Halfway and Pemberton by Byron Davies is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. HALFWAY AND PEMBERTON (LLANELLI) A Chronicle compiled by BYRON DAVIES

Chapter One: Early Years ...... 2 Chapter Two: Llandafen Farm ...... 15 Chapter Three: The St David’s Railway ...... 22 Chapter Four: The Halfway Hotel...... 29 Chapter Five: The County Athletic Grounds, Halfway Park ...... 38 Chapter Six: Halfway United Rugby Club ...... 51 Chapter Seven: Halfway Football Club ...... 55 Chapter Eight: The Health and Strength Club ...... 60 Chapter Nine: Halfway Primary School ...... 63 Chapter Ten: Reminiscences - Edward Owen ...... 74 Chapter Eleven: Characters ...... 77 Chapter Twelve: Research Paper – D.K.Rosser ...... 81 Appendix ...... 90

1 Chapter One: Early Years

My family’s association with the communities of Halfway and Pemberton goes back to at least 1861. The census of that year records that my maternal great great-grandfather, Thomas Law, a miner, lived at Halfway with his wife, Jane, and their four children. He was born in the parish of Pembrey in 1819, a descendant of a Scottish mariner who either jumped ship or was shipwrecked on the treacherous sands of Cefn Sidan and came ashore at Pembrey; or so the family legend goes.

I am the only direct descendant of Thomas Law still living in the area and, as such, this research goes some way to satisfy my curiosity and interest in how the family and the community evolved. It has given me a deeper insight into people, places and events that were just part of folklore and conversation topics of my impressionable years.

The district lies nearby the village of Dafen, the subject of my previous study, which also holds a strong family connection, and therefore this current research has a natural geographical and demographic continuity with that village. This chronicle encompasses the districts of Halfway and Pemberton (Carnhywel) situated about a mile east of Llanelli on the old Swansea road. The boundaries of which I’ve taken as extending from Llygad yr Ych House near Havard Road to the Smith Arms on Gelli Road, and just beyond the White Lion public house on the Swansea road. The research traces the growth of the district from its rural beginnings in the mid-18th century up to an urban community of the 1960s.

The census of 1841 gives the population of the area as 48, living in seven dwellings; ten years later the figure rose to 79 persons and 16 dwellings. This increase was due mainly to the erection of cottages at Carnhywel, probably built to accommodate miners employed at the nearby Llandafen pit. Due to the expansion of the coal, tinplate and auxiliary industries in the surrounding area, and the resultant influx of people, by 1901 the population had risen to 791. Nearly three quarters of this total is listed as born in Llanelli, which we can take to mean not only the immediate area of Pemberton and Halfway but also the adjacent districts of Llwynhendy, Bynea, Felinfoel and Llangennech, for example. One quarter of the population was born outside the Llanelli area, mainly in rural Carmarthenshire. This statistic conforms to the continuing trend of the time of people from country areas migrating to seek a better life in urban and industrial towns like Llanelli. A small number of incomers were born in the industrialised valleys of Glamorganshire, and a handful came across the border from England.

In 1901 the spoken language of the area was overwhelmingly Welsh; 40% of people were monoglot Welsh speakers, while just over 56% were bilingual, i.e. Welsh and English, therefore nearly 97% of the population spoke Welsh. The percentage balance was made of English language speakers only. Just over one quarter of the population had occupations. The majority of males were employed in heavy industry, divided equally between mining and the metaliferous industries; young females were also employed in the tinplate works. There were 23 servants comprising housemaids, domestics and housekeepers listed, although, probably, most of these were not employed in the strict meaning of the word but rather had stayed at home to assist with the general running of a busy household. The Great Western Railway Company employed 14 workers, and there were 12 teachers or pupil teachers and 10 dressmakers living in the area.

Besides two ministers of religion, two others held distinctive positions in the locality, they were John White 49, Relieving Officer, and David Rees, 41, who was, intriguingly, an Inspector of Nuisances (Rural). In contrast, 13 years old David Protheroe was, curiously, a plantation assistant.

2 It is noteworthy that a number of widows or unmarried women augmented their meagre incomes in various ways. This was in the period before the creation of Lloyd George’s Old Age Pension Scheme of 1908 and his Insurance Scheme of 1911 when the government of the day was not responsible for providing the population with social security benefit, therefore, a few hard-earned coppers meant some relief from real hardship. Jane Hopkins, 51, a widow, sold barm, a home-made liquid yeast prepared in fairly large quantities and sold to neighbours for approximately a penny a pint. Margaret Bowen, 37, was a brat (apron or pinafore) dealer, while Mary Morris, 37, and single, sold milk for a shilling or two. Jane James, 35, a widow of Tŵyn Terrace was a laundress or washerwoman, as was widow Mary Jenkins of the same terrace, whose daughter, Elizabeth, 28, augmented the family’s income by knitting hosiery for sale. Jane Thomas, 71, was dependent on parish relief, while Elizabeth Richards, a 69 years old widow, was in an enviable position of being able to live on her means.

By the way, Tŵyn Terrace should not be confused, as has been known, with the anglicised pronunciation Twin, mistakenly giving rise to the belief that the terrace was named because of the prevalence of twins born there.

In due course Halfway and Pemberton became a self-contained community comprising a farm, coal workings, inns, slaughter house, butcher, bakery, grocers, tailor, cobbler, draper, confectioner, coal merchant, painter and decorator, bus company, athletic stadium, billiard hall, mobile fruit and vegetable sellers, chip shops, library and reading room, post office and a hotel. All situated on or near a half-mile section of the old main road leading from Llanelli to Swansea.

The immediate post-Second World War period saw a gradual change in the social life of the district, resulting in the extinction of all but two of these businesses and institutions. It was a community with a localised way of life; a ‘Welsh’ way of life, so called, which also pertained to other districts of Llanelli, which, likewise, have disappeared.

Ogilvy’s Road Map of 1657

3 In the mid-18th century the general area of Halfway and Pemberton was part of the Llandafen estate owned by the Hayton family who held a share in the Vaughan (Stepney) estate. In pre-turnpike days the road at Halfway followed a slightly more northerly line towards Llandafen House/Farm, before turning eastwards and dividing at Pemberton. This is shown on John Ogilvy’s map of 1675 which shows very little variation in the line of the road to much later ordnance survey maps.

Gelli Estate Map of 1824 showing Halfway Farm barns at Pemberton Junction and location of a) Halfway Inn and b) Llandafen House and Farm

The turnpiking of the road from Llanelli to the Glamorgan boundary at Loughor took place in three stages. The road from Llanelli to Pemberton junction was taken over in 1765 as part of the Kidwelly Trust road from Pontarddulais to Carmarthen. It was not until 1779 that the Kidwelly Trust acquired control of the road between the Pemberton junction and the river crossing at Loughor. The line of the road between Llanelli and River Loughor remained basically the same as the ' Heol Fawr' of the late medieval and early modern times. Prior to 1836 all carriages passing between Llanelli and Swansea had to travel via Pontarddulais, a distance of 15 miles. The Kidwelly Trust built Loughor Bridge at a cost of £10,000 to shorten the distance, and installed tollgates along the route.

* "Llandafen Gate is situated on the Swansea road almost at the foot of the hill before reaching Dafen brook, on the left leaving Llanelly. At each gate was a huge signboard painted white, on which were lettered the charges lawfully payable for carriages of all kinds, horses, cattle, sheep and pigs. The gates were closed during the night, and the validity of the ticket ceased at midnight.”

4 *Llandafen Tollgate – from John Innes’s book Old Llanelly published in 1902

The tollgate house is still occupied today, and although the interior has been altered, the original sturdy exterior stonewalling remains intact.

**“If you wanted a horse and cart for a day to go to Swansea you would get there for about 4/6d (22½p). The first thing you had to pay 6d by Capel Isa [Isaf]; the next by Loughor bridge, 6d there; between that and the two Loughors 6d again; then you’d go to Greenhill, 6d there; four sixpences, and if you were not back by 12 o’clock another sixpence at Loughor Bridge. Going to Dafen there was a chain across the road and you’d have to pay there; also a chain at the White Lion, Felinfoel.”

**From Carmarthen Antiquarian Society’s notes published in 1890

***“In the neighbourhood of Llanelly there are five turnpike roads leading from the town of Llanelly, and upon each road and within half a mile of the town, there is a gate notwithstanding which there are toll bars upon the parish roads between those gates and the town. First of all is the Capel Gate, and close to that is a bar (Llandafen toll bar) upon the Parish road where toll is paid, and that is generally complained of by farmers. It is intended to remove this. Having passed the Capel toll-gate about 200 yards there is a lane on the right hand (now Coedcae Road) leading to several farms upon the seaside, and to prevent any person going through toll free the Trust placed another toll-bar which is called the Halfway Bar, and it is intended to remove this.

These two were not remunerative because the only persons who paid tolls were the farmers who lived in the neighbourhood of those bars. A quarter of a mile away is another bar by the Pemberton Arms put up for catching colliers conveying pit timber to the collieries situated between that and the Capel gate. Then half a mile farther on, on the Swansea road is another bar called the Llwynhendy bar; this was to take tolls from stone carts that would haul about 1½ miles upon that road. If a party had paid the Llwynhendy gate, he would not have to pay the Capel gate. The toll bar is across the road, and the only distinction I make between a gate and a bar is where there is not a residence for the person to collect the tolls. Tolls were not regularly collected at these bars, but only during building operations, and pit timber hauling seasons or the execution of any duties when the Trust would take a board there, and stay during the day or period that the work was going on.

In going from Llanelly to Swansea, a person would pay 5/- with a pair of horses out of which 3/- would be for the bridge (Loughor), and he has to pay the bridge going back again. A horse going over the bridge 5 would pay 3d or 4½d. Then returning to the Pemberton Arms on the same road, beyond the Pemberton Arms towards Pontarddulais, there is another toll bar at Bridge End called Llangennech bar. A mile and a half further is the Hendy bar. All these would be paid by the Capel, but if the man had no printed tickets, I have known instances of a man being obliged to pay at the bar after having paid the toll-gate because he did not produce a ticket.” ***Evidence given by William Chambers, junior, founder of Llanelly Pottery, before the Royal Commission in 1843 on tollgates of the area and their effect.

These frequent toll payments during this period had made communication difficult, and were an important contribution to the Rebecca Riots. However, the report of the Commissioner of Enquiry in 1844 did not

advocate the entire abolition of tolls, but recommended they be diminished. It was not until over forty years later that the maintenance of the main highways transferred to the County Councils in 1888, and the others to the Rural or Urban Councils.

