The Five Villages - Brynawel, Cwmfelinfach, Wattsville, Wyllie, Ynysddu.

Agape Meal: Reverend Marion Barge will hold an Agape Communal Meal during Lent at the Islwyn Inn, Wyllie on Tuesday, March 13, at 7pm.

The meal will consist of soup a simple main course and fruit to finish.

For those who wish to take part, call 01495 227208.

To cover the cost of the meal there is a £2.50 charge.

Mothers and Toddlers: Ann Hall and Carol Bradley have brought it to my attention that their toddlers' group is held in Cwmfelinfach Community Hall on Mondays and Thursday mornings at 9.30am to 11.30am every week - not only on the Monday, as I reported in my column a few weeks ago.

All mums, dads, grandparents and guardians wishing to bring along their children aged under three-years-old are very welcome to do so.

The parents supervise the toddlers' play and there is plenty of tea and biscuits for all.

The fees are £1.25 per session. The group is volunteer-run and funds go back into the club.

Cwmfelinfach Residents Association: The residents had an interesting evening at the community hall when artist Peter Lawrence from Tintern demonstrated the Bob Ross painting technique Anyone can paint with this technique, Mr Lawrence told the audience, and painted a beautiful landscape picture right in front of everyone's eyes in just over one hour.

Choosing a design: Residents of Wattsville had the chance to choose from three designs for a stone-carved sculpture, to be set at the Wattsville end of the cycle path.

The designs by artist Michael Disley were based on mining themes.

The designs were shown to the Monday afternoon bingo session at Woodland View and evoked memories of the mines from everyone there.

Val at the Post Office pinned up the designs in her shop and held a survey of her customers to see which one they liked best.

The children in the Youth Club, which is held in the Pavilion on Thursdays, chose a favourite and the local primary school children were also shown the designs and picked the one they liked.

The outright winner will be displayed in the Post Office.

Ynysddu and Cwmfelinfach have already selected the designs for artwork by Mr Disley for the villages.

Local schools and many of the residents again had the chance to pick their favourite from the selection of designs.

In Ynysddu the theme was the local railway, which ran alongside the Ynysddu Hotel.

The chosen sculpture is due to be located in the centre of the village.

Cwmfelinfach's sculpture was based on the poet Islwyn's poems and will be placed on the river road by Pont Lawrence Bridge.

All sculptures will be approximately 1.5 metres tall.

Pigeon Club: Pontllanfraith and Ynysddu Homing Society (known as the Pigeon club) meets on Fridays evenings and Saturdays at the Progressive Club, Ynysddu.

One of the founder members of the original Ynysddu club Glyn Parry of Wyllie is still a keen member and flies his birds regularly.

Mike Bowen, E Williams, Arthur Tantrum and Ken Hughes all joined when the present club was started in 1967 after an amalgamation of the Ynysddu and Pontllanfraith pigeon fanciers.

Over the years the club has had three Welsh Grand National winners. The club flies the South East Road, which is Swindon to Bonn in Germany.

To the uninitiated, it seems amazing the birds only take about 10 hours to fly from Bonn.

The season will be starting in April.

New members are always welcome and there are always plenty of experienced members to get you started.

If you want any information, give the secretary of the club Mike Bowen a ring on 01495 249336.

CYT Care Home: The residents of Craig Y Trwyn Care Home in Brynawel recently enjoyed an afternoon of entertainment with Rick James who had an excellent range of music from the 1920s up to the 1950s.

Steve Adams, the activities coordinator, said the rhythm machine he used in conjunction with his guitar went down really well with the residents.

Mr Adams said the singer also encouraged participation from the audience.

Mr James played for about an hour and a half with a break in the middle.

The residents said they would definitely like him back again.

This week 78 Years Ago: Those who read in my column about the demonstration by 700 miners and families against poor working conditions at Nine Mile Point Colliery may be interested to know what happened next.

Following the police baton charge and the reading of the riot act on February 8, 1929, eight men were taken into custody and appeared at Blackwood Court on March 11, 1929 accused of rioting.

All were sentenced to between three months and six months in jail.

There were many, many demonstrations all over the country at this time of unrest and harsh sentences for those who were judged to be the ringleaders.

Thank you to the reader from Risca, who read my history article and sent me some newspaper cuttings from a newspaper dated Monday October 21, 1935 showing the miners coming up from underground after the famous sit-in strike in Nine Mile Point Colliery.

These cuttings have been passed on to our own local historian Ray Potter.

works on Wyllie paths: The entrance to the cycle path is having a facelift with a new stonewall being built.

Resurfacing work is also being carried out on the entrance road into the cycle path at the bottom of Glanhowy Road.

building Bridges in Ynysddu: Village enhancements are continuing with the painting of the Iron Bridge and new steps being constructed by the side of the stone bridge leading to the cycle path.

More improvements are being planned to the children's park area as well.

What's On: Friday, karaoke at the Black Prince, Ynysddu Thursday - back by popular demand, the Ynysddu Station Hotel are restarting their popular quiz night.

Saturday, Live Artist at the Progressive Club, Ynysddu Sunday, karaoke at the Black Prince, Ynysddu K