SWML @ 50The South Wales Miners' Library at 50
11. Selection of Anti-Apartheid pamphlets from the Hanef Bhamjee Collection
Hanef Bhamjee’s pamphlets testify to his decades-long fight against apartheid, beginning as an African National Congress (ANC) activist in South Africa and later in his adopted home of Wales as a founder and Secretary of the Wales Anti-Apartheid Movement.
Hanef grew up in Pietermaritzburg, but left South Africa aged 19 following persecution by state authorities for his involvement with the ANC. He lectured in sociology at Cardiff University in the 1970s and later moved into a career in law, becoming an immigration specialist. As Secretary of the Wales Anti-Apartheid Movement, he helped to build a broad coalition of support across political, linguistic and religious lines in Wales.
The Hanef Bhamjee Collection, held at the South Wales Miners’ Library, includes an array of sources relating to the socialist and black radical traditions, and complements other collections in the library which document Anti-Apartheid activism in Wales.
12. Medical Records for the South Wales Coalfield, c.1890-1948 by Anne Borsay and Sara Knight
The growth of the mining industry in South Wales brought significant risks of occupational diseases and injuries for workers, as well as domestic hardships for their families. As such, questions of safety, healthcare provision and welfare were often at the forefront of trade union and other working-class political struggles.
This annotated guide, published in 2007, is the result of a Wellcome Trust-funded project to identify medical records in the South Wales Coalfield Collection, which is held at the South Wales Miners’ Library and the Richard Burton Archives. The project involved a collaboration between the School of Health Science and the Library and Information Services at Swansea University. The guide responds to a growing interest in the study of medical history and highlights the many materials in our collections that relate to occupational and community health.
13. ‘Prints of the Spanish Revolution of July 1936’ book
‘Estampas de la revoluciòn Española’ is a watercolour book created by the Andalusian artist José Luis Rey Vila during the Spanish Civil War. With an international audience in mind, there are comments on each drawing in three languages: French, English, and Spanish. Before Pablo Picasso's Guernica, this album was among the most well-known pieces of art relating to the Civil War. To protect his family in Siviglia, the artist signed each piece of work with the pseudonym ‘SIM’.
14. Painting of Banwen Disposal Point by George Little
At Banwen Library, a small branch of the South Wales Miners’ Library, we have a painting by George Little that depicts the Banwen Disposal Point, more commonly known as the ‘screens’, which could be seen from the DOVE Workshop.
George Little recalls: “Most of my life has been spent in and around industrial areas and from these I have found the stimulation for my paintings and drawings. The colour, texture and shape brought about by the decay of the copper, coal, steel and shipping industries, where they flourished and where they declined, became the source of my compositions. These areas have now been sanitized and built upon and the ugly beauty has been replaced by characterless features. My main source of ideas has largely disappeared and so I look for new subjects and another adventure in painting is beginning for me.”
(Quoted in George Little 1927-2017, Attic Galley. https://www.atticgallery.co.uk/index.php/our-artists/george-little.html)
George Little was born in Danygraig, Swansea, in 1927, attending Danygraig School and Swansea Grammar School. He went to Swansea School of Art and the Ruskin School of Drawing, University of Oxford, after which he taught in schools and colleges of art and finally at the University College of Swansea.
During his later years at Swansea, he taught for DACE (Department of Adult Continuing Education); where he gave classes at the pioneering Community University of the Valleys (CUV) at the DOVE Workshop in Banwen in the Dulais Valley.
George Little died in June 2017 aged 89. He was a much-loved artist and personality in the art world.
15. Stories of Solidarity (2018) by Hywel Francis
Stories of Solidarity (2018) was the last book published by the late Professor Hywel Francis. It comprises a selection of some of Hywel’s best articles and speeches spanning five decades, reflecting his work as a historian, adult educator and political activist. Discussion ranges from his native Dulais Valley to the international stage, conveying and celebrating the relations of solidarity that have existed among the mining communities of South Wales and between those communities and the wider world. Subjects include the ‘forgotten’ Anthracite strike of 1925, the links between Paul Robeson and Anti-Apartheid activism in Wales, the role of women and LGBT activists in the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike, and the campaign which led to the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act (2004).
