"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!