The Brad

A Memory of Llanbradach.

I was born in Coedybrain Rd in 1948 and my family moved to School St. I remember going to the school until I was 6, when we moved away to a new housing estate. The school had a stuffed squirrel in a glass case. I was in the nursery class where we had a nap every afternoon wrapped in blankets. School milk was lined up on the hot pipes in winter, and I hated it! I always missed my grandparents and was never happier than going back to visit the Brad. As kids, we dammed the stream at the bottom of School St in the summer, and paddled in the pool. We would go up to the Quarry Pond (rumoured to be bottomless) with jam sandwiches and water in old pop bottles. The open-air swimming pool was tempting in summer, but always felt freezing cold. There were a few cinemas there, and we could go a few times a week and see a different film for 6d. In the evenings, I'd sit next to my Nan watching black and white TV, programmes like What's My Line? and Come Dancing while eating chips from Keith's fish-shop...happy days! Sometimes, my Nan took me "up the road" to the shops, or we went to the little shop near the school where the man in the brown coat sold biscuits from tins with glass lids.

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