Rectory Cottage

A Memory of Llangattock.

To be honest the year is a little vague to me now, but it would have been around the mid-fifties that I have my first memories of Rectory Cottage. I was brought up in England, but my father John Elwyn was born there and my grandparents Jack or John and Martha ( nee Morgan ), lived there until Martha's death in I think 1960.
Their graves are close to the wall of the chapel in the village.
Jack was the eldest of 7 and son of Edward and Sarah who lived somewhere 'on the Ffawddog' as related by Dad's cousin who lives nearby.
I remember the cottage as a tradition stone building with small windows and very thick walls. All I remember of the ground floor is that it was of stone slabs and there was a range and a large table. I think there was also a pantry and another room, but I can't be sure.
They had no electricity and lighting was from oil or parafffin lamps I think.
The steps to the first floor were in the far corner of the parlour ( maybe covered by a curtain, I'm not sure why ) and led upstairs to the bedrooms. I think there were three and washing facilities were fairly basic by today's standards.
Outside in the rear garden was a wooden shed containing the earth closet and a terraced vegetable plot. On the Rectory side at the front of the cottage were stone outbuildings containing farm machinery, workshop, and I think there may have been a forge. Also many tools adorned the walls. I still think of these, they had an atmosphere of another world and age.
I was taken up the lane outside and up the hill to the canal towpath and thought that it was a river, not having any conception of what a canal was.
I hope that someone may find this of interest, bearing in mind that these are images from a young boy's head.

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