Memories of Swansea

Choirboy 1936

My brother Joe joined St Mary's church choir about 1936. We lived on Pantycelyn Road, Town Hill and every Sunday morning he was forced to drag me, his sister (sixteen months younger), down the hill and across town to the church. He went into the choir loft and I was left to find a seat somewhere. The place looked enormous to me and not many people attended the service. Sometimes I sat in the back row, sometimes in the middle, sometimes in the second row from the front. I wasn't allowed to sit in the front row. On the days communion was held people would line up in the aisle, and I always remember one man kept rubbing the side of his head as he walked along.
All the time I attended the church -  a little girl, sitting all by herself, surrounded by empty seats - not one member of the clergy came near me. I can still remember the Vicar, a little plump with a red face.
On the way home we passed a tall white building, a store of some kind which had windows where they displayed their merchandise. Joe and I loved the window which had a display of Mickey Mouse watches.

Swansea Deaf and Dumb School

I was born and bred in the Mount Pleasant area of Swansea, in which the D&D Institute was based.  My schooling was Terrace Road infants & juniors.  Lots of football in the street, Cwmdonkin Park and playing in and around the quarry off the Promenade, that overlooked the Institute.  The quarry was wild, with steep drops and the cause of many mishaps.  A lad of my age was the son of the caretaker at the Institute and a group of us kids frequently used to wander the corridors of the school, which was a dark, auspicious and sprawling affair, very much reminiscent of the Victorian building I subsequently learned it to be.  Dropping out of the back of the Institute's grounds, it was possible to slide down a slope, peppered with trees and foliage, until appearing down the bottom at railings overlooking Heathfield.  I don't know why, but railings in those days always seemed to have convenient gaps - great for escape in games of tag!  More often or not we simply played games in the Institute yard, although on occasions we'd venture into the gymnasium building.  This was fitted-out with the usual apparatus and one infamous visit resulted in a broken leg for one of our mates, who swung on one of the ropes straight into a vaulting horse... We were 8 at the time and the predictable aftermath was a stern ticking off from respective parents.  We continued to routinely use the school while the caretaker's son was living there, up to about 1972.  I guess it must have been converted to flats early in the next decade (?).  I moved away from Swansea in 1980, although I'm still a regular visitor to that area (my sister owns our original family house in Rhondda Street).  The Promenade quarry looks a much smaller expanse now, although still resolutely wild.

The Institute is the Haunted House-type building at the top of the postcard/photo, overlooking the Swansea town centre.  The arches on the right of the street are the front of the Albert Hall cinema, which converted to a Bingo Hall in the late 70s/early 80s.  The photographer is standing in Craddock Street; to his/her right would be a little road leading to the entrance to Dynevor Senior Comprehensive School, where I stayed on for my A levels.  Dynevor School is also now closed, although the building itself is still present in some partial, adapted form.

One of my trips from London to the Mumbles to Auntie Connie's house

This looks exactly like the picture I took to prove to Mom I had been on my way to Auntie Connies' house.  I took the train from Doncaster in England to Swansea - one of the train ticketers' kept bothering me, so I snuck past him when he got to Swansea and ran over to the Grand to book a room for the night.  
I made my way to go to Auntiie Connie's in the morning, or so I thought.  I was going to take the bus - everybody I asked knew who my Auntie Connie Thorpe was.  So, they probably knew the young girl she raised, who would be my Mom, Robina.  Anyway, being only 17, I got scared (I can't figure out why??) and went back to Barton on Humber where I was staying.
This trip was a 6 week stay for my Graduation present in 1971 - for graduation from High School in Michigan USA.