Memories of The Graig

I was born in the house of Williams the Milk on the corner of Graig Avenue; my over-riding memories of the following few years are mainly of the horse and cart Mr. Williams used, pulled by his horse "Dolly". I sometimes went on the milkround with them, travelling through the Graig, Treforest, Merthyr Road, to Trallwn,and finally through Taff Street. At the Tumble Mr. Williams would get "Dolly" up to a gallop to cross the square and pass under the railway bridge to make a left turn into Union Street; it was often touch-and go whether "Dolly" would make it up the steep hill and round the corner. I went to a school in Maesycoed and remember going to bed in the afternoons. There was a small bakery near the school and to this day the smell of fresh bread triggers of memories of those years. I also have vivid memories of Sion's pond. It was a very eerie place for an imaginative mind,with those dead trees sticking out of the water. I once fell into a "feeder" pond near there and I'm sure that if my brother David had not been passing I would have drowned. The older boys used to go camping up the mountain during the summer months but I was not old enough to go with them. I remember there being an old Isolation Hospital at the end of Danycoedcae Road, at least the base of one, where we used to build dens. I dropped a large stone on my foot and lost the nail off one toe. I also have memories of going to the pictures on a Saturday morning in Pwllgwaun and having a bag of cut-apples from a fruit shop to eat on the way home. My family moved to a new council house in Rhydyfelin in the late 1940s where I went to Parc School and Hawtorn Secondary Modern; I have oftened wondered if there were any photos of Mr. Williams and his milk-cart as he must have served those communities for many years.