Local tourism - St John the Divine, Aberkenfig

My Backyard/Garden!

I love being a tourist and as I often say - even in my own backyard. Not done that literally but have enjoyed exploring Aberkenfig anew. And have now (literally) been a tourist in my own street. 

There is an 18th century Church in Wales church at end of my street. My father's family were nominally Protestant and my grandparents are there somewhere in the churchyard. As the daughter of a Maltese Catholic I was brought up Catholic.

St John the Divine, Aberkenfig

In my youth, Catholics were discouraged from going to churches of other denominations - I used to get "permission" to attend church parades when I was in the St John Ambulance Brigade and people did similar for weddings, christenings and funerals - especially if one had a more old-fashioned Parish Priest who took these things seriously and we did have such a priest. So although I used to play in the churchyard, I have only one memory of entering St John's.

Another blast from the past - In days of fridges with small freezer boxes and  before freezers were common-place buying ice-cream from an ice-cream van was more common-place. And sometimes we'd buy a dish of ice-cream - just take a dish and buy so many portions. I was collecting a dish of ice-cream when I dropped the glass dish. I was probably quite upset and the local Vicar offered to show me the harvest festival display in the church. All very respectful and kind but I remember being torn by need to be polite to a grown-up and worrying about my immortal soul if I went into a Protestant church without permission. In those days Catholics (to my knowledge) didn't "do" Harvest so was very intrigued. I did go - didn't know how to say no - but don't remember any details. And until this week that was my only recollection of entering the church.

Now that ecumenical thinking is more the norm my Mother had been there several times while "doing the rounds" but I'd not done so. All the churches in the village are kept locked but I was passing St. John's after a service and took opportunity for quick peep. I was kindly given a tour by Diana Wood - Sub Warden (Hon). It's a lovely church with thoughtful modernisation so back of church is now community space with quite cosy church area that can be combined as needed. There is a rather nice wrought metal Stations of the Cross that is now in the Lady Chapel. I'd not realised that before the houses were built (end of 50s) the Vicarage was joined by a path to the church.

There's a nice PP presentation with pictures here:

St Johns Church PowerPoint

And some background to the larger picture regarding this and neighbouring churches:

LBA Parish

Another Proustean moment - butter wrapper...

Was roasting a chicken today and didn't have much oil so basted with combination of oil and butter.

Unusually I had solid butter as I'd bought for cooking - usually use the spreadble type in a tub.

Went to check chicken and it seemed a little dry so added last of butter  and as it was last of pack smeared it on with wrapper and suddenly remembered my Mum sometimes cooking poultry with the butter wrapping over breast of bird to keep moist so did the same.

Sadly I can't do my roasties like hers, but frozen roasties smeared with fresh cooking juices are pretty good!

When she first came to Wales (from Egypt) my Mum nearly caused an International Incident. Dad had a Yorshire friend who went on about the delights of Yorshire pudding. The first time my Auntie Gladys made them for my Mum she was really disappointed by their ordinariness after the build-up - Not the way to get on with your new sister-in-law!

Snow...

I love wandering around Aberkenfig and the surrounding area so was lovely to see it in the snow. Click on pictures for bigger version.

A potted historie...

I was at secondary school with a girl whose Grandfather was from Aberkenfig. I asked her to find out what he knew about my family. This is what I learnt. My Grandfather married a woman from the coaltip (Llanelli) and my Dad went away in the forces and came back with a foreign woman (Maltese, from Egypt - it's complicated...!)

I love the summary of our history - I guess not the most common background for an Aberkenfig family...

Family History: My father's family

Several years ago I asked my Auntie Gladys (Dad's sister) about her family and wrote this based on what she said and bits I knew. The stuff about my grandparents is based on what my Gran told Gladys:

 

Alice Maud Llewellyn and Hubert Gunston were my paternal grandparents

Hubert was from Gloucester and ran away when he was 13. He went to sea and lied about his age. He had brother Ernie who was a postman.