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HALFWAY CENSUS 1841

Halfway Llandafen (colliery yard) David Protheroe 49, labourer David Williams 50 coal banker Margaret Protheroe 45 Elinor Williams 40 Walter Protheroe 20, haulier David Williams 7 Rachel Protheroe 10 Sarah Williams 10 Margaret Protheroe 8 Mary Williams 9 Phoebe Protheroe 6 Harriet Williams 5

Tollgate House Llandafen (colliery yard) Lewis Jones 50, collier Thomas Simon 30, collier Elizabeth Jones 45 Sarah Simon 30 Harriet Jones 5 Henry Simon 9 Joseph Jones 5 David 4 Catrin Rees 85 Sarah Simon 3

Halfway House (Inn) Llandafen Farm William Thomas 40, collier Ann Hugh 44, widow Margaret Thomas 45 John Hugh 23, farmer Elizabeth Thomas 20 Ann Hugh 21 David Thomas 20 apprentice Mary Hugh 10 William Thomas 15 David Hugh 8 Mary Ann Thomas 12 Huel? Hugh 5 Margaret Thomas 10 Robert Hugh 3 Ann Thomas 5 Hannah Edwards 15, servant John Thomas 3 John Evans 30, collier

Pemberton Arms Union Inn Joshua Howell 41, publican Rees Evans 60, publican Mary Howell 27 Mary Evans 63 David Howell 5 Thomas Howell 11 Ann Stephen 20, maidservant Martha Williams 14, maidservant

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Halfway Bridge, formerly Dafen Bridge

In 1850 R.J.Nevill of the Llanelly Copperworks Company constructed a new bridge over the Dafen River at Halfway, and in 1867 there was a plan to straighten the course of the river from the “turnpike bridge” at Halfway to the New Dafen Cut below Trostre Farm”. The owners of the land through which the river flowed agreed to the plan and to the exchange of lands and to contribute their share of expense for straightening the river.

The landlords and their share of contributions were: Lord Cawdor £25 David John Thomas £20 Charles W. Nevill £12 10/- S Samuel £10 John Rees £5 Wm Moodie £4 B Morgan £2 10/- Colonel Stepney £1 Williams, Sims & Co. £80

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Plan of 1855 showing location of Llandafen Colliery and the Tramway from it to the sidings at Halfway. Club Cottages were later known as ‘Y Ranc’

View looking from Halfway to Pemberton Square c.1920. Tramlines can be seen in middle of road.

The earliest record of coal mining activity in the area was at Cefn y Maes in 1662 just south of Halfway Bridge, the Dafen River being navigable to small ships or barges almost up to this point. The diversion of the river and the construction of the Great Embankment in 1808/09 meant the end of the river as an early focus for shipping activity.

9 In 1785, Halfway was referred to as Dafen Bridge because the main road crossed the Dafen River at this point. In that year, John Smith began working for coal opposite where the Halfway Hotel stands today. The pit was referred to as Llandaven or Daven pit, but was abandoned before Smith reached coal. In 1804, General Warde restarted work there, which continued until 1809 when the colliery was considered not viable and a failure.

In 1831 R.J.Nevill sank a pit in the present area of Pemberton, known as Llandafen Pit, located a few hundred yards south east of Pemberton Square. This was one of the five coal districts owned by the Llanelly Copper Works. The pit was sunk, apparently, for the purpose of providing employment for the Company’s colliers at a time of recession as distinct from providing additional output to satisfy demands. Two additional pits were sunk to the east allowing workings to be carried northward as far as the Dafen region. They were the Penceiliogi Pit, sunk in 1838, and the Maescanner Pit in 1841-42. In 1841, thirty six males, four young persons and three children were employed at the colliery. Children were defined as those who had not completed the thirteenth year of their age, that is up to and including age twelve.

The Llandafen Pit was deepened to 822 feet in the early 1850s, and coal was transported from the pit via a tramway to the St. David’s branch railway sidings at Halfway. The pit, however, was prone to explosions of firedamp (methane gas) with at least seven separate explosions between 1849 and 1854, accompanied by loss of life, serious underground fire and strong criticism of safety standards by the Inspector of Mines. The pit was completely abandoned in 1861 and pumping stopped. Half a million tons of coal had been raised between 1847 and 1856 between the Box/Llandafen district; the seams worked to exhaustion. The development of the Llandafen coal district had been successful even though its name disappeared from the records after the company’s production figures were grouped together under 'Box Collieries'

Due to the abandonment of the pit and its subsequent flooding, an operation was carried out in May 1884 in the disused shaft of the colliery to remove an iron stage 200 feet down which was causing an obstruction to the free flow of the water. An explosive charge of six pounds of dynamite, prepared at the Pembrey Dynamite Works, was used to remove the obstacle. It was discovered later that the depth of the pit was considerably more than before the explosion, and that the obstruction had been cleared.

The Llandafen pit was worked by a small concern, Thomas and Williams, from 1899 to 1901, and by Llandafen Colliery Company from 1902 to 1903.

Colliery Fatalities.

Penceiliogi 1839. David Edwards, who wanted to go home to his family early, went up the pit ladder instead of waiting for the pit basket. When he got to the top of the unfinished ladder he then had to cross the partition and then climb to the top. He was too short to reach the top and he called for assistance, but he lost the grip of his work colleagues. He fell to the bottom of the pit and was killed. He left a widow with six children.

10  1847. John Harries was killed by a fall of stone.  Llandafen. September1849. Boy died due to effects of explosion. Six men badly burned, three critically  May 1850. Man and boy severely burned; boy died soon after.  June 1851. Man killed by explosion of fire-damp. No locked lamps.  August 1854. David Morgan, 18, killed by explosion of fire-damp.  October 1854. Thomas Richards, 18, killed by explosion of fire-damp.  April 1855. William Howell, 21, a fireman, killed when struck by fly-wheel of engine.  May 1857. Man killed.  May 1881. William Clement killed by explosion.

Cartoon depicting the last tramcar of the day leaving Llanelli for Llwynhendy

A horse tramway system began in Llanelli in 1882 using one-horse cars. Conversion of the horse tramway to electric traction took place in June1911 with the route extended to Bynea via Pemberton. Halfway bridge was re-built in that year by the Electric Traction Company at a cost of £600, to accommodate their tramcar route through the district. The narrowness of the road from Havard Road to Pemberton was a restriction to the free flow of increasing traffic. In 1925, the Rural Council decided that all house forecourts be demolished and the road widened, leaving five feet pavements each side. Conversion from tram to trolleybus was completed in 1932 and the first trolley bus to make a trial run in Llanelli did so on the section between Bynea and Llanelli Railway Station. Pemberton was termed a short working terminus; turning facilities were provided by erecting the trolley bus wires around a small traffic island in the middle of the forked road junction on which was situated a telephone kiosk. Trolley bus services ended in 1952.

In November1923, Evan Henry Davies of Halfway started a regular bus service between the locality and the town. Ifan Hen, as he was popularly known, bought his first bus second hand for a little more than £200, which was a single-decker with solid tyres, had no windscreen, was lit by oil lamps and carried 28 passengers. Its initial route was from the Palace Cinema, Swansea Road, along Capel Road to the terminus at Globe Row, Dafen. The service proved such a success that it was not long before another bus was bought. As the service became more popular the number of buses in the fleet rose to four, the last acquisition being a 30 seater, 6 cylinder, saloon bus, and the route extended to include Felinfoel. The business was sold in 1935 to the Llanelly and District Electric Supply Company.

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Pemberton Terminus looking towards Loughor in 1934 before the old tramlines had been removed or surfaced over

A tram at Pemberton

12

Trolley bus leaving town for Pemberton.

Before the advent of piped water to households, residents of Halfway and Pemberton relied on local springs then public and private wells for their water supply. Due to the extra demand made by the increasing population supplies were inadequate, and people had to wait their turn at the wells in order to secure even a bucketful of water. Council Sanitary Inspectors were instructed to search for springs and water of good quality, and to report where such water was located and how it could be brought to the area.

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Location of wells in Halfway area

In June 1885, the residents of Halfway sent a petition to the Rural Sanitary Authority complaining of a shortage of water in the locality. Three years later the Authority laid a 2-inch pipe from the Dafen storage cistern to another cistern located near the road bridge, close to what was then the Halfway Inn.

The gravity fall from Dafen to Halfway was a 19 feet drop in 1,300 yards. Eleven years later shortage of water was still a concern to the residents; in June 1896, after representations to the authorities, the Water Inspector reported that there was only a small supply of water available in the Halfway cistern. He stated that pipes from Llandafen Farm’s pond should be cleaned, so as to enable the inhabitants to use the water for domestic purposes.

In 1908 meetings were held to consider the best means of distributing piped water to the most populous areas. A scheme was devised whereby piped water was supplied to Halfway via Dafen, which were within the limits of Llanelly Borough Council, from the filter beds of Cwmlliedi [Swiss Valley] reservoir. Water drawn from Llyn y Fan reservoir began in 1918, and the following year saw the beginning of the demands made for the supply of water to houses from the reservoir.

The Rural District Council decided to proceed with a sewage treatment works at Cefn y Maes, Halfway, in1913. However, construction of the scheme was deferred until 1919 due to the Great War. Sewers were laid to cover a wide area including Halfway, Penallt, Penceiliogi, Dafen and Felinfoel: the scheme was completed in 1922. 14

Chapter Two: Llandafen Farm

The location of Llandafen House/Farm is shown on Ogilvy’s road map of 1675. The farm and surrounding lands were part of the Llandafen Estate owned by William Chute Hayton and Lucinda Hayton, who owned a share in the Vaughan [Stepney] Estate. In 1806, the Haytons sold the farm at public auction to the brothers Pemberton who had mining interests in Llanelli, and also owned large collieries in Durham and Northumberland. R.S.Pemberton began rebuilding the farmhouse, intending to make it his residence, but left it unfinished.

At the time of the 1841 census the farm was occupied by the following:  Ann Hugh aged 44, widow.  John Hugh aged 23  Ann Hugh aged 21  Mary Hugh aged 10  David Hugh aged 8  Huel(?) Hugh aged 5  Robert Hugh aged 3  Hannah Edwards aged 15, servant.

In 1851, the Hugh family were still in residence, namely:  John aged 34, farmer of 100 acres, born Llanelli.  Mary aged 21, sister.  Ann aged 21, house servant  Ann aged18, house servant  John Thomas aged18, labourer born Llanon.

On 31st October1855, at the Falcon Inn, Llanelli, the Pembertons sold at auction farms, lands, building sites and ground rents. Included in that sale was Llandafen Farm, and other lots which were bought by R.J.Nevill, of the Llanelly Copperworks Company. On the death of Nevill in the following year the whole of Llandafen Estate was conveyed to his son, William Charles Nevill.

