Llanbradach Pub On The Corner

A Memory of Llanbradach.

My grandparents, Ben & Polly Thomas, ran the pub opposite the Miners Welfare. I was evacuated there and I can remember on Saturday night, the US Servicemen would come along with their band and play in the pub. My grandparents had a white haired terrier called "Tim". Tim would come into the bar, the bottom bar where the widows of miners were allowed in on Saturday nights. Tim would go into the middle of the bar carrying an enamel bucket with a wooden handle. He would swing the bucket around and then let it go, run and jump over the bar and race out the back. There was the bottom bar, the top bar (posh bar) and the Snug out the back.  My grandparents did not like cats but had to have one for the mice in the cellars. They called the cat "HITLER", it was fun to see in the cellars a mouse come round the corner with Hitler chasing and Tim chasing Hitler. Just like Tom and Jerry. I was given a flute which I blew but the Police Station next door took exception as it just sounded like a police whistle!!
One final story, the Snug Bar stayed open to one a.m. and many a Saturday night with no transport about they often found a cow, put the drinker on the cow and led him home. I met a gentleman in Sevenoaks who remembered being one of the guests on board the cow, he was taken to Caerphilly, then let the cow loose who walked back to LLANBRADACH.

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