ContentsLatest additionsUpdated February 1st 2012 |
February 2012
Welcome to the website of the old Aberdare Boys’ Grammar School. The web server continues to provide pages to visitors from all over the world, and the website continues to grow thanks to your contributions. If you have any photos or documents to share please let us know - our email addresses can be found in the panel on the right. Alternatively, you may wish to make a suggestion for an entry in the Former Pupils section, if so please let us have details, and a picture if possible. To see full details of what has been added recently, click the link shown below ‘Latest Additions’ in the column on the left. Thank you again to all those who have already made contributions by writing short articles or by sending in photos. Notices: The Cynon Valley Parliamentary ConstituencyPast students who do not live in the Cynon Valley may be interested to know of the proposals that have been made by the Boundary Commission for Wales specifically for the Cynon Valley Parliamentary Constituency. In their efforts to equalise the populations within each constituency to a figure of around 75,000, it has been proposed that the Cynon Valley constituency be abolished. The existing constituency has 52,216 electors. The constituency would be be split into three parts: Aberdare East, Llwydcoed, Penywaun, Hirwaun and Rhigos to join with Merthyr to form a new ‘Heads of the Valleys’ constituency; Aberaman, Cwmbach, Mountain Ash, and Penrhiwceiber to become part of the Rhondda constituency; and Abercynon to join Pontypridd. If you wish to comment on these quite remarkable and far-reaching proposals then you are invited to write to or email the Boundary Commission by 4 April 2012 using these contact details. The Boundary Commission 2013 Review Home Page is here , which contains full proposals and maps. A more compact text version of the proposals is here , and maps for the three Cynon Valley ‘parts’ here , here and here. The Aberdare Leader has reported on the issue here. (NB: Each of the last 7 links opens in its own new window or tab.) 
Some Background Information about the School The school opened on September 28th, 1896 as The Aberdare Technical and Intermediate Schools with Head Master W. Jenkyn Thomas and four assistant teachers: two men and two women. There were 141 pupils present by the end of the first term, 88 boys and 53 girls taught in mixed classes for the majority of their subjects. The school soon became known as The County School and remained so until the early sixties when the Grammar School name became more widely used. The pupils from the lower end of the Cynon Valley left in 1907 when Mountain Ash County School opened initially at Gwernifor, Miskin, moving to Dyffryn House much later in 1926. Then in 1913, the girls together with the women staff left for their own school in Plasdraw. There was little significant change at the County School in terms of the nature of staffing and curriculum over the years until the Trecynon buildings were vacated in 1964 and the school relocated to the bottom of Cwmdare Hill. In 1978 the Boys’ Grammar School closed and there was a fairly smooth transition to comprehensive status, when the Aberdare Boys Comprehensive School opened. Many of the existing staff were reappointed to the new school which was housed in the ex-grammar school buildings on Cwmdare Road, as the upper school. The buildings of Rhydywaun Secondary Modern School in Penywaun, which had also changed status, housed the lower school. The lower school at Rhydywaun was eventually brought to a new building at Cwmdare Road after a serious fire at Rhydywaun caused almost complete loss of its buildings. From September 1st, 2009 Aberdare Boys Comprehensive School, was renamed Aberdare High School (opens in new window). The school adopted a new badge, which shows a similarity to the original grammar school design with ‘dragon and book’. The picture, right, shows the school as it was in 1978, but additionally there is now a large sports hall on the site, behind the two-story block on the right. The new hall is both a school and a community facility. The decision has been made by RTCBC to close the Boys’ High School, the Girls Comprehensive (at Plasdraw and The Gadlys) and Blaengwawr Comprehensive School. It is intended that the pupils of all three schools will be housed in a new school to be built at The Ynys, near the centre of Aberdare, and which is planned to open in September 2014. Aberdare would then have three secondary schools instead of the current five. School Clock
The asking price of ‘The Old Clock Tower’ is £275,000. The tower and adjacent room have been converted into a new home that featured in both the South Wales Echo and the Cynon Valley Leader in July 2009. The Echo article was particularly impressive with a three-page spread, including a full-page photo of the building on the front page of the homeWALES supplement. The current owner is Ray Radnedge of Radnedge Architectural Antiques in Llanelli. In the article he says he initially purchased the clock only. But he then heard that the tower was to be demolished by the developer, so he bought that too. The inside pages show several views of both the exterior and of the internal fittings. Details of the property can be seen on the estate agent’s website by clicking here. A gallery of photographs showing the reinstatement of the clock can be found in the School Building section. The weather vane now completes the architectural fittings at the top of the dome, and the clock faces are now illuminated. The clock, which had been removed for restoration and repair, consists of a two-and-a-half tonne structure made of solid oak with cast iron facings, copper roof, and a 10 ft pendulum. |
ContactsIf you have any comments, or contributions for the site, please contact one of the editors:
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The Aberdare Boys’ Grammar School1896 to 1978A personal record of
the life and times of the |
