Australian From Penrhiwceiber

A Memory of Penrhiwceiber.

My mother lived at Morris Ave, Penrhiwceiber but I was born in 1942 at The Lady Aberdare hospital Mountain Ash. My mother walked through the snow to get to the hospital, the matron told her she was foolish doing that because the baby (me) could have been born in the snow. My father, an Irishman, was away fighting the Germans so he couldn't help. My mothers family, Phillips by name, have a long history in the area. My aunt, Mrs Gladys Jones, had a butcher shop in Mountain Ash and I've been told she made the best faggots in South Wales. My grandparents had a butcher/grocer shop and a farm called Pentoin Isaf up on the mountain. We used to walk up a track from Penrhyiwceiber to get there, when I went back in 1988 the track was still there, later we moved to Perthcelyn. When my father came back from the war he decided we would be better off in Oz, this was 1948 so here we are. If anyone knows the Phillips or my Aunty Gladys, and/or my cousin Alan, I would like to hear about them good or bad. They also owned Lan Farm up on the mountain.