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Croesypant

Croesypant maps

Historic maps of Croesypant and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis.   View all Croesypant maps

Croesypant photos

We have no photos of Croesypant, although we do have photos of these nearby places:

Chain Bridge| Pontypool| Llanover| Abersychan| Garndiffaith| Sebastopol| Llanellen| Usk| Blaenavon| Six Bells| Cwmbran| Cwmtillery| Llanfoist| Abertillery| Llanhilleth| Raglan| Govilon| Crumlin| Clydach

Croesypant area books

Displaying 1 of 3 books about Croesypant and the local area.   View all books for this area

Memories of Croesypant

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Gwent memories

Come Back, Glyn Hall!

I think it was 1944.  I had been evacuated from London's East End in 1939, at the age of 4.  Initially I was fostered, but later on my mother and sister (born in 1939) joined me. We lived for a while in Eastville Road, Six Bells, where I went to school - sadly, the school seems to have closed some time ago, but I have started enquiries at Monmouthshire Education Department.

My father was later transferred from London to the Usk munitions factory, and we moved as a family into Glyn Hall, Mamhilad. This was a Workers Travel Association site which provided housing accommodation and a range of social and welfare facilities for families such as ours - rather like a sort of Butlin's, I suppose!

I remember that as we left Glyn Hall to return to London, work had already begun on converting this site into a factory for British Nylon Spinners, but it has been many things since then.

I have managed to contact... Read more

Glyn Hall

We moved to Glyn Hall about 1942. My father and later, my mother worked at the ROF Glascoed. My sister Glenys has photographs of some of the social activities including a fancy ball. I doubt that there would be any external photos as this was an extremely hush-hush site. It was built to accommodate  managers and key-workers, and was a self contained unit. The canteen provided all our food which seemed to consist of  nothing but macaroni and lentils, I was fortunately on a special diet. On her day off my mother would cook on an electric ring, the stack of saucepans slowly rising throughout the day, the meat was probably rabbit! We would also return by bus, to our home in Blaina, the cat, in a zipped leather bag, always went with us.   
There was a theatre for films, pantomimes and dances. We would sneak in to watch films through the emergency doors, thinking no-one would notice us! I took part in the pantomimes, one scene used the... Read more

Glenhafod Colliery/Goytre Near Port Talbot

When was the colliery opened? My elder brothers worked there and my dad (1930-40s). We lived in 22 East Street, and I attended Central School. My name is Glyn Parsons. When was the crescent built?. I know the East Street and Emroch Street were French-style houses, who built them and when? The filter beds were around when I was a kid, and I remember going up to the pistle and the prisoner of war camp. Can anybody help? If the guys I grew up with have computers and e-mail adresses, drop me a line, it would be nice to hear how your doing!!. Glyn (I came to Canada in 1969. No regrets!)

1950s

My grandfather worked at this site, his name was Albert Cook. I wonder if anyone remembers him? He retired I think in 1960 I was about nine then and I remember him getting a clock and a party was held. He had black spots on his hands he, always said it was from TNT, I wonder if anyone else experienced this?

Events on The Hill

I have left the year of these incidents because they were on going throughout my childhood. The first concerns Dr Clinch's dog. Dr Clinch lived at the top of Penygarn Hill. He was a large man with a gruff exterior, I believe he had numerous caps for Ireland in the late 1940s and if my memory is correct the great Jackie Kyle paid him several visits, causing much excitment amongst us boys who harboured dreams of playing for Wales. Dr Clinch had a wire-haired terrier, whenever the Dr began his journey by car at the bottom of Penygarn Hill to his home he would deposit the dog outside of the car, and drive away. The dog gave chase it would follow that car as fast as possible running up that hill. I swear that if there was a chance of the dog beating the Dr then he would accelerate. I lived half way up Penygarn Hill and witnessed this event many times. The dog always avoided traffic, not that there... Read more

Long Lost Bus Stop

Clarence Square c1955
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The bus is parked outside the Pontypool office of the "Red & White" bus company. Their head office was in Chepstow and they ran services across the whole of Monmouthshire as Gwent was then known. Buses for Newport, Usk, Chepstow, Abergavenny and Blackwood went from the Clarence. A glass canopy ran across the whole of the front of the building which included the Carlton cafe and the Free Press newspaper office. The large building behind the bus is the Clarence Hotel - the best hotel in Pontypool at that time. In the 60s and 70s it fell into disrepair but has recently been renovated as residential accommodation. On the left behind the tree was the home of Dr Siddons.

The Bottleneck

George Street c1960
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This view of Goerge Street was taken before the "bottleneck" was re-developed. The store in the right in the foreground was demolished and a new Tesco was built there in the early 1960s. The "bottleneck" was not wide enough for 2 vehicles to pass but was always thronged with shoppers on a Saturday when Pontypool was the major shopping centre in the area and had a first class rugby team. Ray Prosser, Malcolm Price and Benny Jones were local heroes. In George Street was an Italian cafe called Savinis (Jakes) that sold wonderful italian ice-cream. Further up the street on the right was "Sharpies", - Cyril Sharps. A tiny shop that sold all the things any young lad (and those not so young) could wish for - Rugby kit, Fishing rods, footballs, Air pistols, darts - oh everything. I believe that Cyril was actually a cobbler as he also sold leather.   

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