| Description | Track 1 [01:40:08][Session One: 9th January 2018] Arwel Edwards [AE], born 17th June 1939 in Gellilydan, Merionethshire, North Wales. Mentions father was a headmaster of a small junior primary school. Mentions move to Bala before moving to Church Village, near Cardiff, South Wales in 1945. Mentions being eleven years old when his father died. Comments on Welsh background and welsh language from father resulting in his attendance at the Welsh speaking chapel, Efail Isaf on Sundays. Comments passing the eleven plus exam and attending Pontypridd grammar school from 1950-1955. Mentions sitting Ordinary level exams in 1955. Comments on move to Brecon Grammar school’s lower sixth form in 1955 due to mother becoming headmistress in forest school in the Epynt. Comments on living in remote area; no electricity in house and having a taxi to school. Remarks on change to Bishop Gore School, Swansea to live with grandmother in Morriston. Comments on older brother. Comments favourably on attending Bishop Gore Grammar school for Upper Sixth form 1956-57. Comments that out of 700 pupils, 69 did Advanced level exams, 13 of which had state scholarships and highlights a few going on to have distinguished careers such as Lord Don Anderson of Swansea, (Lady) Dorothy Anderson, Martin Stevens, Lynne Frame, Olaf Slaymaker. Remarks that chose to go to Swansea University [SU] as more convenient, lodging with Grandmother in Morriston. Mentions graduating from SU in 1960 with an upper second degree. Mentioned that did post graduate research in Geography in the University of Berkeley, California, USA as a result of being awarded the Thomas and Elizabeth scholarship fund. Sailed on Queen Mary and plane hopped to the west coast. Remarks that romantic reasons brought him home. Mentions by obtaining the Development commission scholarship fund further PHD study in University College of Durham at Kings College, Newcastle was possible. Mentions 1961 saw start of PhD work in Newcastle and was awarded PhD in 1964. Remarks that the lack of academic jobs in the UK in 1963 forced application to British Council for work. Remarks that successful appointment as a General Service Officer with British Council saw AE and new wife travelling from Liverpool in 1964 to Lahore, West Pakistan. Comments that he was not happy in this career choice and after three years moved back to Swansea to take up post in SU. Remarks on being part of the Geography department from 1967 until 2000 when he retired. Comments on his continuous service at SU apart from taking leave of absence for a year, to house and work swap at University of Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia with his two daughters and wife and to lecture for a short period in Rhodes University, South Africa. [00:08:15] Comments on it being a tough experience attending three different sixth form colleges over two years and highlights making friends and being an unknown quantity for the teachers, as the challenges. Describes problem with his sixth form subjects, in that the syllabuses were taught in a different order at each school, resulting in some course topics were taught twice whilst others not at all. Comments that he needed to monitor and self- teach these gaps in the syllabus. Describes the success of the grammar schools could be attributed to an ethos of hard work as well as the quality of teaching at that time. Describes the teachers War experiences which aided their outlook on life and hence their quality of teaching. Story of keeping in touch with old school friends from Bishop Gore: Don Anderson, Dorothy Anderson and comments further on the success that Don Evans, Lynne Frame and those from the poorer backgrounds achieved. Describes the imbalance between the types of jobs accredited to people in south Wales at the time (1950’s and 1960’s) and how pupils attending Bishop Gore, seemed to buck that trend, achieving more than they were expected to. Mentions academic results (eleven plus, O and A levels) were printed in the local papers, which drove people to achieve, remiss of Welsh assembly to put an end to this. [00:14:38] Discussion on the “name and shame” effect of printing the results in the paper. [00:15:08] Pauses to get the Evening post Aug 1957 which shows the results in the newspaper. Describes the underfunding of secondary modern schools compared to the grammar schools, as being one of the tragedies in Britain which has disadvantaged the country as a whole. [00:17:25] Describes his parents as main driving force in his education and encouraged him to choose University as direction. Remarks on being recognised as a failure if did not achieve academic success which is still true today with his children. Describes why he stayed in Swansea to do his degree and comments on his relationship with his grandmother. Mentions grandmother