Blackmill

A Memory of Blackmill.

I lived in Glyn-Llan (Penny McKay) 1 of 6 girls. I loved spending my summer days down the Dimbath, building dams so we could swim and build forts. We would take a picnic and off we'd go all day and our parents never worried about us and they knew we'd return when we were hungry. I also loved picking blackberries and going to the bluebell woods. I went to school in Nantymoel and took the Stanton buses. I also loved going to the dance hall in Pant-y-awel. Since then, my sisters and I have all scattered around the world (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, New Jersey and Canada) but I still try and go home every year as I still miss the green mountains and the smell of the ocean and still love to take the occasional walk down the Dimbath.
How many times did I walk from Glyn-Llan to Blackmill - but that's where we did all our shopping and went to Chapel (Paran) and in the spring the banks at the side of the road were covered with yellow primroses which was great, so there was always a wonderful distraction. The Humpback bridge has gone now, but as kids, we loved our dad to go fast (truck) over it so we could see how high we'd go (no seatbealts in those days).
As kids we'd also walk up the big mountain across from Glyn-Llan and drink from the mountain stream and go and see if we could find any old artifacts (bald spot on the mountain was from tales that there had been a battle where lots of blood had been spilled and no grass ever grew....of course, we believed it).
Brilliant days of my youth were spent in Blackmill and Glyn-Llan.