Archif Menywod Cymru / Women's Archive of Wales : Events

16th -17th October 2010 Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea
Our annual conference provides a unique opportunity for networking among historians of women and those interested in preserving the documentary evidence of women’s lives in Wales, across the centuries. This year we will have papers on the history of the women of Wales from both established and new researchers.

The Conference will be held in the Dylan Thomas Centre, with coffee and tea provided, and a buffet lunch on Saturday. There will also be a conference dinner, in the Dylan Thomas Centre, on Saturday night.

As in previous years, you may book for one or both days. To assist us, please send two separate cheques, one to cover the conference itself, and one for the dinner.

Please put the dates in your diary, and book your place by completing the attached form. We regret that we are unable to help organise accommodation for those needing to stay in Swansea overnight but lists of accommodation can be found at http://visitswanseabay.com/wheretostay

Ursula Masson Memorial Lecture – ‘Women and Change in Twentieth-Century Wales’
Monday 9th March, 2009
5.30pm for 6pm, Glamorgan Business Centre, University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd

Our President, Professor Deirdre Beddoe will give the first Ursula Masson Memorial Lecture at 6.00 pm on Monday 9th March in the Glamorgan Business Centre, University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd.
The topic of the lecture is ‘Women and Change in Twentieth-Century Wales’; it will be the first in an annual series of lectures to be held on or around International Women’s Day in memory of Dr Ursula Masson (1945-2008), senior lecturer in History at Glamorgan and founding member of Archif Menywod Cymru/ Women’s Archive of Wales. The lecture is open to the general public as well as members of the University and AMC / WAW.
Refreshments will be served from 5.30 pm, and following the lecture the audience will be welcomed to a buffet in the Centre.

Ursula was a wonderful woman who we are all going to miss. Without Ursula there would not have been a Women’s Archive of Wales. It was her idea. Nor would there have been a Women’s History Roadshow Project- again the inspired suggestion to run a series of women’s history roadshows was hers. And of course Ursula has been our long-serving Chair.

Ursula was a superb feminist historian and scholar. Her main interest was in the political history of women in Wales. She wrote widely on the complex subject of the women’s suffrage movement in Wales and was awarded her PhD on Welsh Women Liberals, 1883-1914.

She was also a very highly regarded teacher and much loved by her students. Amongst the many tributes that have flowed into the Archive since Ursula’s death on April 7th have been several from mature women students who praised the patience and support that they unfailingly received from Ursula.

For those of us in the Archive, however, we are losing a dear friend and sister. We all miss her already and it is hard to bear .Our thoughts are with Ursula’s family in this truly sad time.

Women’s Archive of Wales Roadshow Exhibition, Waterfront Museum, Swansea.
August 11th to September 12th 2008.

Margery Edmunds
Photograph reproduced by kind permission of Paulette Pelosi

If you have the chance, do call in to the Waterfront Museum and take a look at our exhibition, which is located on the first floor.

The exhibition explains clearly the work of the Archive and shows the progress to date of our ambitious, lottery-funded Wales Women’s Roadshow Project.

Nearly a hundred people attended the official opening on August 11th and their response was enthusiastic and very encouraging for those of us closely involved in the Roadshow Project. Civic dignitaries, including Swansea’s Lord Mayor and the Mayor of Llanelli attended and the exhibition was opened by Edwina Hart, Minister for Health and Social Services. Lindsay Cuddy from the HLF was also present to support this venture.

The exhibition itself is a delight, showing as it does a selection of photographs from the roadshows held so far. There are images of actual roadshows showing our experts at work but the truly captivating material is the collection of photographs which the roadshows have unearthed. There are splendid images of Welsh women in both World wars- with a VAD nurse and a bus conductress from the First War and some truly superb shots of Llanelli’s Marjorie Edmunds: Marjorie worked as a mechanic servicing aircraft during the second war.

This exhibition clearly shows the value and the worthwhile nature of the Roadshow project and the images in it are informative, sometimes beautiful and invariably moving.

Oral History & Women’s Stories

2007 Conference & AGM, Bangor University, 10th-11th Nov

This year, for the first time, the Annual Conference & AGM moved to North Wales, to Bangor University, thanks to Professor Duncan Tanner and Dr Pamela Michael who provided the venue and helped with organising the event.

The weekend was extremely successful with interesting talks from Catrin Stevens (Hanes Menywod Cymru 1920-60’: the Merched y Wawr Oral History Project), Marian Gwyn (Sugar and Slavery: the Penrhyn Connection), our President, Deirdre Beddoe (The Amazing Life of Betsy Cadwaladyr) and Duncan Tanner Women’s History and Oral History in Wales: Some New Opportunities).

There was also time to network and socialise (including an excellent dinner at Herbs Restaurant), a chance to spend money at an archive fund-raising stall, plus a bookstall, and to meet the Roadshow Project workers, who also spoke about the project at a session on Sunday.

An enthusiastic meeting on Sunday began the process of setting up a North Wales AMC / WAW network.

Delegates enjoying dinner in Herbs restaurant

Fundraising for the Archive

A few members in the Swansea area have had a very successful year in raising money for general archive funds through a variety of different activities.

These have included stalls at charity fairs, table top sales, at an event for women’s organisations at the National Botanic Garden, plant sales in member’s gardens and in a workplace, a member undertaking gardening and giving part of her payment to the archive, and finally a very successful staff at the Conference & AGM in Bangor in November.

These activities have raised over £1000 in profit in a little over eight months – a sum which certainly helps with the general running of the archive which is entirely dependent on subscriptions, donations and such fund-raising activities to carry out all the work apart from the (separately funded) Roadshow Project.

