Maesteg 1953 1971

A Memory of Maesteg.

I was born in Ivy House - first on the right in Talbot Terrace. My sister Sally now lives in the same street. I don't remember much before four and half years of age. I lived in that house with my grandfather, Demetrie Cambettie the 'hire and fire man' for all the mines in the Llynfi valley, my grandmother, Blodwen. My auntie Eurex and her five kids, Mair, Elfed, Gareth, Beti and Huw, my father Hector, mother Nansi and two siblings at the time, Philip and Sally.

I remember running up the gwli - the walled garden path, into the house, which I hated as my sister would run on ahead. I have absolutely no memories of that house but I clearly remember the day we left. Sally and I were taking our toys down to Bethania Street and she had walked on ahead of me, standing in front of the building on the corner, which used to be a pub (?), it had an arched entrance into a courtyard. She was very tanned so it was summer, and I was standing on the corner by our wall. "Wait for me" I said, "Come on, we've got a long way to go" she replied - that was my only memory of Ivy House. Funny really, how could I forget living with all those family members in a big house?

Anyway, we moved to Bethania Street where my father kept 'trickens' which, when we found out where the chicken on our plates had come from, we all refused to eat them and sold them to a neighbour. My brother Philip and my father while digging in the garden and pulled out a Roman sword intact, even the wooden handle was intact. No value to it tho, according to Cardiff Museum! We played with Mair and Gareth Morgan and Christine Joseph. Our childhood was fraught with broken arms, falling under cars - my sister, twice! Myself, going across the road on my face - once was enough! Burning sheds with me stuffed into a child's wardrobe inside - my mother pulled my coat off me and it fell to pieces in her hands! We had a Fox Terrier called Kim who bit my mother when we teased it.

We used to go up the Coed (you have to laugh, I don't remember a tree on it!) to see Josephine, the donkey. One year she was really poorly as some yobs had set fire to her. We used to stand near the quarry and scream to hear our echo - the kids today with their £100's worth of toys have no idea! You could go anywhere and you were as safe as houses.

We moved to Queen Street when I was nearly 9, I carried on going to Plasnewydd School, a shorter walk thank God! I passed the 11+ on second list. My mother had our brother Robert (who now lives in Greece). Nice house but close proximity to the market meant on two rainy days we had two visitors - massive tarantulas! I now know they wanted the warmth and the first bedroom was mine, complete with airing cupboard. My brother had unwittingly brought one home under his coat in Bethania Street after bringing banana boxes home.

I was in 1M Dewi in Maesteg Grammar School for one year before the comprehensive system was introduced. Lynda Jones and I had decided to miss school one day and Mu Williams came running up to us in the yard asking if we had seen two girls who were absconding from school (!). We pointed in the opposite direction and ran like hell! ...We had a Cairn Terrier called Bobby and a Reliant car (3 wheels) The cricket field was at the end of our street and in season our street was stuffed full of cars. Some cheeky so and so picked our car up, put it on the pavement under our window and parked in our placem - so I rubbed dog poo on the door handles! Our friend Lynne Griffiths lived in Castle Street and there used to be a horse in the field which now houses a 'drop in' centre for elderly people. We'd dare each other to go in the field with the horse and one day it charged at Lynne who ran screaming for the wall, her two blonde plaits flying behind her. I used to knock about with Anne Davies from Caerau and Christine Burchill. In my last year at school we had the School disco for leavers and we all turned up in jeans under smock dresses - Ma John's face was a picture. If the lovely (not) Mr Bird will ever read this, I eventually passed Maths in 1998 - so there! And to the late Mr Stubbs - I now play violin, God bless you. I went to Swansea College of Art in 1974 and then onto London College of Printing in '75. My mother was compelled to write to the Glam Gazette that the reported 'first person to go to LCP from Maesteg, was not! - She was furious, bless her. My memories of teenage years in Maesteg was the Monkees, the Rockers shelter, the smell of ice cream which permeated the door of the 21 cafe and skinny jeans which hurt your legs. The Town Hall dances which inevitably ended up with Mods and Rockers fighting. I remember seeing someone dangling from the balcony. My father bought Steve Morgan's scooter from him and had to take off about thirty pairs of mirrors. After that he shot up Neath Road Hill going to work!
I left London in 1982 and moved to Carshalton where I still live in the same house. I have three children, Lestyn, Rhiannon and Jared, and run my own small design business. I was born Frances Davies but changed it to Frances Cambettie-Davies as my mother's maiden name would have died with her. I have kept it through two marriages and my children now carry the name. I remember Maesteg as a thriving vibrant little town, it is so sad to see it now. Good Luck to Maesteg Animal Welfare, they do a fabulous job and are very caring.