The following may be of interest:
The origin of “Caban” – the magazine. (An edited extract from my history of Oakelely)
It was at this time (1948-9) that a combination of ideas from men and management brought about a temporary rejuvenation of
the old "family feeling" in the quarries. Harry Cutts, one of the directors and soon to be Managing Director and Secretary,
wanted to improve labour relations and the relationship between London and Quarry offices and sought to create an
atmosphere he liked to describe as "WE" in the sense of "We of the Oakeley Quarries, management and men together."
The start of it all was later put on record (in Caban Magazine itself) in this fashion, "Like so many other good ideas in Blaenau, it began in the heart of one of the quarries. In one of the cabannau, to be exact, whose members conceived the excellent idea of endeavouring to run a local eisteddfod. A little thought showed that this would involve more time and effort than one Caban could take on single
handed, instead, they decided to form a Male Voice Choir, which began to practice on the spot, during every dinner break."
"Soon this was no longer enough. The choir was flourishing, and if it was going to compete in local events it needed more time and space for properly organised practices; and so the story moves on to a room in Blaenau, hired from the local Education Committee, at which the Choir met for weekly practices. It was then that someone put forward idea No.2 – that the Choir should hold a supper to celebrate its success to which should be invited the Management of the Quarries."
"And it was during the speeches of that supper that one of the leading members of the Management in turn expressed idea No.3 - one which he had hoped for a number of years to put into practise one day. That idea was the establishment of a centre at which members of Oakeley and Votty would be able to meet, not only for choir practice (and this time without any hire charges) but for games, sports, meetings and other recreation."
"For this purpose the Company offered to make over the Old Hospital, and, later, adjacent land which it is hoped ultimately to turn into a sports ground for outdoor games of all kinds."
"So far so good; but the finest building will not make a Club without a committee to run it. And as this was a club whose members should be drawn from every part of the quarries above and below ground, to do the job properly their committee must be drawn from every part of the quarries too. That is just how the men in charge were ultimately selected – as representatives of the Cabannau so that each section of the quarries would have its own spokesman among those at the Club."
This article came from the "idea No.4" - not expressed at the supper, that the Quarry should produce a Magazine to allow the Cabannau and the Club to express themselves in print as "CABAN" "The Magazine of the Oakeley Slate Quarries Co. Ltd. and its subsidiary, the Votty and Bowydd Slate Quarries Co. Ltd."
https://www.ncm.org.uk/library/research/digitised-coal-magazine .)
From issue 5, October 1950, editions were printed by R.E. Jones & Sons Ltd., the Quay, Conway and the 'London' connection of publishing was broken in favour of more local and "in-house" preparation. Storey had apparantly made himself unwelcome, and his place was taken by Glyn Rees, who later became News Editor of the Liverpool Daily Post, and he in time was followed by Idwal Owen, the editor of the North Wales Weekly News.
The photographer after Storey's time was Bob Bird of Wallasey, who the Manager, G.L.Humphreys, described as "....really excellent. he was in the R.A.F. during the war as a photographer and one of his assignments was concerned with developing the "bouncing bomb" of dambusters fame. He was in a rather small boat on the Clyde when the bombs were being proved and tested."
To the quality of the photographs and their variety, I can only say "AMEN"
The content was apparently submitted to the quarry manager for approval – and editing, but I was only told of one typical occasion : An article in one issue drew the blue pencil of G.L.Humphreys on the subject of pumping and power, "800" became "some hundreds," "often" became "on occasion," "takes as long as six weeks" was emended to "a long time," and so on. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to find it and wonder, as I often did, what else got amended!
Within the pages of Caban are images of several people I met when I started working on “Candles to Caplamps” and my Oakeley History. Thomas Roberts, “Twm Mawr,” the Oakeley “Securer” can be found gracing one rear cover with his ladders (he appears elsewhere as well), E.H.Tabbenor, at the time assistant surveyor can be found in an article on “The surveyors” the photographs being taken in Votty. A minor figure in the photo of the Votty workforce at closure, but not in his help to me was Gerald (Geraint) Griffiths working at Maenofferen when I met him.
As Jonk has said - enjoy!
Grahami
The map is the territory - especially in chain scale.