15

Robert Dunkin leased a field and limekiln from the Pemberton Estate from September 1833, and this date probably coincides with the opening of the Llanelly Railway and Dock Company's Dafen line. Presumably Dunkin's involvement with the company had placed him in a privileged position of being able to undertake industrial and land speculation along its course at an early date. The limekiln's location fits in well with the pattern of building kilns alongside tramroads in the early 19th century .Dunkin also owned arsenic works in the New Dock area that operated briefly in the late 1840s.

Subsequently he acted as agent and examiner to Lloyds of London, the ship insurers, of ships built at Llanelli as well as being vice consul for a number of European countries.

16 Pemberton Arms was conveyed from the Nevill estate to John Howell, a master mariner, in 1880, who in turn conveyed it to O. H. Thomas in 1913. It was bought by Buckley’s Brewery in 1939, and was sold as a private dwelling to Ken Phillips in 1958.

The census of 1861 shows the following living at Llandafen farm:  William Howell, 62, farmer of 120 acres born Llangennech.  Hannah Maria Howells, 60, b New Quay, Cardigan.  Ann Howell, 40, b Llannon, Carms.  William Howell, 36, b Llannon, Carms.  Ebenezer Howell, 34  Mary Howell, 31.  Jane Howell, 28.  Richard Howell, 26.  Catherine Howell, 18.  James Howells, 16.

The last six named were born in Llanelli, and all the children were listed as unmarried.

By the time of the census returns of 1871 the following were still living on the farm:  William Howell, 72.  Hannah M. Howell, 70.  William Howell, 47.  Richard Howell, 35.  James Howell, 25. As well as:  Ann Harry, 35, general servant, born Pembrey.  Mary Morris, 15, general servant, born Llanelli.

In September, 1877, Hannah Maria Howell, now a widow, retired from farming and sold the following farm stock by auction.  18 prime dairy cows of the shorthorn and improved breed  1 very excellent two year old bull from Lord Emlyn’s stock  4 heifers in calf  2, three year olds with calf  4 working horses, well known as the best in the neighbourhood  1 strong and powerful horse, 6 year old  9 pork pigs  1 thrashing machine (by Savery, Bristol)  1 winnowing machine (by Savery, Bristol)  2 chaff cutters (by Hornsby) Carts, harness, gamboes, ploughs, harrows and 4 stone and iron pig troughs. Barrel churns, brass pans, pails, tubs, vats, tin pans, cheese crusher, butter trap and cream pots, together with part of the household furniture. 2 prime ricks and a row of well harvested hay 1 sow of wheat, together with the whole of harvest tools etc.

17 The census of 1881 shows the tenant as: Thomas Lewis, 53, farmer of 116 acres, born Llangunnog, Carms, living with his wife Anne, 51, also born in Llangunnog. Other members of the household were:  Anne Anthony aged 4, relation, born Pembrey.  John Thomas aged 21, indoor servant, b Llangendeirn  Martin Thomas aged16, indoor servant, b Llangendeirn.  Margaret Rees aged21, general servant, b Llannon, Carms.  Elizabeth Thomas aged general servant, b Pembrey.

On the 6th and 7th June, 1889, lots of the Nevill estate at Llandafen and Halfway were offered for sale and were advertised thus:

“That most desirable and conveniently situated freehold farm, with the capital dwelling house, known as Llandafen Farm, situate near Halfway, and abutting the turnpike road leading from Llanelly to Swansea; and the lands adjoining thereto on the north side, known as ‘Pencilogi’, the whole containing about 110 acres of excellent arable, pasture and meadow land, in the occupation of Thomas Lewis. Also several freehold cottages and the ground rents upon and adjoining the lands of Pencilogi. Also three fields of excellent accommodation land, suitable for building purposes, situate on either side of the turnpike road between Pemberton Arms and Cefncaeau, now held with Llandafen Farm containing about 9 acres”.

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The farm was bought by Thomas Jones of Brynmair House, Llanelli, a wholesale grocer and provision merchant who traded under the name of Thomas Jones, ‘Welsh Produce’, Llanelly.

Thomas Lewis, the sitting tenant, left the farm and auctioned all his stock in September 1890. The next tenant was Benjamin Thomas 37, of Llanginning, together with his wife, Martha, 40, and children William, 10, Benjamin, 6, and Mary aged 2.

The next tenant was Dafydd Thomas, who came from Meidrim, Carmarthenshire. He died a young man in 1910 and was succeeded as farm bailiff by his brother, Theophilus Thomas, a railway worker, known to everyone in the area by the abbreviated version of his Christian name, ‘Ophi’. The farm’s owner, Thomas Jones, JP, played a leading role on behalf of the authorities during the Llanelli Railway Workers’ strike of 1911, and was blamed for drafting soldiers into the town to quell the disturbance. During this time his home, Brynmair House, was attacked and his business premises in town looted, and at Llandafen Farm hayricks were set on fire in several places. The fire spread to adjoining sheds and occupants of the living quarters were also in danger, and had to vacate the house. Although the fire brigade had no hope of saving the ricks and sheds, they succeeded in preventing the fire from extending to farm buildings. Many local residents assisted the firemen in hacking away the burning hay, and spreading it on an adjoining field. The ricks contained the season’s harvest, and the total cost of the damage estimated at between £500 and £600.

After the death of Thomas Jones in 1932, the wholesale business and farm ownership was taken over by his son, Leonard. It was during this time that the cowshed built in 1889 was modernised and the dairy equipped with the most up-to-date appliances for milk production. Under the auspices of Thomas Jones and Company the farm was the first in the Llanelli area to supply milk in cartons to its customers. Denzil Griffiths, who lived opposite the farm in Llandafen Road, was employed when a boy of 15 to deliver milk around the houses. He remembers starting work at 5am every morning, seven days a week, delivering milk on a tricycle, not only to local customers but also to various parts of the town. Later, the company taught him to drive and provided him with a van for his deliveries. Milk for local customers was carried in churns to the doorstep, and measured out into the customers jug or bowl in the quantity required. However, in the middle 19 class districts and large houses of the town milk was delivered in cartons in pint and quart quantities; the desire for fresh milk meant twice daily deliveries to these customers. In the same period the company established an egg production unit on the farm, housed in purpose built sheds and managed by Charles Harding. ‘Ophi’ Thomas finished farming at Llandafen in the 1930s, and was succeeded by John Thomas (no relation) a former assistant on the farm, and when he retired in the 1970s it meant the end of Llandafen as a working farm. In subsequent years the premises were sold and renovated and the land sold piecemeal for housing estates.

Constructing the Hendy to Llanelli by-pass. Looking towards Dafen from Halfway. Llandafen Farmhouse to the right of the picture

Llandafen is mentioned in the diaries of Howell Harries, the Methodist revivalist, when he visited Llanelli on a number of occasions from the period 1738 to 1766. It is reasonable to assume that the Llandafen mentioned in the diaries do refer to Llandafen House (Farm). The following are extracts from the diaries:

March 12th 1742 Went over river LLYCHWR in a boat, full of love and joy, to Llandafen, 3 or 4 miles, against 11 (o’clock). May 6th 1742. Exhorted towards Llandafen, 5 miles against 12 (o’clock). Discoursed, amazing and uncommon light

In 1743, two brothers from Llandafen, Edward and John Meurig [Meyrick], were appointed to assist one of Harries’ organisers, Milbourn Bloom, in overseeing fellowship meetings from Carmarthen to the river Neath, Llannon, Casllwchwr [Loughor], Llandafen, Llandeilo Fach and Llansamlet.

Richard Tibbot, an itinerant preacher, came under the influence of Howell Harries, and the following extracts from his diaries of 1741 and 1742 illustrate the activities of early Methodist societies in the area: September 5th 1741 20 That evening I went to Llandafen, and was in the society with them discoursing on 1 John ¡. I have room to believe that the Methodists will succeed. Written at Llandafen 7th September. September 13th I came through Pen-bre to Llandafen to seek a Welsh school, but I did not get an account of any. Written on way from Dafen to Llannon. September 19th I came to Llandafen, and that evening sought a school. Next day I was at Llanelly, in the fair. Next day, Sunday, I went to Felinfoel to hear David Owen preaching. October 13th I was at Llandafen. The previous evening with John Powel, discoursed there on the Song of Solomon ¡¡¡.

The school that Robert Tibbot sought was probably one of the Circulating Schools of Gruffydd Jones, a clergyman of the established church, who started the movement in 1731. In creating these schools, a teacher was invited, preferably by the vicar of the parish, to set up a school in a farmhouse or perhaps a barn. Children attended during the day and adults in the evening, who were taught simply to read, but not taught to write. When a satisfactory standard was reached, usually after 6 months, the teacher moved on to set up another school in another area.

21

Chapter Three: The St David’s Railway

Royal Assent was given in June 1828, to an Act of Parliament for making and maintaining a railway or tramway by the Carmarthenshire Railway Company from Gelly Gille Farm, north east of the hamlet of Dafen, to Machynis Pool. The two and a half mile long railway was opened in 1833, and crossed the main Llanelly to Swansea highway at Halfway, bisecting that area from Pemberton.

St. David’s Railway in 1835

It was enacted that: a) Where the railway passed any turnpike road or public highway, the ledge or flanch [flange] of the railway should not exceed ¾" in height above the level of such road. The distance between inside edges of the rails were not to be less than 4 feet 8 inches, and the distance between outside edges not more than 5 feet 1 inch. (b) The railway was not to be made or brought within 30 yards of a messuage commonly called Llandaven House, or within 60 yards on the western side of Daven pit, between the turnpike road and the pit, or within 30 yards of the southern side of the pit. c) The rates of toll for carrying sand, limestone, lime to be used as manure, and all materials for repair of public roads, was not to exceed the sum of 1 penny per ton per mile. All copper, tin, lead, iron, and other metals, timber, coals, coke, culmn, cinders, stone bricks, earth, clay, chalk, marle, lime and sand not used as manure not to exceed 1 penny halfpenny per ton per mile. d) For every horse, mule or ass not employed in drawing, carrying or removing any wagon for the purpose of moving goods, wares, merchandise or other commodity, would be permitted to go through or by any tollhouse for the sum of 2 pence (except as such going from farm to farm).

