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Pontithel
Pontithel maps
Historic maps of Pontithel and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Pontithel maps
Pontithel photos
We have no photos of Pontithel, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Three Cocks| Glasbury On Wye| Bronllys| Talgarth| Llyswen| Hay-On-Wye
Pontithel area books
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Memories of Pontithel
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Powys memories
Burning Feet
When I was about 12 years old, with feet as thick as young, strong leather, my father, who was a pilot (Allan Dyson) and Nina (my mum, Nina actually) took us all from our home on a plot of land in Halfway House in the Transvaal (some distance from a town or city) to Glasbury on Wye.
There, in the blacksmith's house, the farrier was beating iron. We stood to watch and then the farrier asked 'What's burning?'. We all looked at each other and sniffed. Then I felt it. A hot coal had made its way through the sole of my Transvaal foot and we had trouble removing it quickly enough. My Welsh cousins were impressed with that only, my gran, May Saunders, amazed. We were a little too wild. But I remember how we loved Pop Pop; Fred Saunders, fisherman extraordinaire!
Alli in Glasbury
Fred took Allan fishing some time in the 1950's, when Allan was in his twenties. He had just married Norah (Nina) - (her mother used to call her No). Allan remembers wading out in Fred's waders and standing in The River Wye until the moon came up. Then Nina came and called him in. There was a shed, where they kept tea and a kettle, and when they went down, they would have tea. Alli always forgot time when he was there, in the river. They used crumbs for bait, in bottle with bottom removed to catch and watch sticklebacks. They were there to catch a trout and they did. About a year later, Alli and Nina went to Africa.
Oh! Happy Days of Childhood.
I first came to Glasbury when my father - Fred Whitchurch - became head gardener at the Maesllwch Castle Gardens. This was 1945, when I was but six years old. I went to Coedybolen School, where at that time there were many evacuees who, like us, were from the London area. However, we stayed on, and all of my schooling was either the result of efforts by Gwyn Evans at Coedybolen, or E.V.Howells and staff at Llandrindod. I left school in '55 and joined the RN, but emigrated to Canada in 1965. Glasbury still evokes many wonderful memories for me - most of all, every summer seemed to be sunny - but doesn't it always? I remain in contact with someone who was in my classes throughout school - Sheila Morgan (Sharpe), but have not been to the village in many years - I think in the 90's at some time. There are only my brother Dave and I left now, but time has not dimished the delightful memories. I... Read more
Early Memories of Hay During The Second World War, Part 1.
Memories of Hay during the Second World War. When I was still quite young, I recall that there were three phrases used by my father over and over again in conversation. The first, tellingly, were those remarks, usually making contrasts of some kind, beginning "Of course, before the war". And then post-1945 there was the obvious "During the war". And finally there was, with contrasts doubtless still in mind, "After the war". What is obvious is that for people of his generation the Second World War was the great watershed of the century, bringing cataclysmic changes that even impinged on small towns like Hay. And I suppose it is fair to say that two of those phrases were used to contrast the present (usually unfavourably!) with distinct former periods of personal history, years when the speaker was younger and when local society was supposedly more cohesive (the 'war-effort' etc.). Little wonder that social historians of the twentieth century may now describe the revolutionary effect that the Second World War had... Read more
Wartime Memories of Hay: Part Two
Memories of Hay during the Second World War: Part Two. (Continued from Part One) Thoughts of 'Dad's Army' remind me that the local Home Guard occasionally used Forest Road for some kind of exercise. I've dim recollections of one or two coming into the garden of 'Wayside' with their rifles and taking up whatever position was thought advantageous. Soldiers marching through the town was not an uncommon sight. I have quite a vivid memory of a large column of soldiers with pack-mules proceeding westwards up Belmont Road past the Wye Cafe, probably on their way to Brecon. Likewise, a small boy was always likely to be attracted by processions of army vehicles, Bren-gun carriers, tracked vehicles in camouflage khaki livery. There was a petrol station opposite the Swan Hotel (J.V. Like's garage in peace-time) manned by American soldiers who not only responded favourably to requests of "Any gum, chum?" but also were known to give away tiny pairs of (?army-issue) light-weight dice. Each small, top-like, die (less than an inch long when... Read more
Wartime Memories of Hay: Part Three & Final.
Wartime Memories of Hay: Part Three. (Continued) Apart from Ration Books and the coupon implications for restricted purchase of food and clothing, my own recollections of life in Hay during World War Two hinge on evacuees along with hazy memories of particular events some of which have been outlined in previous two parts. At home there were at different times at least two sets of evacuees who occupied a small 'extra' bedroom in my parents' house. The first arrivals were the Morris family from Bermondsey in SE London; this was a young mother and very young child of approximately my own age. I have little real memory of either of them, nor of the husband/father; but perhaps he was serving abroad and unable to visit Hay at all. The Morrises must have been relieved to escape the bombing raids on London, yet probably found Hay to be very much a small provincial town well outside their own experience. The second set of evacuees were a pair of older spinster ladies from Bristol,... Read more
Visits to Hay as A Little Girl.
I have vivid memories of visiting Hay on Wye as a little girl with my mum and nanna . Our reason for our visits was my nana had relatives there - Alice Jolly, Letchmere Jolly, Riley & Oscar Jolly . They lived in a house called Red Wing which I think was in Lion Street and my one favourite memory was that the garden at the back of the house ran down to a stream . Somewhere I've got some photo's of us by the stream, but one of the things I always remember is whenever we visited, Aunt Alice would always insist on taking us for tea in a little tea shoppe in the middle of Hay . I am in the process of tracing our family tree and have discovered that my great grandmother came from Hay and that is where my grandmother's link with Hay came from, as Alice and the others were her cousins. My daughter and I intend to visit Hay this year to try... Read more