died in 1960. Mentions that didn’t feel imperative need to go away to study and blames boarding schools for trying to impose this push on pupils. Mentions in other countries, pupils are not expected to go away and disagrees on the British ideal of got to get away to university although it was more popular to go away [00:21:40] Describes socialising in SU: athletics, choral and singing, gymgym (Gymdathas Gymraeg), folk dance society. Comments on the “hop” or Saturday night dance with live bands present, held in new arts centre. Mentions the Student union met in a house in Sketty, three or four times a week. Describes first year of Geography honours degree in SU. Story about choosing Geography in registration week, Gillian Groom [GG] tempted students with field trip to Dublin. Describes doing Geography, History & Economics subjects in first year of degree course. Mentions History lecturers, Glanmor Williams and Alun Davies. Describes Economics as unidentifiable in real life and mentions Economics lecturer Victor Morgan. Comments how Ted Nevin started to do regional economics which was more enticing. Remarks how you can relate Geography with the real world! Describes exciting lecturers such as Jon Oliver, meteorologist 1957/58 who looked at changes in climate over time by studying old diaries. Mentions [GG] investigating longer trends of isostatic rise in Baltic sea and varve sequences over time. Mentions professor Gerald Manners OBE, educated at Cambridge University, who influenced AE’s enthusiasm in Economic Geography. [00:33:49] Describes day-to-day student life: eight lectures a week, expected to do much background reading and tutorials every two weeks which involved essay writing. Compares today’s student experience in SU to his and lists the main differences as student size, a very book orientated culture and a realistic possibility of failure. [00:39:00] Comments on Principal John Fulton [JF]’s brilliance. Mentions [JF] was part of SU life: a gentle, shrewd, observant man who could draw out information from you. [00:42:06] Mentions the “hop” as a way of getting to know fellow students and describes these dances. Comments that dance would start at 8pm and last until midnight. Mentions able to thumb a lift home if missed the bus, as this was a recognised form of transport in 1950’s and mentions hiking up to Scotland, to London, Llangollen, to Cambridge. Comments that there was no alcohol on campus as SU didn’t have a bar then. [00:45:13] Hypocritical story of “tee-total” grandmother and her medicine, before bed. Comments that students weren’t big drinkers in the 1950’s. Mentions Berni Inns, one of only a few places to eat in Swansea and comments on schooners of sherry there. Remarks on occasionally go out to eat, more ordinarily ate at the Refec in the University. [00:47:57] Mentions getting a taste for chips and fantastic gravy here! Comments on Balls and Annual dinners organised by the societies, held in the Brangwyn Hall, attracting top class bands from London: Johnny Dankworth, Ted Heath, Acker Bilk. Story of being invited to a big dinner in London: starting at 11pm, a meal and cabaret, dancing all night and finishing about 4 or 5am before having breakfast in Covent Garden. Describes learning to dance in Church Village youth club. Mentions when fifteen years old, all youth clubs in South Wales would meet in City Hall, Cardiff annually for a dance. Remarks on travesty in how we have lost this social and cultural part of society. Story of spending time as a teenager in the Italian coffee shops drinking coffee and playing music on the dukebox. Remarks that he had places to go to as a youth, fewer places to go to for youth today. [00:59:05] Remarks on being part of SU choir, History Society, Geographical association, folk dancing society and won the intercollege eisteddfod. Most students were part of the societies in order to network and socialise. [1:01:17] Mentions the student union as being best place to socialise due to its location opposite Beck Hall. Mentions Beck Hall (Girls Hall) being run with a rod of steel by Edith and was where AE’s wife resided. Describes his sporting interests in SU: athletics, rugby as was fast sprinter and ran for SU. Mentions SU library as being underwhelming at that time and compares to Berkeley where main library had four and a half million volumes. [01:05:21] Describes minimal Welsh language use in SU with 30 to 40 people in the Welsh society. [1:07:03] Comments being on the Student Representative Council which counted greatly on your CV and the intercollegiate eisteddfod chairman. Story about “Podge” John Rogers from Llanelli and his talent at piano and penillion(*). Describes student union photo of forty people in 1958/59 including John Ford and E.A Maciver Slough (first black Students Union President) from West Africa. Comments that SU had