Trecco Bay/Coney Beach

A Memory of Porthcawl.

My father Jim Blayney, worked for Sir Lesley Joseph and was general manger of Trecco Bay and also Works Manager of Coney Beach. My brother and I had a very happy childhood playing around the fairground, it was in those days a very safe place to be. We lived in a company house on Rhych Point, our neighbours were the Palmers, Nelly and Noah and their sons and their wives, Basil and Margaret and Noah and Maggie; who ran the photography business and also the grocery shop on the point. They were very good friends of ours and when the fairground closed for the winter we would all head off to Spain in our touring caravans for a month or so. Such happy times. We used to have a huge bonfire on the point every November 5th, it could be seen for miles. We made so many friends with people who used to stay on both Trecco and Sandy Bay for the season and even now when I walk through the now derelict Sandy Bay I can still smell the bacon frying for breakfast. Not so good is the memory of the sand stinging my legs when I was walking home from New Road school in the winter, but summers were amazing.