As Hywel writes,
‘It has always been my view that we should never apologise for celebrating communities which place great store on solidarity. That act of celebration should define us.’ (p.17)
In an article on the importance of oral history, Hywel also reflects on the means through which such ‘stories of solidarity’ are obtained and preserved; with personal testimony often uncovering a ‘hidden world’ beyond the omissions and distortions of official documents and narratives. Hywel was a founder and long-time supporter of the South Wales Miners’ Library, and its history is interwoven with many of these stories, playing a part in both their collection and ongoing preservation, not least through its specialism in oral history.
16. Civil Defence Handbook No.10 - Advising the Householder on Protection Against Nuclear Attack (1963), Home Office pamphlet
This publication was never intended for consumption by the general public: further instructions were to be transmitted by radio and the emergency services. Interesting and enlightening chapters include: “Basic Facts”, “Protective Measures”, “Emergency Supplies” and “Life Under Fall-Out Conditions”. “What Happens When the H-Bomb Explodes” gives such advice as “lie down behind a brick wall” and presents the reader with the distinct impression that it is quite possible to survive a nuclear strike.
The description of securing houses from the blast by painting the windows white, and from fall-out by hiding under the stairs only act to further reassure the reader. Although, if the reader is unfortunate to live in one, bungalows are considered to be highly vulnerable, offering poor shelter. From a modern perspective, the narrative is a little too genial with sections of unintended humour.
[Item selected by Joanne Waller, Senior Library Assistant at the South Wales Miners’ Library.]
17. Neath, Dulais and Swansea Valley Support Group Banner
This banner was created in 1984 and was in the care of Hefina Headon, one of the leading activists in the women’s support group for the Neath, Dulais and Swansea Valleys. The banner is now in the care of the South Wales Miners’ Library.
During the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike, thousands of women from the Welsh coalfields joined the strike effort by establishing support groups. They organised soup kitchens and food parcel distribution centres, as well as joining picket lines, and raised money by arranging various fundraising activities. Similar groups were established in other coal mining regions of Britain, with women from different parts of the country supporting each other and exchanging ideas.
During an interview with Dr Hywel Francis, Hefina Headon told about the time they went to Barnsley and marched with 10,000 women.
“…we saw what the women in Barnsley were doing and how they had rallied, and they told us how they were managing and raising funds. It was good to hear all this, it opened our eyes, and we came back feeling good…” (SWCC AUD / 510 Interview with Hefina Headon).
18. Gwyn Thomas’ hat and coat
The Gwyn Thomas Collection was bequeathed to the South Wales Miners’ Library on its tenth anniversary in 1983. The collection consists of the personal library of the celebrated writer and broadcaster Gwyn Thomas, including first editions of his works, as well as other artefacts such as his literary awards and posters of various productions of his plays. Gwyn’s hat and coat will be familiar to viewers of his television broadcasts of the 1960s and 1970s, as he ventured out to report from the landscapes of South Wales with his characteristic dry humour and flair for social observation. When Anthony Hopkins portrayed Gwyn Thomas in the BBC biopic Selected Exits (1993), he recreated this iconic look.
19. Waste of our Time: Pictures of a Changing Valley
In 1983, the South Wales Miners’ Library produced a documentary film featuring community members from the Dulais Valley. In Waste of Our Time: Pictures of a Changing Valley, local residents discussed the villages of Banwen, Onllwyn and Seven Sisters and the effects of coal mining on the landscape, people and wildlife.
In 2021, the South Wales Miners’ Library returned to the same communities to investigate how things had changed and produced the follow up documentary Waste of Our Time: Renewing Pictures of a Changing Valley.
Both documentaries are available to view here: https://www.swansea.ac.uk/library/south-wales-miners-library/exhibitions-research/
20. Map showing the places of origin of International Brigade volunteers in South Wales
This item from our poster collection shows a map of South Wales and the places of origin of the men who fought for the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War 1936-39. The area marked within the blue line represents the South Wales Coalfield, the region which produced most of the volunteers. Of the 206 International Brigaders from Wales, over half were miners.
Mining communities were also especially active in the Aid Spain campaign during the Civil War, donating money, food, and other essential supplies to assist the Republican cause, as well as helping to support children from the Basque Country who were evacuated to Britain in 1937. Some of the International Brigade volunteers, notably those from Abercrave and Dowlais, belonged to the Spanish migrant communities of South Wales, and were the sons of Spanish men and women who had travelled to Wales for work earlier in the twentieth century.
For more information, see our blog post: https://tinyurl.com/4a987vs4