Archifdy Ceredigion Archives
ABERYSTWYTH COUNTY SCHOOL (ARDWYN)

Acc. 1156 and 2220

Ref: ARD/14

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Series comprises educational visits and courses; activities of School Social Services Group and other charity fund raising. Also includes: Speech Day and Prizes, and records concerning the Message of Goodwill or ‘Neges Ewyllys Da’. ARD/14/3 Records relating to the school organ is subdivided into two

Ref: ARD/14/1
Title: Educational visits and courses
Date: 1954-1973
Extent: One bundle
Scope and Content: Correspondence and notes concerning geography field courses at The Dale, Marloes Peninsula, Pembrokeshire and Preston Montford Field Course Centre, March -May 1973; correspondence on Welsh Joint Education Committee special Welsh course for sixth form pupils to be held in July, April-May 1973; letter regarding biology forum at Aberystwyth on heavy metal pollution problems in mid-Wales, March, 1973; school trip to Bath, Wells Cathedral, Cheddar Gorge, Avon Gorge and Clifton, with menu and map, 9 July 1954; press cutting from Welsh Gazette entitled ‘Holiday In Holland’ concerning visit of fifteen pupils with headmaster A.D. Lewis, September 1958; document (with handwritten map on reverse) entitled ‘Forms I & II A Montgomeryshire Journey’, July 1960; form issued by headmaster C.G. Suff regarding forthcoming school visit to Wilderswil, near Interlaken, Switzerland in Summer 1973, 12 September 1972; information sheet on Ardwyn School trip to Oxford 7-8 July, with press cutting ‘Ardwyn Pupils See Cars and Colleges’ (undated); letter from Ceredigion Museum to headmaster C.G. Suff, regarding talks with presentations on hand carding and spinning of wool, 24 November 1972 and subsequent press cutting 23 March 1973; note on school visit to Carmarthen College of Education’s drama Arthur Miller’s ‘Death of a Salesman’, 28 November 1972; note on visit of forms 1 AW and 1 BW to Felinfach, 8 March [1972-1973]; note on visit to bank vault with Careers Master MWR, 22 March, [1972-1973]; press cutting regarding visit of pupils of Ardwyn to the exhibition ‘Aberystwyth Yesterday, 21 July 1972; programme for Sixth Form Conference at Theatr yn Werin, Penglais, 24 November 1972.

Ref: ARD/14/2
Title: Appearances on ‘Top of the Form’, charitable activities etc.
Date: 1971-1973
Extent: One bundle
Scope and Content: Press cuttings and correspondence regarding school appearances on BBC’s ‘Top of the Form’, 13 April and 22 September 1972 and 23 March 1973 (the latter appearance aired on 8 April 1973); correspondence regarding Welsh Office exhibition on environmental pollution, July-November 1972; press Cutting ‘School discos are tops with the Pops’ regarding discos organised after school hours for senior pupils, 9 March 1973; ‘Instructions Re-Dance In School Hall’, [1972-1973]; pamphlet on Careers Convention, May 1973; University of Manchester award of entrance scholarships, 1973; list of staff addresses, September 1972; correspondence and certificate from the Royal National Institute for the Blind, regarding cheque for £550, 1973; press cutting entitled ‘School’s Magnificent Effort’, regarding pupils raising £550 for the Royal National Institute for the Blind, 26 January 1973; letter with receipt for £22.50 from Parkinson’s Disease Society, [1972-1973]; correspondence between S.K. Bridges of the Parkinson’s Disease Society and headmaster Mr Suff, the former thanking Mr Suff for allowing six senior pupils to help with house to house collecting, and the latter sending two cheques from the Social Services Group [a sixth form group formed in 1964-5] (H. Spencer Lloyd, History p. 224) as a result of a collection, 17 April and 9 May 1973; programme for memorial service for former teacher Robert David (Roy) James, M.A., 1919-1973, April 1973 with press cutting obituary, 30 March, 1973 and letter from headmaster C.G. Suff to parents about pupils attending the memorial service, 6 April 1973; correspondence regarding prize winners in essay competition run by the London Cardiganshire Society, 1973; correspondence regarding school prizes, 1971-1972 and March 1973; correspondence regarding W.L. Rees memorial fund, January 1973; press cuttings regarding the activities of the League of Friends of the Aberystwyth Hospitals and Welfare Homes assisted by the Ardwyn Social Services Club, 1972-1973; press cutting, entitled ‘Talybont’ regarding a coffee morning held at the Memorial Hall by teenagers from Ardwyn raising money for the R.S.P.C.A, 14 July 1972; press cutting ‘Pupils help the ‘have-nots’ ’ regarding Ardwyn Grammar School local Freedom from Hunger Company, (undated); letter from ‘Talybont and North Cardiganshire Agricultural and Horticultural Society’ to headmaster C.G. Suff regarding pupils winning the Senior Class of a Conservation Poster Competition, 19 July 1973; letter from the Mayor to Mrs Edwards (school secretary) regarding a small donation for the services of carol singers (names listed) at the ‘Senior Citizens Christmas Dinner Marine Hotel’, 10 January 1973; letter from Town Clerk regarding Remembrance Day 1972, 25 October 1972.; ‘Sample Menus’, from Conrah Hotel, occasion unknown, 7 July 1973.