no racial tensions and describes south Wales as being very tolerant to differences in culture and religion. Comments on Green area of Swansea which is the Irish/Roman Catholic area in Swansea called Greenhill, also there is a strong Jewish community in Swansea. [01:18:33] Describes being part of Sunday Break (television show filmed in Manchester with a religious slant) in third year and was paid. [01:22:31] Describes applying for and being awarded the Thomas and Elizabeth scholarship after graduation. Describes his horizons being expanded at the outstanding Berkeley campus in the USA and comments on the high class Geography lecturers. Remarks on there being 27 Nobel Peace prize winners at Berkeley. Mentions having great affection for the USA because of this experience and comments on the City and regional planning course in US changing his life. Mentions UK falls short in comparison. [01:29:51] Describes start of career, becoming a General Service Administrator with the British Council in Lahore but returning to Swansea after three years as was disheartened in this role. Comments on being in Lahore (sept 1965) when India invaded Pakistan. Mentions no interviews required for post back at Swansea in 1967. Comments on SU similar to when he had left seven years ago except for small changes in campus and student numbers increasing. Comments on lecturing in gowns as a practicality rather than a statement. Describes the post within the Geography department under Professor Balchin: tutoring and practical requirements plus a fieldtrip. [01:37:27] Describes two decades of fieldtrips: from first year going to Keele with David Herbert, Newcastle, then more exotic locations, Netherlands, Normandy and Paris Basin.
Track 2 [00:34:46] [Session One: 9th January 2018] Remarks that SU did not take part or there wasn’t any evidence of the wider student uprising of 1968 that were taking place in Paris and London. Positively describes his feelings towards students. Comments on changes in educational standards during his career; exemplified by degrees awards over time. [00:05:40] Discussion on degree awards [00:11:46] Remarks on his time at the department and comments on why never had promotion to senior lecturer, as more interested in Geography’s practical application. Describes his involvement with public enquiries, consultancy work and work which influenced public policies in the south Wales area and in retrospect it was more gratifying to have done this work. [00:17:23] Describes Geography department involvement with the surrounding community and nation and gives a few examples of the huge breadth of applications: Dave Herbert looked at Geography of Crime and of urban social structures, Rory Walsh has done work in hydrology and river systems locally, in Portugal and the Far East, GIS doing fundamental work in the Amazon Basin (remotely), Prof John Matthews collecting glacier data in Northern Norway for the last 35-40 years to apply to Global warming. Describes his interest in the de-industrialisation of area and his involvement in the public investigations of the waste tips of Merthyr Tydfil. Comments retrospectively on the large number of primary industries in the South Wales area and lists ,Ford, BP, aluminium, steel and tinplate works, being replaced by service industries :DVLA, hospitals, call centres, Universities. [00:2312] Describes SU failing to generate new industries as well as the Innovation Centre and Digital Technium at SU failing to attract new businesses. Mentions SU must allow staff to do high class academic research but must also go into the practical applied field which encourages economic development and comments on recognition of failing of all UK universities apart from Cambridge and London to do this. [00:27:00] Describes the relationship between the town and the university in Swansea. [0:29:21] Discussion on parody; fewer students - more interaction with the town whilst more students today, more visible but having less involvement with the surrounding town. [00:30:16] Describes being bitterly against the University of Wales disbanding to become Swansea University. Mentions and compares the University of Wales to the models in London and California. Mentions writing a paper for the commission of Wales (Dafydd Wigley being the Chairman) to try and save the University of Wales outlining the colleges as being specialised centres (eg.)Aberystwyth as being the Liberal Arts campus as it had the National Library of Wales. Describes his belief in how the Canadian and North American system of elite state universities and junior colleges are run. Mentions we have come complete circle taking us back to the eleven plus and secondary moderns which were there for a purpose as well defined but under-resourced craft technical institutions.
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