Tredegar Band

Conductor: David Hale
Blaenavon Big Pit Museum
Sunday 4th June

You may wonder what links the Taj Mahal, the Great Temple of Thebes in Egypt and the small Welsh Valley town of Blaenavon in South Wales.

Well its heritage. In fact UNESCO World Heritage to be precise, and all three places (as well as a few more around the world) have been chosen because, well, they are a bit special in the great scheme of things. You may well take that for granted with say, Stonehenge or the Great Wall of China, but how come Blaenavon fits into all this then?

Well, Blaenavon is the site of the foremost preserved early Industrial Revolution Ironworks in the world, and it recognizes its importance as part of the huge industrialisation that took place all over the eastern part of the Welsh valleys in towns such as Tredegar and Merthyr Tydfil over 200 years ago. Where there was a need for iron anywhere in the world, it invariably came from around these parts – including railway lines in Siberia!

The town itself has undergone something of a revolution itself in recent years and part of its new found tourist attraction is that it has become a book town and a base for exploration of the fantastic Brecon Beacons National Park which is just a stones throw away. It's also home to the National Welsh Mining Museum at Big Pit, which sits just on the outskirts of the town and which in 2005 won the prestigious Gulbenkien Prize as the Best Museum in the UK.

You can visit here just about any time of the year and be taken down into the bowels of the earth, right to the coalface or enjoy the fantastic array of interactive exhibitions on show at the Pit Head baths, outside workshops and visitor centre.

This year the Museum has added to its many attractions by putting on Sunday afternoon concerts at the Pit Head, and the Tredegar Band were the latest local band to provide an hours entertainment to an outside audience of around 150 people with a lightweight programme of soloists and music (some with a very Welsh bent). 

The weather was sunny and warm (something that does not occur too often in these parts it must be said) and the audience sat back with a cup of tea and a Welsh Cake to enjoy themselves.

David Hale, a local lad who was last seen playing bumper up for Rothwell at the Masters (he actually lives in Tredegar but shows a huge degree of loyalty to both Rothwell as a player and Tredegar as a talented young conductor and guest player) directed the band through their paces with items as diverse as ‘Men of Harlech' to the tuba solo ‘Teddy Bear's Picnic' – all the right stuff for an audience wanting a bit of light entertainment.

It all lasted a very accomplished hour, and the people (from as far and wide as Birmingham, Bristol, Gloucester and even Blaenavon itself – the 4BR Editor was out walking the dog and took the opportunity to have a sneaky listen to his old band as well as meet up with his mam and dad) lapped it all up, before heading down the mineshaft for a guided tour in the Stygian darkness of the pit itself.

All this for free too.  

There are concerts such as this going on all over the UK this Summer, but I doubt whether Stonehenge or the Great Pyramid at Cheops will have had five bands and two male voice choirs to help promote themselves.

If you get the chance then come to the town and visit the pit. There is entertainment on show for the next couple of weeks, so why not give it a try – it's certainly something different to do on a Sunday afternoon. 

Iwan Fox.

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