22 e) The hours for using the railway were from 5am to 8pm during the months of November, December, January and February and between 4am and 9pm during the months of March, April, September, and October and between 4am to 10pm during May, June, July and August. f) The railway would be open to anybody who was prepared to pay for hauling traffic with his own teams or by contract. g) The collectors appointed by the Company to receive tolls and rates, in respect of horses, mules or asses, were to give on payment a ticket to the payer, specifying the day and the toll. Such tolls were not payable more than once in any one day, to be computed from 12 o’clock at night until 12 o’clock on the succeeding night for the same horse, mule or ass not laden or employed in drawing any wagon or carriage, for which the same charge was to be paid. h) Every toll collector was required to place his full name, painted on a board in front of the toll house or toll gate immediately on coming on duty. The name to be at least 2 inches in length and in proportional breadth, and painted either in white letters on a black background or vice versa, and be in position the whole time the collector was on duty. If the collector’s name was not shown, and he demanded or took a greater or lesser rate of toll, or demanded and took a toll from persons exempted from payment, or refused or hindered persons from reading the inscriptions on the boards, or refused to tell his name to anyone demanding same, on having paid the tolls, or in answer gave a false name, or upon the legal rate paid, prevented any persons from passing through the toll gate, or used scurrilous or abusive language to any treasurer, clerk, surveyor, or any other officer, then in every such case, the toll collector should forfeit and pay any sum not exceeding £10. i) In calculating toll charges, it was enacted that where there was a fraction of a ton, a proportion of the same rates should be demanded, according to the number of quarters of a ton contained in such a fraction, and where there was a fraction of a quarter of a ton, such a fraction should be deemed and considered a whole of a ton, likewise where there was a fraction of a mile in the distance which any wagon passed on the railway, the tonnage demanded should be after the rate of the number of quarters of miles which the wagon passed. j) In order to ascertain and calculate with greater precision and facility of the distance for which tonnage would be demanded, the company measured and laid stones or conspicuous marks one quarter of a mile from each other, with proper inscriptions, and whenever any wagon passed one or more such stones would be deemed to have passed one or more quarters of a mile. Tonnage for such distance would be due and payable, although the distance actually travelled be more or less than thus computed. Where any wagon travelling between any two such stones or marks, tonnage would not be due for the distance which was travelled up to the first stone, unless the point of entry by the wagon would be more than 110 yards from such stones or marks. k) No wagon or carriage would be allowed to carry, at any one time, along or over part of the railway, exclusive of the weight of such wagon, more than 2¾ tons weight, without special licence. Any wagons exceeding this weight would be liable to pay a rate of tonnage as the Company deemed reasonable and proper. l) The Company would be empowered to regulate and fix the price for carrying small parcels, not exceeding 500 pounds weight, and from time to time, repeal, alter, or vary the rates as deemed fitting and reasonable. m) The wagon owners were to give their names, addresses, and the number of wagons to the company clerk for entry. They were to also paint their names in large white capital letters and figures on a black background, two inches high at least, on some conspicuous part of the outside of every wagon. Every wagon would be gauged, weighed and measured, at the expense of the company, whenever it was required. Owners not complying with these regulations, or found guilty of altering, erasing or defacing such names and figures, would forfeit and pay any sum not exceeding £5 for every offence.

23

Horse traction was originally used on the line serving various collieries in the Dafen district. In 1834, it was calculated that “one horse could draw 100 tons of coal per day upon the railway, travelling 20 miles with comparative ease.” Later, both horse and locomotive power were used simultaneously for a period. In 1864, the Llangennech Colliery Company’s St. David’s office advertised for contract tenders for horse haulage to work on the branch line, hauling coal from their colliery to New Dock. Horse drawn wagons were still used on the line up to at least 1875, by which means coke from New Dock Coke Works was delivered to Dafen Tinplate Works.

Horse drawn wagons c.1840

In the same year the locomotive working on the same line was named ‘Recruit’, and was used to haul coal and also tinplates from Dafen Tinplate Works. The fireman working on that engine, Cambrian Davies, was killed outside Bryngwyn colliery, Dafen, whilst changing railway catch points, the first accident to happen on the line.

As traffic on the line and on the Llanelli to Swansea main road increased, safety was of prime importance on the level crossing at Halfway when trains were due. Consequently, white safety gates were erected each side of the road, manned by a crossing keeper who lived in a company house, nearby. In 1868, a court action was brought by Evan Bowen, a Railway Inspector, on behalf of the railway company, against David Arnold of Dafen, for trespassing on the railway line at Halfway. It was stated in court that had not crossing keeper, Alfred Haines, intervened an accident would probably have occurred. Haines was commended for his action and, it was said, that owing to his vigilance not a single accident had occurred since he had been in charge of the crossing gates. It was a comfort to the company and public to know that officials on the St. David’s railway were paying attention to the necessity of enforcing the rules of the company for the prevention of accidents. It is ironic that six years later Haines’ eleven years old son was killed on the branch line, on the way home from Dafen School, when he attempted to mount a moving coal wagon attached to an engine.

24 Raw materials were transported by rail from New Dock into Dafen for use in the various manufacturing industries of the district. The finished products of these firms namely; coal, tinplate, galvanised sheets, enamel products and building bricks, were transported on the return journey to the New Dock marshalling yards for national and international distribution.

In 1875 an agreement was signed between the Great Western Railway Company and William Rees of Gelli House, Bryn, owner of Maesarddafen Colliery, for use of sidings at Halfway. Because of William Rees’ blindness, his son, William John, was brought out of school at the age of 17 to manage the colliery. He was equally at home when underground surveying colliery workings as he was above ground on horseback, surveying the land of his father’s Gelli Estate. This was despite the fact that when he was 8 years old he had an accident with a farm implement while haymaking on Gelli Farm, which meant the amputation of his injured leg.

A half-mile long tramroad was used to carry coal from Maesarddafen colliery to sidings at Halfway; the coal was then loaded into railway wagons by means of a chute and then dispatched to the marshalling yards at New Dock. Maesarddafen house coal was advertised as a first class fuel for domestic fires and delivered locally for 9/6d per ton. This price included cartage to any part of town from Greenfield to the Thomas Arms and West End; 6d extra per ton was charged to the adjacent districts. The agreement ended in 1888 when colliery closed and consequently the sidings were removed.

Engraving of ‘ADA’ - Maesarddafen colliery engine. Bought by colliery owner W. J. Rees in September 1877 for £250, and named after his daughter.

The land left derelict by their removal became known locally as Pen y Chute, or colloquially, Penshwt, became the main playing area for generations of local children. The name is still held in fond memory by people of a certain age who remember the happy, carefree hours spent playing on its surface of hardened 25 slurry and coarse grass. Coal fossils were sometimes found just below the surface, a reminder of the ground’s previous function. Nothing much remains of Penshwt today, save a small landscaped area overlooking the busy road junction at Halfway on the Hendy to Llanelli link road.

The Dafen branch line was extended in 1903 when the St. David’s colliery tramroad incline was closed. It is reputed that the line was one of the busiest and most profitable in the South West Wales area.

The Branch Line in 1920

A timetable for trains using the branch line in the 1920s:

Stations am pm Acorn Colliery sidings Arr. 10.25 2.30 Dep. 11.10 3.00 Dafen Junction Arr. 11.15 3.05 Dep. 11.55 3.35 Tinworks sidings - - Stop Board P P Halfway Crossing 12.05pm 3.45 Llanelli Dock Arr. 12.35 4.00

The Great Western Railway Company’s permanent way maintenance cabin was situated a few yards south of the crossing gates at Halfway, and was a popular meeting place for some of the older men of the area. A group would gather outside the cabin to discuss the previous Saturday’s sports results; a bit of gossip would be exchanged and the world put to rights.

26

Last of the Summer Wine Senior citizens of Halfway, from left to right, Tom Lewis, Tom Keeling and Joe Robson, seated outside the GWR maintenance cabin near the safety gates.

Traffic on the Dafen line decreased significantly during the 1950s. Within a few years all the traditional industries associated with Dafen closed down, with the result that the line became redundant. The safety gates and signals were removed in August 1958, and the line was officially closed in 1963.

Location of Halfway level crossing. The lane to the right led to the Rural Council’s refuse tip

27

The first seven houses were demolished to make way for the new road junction. The first house, next to the railway, was the home of John (Jack) and Margretta. John, neé Law, the author’s maternal grandparents

After the demolition

28 Chapter Four: The Halfway Hotel

The title tree of the Halfway Hotel is similar to that of Llandafen Farm. The property and surrounding land was originally part of the Vaughan [Stepney] estate, in which William Chute Hayton and Lucinda Hayton held a share. The original dwelling was situated halfway between the tollgates at Capel Isaf and Pemberton road junction, thus giving rise to the name Halfway to the property and district.

In 1830, the Pemberton family leased Halfway House (probably at this time no more than a thatched cottage) to Margaret Thomas for a period of three lives at an annual rent of £2-2-0. In the census of 1841 the property is listed under the title, Halfway, and its inhabitants are shown as:  William Thomas 40, collier  Margaret Thomas 45  Elizabeth Thomas 20  David Thomas 20, apprentice  William Thomas 15  Mary Ann Thomas 12  Margaret Thomas 10  Ann Thomas 5  John Thomas 3  John Evans 30, collier.

The earliest known reference to Halfway House is a lease of 1845 in the possession of the Bass Lease Company but it is not stated clearly whether the premises was licensed to sell beer at that time. It is probable however that this was the case.

In 1851, Halfway House was occupied by:  Margaret Thomas 57, widow.  Ann Thomas 15, daughter.  John Thomas 12, son  Mary Samuel 20, servant.  Mary Morris 19, lodger.  Ann Morris 1 month,  Margaret Thomas Thomas 19, lodger.

The two lodgers listed were probably en route to Dafen to join their men folk who had found employment at the recently opened tinplate works. Their stay at Halfway was temporary until permanent accommodation could be found for them in Dafen, or until houses being built by the works proprietors for their employees were completed. Evidence of the inn’s use in this context is found in unpublished notes written in Welsh by a local historian of the 19th century. He describes his family moving home from Monmouthshire to Dafen in 1852, travelling on the Great Western Railway from Newport to the terminus at Swansea. Then proceeding by stage wagon to the white lime-washed, thatched roofed Halfway Inn, before proceeding to Dafen. In 1855 the Pemberton Estate was sold to R.J. Nevill, and in that year a lease was granted to Evan Evans for a term of 35 years.

29

The census of 1861 shows the following resident at Halfway Inn:  Evan Evans 60, miner and publican.  Ann Evans 59  Ann Evans 17, daughter and housemaid.  Ann Evans 18, niece, tinworker.  Sara Evans 7, niece.

The same family were in occupation ten years later namely:  Ann Evans 70, widow.  John Evans 39, son, widower, collier.  Ann Evans 19, daughter of John.  Jane Evans 14, daughter of John.  Thomas Evans 12, son of John.

On October 12th 1863, Jane and Thomas were entered on Bryn School’s register as living at Halfway Beer Shop.