Hubert was known as ‘Fiery Bert’ and was small but fierce.

Bert took lodgings with May Pullman in Llanelli.

Alice Llewellyn was from Llanelli and told her daughter Gladys that she dreamt of a man with brass buttons and a twirly moustache and it seemed that that is what she got!

Alice had brother Will who was a blacksmith. Brother Dai was lay preacher and sister Emmy was tailoress.

Bert  was possibly a wagon repair man. He was with Steelworks and may have been an inspector. Bert quarrelled a lot.

Bert and Alice moved on to Swansea, then Aberkenfig.

Lived at no. 31 or 21 the moved to 11 Dunraven Street.

Their children were:

Florence May

Harold William

Ernest Reginald (my father)

Gladys Elizabeth

Florrie’s children were Shirley, Rita and Jeanette:

Shirley married Ken and their children were Julie, Steve and David

Rita married Cliff and had Wakely, Guy and Victoria

Jeanette married Ian and their children were  Graham, Richard and Stuart

Harold and Gladys never married nor had children.

Ernest (my father) married Daria Molinari and had three children: Diane, Sheilagh and Irene.

The top picture is my maternal Grandmother with Harold as a baby. Harold was (we thought) the eldest, but apparently not. Because I've been writing  about Aberkenfig and came across the 1911 census website I decided to check out the family presence in 1911
I knew my Grandparents were living here and found them as expected - but also what would have been my uncle - named Bert after his father -  born in 1910! He didn't survive to overlap with my father and known siblings as far as I am aware - but what a surprise. Of couse child mortality was high in those days. I know that my Molinari grandparents lost a little girl - Emily - but didn't know about a lost Gunston...

This is the link for census: 

1911census

 The second picture is my father (sat on the right)  looking amazingly cool when having your photo taken was an event!

  

Tick and Tallymen - Credit and Callers in South Wales

Further to my earlier post on Christmas clubs and other forms of credit I've found the info on tally men.
This is the post:
Hitchins,brilliant breakfasts and...

Tallymen and credit in the Valleys feature  in the Bernice Rubens novel "Brothers". She lived in Cardiff and has a real feel for life in South Wales shown in "Brothers" and other novels.
Brothers by bernice Rubens

This is what she wrote:

Pavel was a credit draper. This was a trade most favoured by those immigrants who did not have a particular skill. Its great advantage was that it required little initial capital and even that could be credited. The trade itself was concerned with the sale of clothing to lower income groups at the minimum payment of a shilling a week, and the main hunting-ground for such clientele was the Welsh mining valleys. The tallyman would buy his goods on credit from the wholesale merchants, and make the rounds of his customers.The profit margin was narrow, the working hours long and arduous, but it already provided Pavel with a living, as it did many of his 'Landsleit'.*  Some of them, after a year or two, had bought their own houses, and some, like Max, had used the profits to set up a shop of their own...


...The job required little skill except that of book-keeping. Its major demand was on physical strength and endurance. Pavel set out on his journey encumbered with large parcels. He would travel by train to the central town of the valley, and from there would walk or wagon along the roads to the outlying villages and hamlets. It was back-breaking work, and especially hard in winters. But there was always a welcome in the valleys and the great bonus of the trade was the friendship and warmth of the mining communities. 

* a Landsleit was an  immigrant Jew sponsored and supported by a fellow countryman and enabled  to make a fresh start in a foreign country after leaving Russia

 In the sixties and seventies Blooms and other such credit salesmen travelled by van and would have an array of stuff with which to tempt and would take orders for specific items as well. This along with Provident cheques, catalogues, Christmas clubs and such were how people in Aberkenfig and other villages managed their budgets and accessed the limited credit available to them. Of course Provident and the Christmas clubs were saving schemes rather than the credit of the catalogues and tally men, but all seemed to make buying everyday goods and luxuries more painless for those on tight budgets.

Omp Pomp Pee and a Lousianna...

...My black cat can play the pianah...

