Growing Up In Cefn Fforest

A Memory of Cefn.

I remember the shopkeepers; Rees Jones & Fred Palmer (the butcher) also Sgt Brace at the Police Station. I also have very fond memories of the Bedwellty Show and the ink stamps on your hand to let you back in and trying to imprint them on friend's hands who hadn't been able to go in! I remember frog spawn excursions to the Mansion Pond (my poor mother had to put up with jars of the stuff slowly turning into frogs), races on cardboard down Fern Hill just past the golf links, scrumping in the farmers field where Blackwood Comp is now and roasting our stolen goods in fire pits. Roasted until they were black ash but eaten nevertheless. I remember Cefn Fforest Junior mixed school and going on from there to Lewis School for girls (Hengoed) and the long walk up from Maesycwmmer up the hill past the viaduct to the school which was slowly subsiding and supported by huge timber posts. I remember going to the new school in Ystrad Mynach when the old building was deemed unsafe. The playing field opposite the houses in Ty-Isha Terrace and the old tin hall next to the Institute building. I had my 21st Birthday party in that old shack and a group of boys from Blackwood and Markham named 'the Vampires' played the music that night. It was a great night too. I can remember too walking the path where the 'Stonehouse' is now, up through all the fields which are now covered in houses and eventually coming out on the Bryn on the way to Maesycwmmer. Walking to Bedwellty Church, turning right before the Church and eventually ending back at Fern Hill which seemed so steep then, climbing it and returning home through the showfield. We walked everywhere in those days. I still have memories of the Whitsun walkout in new clothes and ending in the showfield for tea and games. We were all regular Chapel goers then! Wonderful memories of peaceful, happy times.........