In 1881, John Evans, aged 49, and his son, Thomas, 22, a pickler, are the only occupants listed on the census. The Register of Licensees of 1882 lists John Thomas as the licensee of the Halfway Tavern (sic), together with Thomas Evans and others. They were convicted on 30th August 1882 before John Tregoning and Richard Nevill, magistrates of the town, of permitting drunkenness on the premises and were fined 40/- with 9/- costs.

In 1889, various lots of the Nevill Estate were offered for sale. Included in that sale was ‘all that messuage or public house, garden and premises known as Halfway Inn, also ground rents well secured on the several houses erected on either side of the turnpike road between Halfway and Cefncaeau.’

Ten years earlier a house and garden near the inn was let with immediate possession for a weekly rent of 2/1d free of all rates. The inn was bought by Margaret Griffiths owner of the Greyhound Hotel, Llanelli. The licensee at the time was still John Thomas, who paid an annual rent of £1/1/0, and whose family appears to have been connected with the hostelry for over forty years.

In October 1890, the following notice appeared in the Llanelly Guardian: ‘Builders desiring of tendering for re-building the Half-Way House, about a mile from Llanelly on the Swansea road; for Mrs M Griffiths, Greyhound Hotel, Llanelly, are to send their names to the architects from whom all particulars may be obtained. J. Buckley Wilson and Glendinning Moxham, Stepney Street, Llanelly or Castle Street, Swansea.’

Wilson was the grandson of the Reverend James Buckley, founder of the brewery of the same name. The mansion house (Bryncaerau) at Parc Howard is largely the work of Wilson, who was also architect for the Metropolitan Bank and Castle Buildings in Llanelli. Moxham was also an architect of repute; among his designs were Swansea market (damaged by German bombing in 1941), Glyn Vivian Art Gallery, Mumbles

30 Yacht Club, Swansea University Swimming Baths, as well as a number of large houses in the Mumbles and Langland areas.

T.P. Jones and Company, Station Road, Llanelli, built the Halfway Hotel at a cost, it is said, of £750. During the census of 1891 the premises is listed as uninhabited, so it is safe to assume that building work on the new hotel began about this time. The main bar, which is 35 feet in length, was built over the site of the old inn, and contains superb woodwork and decorative ceiling work. It is believed that stone from the nearby Penceiliogi quarry was used for the building. By 1892, the new hotel was open, the license held by David Davies.

In that period it was common practice to hold inquests in a public house in the locality where sudden or unexplained death had occurred. One such inquest was held at the hotel in November 1892, when a verdict of accidental death was passed on 9 year old boy. The inquest was held before Rowland Brown, deputy coroner; the jury comprised men from Halfway and Dafen namely; Walter Davies, foreman, Rosser Rosser, John James, Thomas Thomas, Richard Hopkins, John Jones, David Brace, John Davies, Alfred Haines, David Jones, Griffith Hopkins and Thomas Law.

In November 1894, a notice in the Llanelly Mercury invited tenders for laying out new athletic grounds at Halfway, situated near Halfway Hotel. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the hotel and athletic ground were planned as a complimentary enterprise. The fact that Margaret Griffiths owned both the hotel and the land for the proposed athletic ground suggests co-ordination in planning. Her son-in-law, Phillip Williams, an accountant, was director of the newly formed Athletics Company and secretary of its sports committee. He had assisted in arranging sports events locally from about the time the hotel opened.

The licensee in 1897 was David Davies. In that year, the Independent Order of Oddfellows, MU Rose of Glanmwrwg Branch, met at the hotel every fourth Saturday: secretary was William Jenkins, Carnhowell.

The Halfway Rugby Club formed in 1903, had its headquarters at the hotel, and in the following year the Halfway Quoits Club was established, playing their home games on a piece of ground which is now the hotel’s car park. The hotel became a popular and convenient venue for spectators attending sporting events at the park across the road.

31 . Halfway Quoits Team 1906. The team included D. Hopkins (captain); W. Lewis; B.J.Thomas; H.Hopkins; D.Lewis; J.Rees; J.Evans; Tom Lewis; J.Edwards (secretary); Alfred Haines.

The Game of Quoits

(An outdoor game in which a ring is thrown at a peg target)

The quoit was an iron ring, nearly flat, of any weight not exceeding 9lbs usually about 6 lbs, with the upper side slightly convex, and a niche on the outer rim that could be gripped by one finger in the preparation for throwing the quoit. The diameter could not exceed 8½ inches nor be less than 3½ inches in the bore, nor more than 2¼ inches in the web.

There were two ends about 18 yards apart, at each end of which an iron or steel pin (known as the hob) was driven into the middle of a circle of stiff clay 3 feet in diameter leaving 1 inch of the hob exposed. Matches were played for any number of points that had been agreed upon. Players not standing more than 4 feet 6 inches from the pin and in line with it, had to throw the quoit such that it lodged in the clay as near as possible to the hob.

Expert players were often able to ‘ring’ the hob and a ringer counted 2 points, otherwise 1 point was awarded to each quoit. It was permissible to dislodge from its position opponents’ quoits. All ‘turned’ quoits were foul and not reckoned for scoring purposes.

Matches were played between teams who used similar weighted quoits (light or heavy). The Halfway Club used heavy quoits, whereas the Llwynhendy Club preferred the lighter quoits

Cousins Euros Lewis and Ken Smith who were born at Halfway were the progeny of Tom Lewis and made their mark in their respective sports. Tom captained both the Halfway rugby and quoits teams in the early 1900s. Euros joined Dafen cricket club at the age of fifteen and was immediately placed in the first team. He went on to have a successful county cricket career playing 95 matches for Glamorgan between1961 and 1966. He joined Sussex in 1967, playing 86 times for them until retiring from the county game in 1969. He represented the M.C.C. against West Indies in 1966, and was on the short list to tour Pakistan in the following season. Wilf Wooller, secretary of Glamorgan Cricket Club, in his ‘ History of Glamorgan Cricket Club’, said of him.

32 ‘He bowled right arm spin with real skill, and had the technical ability which made him capable of reaching great heights, but did not fulfil the promise he had shown and realize his full potential.’

Ken Smith was a stalwart centre half for Llanelli Football Club during the club’s most successful period in the Welsh League under manager Gwyn Grant in the 1970s. Ken followed in his father Cliff’s footsteps, who also played centre half for the successful Halfway soccer team of the mid-1930s.

Halfway Quoits Team c1920. The remained unbeaten in seasons 1919 and 1920, and in 1923 Dick Evans became Welsh Individual Champion and captain of Wales. Included in the photograph are Jack Thomas; George Madley; Will Harris; Dick Evans; Tom Lewis; John Morris; T.L.Morris; Emlyn Williams; E.Griffiths; Bob Munday; Sammy John; Jim Samuel and – Gray.

33 In the years after the First World War, boxing became a popular sport in Llanelli, and local boxers used the upstairs room of the hotel’s stables as training quarters, and boxing matches were held in a marquee on the hotel’s grounds.

Margaret Griffiths died in 1910 and bequeathed the Halfway Hotel to her daughter Emily Williams. The licensees from that time were: Sidney Bevan, Mr Jones, Martin Luther Phillips from the mid 1920s to the mid 1930s, and David Davies who had previously kept the Tinworks Arms, Llangennech. The latter is remembered as a devotee of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, and named one of his sons, Darwin, after the naturalist.

Ex-Servicemen of the District taken outside the Halfway Hotel in 1919.

In March 1942, the hotel was leased for 14 years to Felinfoel Brewery Company at £100 per annum. On the death of Emily Williams in 1944 the property was conveyed to her niece, Annetta Thomas, who in 1957 put the freehold for sale at public auction, and was purchased by William Hancock and Company, Cardiff.

After Llanelli Football Club moved their headquarters from Halfway Park to Stebonheath Park in 1922, and during the economic depression from the mid 1920s to the early 1930s, through to the austere war years and beyond, business at the hotel naturally declined. In the early 1950s, however, Arthur Jones took over the hostelry, and this heralded a successful period for the hotel. The comparative prosperity of the post-war years was reflected in the thriving business built up by Mr. and Mrs Jones, their son and daughter, Gwyn and Sally and, later by daughter in-law Renee and Sally’s husband, Esmond. The family catered for a variety of functions, and for many years acted as hosts to Llanelli Rugby Club’s post match receptions for visiting teams. This arrangement continued until 1966 when the club opened their new clubhouse.

In 1968, Eurig and Cynthia Williams became tenants; then Cynthia and Ogwyn Harries. In 1970, on the merger of Hancock and Company with Bass Limited, the property was transferred to the latter company.

34

Regular patrons of the hotel. Identified - Handel Davies standing second from left (whose father was the landlord), Tom Keeling, 5th from left, Howell Thomas 7th from left Seated from left Jack John (author’s grandfather), Jim Samuel 3rd from left, Gwilym Law 5th from left and seated in front Sammy John.

Halfway Hotel’s annual outing, c.1950 35

Halfway residents celebrating the coronation in 1953 at the rear of Halfway Hotel

In the summer of 1982 the tenancy was taken over by Ken and Lyn Francis of Neath, who updated the hotel and ran it successfully for nearly ten years. Interior structural changes were made incorporating an open plan area but thankfully the unique main bar was virtually untouched. After Ken and Lyn’s departure in 1991, the Bass Company appointed a manager, Tony Plucknet, with his wife, Vicki, to run the place. Within two years the hotel reverted to a tenancy when Mike and Val Johns took over. They remained there until retiring from the trade in 2000. The hotel now is primarily a restaurant.

36

In the hotel’s grounds there are four rare trees – the Black Poplar, which can be seen on the river’s bank on the northern side of the car park. In 1997 there was a danger of the trees being cut down by the River Authority when they were building a new boundary wall along the river’s bank. When landlord, Mike Johns, discovered how rare the trees were he informed the Authority who then amended their plans and built the wall around the trees. The river was a tidal pill as far back as the Roman period, and the alluvial deposits were conducive to the growth of Black Poplars. Cuttings were taken from the trees and it is believed that they will be used to line a section of the Carmarthen bypass. There is a possibility that the new strain will be known as the Halfway Black.

37 Chapter Five: The County Athletic Grounds, Halfway Park

The development of cycling as a recreational sport during the early 1890s, and the increasing popularity of athletics in general, produced a compelling demand from participants to find a suitable track for practice and racing. In August 1894, a group of local gentlemen met and approved a scheme for the laying out of new athletic grounds. They were T. P. Jones (building contactor); William Griffiths (architect); D. R. Williams (solicitor); Phillip Williams (Greyhound Hotel); J. Williams (Wheelers Cycling Works); Jack Auckland; D. H. Bowen; J. Keenan; C. H. Lane (jeweller) and others. The site selected was at Halfway where there was a large, almost perfectly flat tract of land, well suited for the purpose.