Been thinking about street games played wnhen I was a youngster. The above was part of the rhyme for a very imaginatively named game of "Kerb or Wall" This was the rhyme and and counting/choosing rhyme for person to compete:
Omp Pomp Pee and a Lousianna
My black cat can play the pianah
 Omp Pomp Pee,
Stick him up a tree
Kerb or wall?
Kerb or wall? 
Person picked would choose kerb or wall and race against the picker. Race by chosen would be to wall (if chosen), back and then to kerb and back. Chooser would run to kerb (if not chosen) and back, followed by wall and back. How sophisticated is that?! 


I was fascinated by kids' games and also the differences between language and games in different areas.The Opies have written extensively on this:
Lore andLanguage of Schoolchildren

In children's books, kids played "tag" and in Aberkenfig we played "touch". Touch came in a variety of forms: off ground, twty down, tunnnel and aeroplane to name a few. When one was off ground or twtying (crouching down) one was safe from being touched/tagged/caught/losing. In tunnel touch one became static, but could be released by someone crawling through one's legs...

I was also very taken with the idea of respite words varying according to one's location - something mapped out by the Opies.  In Aberkenfig if one needed a break in a game one asked for "bars". Cree and Pax I believe are most common and as "barley" is used, "bars" is likely to be a version or corruption of it. Just had a google and discovered the term for such words is "truce term":
wiki on truce terms

I shall write more about childhood games in Aberkenfig and surrounding areas again.

No sex please, we're Welsh...

As you know if you have visited my delightful village or read previous posts, there is a sex shop in Aberenfig which causes me much amusement. I was chatting about this to a neighbour (as you do!) and discovered that a very nice man working in te shop when it had its protester used to provide her with a cup of tea - How sweet (and slightly mad) is that?!

ps If you've not already found out -  clicking on pictures gives a bigger version and you can magnify further if you want to read the article.

Illicit Bluebell Picking and May Altars

Listening to The Archers I realised it was May Day and memories of May Altars and picking armfuls of bluebells came flooding back.

Many Catholic (and other) churches have an altar dedicated to Mary, but there is also a tradition to have a home altar to her in "her" month, which is May.

Info on May Altars from "Catholic Fire"

As a youngster, I would turn a chest of drawers top into my May Altar, with a statue and some candles and said bluebells. I did try Mayflower (hawthorn) which seemed appropriate, but didn't last.

An elderly neighbour also told me it was unlucky, but I was not particularly superstitious.  Just looked up hawthorn and was reminded of the Joseph of Aramathea connection and the famous Glastonbury thorn:
about the hawthorn/Mayflower

I'd also put violets and other flowers on the May Altar, to complete it, but they didn't last as well as the bluebells. The forestry as we knew it had glades of the flowers as well as ones growing on the roadside along the path and Dee Greepo/Ty Cribwr Hill.

Seems strange that picking wild flowers didn't get a second glance then and was encouraged in a hymn:

"O Mary We Crown Thee." (Copyright 1938 St. Basil Hymnal)

Refrain:
O Mary we crown thee
With blossoms today
Queen of the Angels
Queen of the May.
Bring flowers of the fairest
From garden and woodland
And hillside and dale.
 Extract from "Catholic Fire" as above

Of course I wouldn't pick wildflowers nowadays and enjoyed the bluebell woods in the Forest of Dean last year. The bluebells were out very early this year though and I saw some in March in the grounds of the "castle" at Southerndown - they were out at the same time as the daffodills whch was rather nice. There is this lovely enclosed garden which is great fun.
Information on Dunraven House/ "castle" at Southerndown

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. 

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!

The Delights of Aberkenfig...

As said - I decided to move back to Aberkenfig. Being quite bright and educated I chose the 20th December for the move and promised my sister to cook her Christmas dinner in the family home! I did it, but I still have stuff in boxes and Ikea storage furniture un-bought at the end of March!

