Hitchin's, Brilliant Breakfasts and the Old Sweet Shop...

My friend and colleague Graham was visiting me and around interruptions by Welsh Water and an Irish gentleman trying to sell me new guttering we decided to go for lunch.

In the "  old days" we had Moruzzi's - a typical "Bracchi" Welsh-Italian caff as wonderfully evoked in this book by Colin Hughes.
Lime,lemon and sarsaparilla
Mr Moruzzi made his own icecream and it was very cool to hang around the caff when I was young, but I was never that cool!

Now we have two cafes and I've visited both. One is in the square - Catrina's - and there is  Hot Pots at the top end of the village, on the way to Tondu.

Treat of the day was Hot Pots - I had a brilliant breakfast and Graham had a veggie curry jacket potato with a big pot of tea between us. Hot Pots is what was Hitchin's- a grocery store and off licence, when one could only buy booze from the pub or offie - now there are three general grocers all selling alcohol and it's hard to believe that buying alcohol was less easy a few decades ago.

I was convinced that Hot Pots had been the strange sweet shop I remembered from my childhood, but it seems it was next-door and is now a house. Hot Pots has great windows and pillars and lots of pictures and Aberkenfig memorobillia as well as fab food! To my surprise and pleasure my ex-neighbour walked in while we were there. Christine lived several doors up from me and was part of the general gang of kids who all hung out together in the sixties. She's recently returned to the village  and filled some gaps for me re people and places.

Later I was chatting to Steven my neighbour (another of the gang who has been living back in our street for some time) and talking about shops old and new when we got onto "Chistmas clubs" and catalogues. Like many predominantly working class places, saving money with a local shop for your Christmas booze and/or food was quite common. As was getting clothes and presents from catalogues for which you had a "club" as well. I also recall the "Provident" where you would pay regularly into a fund for "cheques" which you used in cetain shops.

Steven and I were also reminiscing on all the callers and deliveries in those days. As well as the Provident, there was "Blooms" of Cardiff  with his van a cornucopia of  household goods and clothes and most things you requested - a more modern version of the old tally men* and another way of getting credit before our flexible friend.
Looks like they're still going and moving with the times:
Blooms of Cardiff


Insurance men and the rent man were also regular callers as were the bakery van (the Co-operative Society I think) and Yeoman's the veg man and a fish seller I seem to remember as well...

It was all very busy and very like Peter Hall's account of  Vanmen and Collectors:
 Dragged up in the West Riding: My Mother


* I've read about tally men in a Bernice Rubens novel - possibly "Brothers". Tally men were itinerant sellers and in the Welsh valleys I believe they were often Jewish. Will write more if and when I find something...

Just been googling...again!

Found this site which sells photos but has place for memories, which make interesting reading.
http://www.francisfrith.com/aberkenfig/
Astonishing to think that such a small village had a department store! I too remember the Co-operative store at the top of the village and Lewis's who delivered the milk.
When I got to Cardiff in the 70s I was amazed that  milk was bought in cartons from the corner shops - they did have milkmen as well, but didn't really fit in with student life!
In Aberkenfig we had milk delivered and if we ran out we'd walk to "The Dairy" - which was the Lewis's home opposite Pandy school. I remember you just knocked the door and Mrs Lewis would walk over to the yard and get a bottle of milk and sell it to you from there. 

"Dee Grepo" Hill, The Moulders and The Devil's Armchair

"Dee Grepo" Hill, The Moulders and The Devil's Armchair

Went for a walk and visit down memory lane. As a youngster I cycled and sometimes walked along the network of lanes between Aberkenfig, Cefn Cribwr, Penyfai and Porthcawl. I was showing them to a friend not long after the arrival of the M4 and realised they no longer all joined up thanks to the new highway!

I knew Ty-cribwr Hill as "Dee Grepo", which I assume was just a local version of the original name. I used to walk up the road with my bike for the pleasure of freewheeling down the narrow road through the forest (Pensylvania Wood) that starts at Cefn Cribwr and ends at Alma Terrace.

There are some funny stones at the top of this road that are apparently a stone circle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf67mMvZhxk

Further down are more stones that I knew as The Devil's Armchair. This is me sat on the "armless" Devil's Armchair a couple of yeas ago. It seems I told my younger sister some pretty scary stories about it in my misspent youth which I have conveniently forgotten! Sadly it was a bit wet yesterday when I revisited, so had to sit on my jacket this time!

I tried googling The Devil's Armchair and found a rather nice memoir which mentions The Devil's Armchair:

One thing I recall about Auntie Lizzie
was that she was nice in the best sense of the word. She always dressed nice, smelt
nice (yes!) and, somehow it meant a good deal to me, she had a nice voice and a
nice way of speaking. She was with us quite often and, later, when we were again
living at No 1 Mount Pleasant, Aberkenfig, she spent a holiday with us. I think it
must have been during the birth of one of the girls, Bertha or Doris, because, in
one of the front bedrooms our lovely china bowl and jug were filled with steaming
hot water and there was “scented soap” (toilet soap) in a lovely little china dish
covered in roses.
I do recall going with Auntie Lizzie (who wore white cotton gloves) on the long
walk up Mynydd Bach, sitting in the Devil’s Arm Chair, and back home the “long
way” around Court Coleman.Source:  http://www.parkhouse.org.uk/documents/early%20years.pdf

The views over the valleys and towards Bridgend and the coast are lovely and there is a wonderful atmosphere and light to the woods in early evening after a day of sunshine and showers. The birds were in full throttle and all was peaceful other than the tractor which got right of way and filled the narrow one lane road.

As a youngster I used to pick bluebells in the woods (shock! horror!) and definitely in May, but they and the primroses are out very early this year. Also saw violets, wild strawberry plants and what I know as ragged robins, and mikmaids - although having looked up these species I'm not so sure about what I actually saw...

I remember a walk from St Robert's School to Alma Terrace that we knew as "The Moulders". but I'm rather vague about it. I seem to remember at some point we walked along a narrow path that was along the top of someone's front garden wall! if anyone has info on this I'd love to know!

The joy of lanolin...

I recently acquired some sheepfat (lovely!) shampoo which smells really nice, and took me straight back to the shampoo of my youth. It is the only powder shampoo that I can ever remember seeing and was made by Vaseline. I can't find a picture, but remember it (possibly wrongly) as a powder in a green and yellow packet. Found an ad that mentions the powder shampoo. Fourpence-ha'penny is about one and a half to two pence...

Our shampoo was from Roberts' shop in Brynmenyn, just off Bryn Road (A4065) opposite the common and before you get to the school as you head for the centre of the village and railway crossing. It's still there, but now converted to a house.



Roberts' used to sell loose biscuits in those big square bins similar to these:


They also sold loose cheese and frying ham that they sliced for you. My father and younger sister loved the cheese melted on an enamel plate that was used mainly for this purpose - Dad with the addition of HP sauce - I still have the plate.

Mrs. Roberts also ran the wool shop which was just across the way and I'd buy tights on Mum's account if I laddered mine at school - that felt very swish at the time!