Senghennydd Railway Station

A Memory of Senghenydd.

At 17 years of age, after interviews at British Railways commercial HQ at Cymric Buildings in Cardiff, I started work as a Booking Clerk at Senghennydd Station, replacing David Sellick who lived overlooking the station in Station Road. David had been called up to do National Service. I lived in Bargoed, travelling each day to Senghennydd via Caerphilly to start work at 6am.

Mr. Hugh E Williams was the Station Master, Jack Jones and Bill Manship were both Porters. Glyn Williams and Jim Moss were both Signalmen in the tiny Signal Box by the little bridge at the end of the platform.

Trains comprised of only 2 carriages and as the station was at the top end of the Aber valley, the engine had to be uncoupled and tranferred to what was the last carriage, for the return journey to Cardiff. Occasionally, in Summer, we had trains of 5 or 7 coaches to cater for Chapel or Club outings to Barry Island. Normally, Senghennydd received about 8 trains each day, miners travelled the short distance to the Windsor Colliery, others to schools in Caerphilly or work at Sherman's Pools and shops in Cardiff. Most purchased weekly or monthly 'season' tickets. Early morning Return tickets to Windsor Colliery cost 6 pence ( 2.5P ), a day return to Cardiff Queen Street cost 2 shillings and 9 pence ( approx. 14P ), or after 4pm cost 1 shilling and six pence ( 7.5P ). Average takings each day at the station amounted to £6. On Mondays the total would rise to about £20. when weekly tickets were purchased.

Early trains brought a a varying selection of parcels, mainly Mail Order items for residents and perishable items for local shops. All had to be delivered by the Porter on early shift using a heavy 2 wheeled hand cart, with curseing by Porter Jack Jones if some deliveries were to addresses higher up in the town. Jack lived with his wife at number 34 High Street and usually called in for his breakfast on route. He was such a kindly man who seemed to know everyone in the town and was well liked by all. I discovered that he had come to the town from Trawsfynnydd in North Wales and was popularly know as Jack Traws. I also learned that he had been involved in 2 tragedies as a young man, being a survivor in the Sengennydd Colliery explosion and being gassed in the trenches in the 1914-18 war. His eyes constantly shed tears while at work due to the gassing injury.

His opposite workmate was Bill Manship, a quiet and serious person who enjoyed reminisceing about his army service in India, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Mr. Hugh Williams, the Station Master, a very heavy smoker, also ran a newsagents shop in the town which I think, was previously called Mary Thomas's. He used to vanish for about 2 hours to sort and sometimes deliver papers in the morning and for much longer periods in the afternoon to help his son in the running of the shop, leaving me, as a 17 year-old boy to run the station office, which made me feel very important but bored stiff. However, it gave me the opportunity to use the telephone for private calls, especially to my Aunty in London. The station telephone number was Senghennydd 69 and was a ' candlestick ' model 'phone. Abertridwr was Aber 29, where the Station Master was Mr. Percy Price. Both Station Masters were forever at each other's throats over trivialities or seniority which I found very amusing that adults holding such, as was regarded in those days, such important positions.

Signalman Jim Moss was a very jolly, forever smiling man who appeared to have a heart condition causing him to be very short of breath and having blue lips most of the time. His opposite workmate, Glyn Williams was a much younger man, perhaps in his mid twenties, very good looking, acknowledged by the Sherman girls who used to hang out of carriage windows and yelling when passing the signal box. I remember that his wife, who used to pop in with sandwiches for him from time to time, was a very attractive woman, quite petite and smart. I remember one occasion when Glyn was missing from the signal box for about an hour, a very serious offence, the Station Master was furious and summoned him to the office and when asked, 'Where were you between 10 and 11 this morning'. Glyn's answer was, 'Oh, nowhere in particular' and walked out, no doubt with the knowledge that any discipline proceedure would be impossible as everyone was aware of the Station Master's time spent elsewhere. 'What do you think of that Arthur, the bloody nerve'. I couldn't answer, I was still bursting to laugh, but had to suppress it.

Other than holiday times with luggage sent in advance, we were not very busy with outgoing parcel traffic, except those very heavy parcels containing metal components manufactured by Morfed Products Ltd. which, by their weight, provided a good source of revenue each day.

Each day's takings had to be locked in a leather pouch bearing the station name and deposited into a travelling safe on a mid morning train. The safe was a large square strong box with a mechanism similar to a Bank night safe. This was the method used throughout the valleys stations in those days and only Station Masters were authorised to deposit into these safes, overlooked by the Guard. Somewhere in Cardiff the bags were retrieved, but I remember that on one occasion our bag was returned with the previous day's takings inside. This was kept very quiet when head office was advised.

I recently visited Senghennydd but found no trace of the station or goods yard but fond memories remain.

---

---