I do however have an idea for a new project - I want to write a book about Aberkenfig! I have a series of anecdotes I trot out, because the changes are hard to believe and fascinating. I once wrote a piece for Wiki which got "wikified" and poshed up, but these are the bones, personalised and updated:

Aberkenfig has become a somewhat mythical place in recent years due to its connection with the M4 , and its acquisition of: an excellent Chinese restaurant, a sex shop and a retail outlet that sells guns. There was once nothing more exotic than the Co-op, Aberkenfig's very own 'Bon Marché' store, two chip shops and a café. Like all good South Wales villages, families with an Italian history ran one of Aberkenfig’s chip shops and its cafe. The cafe was owned by Mr. Morruzzi; one of the names known for such establishments throughout South Wales. Mr Crucci (known to one and all as Mario) ran the 'bottom' chipshop. The top chipshop changed hands several times and did not have such a consistent history.

Aberkenfig is a location that was difficult to place in the existing geographical definitions. It was certainly a village but not like the villages in stories, as most inhabitants did not work the land. While it was industrial it was outside the area where most men were miners. 'Up the road' in the adjoining Tondu were a defunct brick works, a National Coal Board training centre and a telephone exchange as well as a railway station. Aberkenfig was also not of the valleys but 'en route' to them. It was well served by buses going to Brynmenyn and Bettws as well as the more exotic and slightly distant destinations of the Garw valley, Llangeinor, Maesteg and Wyndham. These were places many inhabitants (myself included) would have had no reason to visit but could seem more 'Welsh' and 'valleys' than Aberkenfig when I was growing up.

According to an article in the Glamorgan Gazette Aberkenfig was once the 'Entertainment Mecca of the Valleys'. Sadly the cinema turned bingo hall is long defunct but Aberkenfig still boasts a lovely traditional and well-kept 'Welfare' hall. This once practically all white South Wales village has, however, become an alternative source of modern 'leisure activity' - that of eating out and taking away. As well as the modestly famous Chinese restaurant it boasts a second Chinese restaurant, an excellent Indian eatery and four additional Chinese and one Indian (at the back of a pub!) take-away establishments.

The said sex shop had its very own one-lady-protest movement who stood patiently outside with her 'Ban the filth' placard.

The old Catholic church hall where children once enjoyed crisps and pop while their parents played bingo is now a centre for Muslims, which is a marvellous development for the once more homogenous area. Sadly they have suffered some vandalism, but good to see the place put to good use. The old cinema is now a thriving church with an active social welfare programme. St Roberts Catholic Church and The Church In Wales St.John's are still going strong, but both now lack their own Parish Priest or Minister and share with other parishes.

The Post Office has recently been refurbished and there are a couple of convenience stores as well as a variety of shops pubs and clubs. Buses still go through Aberkenfig, but far less now that the M4 also resulted in a bypass and it is no longer necessary to travel via aberkenfig for Brynmenyn and Bettws or the the once-mythical Garw valley, Llangeinor, Maesteg and Wyndham.

I have visited the library (we have a great one!) and found no book on Aberkenfig, although they have pictures and some pieces written by individuals. I think the book must be written...

I shall post memories old and new and would love to hear from others...

Heavens! here I am again then! But only because Fran has new blog and I was having a nose, so thought I'd check if I was still here so to speak...
www.musingsofacontemporaryspinster.blogspot.com

Well - Whether I was facing redundancy last year or not - I'm really being made redundant week after next! I'm obviously a great believer in life after redundancy from previous comments. The collapse of my employing organisation sad for clients and colleagues, but probably healthy kick up the backside for me. I've just launched a new website - my third - this one more social care stuff as other two are mediation and training:
www.southwalesmediation.co.uk
www.albanymediation.co.uk
www.carematterswales.co.uk

I do like a nice cosy rut, but I need to find some more lucrative work - not hugely - just enough to be able to relax a bit more.

Meanwhile I'm having a lovely time. Being 55 and single can be fun. I'm being quite sociable generally at the moment as well - although I've not done anything cultured for a while, I've seen more of friends recently which is great. And still love my own company.