Landons Newspaper And Toy Shop

A Memory of Abertillery.

A close relative, Charles Passey, was in the police force in Abertillery. He married Doll Landon whose parents kept a shop there and I spent many a happy holiday with them in Abertillery in the mid 1930s.  The shop was fascinating to me, a small girl at the time.  Not only was it a tobacconist and newspaper shop, (oh those lovely smells) but there was also a small toy department and I was allowed to poke about and look at unsold toys in a back room that must have been there for many years, fascinating for a nosy little girl.  The Landon's had a family of girls and I believe that it was Princess Street in which they lived. Doll and Charlie lived in a steet below that, I think the Police Station was nearby but I may be a bit confused They also kept a family of Pekinese dogs who would sit in a row and beg.  The daughter nearest to my age was Joyce though she was several years older than me, some of her clothes I used to inherit which pleased me greatly.  Doll belonged to a sewing group called Dorcas and she taught me to sew and embroider and do jigsaw puzzles.  Doll and Charlie after being transferred to Ebbw Vale had a son, Anthony Charles, born in 1938 who was adopted by the Landon grandparents as sadly, his mum died shortly after his birth. I would dearly like to have news of him or of any of the descendants of the Landon family who were all so kind to the little girl whom they knew as Peg.
Abertillery was a magical place for me, the place I first saw a Great Dane, I was so small I thought it was a horse. And I remember an ice cream shop in the main street which served the most wonderful banana splits.  The police sports, the swimming baths where I learnt to swim and the local cinema were all treats for a child from a remote country village. I still have snaps taken there and it will always have a place in my heart.