My Memories Of Resolven.

A Memory of Resolven.

The personal views of Resolven expressed in these pages reflect my own fond memories of Resolven, the Vale of Neath and its people. In 1953 I returned to the valley as a teenager, little did I know it was to become my home. I worked initially on the forestry, but six months later began an engineering apprenticeship on 26th October 1953 with George Kent Ltd, later known as Cam Gears.

I had left Wales as a four-year-old, after being trapped in the Swansea Three Day Blitz with my father. Even though he had already served twelve years in The Royal Signals and was exempt further military service, my father enlisted in the RAF at Penarth one month to the day after the Swansea Blitz. Following a brief period at Stormy Down he was posted to East Yorkshire and the family travelled North to live in Bridlington, Yorkshire. The East Riding of Yorkshire then had dozens of RAF and American airfields. I still remember the occasional arial dog-fight above Bridlington Bay.
After running away from my first job as a farm labourer in Lincolnshire, working for a man I loathed. In 1953, I returned to the valley, first to live in Abergarwed, with my mother's brother, my uncle Jack Bowen and family. Then two years later I moved to Resolven where I lived with Mr and Mrs Bradley at 22 Cory Street. Mr and Mrs Bradley were so kind to me treating me almost as a son.
Many years later, when researching my family history, I discovered their house, 22 Cory Street was recorded in the 1911 census as the home of my great uncle Edward Bowen and family. Great uncle Edward and his father Walter Bowen - my great, great grandfather, were both noted local poets. I too have had a life-long love of poetry, and began writing while living at 22 Cory Street. Something I would have never confessed to my rugby friends - front row forwards don't wite poetry - the more intellectual centres and wingers might, but never front-row forwards.
As a teenager, I became a member and later the chairman, of Resolven Youth Centre, managed at the time by Mr Cliff Prosser and Miss Sarah Morgan. They were later joined by Sarah's lovely cousin Nest' Morgan who ran the art class. There Mr George Mitchington ran the woodwork class, and Mr ‘Jeff’ Jefferies took drama. Among my other interests were part-time art classes at Swansea College of Art.
The village was now home, to me, my wife Patricia and our two children, both of whom were born and raised in the village. I still have friends there, and return every few weeks or so, to visit them in the rugby club, or to walk the mountains above Melyncourt and Resolven.
The village was now home, to my wife Patricia and our two children, both of whom were born and raised in the village. I still have friends there, and return every few weeks or so, to visit them in the rugby club, or to walk the mountains above Melyncourt and Resolven.
When I first met Patricia, or ‘Tricia’ as she was usually known, she with our mutual friend Anne Cousins, professed an enjoyment of walking and asked to join me, on a mountain walk. Anne failed to turn up, so Tricia and I enjoyed a twenty-two-mile trek that began at 9 am and ended after dark - Tricia never asked to accompany me on another mountain walk.
My mother Ceridwen Bowen was born in 1913 at Melyn Cottage in Melyncourt, her mother was the local nurse and midwife Hannah Bowen, one of the 'College Green' Jones family of Ammanford. I soon learned that several generations of my mother's Bowen family had lived in the Resolven parish. Some still live in there to this day. Her Bowen line stretches back to 1680 in Llanedi Carmarthenshire, then to Llandeilo Talybont, before reaching the Vale of Neath.
My Father Fredrick Britzman, was born in Soho London, the son of Herman Ernst Britzman an immigrant tailor who was born in Athens Greece in 1860. He arrived in London in the early 1890s where he met and married my grandmother Annie Caroline McBride. The fourth child of this family of eight was my father Frederick. Where my parents met is unknown but they arrived in Wales just in time for the 1939 Nation Registration Day while we were living in Maesgwynrig near Cwmgwrach.
Number 6 St Anne's Court in Soho, was one of my father's childhood homes, it has a blue plaque on the front of the building, not to commemorate my father or his family, but to acknowledge the house was once home to Johann Cristoph Schmidt composer, friend and amanuensis to Georg Handel - he of 'The Messiah' fame. Number 6 is now, and has been for many years, the head office of 'Private Eye' the satirical magazine owned by the TV personality and documentary maker, Ian Hislop of ‘Have I Got News For You’.

Current image of 6 Carlisle Street:- https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101357246-6-carlisle-street-w1-west-end-ward