The Daily Post reported at the time: ‘The wheeling fraternity of Llanelly have, during the last few days, been doing little else but discussing the prospect of what promises to become an actual realisation viz; the opening of a new cycle track in town. Earnest endeavour has been made from time to time by local sportsmen to provide for the long and seriously felt want, but never with success.’

The town’s cycling club, The Llanelly Wheelers, passed a resolution at their meeting at the Thomas Arms on 7th September 1894, which was carried unanimously, ‘that this meeting heartily approves of the construction of a cycle track at Halfway, and promises to support the promotion in every respect.’ The Llanelly and County Athletic and Cycling Company Limited was formed with a capital of £2000 divided into shares at £1 each. The directors were James Auckland, Stepney Street, boot salesman; Thomas Pugh Jones, 48 Station Road, building contractor, who was an enthusiastic cyclist and had been attracted to Llanelli by the existence of a cycle track at People’s Park; Henry Kaltenbach, Vaughan Street, jeweller and clock maker; Phillip Williams, Greyhound Hotel, accountant;

John Williams, Gilbert Place, cycle manufacturer and Joseph Billet, Ty’r Frân Villas, architect. The company’s secretary was D. H. Bowen, Andrew Street, and the solicitor F.N. Powell, Bridge Street. It was reported that Harry Studt, the local pleasure fair proprietor had also taken shares in the company with others.

The company was formed with the objective of acquiring lands at Halfway for the purpose of cycle, foot and horse racing, or fetes of any kind, which would bring a source of benefit, socially and physically to the public in general.

The land was sited a few hundred yards south of Halfway Hotel, a mile from town off the main Swansea road. The site, at first, appeared far from the town’s main thoroughfare, it was however within easier reach of the lower part of the town than the Stradey grounds which had been the venue for previous cycle and sports meetings. It was most central and accessible to the public, not only did it cater for the town itself, but also to large outlying districts. It was within easy reach of the Docks area, and was in the immediate vicinity to Dafen, Felinfoel, Bryn, Llwynhendy and Bynea. It was also the nearest spot to Llangennech, Pontarddulais, Loughor, Gorseinon and Gowerton, and was thus surrounded by a large population.

Sporting events had been held locally from about 1892. They were organised by Phillip Williams, whose mother-in-law, Margaret Griffiths, owned the Halfway Hotel. It is probable that these were initiated not only as sporting events for spectators but also as an enticement to patronise the newly opened hotel nearby. On Christmas Day, 1893, annual sports were held at the Avenue Field, Halfway, but it is not apparent whether

38 this was the site that was to eventually become the athletic park. These meetings can be regarded however as precursory to developments that followed in the area within a short time.

The sports meeting in 1893 was a great success, attended by a large number of spectators. Winners of the first event, a 9 a-side rugby football competition, were a local team mainly composed of the ‘ Rovers’. The barrow wheeling competition, whereby contestants were blindfolded, provided much amusement and was won by John Thomas of Halfway. There were also competitions for running, jumping and a 10 a-side tug-of- war. On the following day Boxing Day, a rabbit-coursing match was held at Halfway, which was again well attended.

On 29th September1894, a contract was agreed with the landowner, Margaret Griffiths, whereby the Athletic Company became lessees of a field of 6 acres for a rent of £18 per annum. The term was for 21 years, determinable however, at the option of the lessees, at the first 7 or 14 years by giving 12 months notice. It was intended to lay down three separate tracks for cycle, foot and horse racing and to erect a large grandstand, fitted with dressing rooms. The company obtained the right of prosecuting trespassers on land adjoining the ground, and on the Great Western Railway Company’s land nearby. Within days of the formation of the company a nucleus of a rival company was formed, namely J. Llewellyn Thomas, chairman; D. R. Williams, secretary; William Griffiths, architect; William Williams, Ship Inn; T. P. Jones, building contactor; J. Lewis, Felinfoel Brewery; William Jones, Dynevor Hotel and S. John. They proposed the building of an athletic track, large grandstand, fencing and walling at an estimated cost of £2200 at a site in the Ty’r Frân/Dimpath area. The group secured a field for the annual rent of £80, and required capital of £3000 to establish the company.

It is not apparent why this rivalry arose, but whatever the reason, nothing further was reported on the second scheme after the Llanelly Wheelers gave assurance that the club would remain loyal to the first company. The club had passed a resolution that as cyclists they would support no other track than that at Halfway.

William Griffiths, architect, of Falcon Chambers, Llanelli, drew plans for the Halfway Athletic Park. The cycle track was four laps to the mile and 25 feet wide at the starting and finishing points, and 22½ feet wide at the corners, which were banked to 5½ feet. For foot events, the open space inside the track and skirting was laid with turf, while the sprints were provided for on turf down the centre of the ground: the open stands were 200 feet long.

The first cycle meeting at the ground was held on Good Friday, 1895, under the auspices of Llanelly Wheeelers. The event attracted about 1000 spectators but there was opposition to the meeting from most clergymen of the town, protesting against holding the event on a holy day. A letter published in the Llanelly Mercury of 11th April, under the nom de plume ‘Physique’ illustrates the divergence of opinion on the question of sport in general at that time:

‘Sir, in view of the provision of one of the finest cycling tracks in Wales, it becomes the duty of all friends of sport in Llanelly to support the venture and thus recoup the promoters for the lavish expenditure outlayed. There can be no doubt that in former years permanent sport has not been patronised in Llanelly, as it deserved to be. It has been the pet aversion of the sects, the target of ecclesiastical fulminations in church and chapel. But sport is one of the essential requirements of modern life; society would not hold without it, and it therefore behoves the churches to recognise it, and influence it by Christian teaching, because with or without Christian teaching sport will continue to exist.’

39 The official opening of the Park was on the following Easter Monday, when an open sports day was held. Over one hundred entries were received from all over south Wales, and competition was keen for various events; several preliminary heats were held before the finals. Included in the programme were a 120 yards flat handicap race for a first prize of £2; half a mile cycle race for £3; 400 yards foot race, £2; 1mile foot race and a 10mile handicap cycle race for £5

After a few meetings, the general opinion was that the ground and competitions had been excellent. It was thought, however, that the public were rather slow in appreciating the facilities at their disposal, and that attendances could have been bigger. The first season was completed not without incident. One such occurred when Arthur Butt of Swansea, one of the cycling competitors burst a tyre. A spectator standing on the embankment near the spot thought he had been shot, the explosion was sharp and loud, the spectator upon hearing it flung up his arms and fell back. He was relieved when assured that he was safe and sound.

In July, the first of a series of prestigious cycling championships was held at the Park, for the 10 miles championship of south Wales. Thousands walked to the ground in good weather, which had prevailed since the opening meeting. Ted James of Cardiff, was declared the winner in a time of 29 minutes, 2 seconds, but due to a technicality the prize was withheld .The race had not been completed within the specified time of 28½ minutes, which meant a re-run on a future date.

In October the 25mile bicycle race for the amateur championship of Wales was run at the grounds. Special arrangements were made for pacing by tandem and four French champions on a quadcycle. The time fixed for the race by the National Cycling Union was one hour and ten minutes, and all entrants completing the distance within that time would be awarded medals. One competitor, James, covered only one and a half laps before dismounting, and lodging a protest on the grounds that the pacemakers were professionals, a fact of which he was fully aware from the start. After the race had been in progress a short while, several men dropped out, leaving only one man, Pugh, from Aberdare, and the tandems on the track, Despite the heavy state of the track, he kept up with the pacemakers, in a time of one hour six minutes. The sequel to this was that Pugh’s licence was revoked by the NCU because French professionals acted as pacers. Three weeks later there was further controversy when the 50 miles championship was held in front of a small crowd. The favourite, James, had already won the 5, 10 and 100 miles titles, and although he won this race, the title was withheld as it was doubtful whether he had completed the distance within the time limit.

A championship foot race was held on 12th September, and a long-suffering, disgruntled spectator recorded the event as follows:

‘It was a long way to go for 12 seconds of sport and a 6d entrance fee was more than enough, having regard to the quality of the commodity. The championship race between Joe Davies of Loughor and J M Hall of Pontarddulais had been extensively advertised. Large lettered bills had made it clear that the stakes were £15 a side and a gold medal to the value of £5. The public were informed that the race would start at 4pm. It was a hot September afternoon and pedestrianism to the County Ground was anything but the pleasantness thing in the world. The perspiration had streamed down my face, trifled with my singlet, and generally brought me into a condition of limpness and dishclothness (sic) productive of bad temper, swear words and general discomfort. In this condition I was kept waiting an hour.

Davies and Hall occasionally left the retiring room adjoining the refreshment bar and walked over the track. They then walked back to the retiring room; the band ‘frivolled’ with their instruments, the crowd looked through the window panes and found the twirling of coins and rubbing of legs most exhilarating. You don’t 40 meet the choicest company at sports at Halfway, which only means that a number of people who visited the ground on Saturday had been somewhere else first. It was 5pm before the champions entered the enclosure – the Loughor Brass Band meanwhile had entertained some 500 spectators. The arrangements for the race were somewhat novel; an official starter was not appointed. Each man brought his own and let the toss decide which should act. This having been done, Hall, in tights again, cantered over the course, while Harry Bowen and Tom Vaughan commenced putting up the tape. Soon after this Davies dropped his trousers, and the portion of his legs, uncovered by tights, were assiduously rubbed down by his supporters. Hall, however, stood waiting and underwent no further rubbing. He may have lacked confidence or had too much, there’s no telling. Davies’ trousers seemed to give his supporters no end of trouble at the starting point, and one of them, unable to bear it any longer, determined to place the garment at the other end, and started down the course at a terrific rate, so much so that the tape at the winning post was broken’ which seemed to give him much satisfaction. This, albeit called for another delay as the tape had to be spliced and made ready. This task completed, the men bent their backs, clutched the cork and waited for the pistol. Now the shot is fired and the contestants spring forward. Davies takes the lead from the start and wins easily by a dozen yards, covering the distance in 12 seconds.’

The first meeting of the second season was again held on Good Friday, and as well as the cycling competitions, a 9 a-side rugby tournament was held which created a great deal of amusement. The competing teams with their captains were, Lightening Flash, Owen Badger; Tuesdays, D. Jones; Llanelly Sprats, Ben James; Wanderers, Bill Morris, plus the Merry Boys and Annie Rooney’s Pals.