Ref: ARD/14/3
Title: Records relating to school organ
Date: c.1950s
Extent: These records are sub-divided into two
Scope and Content: It had long been a declared ambition of headmaster D.C. Lewis to have an electronic organ installed in the school hall, and at the 1952 prize day he announced that an organ fund had been established.

Ref: ARD/14/3/1
Title: Records relating to school organ
Date: c.1950s
Extent: One volume
Scope and Content: Organ Fund Book, a green mark book, showing amounts received, featuring terms ‘Saturday 5th to December 19th’ and January to April.

Ref: ARD/14/3/2
Title: Records relating to school organ
Date: 1954
Extent: One small bundle
Scope and Content: Letter from headmaster A.D. Lewis regarding unveiling ceremony by former headmaster D.C. Lewis, 11 October 1954; sheet with outline of ceremony; cutting from Welsh Gazette regarding welcome shown to former head D.C. Lewis at the organ unveiling ceremony, 21 October 1954.

Ref: ARD/14/4
Title: Speech Day and Prizes
Date: 1956-1957
Extent: One bundle
Scope and Content: Includes programme for speech day and prize distribution at King’s Hall, Aberystwyth, 10 February 1956. Press cuttings: ‘All Eyes on the Centre Aisle’ concerning Ardwyn Speech Day, from Cambrian News and Welsh Farmers’ Gazette, 17 February 1956; ‘Bishop’s Message To His Old School’ regarding old Ardwynian Bishop John Richards Richards speech at School Prize Day, from Welsh Gazette, 28 February 1957 and‘ Bishop Recalls School Days’ from Western Mail 25 February 1957.

Ref: ARD/14/5
Title: Message of Goodwill or ‘Neges Ewyllys Da’
Date: 1932-1946
Extent: One bundle
Language: English, Welsh, German, Danish, Esperanto, Italian and Greek, French, Polish.
Scope and Content: [On 18 May 1899 a conference of governments met in the Hague to discuss the general question of peace. Henceforth May 18 became known as World Peace Day or Goodwill Day. In 1922, the Reverend Gwilym Davies suggested that the boys and girls of Wales should join once a year in a greeting to the children of the world. This was enthusiastically adopted by the schools of Wales and by the newly formed Urdd. The greeting was ‘wirelessed’ in the Morse Code on May 18 1922 through a government station in Great Britain and by the Eiffel Tower in Paris. In later years the BBC annually broadcast the Message of Goodwill or ‘Neges Ewyllys Da’ in the Children’s Hour programme and from its Empire station. Messages of reply were not received until 1924 when messages were received from Poland and Sweden by the Reverend Gwilym Davies at the Temple of Peace, Cardiff. Presumably the latter donated these papers to the school, since the Ardwyn archives contain the telegrams and letters sent in reply (See H. Spencer Lloyd, History, p. 244).

