My Time  In Tirphil

A Memory of Tirphil.

Whilst born in New Tredegar I spent a great part of my early life living in Colliers Row, Tirphil during the war.  My maternal grandmother Kate Hannan, she had lived in Colliers Row for an unknown period but having bred eight children including my mother Catherine it must have been for a considerable time.

My brother Lawrence and I were sent  back to Wales by our parents to avoid the London bombing, they having moved the family to London when I was three years old. Lawrence went to Bargoed Technical and I went to Tirphil Boys School, known as the Tin Hut.  We both initially had a hard time because of our Cockney accents but the Welsh lilt soon returned to our voices.

Gran Hannan ran an open house where it was quite normal for us to come home from the sports field late in the evening to find ten or twelve people sitting around waiting for the local bus. Gran's son Tom was living with his mother and worked as a tailor carrying out repairs to all forms of clothing for the local people. The house was treated as a haven for all sorts of local people and there could not have been too many people in Tirphil who didn't know Kate and Tom.

In my later years the memories come flooding back. School Street, The Sqaure, The Working Man's Institute, Birch Grove. The Home Guard practicing up the mountains, Wallbioff the Butchers and the Railway Station which always had an advert for Cadburys Chocolate together with an advert for Camp Coffee, why should I remember that ?

The local milk was delivered by 'Tommy the Milk' whose father had a farm near Pontlotin. When he went down the hill he had to change the harness so that the cart went before the horse.  He served his milk directly from a churn in a mug-like utensil called a gill.

School dinners in most schools could be a disaster but not in Tirphil. We all went to the girls' school and were fed really great food from a kitchen, supervised by Mabel Coleman who was apparently a Tirphil local celebrity, having once married into the Tate and Lyle Sugar family.

To say these days were the happiest of our lives would be untrue but Tirphil kept us away from the London Blitz, but we were always aware that we were away from our parents and older siblings. Even today after some sixty-five years I still hold fond memories of Tirphil and how it taught me the history of my homeland and its love of music and rugby, the kindness of valley people and the joy I have today watching Welsh Rugby and wearing the 'red shirt' of  Wales.

Written by Thomas Shorey

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