The Welsh School, Bridgend Road

A Memory of Pontycymer.

It is great to see a photo of the Welsh School that I attended from 1959 to 1963. (Bottom right hand corner). Miss Winnie Bisset was the Headmistress and I remember her teaching three classes of kids at once. My class only totalled four and I was the only boy. She died in 1976. I also remember the large house pictured in Bridgend Road. That was demolished in about 1961 and I remember seeing that they tied a rope around the chimneys and attached it to a car bumper in order to pull them off. Also on the bottom left is the top end of Bridgend Road which was demolished in about 1964. Number 7 had a murder take place there in 1907 where a man was executed for killing his mother. I also remember the house in the bottom centre down by the railway line. That disappeared in about 1965. Mid picture on the far left is the rear of Noddfa Chapel which I attended between 1960 to 1971. Also gone but never forgotten in this picture is the Pontycymer Memorial Hall (aka The Mem) looking huge in the centre of the picture and Wood Street (top) the only street ever to be totally demolished in Pontycymer.