Bundle of material labelled 'Ardwyn Goodwill messages 1934 - ', addressed to the Reverend Gwilym Davies, Temple of Peace, Cathays Park, [also given as 10 Museum Place] Cardiff and telegrams addressed to Daffodil, Cardiff. Contains printed texts of messages, letters, telegrams, photographs and other material. Some items were used for an exhibition and have velcro mountings attached to them.
Includes letters of reply to the message of peace and goodwill from: ‘your American friends Sixth Grades Two Mile School’, Port Allegany, Penna, 21 May 1937; from a Danish school, May 1937; black and white photograph of the exhibition of Welsh children’s message in the public library Johannesburg; letter [in Welsh] from Ernest E. Unwin headmaster of ‘The Friends’ High School’, Hobart, Tasmania, 1930.

Telegrams: from School Borrewaterstr, Antwerp ‘Goodwill Greetings We Gladly and Generously Help You’, 18 May 1937; from the pupils of Patrick Henry Junior, 18 May 1937; from Thun, Germany, 18 May 1937; from Danish children, ‘D U I Vorup Danmark Oensker Venskab Venskab Venskab’ [venskab =friendship], 8 May 1938; from the Danish Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, 18 May 1946.

Letters: from Mrs Judy Faragr, 143 Krisztina-korut, Budapest, Hungary ‘To all the Boys and Girls of Wales!’, 23 May 1946; to the good children of Wales from Attilio and Dora Giudici [in Italian with illustration] and sheet of signatures of pupils, 1937; from Greek children, 20 May 1958; from French children from ‘ecole de filles Jules Ferry Baudif Seine France’; from Tingho Skole Varde, Denmark; from Civilian Relief Worker Eryl Hall Williams, Quaker Relief, British Army of the Rhine, [in Welsh], 1946; black and white photograph of the schoolchildren of assembly centre 296 Brunswick [1946]; from the children from the Displaced Persons Assembly Centre 296 Brunswick, 7 Class Elementary School, Maria Konopnicka School, [in English and Polish] 4 June 1946; from French children from Lyon, [in French. Naming members of their class who lost parents during the war and expressing hope that the world would remain at peace. (H. Spencer Lloyd, History, p.244); from children from Ecole de la rue de Pitteurs, Liege [in French] 15 June 1937; letter [in French] from the children of Pays de galles [Oise]; postcard from Russia written in Esperanto, 19 May 1932.

Black and white photograph of the recording of the goodwill message to the children of the world with Head Girl Gwenda Lewis, headmaster A.D. Lewis and Music teacher E. Jones-Davies, May 1957 and card to go with it dating it as May 1958; programme for ‘The 18th Annual World Radio Message of the Children of Wales’, 18 May 1939; printed ‘Overseas Leaflet’ for ‘The 26th Annual Message of the Children of Wales’, 18 May 1947; Western Union Cablegram ‘Received At Canada House, Baldwin Street, Bristol, 1’ with the message ‘Greetings To Our Friends Across the Seas and May Your Efforts Toward World Peace Be Eventually Successful Pupils Old Shell Road School Francis L Sheffield Principal’ 18 May 1937; printed sheet [in English and Welsh] conveying the ‘The Annual World Wireless Message of the Youth of Wales’, 18 May 1937 [two copies]; sheet [in Welsh] ‘Neges Radio Plant Cymru i’r Byd, 1939: Testun y 18fed Neges Flynyddol Mai 18, 1939. “Dydd Ewyllys Da”, 18 May 1939. [Acc 2220].