Pontymister memories
Here are memories of Pontymister and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Pontymister or a Pontymister photo.
Channel View
I was born in No 9 Manor Bungalows (The Prefabs), in 1947, Channel View wasn't built then, the area was laid to allotments & then open meadow to Gelli Crescent & Tynycwm Halt Railway platforms. In 1955 the second Phase of Channel View was built & we lived on the road leading to the Garages in the foreground of the Picture, the third Phase of Channel view was built a couple of years later to the left of the Garages & eventually connected to Gelli Crescent. In the middle ground of the Picture are Pontymister Welfare Grounds & the bowling Green, in the far distance is Pontymister Steelworks Just below Ochrwyth & Machen mountain. Before the Power Station was built at Rogerstone we had a clear View of the Bristol Channel !! which was later obscured by the Power Station Cooling Towers, sad, before Phase three we also had clear views of the Cricket Grounds. To the right/opposite the two garages were another two garages, in the Seventies my... Read more
Happy Days
I was born in a house on, and have lived in, Channel View for my entire life. I now live in a house built to the left of the garages in the forground. As a kid I played behind those garages and made dens with my mates and sailed down and sunk in the canal on home-made rafts, which is where the picture is taken from.
Takes me Back
In this picture, the post in the middle of the path is an old canon barrel. When I went for walks along this canal as a kid, I can remember running on ahead of my parents a short distance with my brother and sister to the canon barrel to see how much dirt and gravel we could gather up and shove down the end of it before my parents caught up with us. The house in the distance is Fernlea, and the picture is taken from the canal path outside the 'Prince of Wales' public house.
Memories of Gwent
Channel View
I've seen this photo in several places and it's always captioned as being 1965 - it's got to be before that because I lived in Channel View from 1960 to 63 just below those garages on the right of the photo - and in this photo the building hasn't even started.
I can remember playing behind those garages - even creating a little "graveyard" there for my deceased pet white mice. There's a path up to the canal from behind the garages (which is where this photo is taken from) and there was a great tree-swing with a death defying drop if you swung all the way out from the bank - I imagine there were quite a few injuries, if not broken bones as a result of that swing.
Happy days
Telephoning
The public telephone in this picture of Tredegar Street was outside my father's butcher shop. There were only two buttons to press: button A and button B, but people were terrified of pressing the wrong one. My father, Gomer Mumford, used to do the phoning for lots of people. Sometimes coins would jam in the mechanism so he would release them using a butcher's knife and pocket the money!
Next door, to the butcher shop my mother Adelaide opened a flower shop just before the Coronation. Bit by bit we added plants, fruit and vegetables. When sweets came off ration we also sold confectionery. Such was the pent-up craving for sweets that I remember selling fifteen 7 lb jars of Sherbert Lemons in a day. People queuing for the Palace cinema used to buy sweets and cigarettes from us. All the family would be on hand to cope with the tremendous rush of trade. We had a side window devoted to sweets for children. At lunchtime we would be pressed... Read more
Playing on The Canal
I spent many happy days here with my brother and sister. Playing in home-made boats made from corrugated tin, catching tadpoles and skating on very thin ice in the winter. I lived in Woodview Road and my grandparents lived in Mount Pleasant.
Memories of Risca
This shot brings back a hell of a lot of memories. We used to play on the canal bank here and fish for sticklebacks in the shallow bit under the bridge. I even had had my first real snog in the graveyard (nice!) over the bridge on the left. You can just see the Prince of Wales pub through the arch. The gate in the hedge on the left was the back gate to my garden.
I Miss my Family Home
This picture is of my family home just under the quarry to the left. My father Glyndwr 'Pancho' Parry was one of the council machine drivers that had to fill in the canal between the Darren bridge and 'the now' cycle path entrance. He did not enjoy doing that as it was so close to home for us and we missed the scape of things! Other than that I loved living there and thought I would live there for the rest of my life, unfortunately when my father 'passed' my mum wasn't well enough to stay alone in the house so had to sell it, it is now back on the market but beyond my 'means' unfortunately... The day the new owner came to view I was there; he didn't see me, it could have been my own father stood there at the fence, taking in the views; same build, flat cap, everything including his demeanor was 'Pancho'. Mr Vaughn will never know how good that made me feel..?? And... Read more
Memorybank total
We're very pleased and excited by your response so far to our "Share your Memories" community.
You've shared 26,185 memories of 5,732 towns & villages across the UK - keep them coming!
Find Memories
Simply search for your favourite places to read others' memories and share your own.
Tips & Ideas
Not sure what to write?
It's easy - just think of an important place in your life and ask yourself:
How does it feature in your personal history?
What are your best memories of this place?
How has it changed over the years?
How does it feel, seeing these old photos of your favourite place?
Do you remember stories about the local community, its history and people?
Start now!
It's easy to add your own memories and reconnect with your shared local history. Search for your favourite places and look for the orange "Add your Memory" icon to begin.
Places this week
Here are some of the places you've shared memories of this week:
- Ryhill, West Yorkshire
- Wishaw, Lanarkshire
- Edlington, South Yorkshire
- Milton Abbot, Devon
- Padstow, Cornwall
- Slough, Berkshire
- Frodsham, Cheshire
- Ipswich, Suffolk
- Margam, West Glamorgan
- Gawber, South Yorkshire
- Sale, Cheshire
- Shoreham, Kent
- Bournemouth, Dorset
- Newhaven, East Sussex
- Redhill, Surrey
- Chelsea, Greater London
- Stanwell, Middlesex
- Willerby, North Humberside
- Croydon, Surrey
- Gravesend, Kent
- ... and lots more - Browse this week's memories now.
Your memories
To jump straight to the memories you have added already to the Community, click here
I Remember When...
This stunning compilation highlights some of the best stories selected from the thousands contributed here on the
Frith website. The result is an absorbing chronicle of British life from the Second World War to the mid 1960s.
A colourful treasure trove of memories, "I Remember When" is an
irresistible mix of personal stories and recollections that affectionately reveal the detail of everyday life in Britain.