The teams competed for medal or bags, valued at 10/- each; a condition of entry was that no more than two members of Llanelly Rugby Club should assist any of the teams. The final game played between Lightening Flash and the Sprats was exciting but unnecessarily rough.

The Llanelly Wheelers Club’s sports were held in mid-June, and the cycling correspondent of the Llanelly Mercury, pen-named ‘Roadster’, quaintly advertised the event as follows:

‘The Wheelers’ sports come off on Tuesday evening at Halfway, and the matchless grounds there situated, I am looking forward to some real good sport, not do I think I shall be in the least disappointed. The programme is a veritable ‘bobby dazzler’ and ought to draw a leviathan crowd. Methinks it will, for I have a notion, to which no end of facts make contributions, that the objection of Halfway being so far off is slowly wearing away. A process of space annihilation seems to have taken place. Anyhow, one hears less of the objection, and the crowd of spectators is certainly on the increase.’

A new and attractive feature was introduced in the meeting held in June 1897, - Galloway Racing the name deriving from that part of Scotland associated with the sturdy ponies bred in those parts. This was in addition to the pony trotting races, and both proved major attractions. An estimated 5000 spectators attended, paying £100 in gate money. This was the first occasion since the ground opened that the efforts of the committee proved a complete success. The event was regarded as abundant proof that in Llanelli professional sports were far more popular than those restricted to amateurs. There were two minor complaints, one from the committee who regretted the fact that a number of officials were absent on such an important occasion. The other, from the general public who were disappointed that Phillip Williams, who was in charge of refreshments, failed to remain open at 5 o’clock. Apparently demand had exceeded supply 3 hours before the last event.

41 Other attractions that day were a 15 a-side rugby tournament; the Dew Drops and the Comrades in Arms - the only two entrants; a Tug of War in which the Morfa Mixtures, the Pencoed Startlers and Sloggers entered; a field of five entered for the half mile donkey race, and a high jump competition won by A George from six others, at a bar height of 5' 3".

Later in the season, a grand cycle challenge was held between Tom James of Mountain Ash and A. E. Kennard of Cardiff. The former was well known in Llanelli as an outstanding rider, and on the day he rode a machine fitted with Dunlop tyres, specially manufactured for the match by W. Williams, Ship Cycle Works, Church Street, Llanelli. The challenge was for the best two out of three races over distances of 1, 5 and 2 miles. A £100 stake was laid on the outcome, which James won, having been successful over the first two distances and, therefore, the 2mile race was not run.

The only holiday attraction held in Llanelli on Whitsun Monday in 1898 was the professional race meeting at Halfway Park, which was regarded as a success both from the spectators’ point of view and financially. Despite the weather being dull with occasional rain, some fine sport was witnessed. Something like £50 was offered in prize money for foot, cycle, trotting, Galloway and donkey races. Altogether, over 130 entries were received, including some of the leading Welsh personalities of the time. It is surprising, therefore, that despite the success of these sports they were the last to be organised at the Park for fifteen years.

The Athletic Company had hoped to establish the Park as the premier venue for sports meetings in Llanelli, which would be complimented by the facility of the purpose built Halfway Hotel a few hundred yards away. The reason for the sudden cessation of events and the demise of the company was not reported and is open to conjecture. Local anecdotal sources suggest that the venture failed because the ground was too far away from the main centre of population, resulting in disappointing attendances and gate receipts which neither the company nor some of the directors could not sustain. Indeed, at about this time one director of the company, a prominent businessman was declared bankrupt, while another departed the town.

Another possible contributory factor was the action of a committee, presided by W. G Buckley, to organise a Galloway race meeting at the Stradey Grounds on the following August Bank Holiday Monday. This was a major counter attraction to any event envisaged for Halfway on the same date. Buckley stated that as Llanelli was the county town it should assert its position as a centre of sport in Carmarthenshire. It was reported that although 10,000 people attended the Stradey event the cash balance was only £7-8-8. In November, four months after the event, J.C. Hill, clerk of the course, was so concerned at the inadequate balance that he demanded the balance sheet be published immediately, but nothing further was reported.

From 1898 to about 1910 Halfway Rugby Club shared the Park with another club called Collier’s Lights, and occasionally it was a venue for local events.

In 1912, the growing popularity of soccer in the town revived interest in Halfway Park as a sporting venue. During the 1911-12 season the Llanelly Soccer Club played their home games at Penyfan, but on the eve of an important fixture in February 1912, it was learned that there was no time to enclose the ground and, therefore, the match could not be played there. Mr Wheeler, the club’s secretary hastily arranged for the fixture to be switched to Halfway. A larger number of spectators attended at Halfway than had been present at matches at Penyfan, paying a total of £22 at the gate. After this game, however, the club reverted to Penyfan for the remainder of the season. In June the club’s committee, encouraged by the public reaction to the fixture at Halfway, decided on a permanent move to the Park. It was thought that the site was suitable, being flat and well covered with grass, 42 but there were misgivings, however, that heavy rain tended to make the surface boggy. The ground was a great improvement on the muddy Penyfan pitch, which had been a complete failure, with a loss of £400 over the previous season.

The club secured the ground on lease from Margaret Griffiths for 10 years at a rental rising from £20 to £60. As with the original planning of the County Ground in 1894, William Griffiths, architect, of Falcon Chambers, Llanelli designed the new layout.

Plans of grandstand at Halfway Park 1895, drawn by architect W.G.Griffiths of Falcon Bridge, Llanelly

Tenders were invited to build a stand capable of holding 600 people, under which the dressing rooms, with two plunge baths and a shower were to be installed. Around the field was a cycle track with an embankment, a legacy from the previous undertaking, and to enclose the ground railings were placed around the area. The total cost of construction was estimated at £300 and, when completed, the ground would be one of the finest in south Wales, accommodating about 20,000 spectators. Season tickets were priced at 5/- to the ground only; 10/- to the ground and stand; 2/6d for boys; ladies were admitted free, but for the grandstand a nominal fee of 2/6d was requested.

43

The official opening of the park was on Tuesday, 5th September1912, celebrated with a match against Queens Park Rangers, then champions of the first division of the Southern League. Despite the drizzly weather a large crowd saw the visitors win the game by one goal to nil.

Despite the reservations expressed that the ground was not easily accessible to townspeople, the pre-season practice match attracted a large crowd, and there was a big demand for season tickets. To encourage attendance, arrangements were made with the Tramway Company to run special tramcars at reduced fares for all home matches: the fare from the railway station would cost one penny. It was also suggested that reasonable arrangements could be made whereby workers of the district would leave work on Saturday at one o’clock to allow them to attend home matches. The St. David’s right of way, running parallel with the Great Western Railway branch line from New Dock to Dafen, enabled hundreds of people to make a short cut to the ground from those districts.

The second game of the season was against Croydon and attracted a crowd of 5,000. Converts to the code however were not fully conversant with its laws and it was noted that ‘spectators at Halfway Park should be particularly careful not to shout out epithets at the referee or players. Every match will give a better knowledge of the game to those spectators previously not very well acquainted with it’. At the end of the season in April 1913, Llanelly played Swansea at home. At this time both clubs were in the second division of the Southern League, and were trying to establish a reputation, thus rivalry was keen. This manifested itself during the match when ‘some people at Halfway copied the silly habit of Swansea supporters by firing toy pistols during the game. The reports of these shots put players off their game, and it was plain that they made some Llanelly players miss in a way that gave Swansea an advantage. Nothing seems more appallingly ridiculous than to see a man of mature age amusing himself with a toy pistol, which he ought to have presented to his little grandson’.

In order to boost funds to buy players to strengthen the team for the second season at Halfway, the club held an athletic meeting at the ground on 16th August 1913. The town band was in attendance and the event was regarded successful. This was some consolation to the directors who had suffered a loss over unpaid season tickets the previous year. Attendance at the first day of the second annual sports was affected by the adverse 44 weather, but on the following Bank Holiday Monday between 3,000 and 4,000 people attended. As well as the usual competitions, a 9 stone boxing tournament was introduced, which proved a big attraction. Contests began on Saturday in heavy rain, and as the ring had not been completed the boxers performed on the grass within a makeshift roped area.

During the summer of 1913 work had been done to the ground by a large voluntary labour force, and the Dafen Brick Company supplied ‘filling in’ material free of charge. Drainage was completed with the exception of one section along the touchline, which proved troublesome throughout the park’s history. Arrangements could have been better for the reception of supporters for the club’s home game against Swansea in season 1913/14. Many supporters could not wait until all the crowd before them passed through the small passages and doorways; many hundreds took to the galvanised fencing and passed in unobserved that way, resulting in loss of revenue for the club.

In December 1914, after the outbreak of World War One, there was an outcry in the country against the playing of professional football. The Llanelly club proposed cessation of fixtures but carried on until officially instructed by the War Office and the Football Association to do so. The club agreed to set up a rifle range on the ground and would be open to all men, and every inducement would be made for men to enlist. During the sports meeting held at the ground on Whitsun Monday, 1915, a Corporal Derry appealed for recruits.

He remarked, ‘Those who had no responsibilities should enlist. The working man and the aristocrat had fought and died, but the shop assistants had not. Girls could sell a pair of silk stockings, while they went to fight’. In October 1915, the Football Association decided that no professional football would be played in the season 1915/16. As result of war receipts at the club had dropped considerably, and good players had been lost to the armed services.

45 The club, however, hoped to arrange charity matches during the coming year. One such match was held on Easter Monday, 1916, in aid of blinded soldiers and sailors. Teams representing Llanelli and Swansea played in front of a good crowd, and a number of spectators paid a shilling each for the privilege of having their initials written on the ball. The ball was auctioned for £2-10-0, on condition that it was returned the following Monday.

In the following September a fancy dress match was held between Charlie Chaplain’s XI and John Bulls XI. Miss Buckley Roderick, representing the Red Cross Association, kicked off. The match ball was auctioned and was sold for £5-5-0; the successful bidder donated the ball as a gift to be sent to the Front for the 15th Welsh Regiment, Carmarthenshire Battalion, in which many local boys served. During this meeting a police and military raid was made, and about 30 men were rounded up and marched off to the Drill Hall, to answer questions why they were not in khaki.

In July 1917, wounded soldiers who were patients at Stebonheath Military Hospital and Parc Howard Mansion House spent an afternoon at the park, when W. T. Morris of the ‘Ladies Realm’, Stepney Street, Llanelli arranged sports for the patients and nurses. After the competitions everyone was treated to a splendid tea. A week later the Llanelly Athletic Committee arranged a sports meeting for the August Bank Holiday Saturday and Monday. In spite of counter attractions the event was a big draw. The band of the Grenadier Guards was in attendance, and the proceeds went towards providing a billiard table for Stebonheath Hospital.

