Barnett Family

A Memory of Trealaw.

Hi, just trying to find out more information on my family - mother was Edna Barnett, who was the youngest child of Fred and Catherine (Cass) Barnett who lived on Trealaw Road. Mum was the youngest of 9 surviving children with her eldest sibling (and only boy) George being 22 years older than her. Many stories of her growing up in Trealaw, with her father, brother and many brothers-in-law working at the mines, mainly Cambrian. Her father (Fred) died in 1945 after an accident and I remember her saying that after they had brought him home, the cushion on the sofa fell off and remained upright "on it's own accord" at which point my grandmother knew he had died! Many superstitions but I guess it was such a hard life you lived by this. Also remember her saying that George Thomas (later Lord Tonypandy) lived with his mother in a basement flat opposite and was great friends with her brother - my grandmother helping out when things got tough for them.

Stories of weekly chores, ie, washing on a Monday so leftovers from Sunday for dinner, how my grandfather always used the bath first, starch used for the collars and lots of coming and going in the house, but full of love. My grandmother died in that house at the age of 98, still with no indoor bathroom and the toilet outside (spotlessly clean and a complete novelty for us grandkids in the 70's!) She still had a ton of coal delivered to her as due for her husband being a miner.

By the time I was old enough to remember, Nan lived in the house with two of her daughters, Auntie Vera (who never married) and Auntie Mavis with her two daughters Lynfa and Julie having lost her husband (Bill Howlett). Happy days listening to all their stories of days gone by and, if I was good, 50p to take home!

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