Memory Of When I Was About 5 Years Old

A Memory of Llansamlet.

My parents -- Glyndwr and Georgina Jones -- both grew up in South Wales. After marrying they moved to Manchester and I was born soon after in 1950. In 1955 my mother became pregnant with my brother Glynne, and I was sent to live with my Nana and Dadcu -- Gwenllian and Dau Jones -- in Peniel Green for the duration.

My Nana's sister, my (great) Auntie Sal, owned and ran Llansamlet's cross-roads corner grocery shop and cafe: she lived up above the premises in what seemed to me at the time to be a luxurious flat. This entire dwelling was magical to me as a child. Last I looked it had been converted into a take-away joint.

My Nana and my (great) Auntie Sal had two sisters who lived nearby. My great Auntie Maggie lived -- as I recall -- in one of the houses on the left of this photo. My great Auntie Ethel lived a bit further south down the road, on the right of the photo, in a less grand and somewhat gloomier row house. My great grandmother (we called her Mamgu Trallwn) lived in a neighbourhood close by -- past the railway station and past the park containing the lawn bowls and children's play ground.

As a child of five, I could not appreciate the ravages that the Second World War had waged on this area of Wales -- but I remember the rubble I had to pass from my Auntie Sal's shop on my way to Maggie Trallwn's house.


Dr. Carole Suschnigg
Sudbury, Ontario
Canada