Living In Cefn Hengoed

A Memory of Cefn Hengoed.

The Kemp family lived in Cefn Hengoed from about 1920 to 1938, I was born there in my grand parents James and Rose Kemp’s house, No.64 Gelligaer Road in 1934.
My memories of the village start from about 1937
I remember seeing a bus go flashing by down Gelligaer Road with its interior lights on, when I questioned my Dad, Thomas John Kemp (also known as Jack) he said it was the St John’s Ambulance Brigade’s bus going to a disaster, some workmen had been erecting an Electricity Pylon nearby which had collapsed and they were going to help. He and my Uncle Jim were very involved with St John’s Ambulance Brigade in the village and I suppose he was on the bus.
Another memory of life in the village was playing in the field at the top of the village near the Cross-Keys Pub, whilst waiting for Dad to come out of the pub, my elder brother Harry and I were playing on the wall and Harry fell in the manure.
My last memory of the village was leaving on the furniture van and the journey up to Nuneaton in 1938 after my grand parents James and Rose Kemp had died, we (Mam, Harry, Marge and I) sat in the back of the van on the settee.

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