Hopefully, other members might like to do something similar – it’s a chance to meet other people in your area and it’s also fun!

Contact Angela Brunt (angela.brunt1@ntlworld.com or phone 01792 233482) if you have suggestions or questions relating to fundraising activities.

Angela Brunt with fundraising stall, Annual Conference, Bangor, November 2007

Lesbian History Roadshow

24th February 2007, The Old Library Cardiff

The collection has been built up since the late 1960s. It includes magazines such as Arena 3 (the first British lesbian magazine), Move (lesbian magazine produced in Bristol in the 1970s/80s), Lunch (CHE – Campaign for Homosexual Equality – magazine), Kenric Newsletter (national lesbian group which began in the mid 1960s), local newsletters, and campaign material e.g. against Section 28. It also contains material relating to Avril Rolph’s work in organisations such as Lesbians in Libraries (London, 1980s) and copies of books and pamphlets she produced.

Women’s Archive of Wales and LLafur Joint Day School

Pontypridd Museum, Saturday 11th November 2006

Women and Politics in Twentieth Century Wales

Around 60 people joined the Women’s Archive at a very successful day-school held jointly with Llafur, the Welsh People’s History Society, at Pontyrpidd Museum on 11th November. There was a full and wide-ranging programme of presentations from both established historians and recent students.

Ryland Wallace explored the women’s suffrage movement in Wales, focusing on the contribution of Rachel Barrett from Newport, ‘suffragette organiser, journalist, and conspirator’. Katrina Gass traced the work of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in Wales from 1915 to the Greenham Common protest begun by a group of women from Wales in 1981. Avril Rolph dealt with the development of the women’s liberation movement in South Wales from its early years in the 1970s, which prompted several illuminating contributions from the audience, who shared their own recollections of the very early days.

After lunch Lowri Newman focused on Labour Party’s Women’s Sections which were active across South Wales between 1918 and 1939, including their support for women and communities through the miners’ lock-out in 1926. Helen Thomas explored new evidence that there were over 120 branches of the Women’s Co-operative Guild in Wales, the first opening in Newport in 1891.

Christine Chapman, AM, discussed the ways in which first the Labour party, and then Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats, used of women-only shortlists and quotas to boost the number of women elected to the National Assembly. Deirdre Beddoe drew the day to a close with a review of the contribution which women have made to politics both locally and nationally in twentieth century Wales.

AMC / WAW AGM 2006

l-r: Avril Rolph (Sec), Ursula Masson (Chair), Deirdre Beddoe (President) (standing), Gail Allen (Treasurer)

2005 AGM

Speaker Professor Angela John (left) and Annest Wiliam, a cousin of Menna Gallie, who read an extract from one of her books.

The 2005 AGM was held at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. In the morning, the eminent feminist historian Prof. Angela V. John spoke to a large audience, in the new Drwm lecture theatre, on the life and work of her friend, the late novelist Menna Gallie, in a lecture entitled ‘Place, Politics and History: the life and novels of Menna Gallie’. The actor and translator Annest Wiliam, a cousin of Menna Gallie, read extracts from the novels. Many of those attending said how much they enjoyed the event, and lecture and readings were agreed to be outstanding. A number of new members joined the archive. Prof. John’s lecture will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Llafur.

November 2005

Mike Hodgson of Glamorgan Record Office explains conservation techniques at the Women’s History Roadshow, part of ‘Your Past, Your Future’ events celebrating the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, at Swansea Museum, November 2005.

Jenny Sabine, Avril Rolph and Gail Allen in front of the archive display, County Hall, Swansea, October 2005.

AMC / WAW also took part in the Glamorgan Family History Open Day, held in City Hall, Cardiff in November 2005.

2004 Annual General Meeting and Roadshow

Held this year on 22^nd October in Swansea Museum, the traditional AGM was combined with the archive’s own roadshow.

Speakers were Susan Edwards, Glamorgan Archivist and a founder member of the archive, and Clare Stoughton-Harris, textile conservator now working for the National Trust in Wales.

Members brought along a variety of interesting material, including a beautifully made first communion dress, some fascinating photographs, including a collection (now in Glamorgan Record Office) commemorating a member’s mother’s career in teaching in the early years of the twentieth century, and (from a member of the public) an embroidered cloth in excellent condition which was a memento of the First World War, which he had found lying on the floor at a car boot sale. Women’s history can truly be found everywhere!

Members examining First World War embroidery at Roadshow.

Photographs reproduced by kind permission of Paulette Pelosi

International Women's Day 2003

On 8th March we held what we hope will be the first collaborative event with Permanent Waves, the women's arts organisation. They have organised an event in Cardiff for International Women's Day for several years now and we were delighted to accept their offer of space in this year's venue, The Old Library in the centre of Cardiff, to host a talk by Glenys Kinnock, MEP, a long-time member and supporter of the Archif.

Glenys Kinnock gave a fascinating talk on Labour Party pioneer Elizabeth Andrews. The audience included Elizabeth Andrews' great-niece and great-nephew, who were able to add their own recollections of her. It seemed very fitting to learn more about a woman who had done so much for women in Wales, on this particular day.

The launch of Honno's new book, Changing Times, Welsh Women Writing on the 1950s and 1960s, edited by our Chair, Professor Deirdre Beddoe took place after lunch. The session was chaired by Deirdre Beddoe, and Jane Salisbury, Elaine Morgan and Mollie Parkin all read extracts from their contributions to the book. The packed audience included many other contributors, as well as leader of the National Assembly Rhodri Morgan, Assembly Health Minister Jane Hutt, and Julie Morgan, MP for Cardiff North.

photographer Paulette Pelosi

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