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Pwllypant

Pwllypant maps

Historic maps of Pwllypant and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis.   View all Pwllypant maps

Pwllypant area books

Displaying 1 of 2 books about Pwllypant and the local area.   View all books for this area

Memories of Pwllypant

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Mid Glamorgan memories

Double Diamond

Hi, my family members spent many a year in the Double Diamond and have big birthdays coming up, so I would be grateful for any photos if anyone has any. Thanks xxx

I Was Born in Caerphilly in 1938

I left Caerphilly in 1955 to join the Royal Airforce. Prior to this I worked for AJ Marshall Wholesale Confectioners in Castle Street. I went to school at The Twyn Secondary Modern as it was then known. I remember coming on leave and having a few pints in the Clives Hotel, on leaving I took the short cut to Nantgarw Road via the Castle fields but unkown to me the moat had been filled so needless to say after running down the slope to the path I ended up in the water. After leaving the RAF I got married and moved to Swansea. I wonder if Brian Uphill and Mike Richardson are still about, we were all very good friends. That's about it for now. George.

Caerphilly

I used to live in Bartlett Street next to the bus station. My first job in Caerphilly was as a delivery driver for Harris & Ash DIY merchants, they were situated in a double fronted shop opposite the castle, although I came across a photograph recently that showed their shop as originally opposite the bus and railway station. That shop became an Italian cafe run by a brother and sister team, his name was Marco and her name was Rose, very nice people, we used to have our tea breaks there when on the buses. I was a conductor on the Carphilly Urban District Council when the buses were painted mid Brunswick green with cream banding and they looked very smart. I worked with bus driver Brian Jones from Abertridwr, wonder if he's still around? I also worked at Morfeds in Poplar Road just off Van Road, that was when Prime Minister Harold Wilson came to open the Harold Wilson Ind Estate...... I joined the Royal Air Force 1967 and left Caerphilly.... Read more

Wartime in Llanbradach

Main Street c1955
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I was born in Merthyr Tydfil but my grandparents lived in Rees Terrace. My grandfather, Hugh Price Watkins, was the St John Ambulance driver for the pits. I lived and went to school in Llanbradach for about three months while my mother was in hospital. Whenever there was an accident in the mines, the phone would ring in grandad's house and I would be told the location of the accident and would run as fast as my legs would carry me to the garage right next to the bridge by the station. After picking up another man, I would accompany them in the ambulance to the accident site and would often ride in the back of the ambulance with the injured pitman, not something that Health & Safety would allow now. Without exception they would say to me: "Don't go down the pit, Bach." I didn't, but spent my life in the printing industry in Oxfordshire and Canada. I enjoyed playing in the park with its wonderful collection of swings... Read more

Happy Memories

Main Street c1955
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The High Street is where I was born in 1955.  In the street was the Working Mans Club, the Cinema and 'Jeffrey's' (the sweet shop where my brother and I used to go and spend out pocket money on a Saturday).  Once a year all the children would go to the Working Mans Cub for an orange, thrupenny bit and a stamp on the hand, I cannot remember the reason for it now but I remember it was special. My brother and I used to go to the cinema on a Saturday, it cost us 6d to get in and we had 6d for sweets. The mine closed and we moved but I still have lots of very happy memories.

LLANBRADACH PUB ON THE CORNER

My grandparents, Ben & Polly Thomas, ran the pub opposite the Miners Welfare. I was evacuated there and I can remember on Saturday night, the US Servicemen would come along with their band and play in the pub. My grandparents had a white haired terrier called "Tim". Tim would come into the bar, the bottom bar where the widows of miners were allowed in on Saturday nights. Tim would go into the middle of the bar carrying an enamel bucket with a wooden handle. He would swing the bucket around and then let it go, run and jump over the bar and race out the back. There was the bottom bar, the top bar (posh bar) and the Snug out the back.  My grandparents did not like cats but had to have one for the mice in the cellars. They called the cat "HITLER", it was fun to see in the cellars a mouse come round the corner with Hitler chasing and Tim chasing Hitler. Just like Tom and Jerry.... Read more

1976 in Llanbradach

I visited my gran and my aunts in Llanbradach twice in the early 1970s.

It was my first ever visit to Great Britain and I fell in love with the church. To someone accustomed to supermarkets, shopping from grocer to butcher to baker was like having an Enid Blyton book come true.

My sisters and I soon made friends with two of the girls who lived there, Susan and I forget the other girl's name. I can see their faces so clearly. They took us to a public swimming pool, to a cinema and to a fish and chip shop and especially under the train bridge so we could scream when the train passed overhead.

We forded your extremely cold little river, we hid under ferns on the hillside and we climbed the slopes on the other side of the valley by the train tracks.

If you are in your late 40s and remember making friends with four children from Barbados in the West Indies in... Read more

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