Sunday, March 5 2001
A new letter to the page================
A writer signed only as "Nadine" has sent us the first letter added to our letters page in nearly a year (several other letters, however, have been developed into free-standing "pages" on the site). It involves the possible sale of a historic site in Nantyglo, so I think you'll find it of much interest.
Thus far, we haven't had any subscriptions to our Nantyglo-Blaina email list, described below, on the January 12 entry. Its counterpart in our Nanty Glo, Pennsylvania, page has been a big success, with over 125 members and, now, daily updates being added to the site.
Finally, we've been given a great honor by being chosen an official town page for Nantyglo-Blaina and, by extension, Blaenau Gwent, by the British Towns Network. Meanwhile, I've been pleading with the Pennsylvania State (USA) Internet agency for any similar recognition, without so much as a reply. Something like a prophet being unnoticed in his own country?
—jon
Friday, January 12 2001
Updates to the Nantyglo-Blaina webpage================
These reports have become too infrequent, but one of my New Year's resolutions is to do better. If you missed our Christmas pages, you missed a lot of changes.
One of our most important additions is a memoir by a frequent correspondent to these pages, Gwenllian O'Neill, now of Down Under where it's now summer, who recalls the poverty of the valley in her childhood, and her father's career as a coalminer and, after being laid off with a mine closing, as a staff worker of a local school.
We've also created a printable calendar for 2001, featuring photos of the area.
Finally, our biggest recent addition is a Nantyglo-Blaina email forum. Subscribe to it, free, and you'll receive updates like this one each time one is created. And if you join it, you'll be encouraging me to do it more frequently.
Finally, if you haven't seen the photos of the exhibition of Nantyglo-Blaina memorabilia in Nanty Glo, Pennsylvania, USA, last October, take a look, here.
—jon
Wednesday, July 12 2000
Updates to the Nantyglo-Blaina webpage================
Changes on the site continue in quick procession. The resources page is well underway. The maps page has been completed, with the addition of maps showing Nantyglo-Blaina in world context and highlighting each of the towns in Blaenau Gwent. The siteindex page has been revised to show these additions. New logos have been in place to reflect the name change from Nantyglo to Nantyglo-Blaina Home Page.
As always, your input is welcome. Thanks for your participation; it's your home page...let me know how it can better serve.
Sunday, June 18 2000
Updates to the Nantyglo-Blaina webpage================
A number of updates have been made this weekend, notably the constantly changing weather report for Cardiff near the bottom of the front page, and also a link with a source of maps for all addresses in the UK, Europe in general, and North America.
Also, the dropdown list of places to go in Ebbw Fach Valley has been revised to lead to more local Valley pages of interest. I direct your attention especially to the link to “a drive around Nantyglo-Blaina,” which describes a tour of the area by your webmaster last October.
Interest in the page is building slowly. More input by current and former residents will encourage more updates, additions, and changes. Please keep looking at this space where I'll keep you posted.
—jon
Saturday, November 27 1999
Share your Christmas memories with the Home Page
================What memories come back to you about Christmases in Nantyglo and Ebbw Fach Valley? Is there one day at school, one pageant at church, or one visit from relatives or unexpected company that stands out in your memory? Or maybe it was a holiday dance when you were a teenager, or a Christmas date? Let's help everyone else remember by recalling our best, or perhaps even worst, Christmases in Nantyglo and the surrounding area. Maybe the memories are of a special shopping experience (trips to Newport, Cardiff, or elsewhere are also fair game), a visit with Father Christmas, a pop music song, or something seasonal that happened at work? Maybe there's a special gift you received, or gave, that stands out, or even a card or Christmas letter.
If you'd like more "pump priming," check out your webmaster's memories essay about Christmas in the Nanty Glo, Pennsylvania, area from last Christmas. This isn't a competition, but a conversation. Your recollections can be 25 words or less, or several hundred words or more. The memories don't have to be from your childhood or long ago; something that happened last Christmas or even earlier this season can be worth sharing.
Write your memories in an email and send them to webmaster.
—jonSaturday, November 20, 1999 entry================
Help us choose musical backgrounds for Nantyglo, WalesIf you've visited our sister site for Nanty Glo, Pennsylvania, and your computer is equipped with a media player that recreates music, you've no doubt noticed the musical backgrounds. On the Nanty Glo, Pa., home page is a recent top pop song performed by the Backstreet Boys (though just instrumental in this iteration), "I'll Never Break Your Heart," and on our letters page there's an old "standard" country and western music hit that "crossed over" to pop mainstream, by Patsy Cline, "Crazy." The songs were chosen in the first instance because three of the five Backstreet Boys lived in an apartment in the same complex in Los Angeles that your webmaster was living in at the time and were therefore neighbors, and in the second case just because "Crazy" was a pop song during my salad days coming of age in Nanty Glo. Both songs will eventually be changed to other titles, no doubt.
I've put in place the mechanism for musical backgrounds on the corresponding pages for this home page, too, but haven't actually selected any music yet, in the hopes that some of you might help me do so.
If you know of songs or artists that might have a special relationship with Nantyglo, the greater Ebbw Fach Valley, or lacking that, Wales in general, please "nominate" them and their music for backgrounds on this home page. Tom Jones certainly comes to mind as an artist with Welsh roots, but you can probably recommend other artists or songs that would be even more appropriate. As you can see, neither of the songs above have a direct link to Nanty Glo, Pa. ("Sixteen Tons" comes to mind as the most likely nominee for that honor, but I heard enough of it in its heyday that I don't care if I ever hear it again!) This is just for fun.
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I look forward to hearing from you,
jon
Hello Nantyglo, Blaina, and the Ebbw Fach Valley,When I was approached some months ago with a request to expand coverage of "the real Nantyglo" on my Nanty Glo, Pennsylvania, home page, and to make that coverage a virtual home page for the Nantyglo area alongside the existing page, I didn't know where to start. But after being able to visit Nantyglo in person last month and being shown around by Trevor Rowson and Jeff Jones, two very knowledgeable and gracious hosts, I've accumulated a wealth of material suitable for such a task. Though I may never be the expert on Nantyglo, Gwent, that I am on Nanty Glo and Blacklick Valley in Pennsylvania, with this accumulation of material and ongoing input from the real experts—those of you who live or have lived in the Nantyglo area—I now feel sure we can provide a first-rate website for the real Nantyglo.
This webpage is a labor of love, a hobby and avocation, with nothing to sell or promote but this valley. It exists to foster goodwill and disseminate information about Nantyglo and its environs, and it solicits the help of all who share this objective. Send me your ideas, suggestions, reminiscences, questions to research, photos and artwork...and this will be everyone's Nantyglo Home Page.
This particular page—Updates—exists to introduce additions and changes to the page and keep you informed as we go along. Please check in here each time you want to know what's been added since your last visit.
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I look forward to hearing from you,
jonSend your comments and feedback to: