Pontycymer

Waun Bant Cricket

I spent the vast bulk of my childhood in this area. The centre of the cricket pitch is a strip of concrete that was used for boys club and school's cricket matches. Mostly, a game of soccer or rugby was played either side of it too. Down the grass bank is now the "Swings" at Waun Bant. These were built in about 1968/1969. In the foreground is the rubbish tip that became Lawrence Park rugby ground in 1970 and at the top of the photo is St Theodore's Church which is now gone and a bungalow is in its place. To its right are the houses in Church Street that are now demolished. The Mem is also visible on the far ...read more here
Contributed by David Jones

The Welsh School, Bridgend Road

It is great to see a photo of the Welsh School that I attended from 1959 to 1963. (Bottom right hand corner). Miss Winnie Bisset was the Headmistress and I remember her teaching three classes of kids at once. My class only totalled four and I was the only boy. She died in 1976. I also remember the large house pictured in Bridgend Road. That was demolished in about 1961 and I remember seeing that they tied a rope around the chimneys and attached it to a car bumper in order to pull them off. Also on the bottom left is the top end of Bridgend Road which was demolished in about 1964. Number 7 had a murder take place there ...read more here
Contributed by David Jones

I was there.....

Some years ago my mother came across this postcard and looking carefully saw herself! She is the woman, Joan Marion Jones, nee Gibson, carrying a child on the corner by what was a barbers. That child is my sister, Christine Jones (now Howell) and the boy by the side is myself. The other lady with her is my Auntie Beat. We were on our way to the railway station in Pontycymer to catch the train to Porthcawl.
Christine was born in Dec 1950 and I was born in Nov 1947.
Contributed by Eric Jones

Post Office

This photograph has changed little I think apart from the demolishing of the public toilets on the right. The wooden notice board on the railings advertised the weekly films featured in the "Mem" and always drew my attention as I walked past it. The Squirrel is visible just up from the post office and was formerly called "The Pontycymmer Hotel" but I am not sure as to when this pub changed its name. Just past the toilets on the right was "Sid's", the gent's hairdresser. He was there for years.
Contributed by David Jones

Good place in which to grow up

Really strange looking at the photo of Oxford St circa 1955.  It took me some minutes to work out that I was looking at the old Post Office from the Square.  I remember the railings outside the Post Office.  I guess it's all changed now but it was a lovely place in which to grow up.  No-one locked their front doors in those days.  Ho hum, how times have changed!

Paul, lived in Oxford St from 1953 to 1971.
Contributed by Paul John

A busy street

My mother Joan Marion Jones nee Gibson from Nantyrychain Terrace worked in the Home and Colonial Stores (on the right hand side of this photo) during the war and has many memories and stories, especially about rationing. She also knows many of the shops.
Starting on the left corner was Peglers (grocer) - now a Chinese, I see from another memory, then Morgan Hughes (ladies outfitters), Powell (butcher), Wellingtons (newsagent and greengrocer), Bethel Chapel with the British restaurant where Mrs Jones from Meadow St. was the Cook. (This later became a canteen for Garw Grammar School boys in Forms 4-6 who walked from the school to take their lunch here. I know because I was there! Mrs Fricker was the ...read more here
Contributed by Eric Jones

Oxford Street

The hill at the front, sharp left is indeed Alexandra Road and the pub is the Squirrel. The shop on the front left is Peglers Grocers and this became a Chinese Takeaway in about 1970 and is still one today. Just up from that is Emlyn Powell's butchers shop. Front right is Joe Polledri's cafe. Joe was a lovely man who only died about two years ago, well into his 90's. I remember that chewing gum machine well. Further up at number 21 is Morgan Roberts shoe shop where I was born in the flat underneath (21a) in December 1955. The shop is still open today. David Jones 17/3/08
Contributed by David Jones

Down the valley

I guess this photograph is looking down the valley with the photographer standing near The Square. I can't quite remember the name of the hill (Alexandra Road?) just out of shot on the front left of the photo. It had a pub halfway up on the left, and a doctor's clinic if I recall correctly.

Paul
Contributed by Paul John