3 steel bridges as well as a number of board walks,
Fingerposts, and many yards of overgrown footpaths.
The remainder of the original Gwent team comprising Alan Cunningham, John Breillat, Glen Price, Robert King, & John Sansom,
Began working with the Monmouthshire CC Countryside Service continuing as before. In August 1996 Geraint Lloyd joined the team, followed by Neville Homent in April 1998, and Graham Pugh in March 2004.
The outbreak of Foot & Mouth disease in 2001 stopped operations until August 2002. The team continued as before until April 2005
When the Countryside Service decided that they did not have the resources to support the volunteers and the work parties ceased.
At the end of this period a further 342 items had been added, including 211 new stiles and 18 bridges.
In 2009 the Countryside Service obtained additional funding from
WAG that enabled them to provide another vehicle and tools for PROW maintenance. In March 2009 Graham Pugh and Alan Cunningham
Together with Martin Setchell from Ross-on-Wye, began assisting
Andy Carey and Mike Noakes, ROW Wardens, on footpath maintenance including installing stiles, gates and path clearance. The work continues up to the present time.
The age range of the volunteers is 65 to 90 years.
AWC/ 15/12/09