During the summer of 1918 the ladies took a leading role in charity fund raising at the park. In May, a ladies soccer match was played between teams comprising ammunition factory workers from Swansea and Newport. This was a replay of a drawn game played at the Vetch Field, Swansea, the previous week. It was estimated that 7000 attended the game, and in two places on the ‘cheap side’, the railings gave way under the strain of spectators. The gate receipts came to £75: a total of £700 had been raised for charity at the park during the war years.

At the end of 1918, after cessation of hostilities, officials of the Llanelly Football Club, in common with other south Wales teams, arranged to restart playing soccer at Halfway. They organised a programme of matches for the remainder of the season, and marked the resumption of Association Football in Llanelli by arranging a Victory match against Swansea. It was thought that in regard to the healthy rivalry between the two towns, it was fitting that a Swansea X1 should be the first visitors at Halfway.

The sports at Halfway on Whitsun Monday and Tuesday, 1919, were the only holiday event held in town. During that weekend a local boxer, Robert John Jones, was summoned for gaming with dice at the sports. He was seen by a policeman surrounded by a crowd of men in the enclosure; there was a piece of cloth on the ground on which there were three dices. In court, Jones said, ‘I’ve been doing a lot of this in the navy’. He was fined £2.

In August an open-air boxing tournament under National Sporting Club rules was held at the park in aid of Llanelly Football Club. The only local boxer on the bill was Young Davies, while Bennett’s Burlesque Boxing Boys, a group of comedy boxers, provided plenty of amusement. The event however, was criticised by the Free Church Council who regarded boxing as a brutal sport. This was refuted by a correspondent for the Llanelly Mercury who wrote, ‘the presence of the gentlemen of the cloth at Halfway, where good clean boxing was the order of the day, would have done them real good. Boxing has undergone drastic changes, all that was objectionable has been erased’. 46 Before the 1919/20 season opened a deputation from the Southern League visited Halfway Park to ascertain the general state of the ground and facilities. The expressed entire satisfaction with the ground, and only wished that all grounds were as well looked after and made as convenient as the Llanelli ground. Its clean appearance and the perfect condition of the playing surface would be the envy of many clubs in England and Wales. Despite these favourable comments it was rumoured that an effort was being made to secure a more accessible field, which consequently would mean better attendances and receipts. The admission prices for that season were set at 22/6d for the grandstand; 15/- field; 7/6d boys; ladies and disabled servicemen would be admitted free.

In February a section of the crowd in the grandstand showed their displeasure at the rulings of one of the linesmen by shouting persistently to the referee to, ‘watch the linesman’. After a while the referee stopped the game and appealed to the barrackers for fair play. This was achieved and there were no further demonstrations. This incident was one of many examples of bad behaviour at the ground and, later in the season, the directors took action to put an end to barracking of the manager and new players. Instruction was given to the police to order off the ground any persons guilty of such conduct.

At the end of the season, Bailiff, the club’s goalkeeper for eight years, who was capped four times with Wales, was given a benefit match. A Welsh X1 that included the legendary 50 year old Billy Meredith of Manchester City, the most capped Welsh player at the time, provided the opposition. To symbolise the good relations existing between the town’s soccer and rugby clubs, the chairman of Llanelli Rugby Club kicked off, and Bryn Williams and Edgar Morgan, two Llanelli and Wales players acted as linesmen. After the game both teams attended a function at the Bres Hotel.

At the club’s annual general meeting the chairman, W.T.Morris (the Realm), said he was convinced that opinion was there was no room for Association Football in Llanelli. The one town in south Wales that did not want soccer; attendances at Halfway would not do credit to a self-respecting village. Nearly every home game had been played in wretched weather and the ground had been in poor condition. After this statement football supporters in town rallied round and saved the club from collapse.

The club’s first athletic meeting of 1920 was in July, but due to numerous counter attractions the attendance was disappointing. However, in September there was an excellent crowd for a boxing event that featured Llanelli boxers, mostly. The principal bout was between Billy Daniels and James Davies of Seaside, Llanelli for prize money and a side-stake of £100. Daniels, who was regarded a ‘Welsh White Hope’, had an advantage of greater height and reach and was 20 pounds heavier, but failed to beat his opponent, the referee ruling a drawn contest.

47

William ‘Gypsy’ Daniels, as he became known, much to his family’s displeasure, won the British cruiserweight championship in 1927, and later the European title. He knocked out Max Schmeling, who later became heavyweight champion of the world, in one round in Frankfurt.

There were further complaints against spectators’ behaviour at the ground at the start of season 1920/21. Supporters of Aberdare Football Club, who had arrived in 12 charabancs, monopolised the stand area, and their behaviour and language left much to be desired. Further crowd misbehaviour occurred during and after the game against Caerphilly in October. During the match, sections of the 2000 strong crowd shouted strong disapproval of the referee’s decision when the visitors drew level as a result of a penalty. Spectators near the grandstand threatened to run on the pitch, with the result the referee had to stop play. Normality returned when club officials and directors appealed to the offenders for calm.

After the final whistle, with the score at 2-2, a crowd gathered near the entrance to the dressing rooms, and it was alleged that the referee, Mr Evans of Swansea, was badly jostled, and was struck by more than one member of the crowd. Some spectators remained outside the gates for nearly an hour, and an effort was made to get the referee away over the marsh at the rear of the field. Finding it impossible to make any progress in that direction, the escaping party being almost knee deep in mud and water, got across a couple of other fields and eventually reached the main road, a mile or so from the park. The referee was subsequently taken in a car to the railway station.

The Llanelli directors deplored the incident, which they attributed to the action of a few irresponsible youths who seemed bent on causing a disturbance. The South Wales Football Association met at Cardiff in December to discuss the incident, and found that the club had not taken sufficient precautions to protect the referee. As a result the Association severely censured certain officials and suspended others, and ordered the ground to be closed from the 6th to the 20th of December.

48

It was reported at the time that the club was hoping to get a new ground in the near future, which would be in a more convenient position. It was decided, however, to retain Halfway Park at least until the end of the year, as it was impossible to make a start in preparing the new ground. Access to the ground was the main reason given for the lack of support, and also the low-lying nature of the ground making it liable to waterlog after heavy rain. It was also noted that many people watched matches ‘on the cheap’ from the railway line nearby. It was thought that if it was worth walking up from town and looking from the outside, surely it was worthwhile lending the club material support by paying a 1/- entrance fee. Another factor was the counter attraction and growing success of the town’s rugby team who featured the up and coming Albert Jenkins. The editorial column stated, ‘men have not been brought up to understand soccer. They fail to appreciate its fine qualities and, consequently, deny it their patronage’.

By January1921, the club again was in a bad way, and an appeal was made to the public to ‘help a lame dog over a stile’ by attending the next match against Barry. There were excellent attendances in May when the Llanelly Ladies Association team played matches against Pembroke and Newport ladies’ teams, the proceeds of which went to the unemployment fund and Llanelli Hospital.

The ground received a good deal of attention prior to the opening of season 1921/22. Drainage, which had been a problem from the start, was improved; the stand and fencing were repaired and painted, the dressing room enlarged, and the playing surface was prepared in perfect condition. These pre-season improvements were to no avail, however, as it was announced in February 1922, that the lease on the Halfway ground would not be renewed when it expired in August. In June 1922, Llanelly Football Club purchased between 6 and 7 acres of land at Stebonheath for conversion into their new ground.

49

In subsequent years Halfway Park was used for various sports by local teams. Penallt United used it for soccer, the Cambrian Cricket Club for cricket and the Llanelly Junior Rugby League held their cup final there in May1923. Boxing tournaments continued to be held despite opposition by churches and chapels of the area who passed a resolution stating that ‘We the churches most emphatically protest. The practice of boxing is antagonistic to the Spirit of Christ and is derogatory to all virtue and morality’.

The ground, which for a short period of time was the focal point of the town’s sporting activities, and, later was home to its soccer club for 10 years, had an inglorious end - the town council acquired it for use as a refuse tip. Nothing signifies its location today, but one tenuous link remains, however, a house in Llandafen Road whose back garden overlooked the park is aptly named ‘Park View’.

History is set to repeat itself however, for at the time of writing the Carmarthenshire County Council together with Llanelli Rugby Club are planning to build a new stadium just a few hundred yards from the site of the original athletic park of 1894.

50 Chapter Six: Halfway United Rugby Club

The Halfway Rugby Team was formed in the Summer of 1903, sponsored by the owners of Halfway Hotel, who strengthened the team by inducement of players from outside the district. This strategy proved successful, for in that first season the team gained fame and glory, albeit fleetingly. The situation, however, intensified local rivalry when Halfway played a match against Dafen.

“The game at the County Ground was a humdrum affair and the conduct of some of the players left much to be desired. The language at times was more than elegant and that words were used for which one looks in vain in the dictionary. A continuance of conduct of this kind can have only one result, that being to bring the game into disrepute”.

The referee also complained bitterly of the behaviour of some of the Halfway players, and the Dafen players complained of the inclusion of Halfway’s ‘imported players’ .Regardless of their protestations Dafen won the game by a penalty goal and a try to nil.

In 1901, the Welsh Rugby Union introduced a competition in order to promote junior rugby. This was for the South Wales Junior Challenge Cup, which previously had been competed for by senior clubs. Halfway entered this competition in their first season – 1903/04, and in the first round defeated local club, Harbour Lights, after a replay. They met near-rivals Dafen in the second round at Stradey Park for the honour of representing the town in the competition against Glamorganshire and Monmouth- shire junior champions, for the coveted trophy. Halfway reversed their previous game’s result, beating Dafen 6-3.

In the semi-final Halfway beat Mynydd Bach at Swansea. The team was: Fullback, T. Hopkins; threequarters, Will Thomas, E. Pascoe, J. Hopkins, Gomer Thomas; halfbacks, Sammy John, T. Mack; forwards, Tom Lewis, captain, H. J. Bowen, J. Rees, George Stagg, Will James, W. Griffiths, W. Harland, Arthur Williams.

South Wales Junior Challenge Cup Winners 1904. Taken outside Halfway Hotel. In April, 1904, headlines in the Llanelly Guardian,s football column read:

51

‘South Wales Cup brought to Halfway.’ Halfway met Troedyrhiw in the cup final at the Gnoll Ground, Neath and beat them 15 points to 6. One change was made to the team fielded in the semi-final, J. Downing (a regular member of the town team) replacing Sammy John at inside half.

A large crowd attended the final, and the ground was in good condition, despite the heavy rain the previous day. Gomer Thomas scored a try after intercepting and running the length of the pitch; Downing converted. Will Thomas scored a further two tries in the second half. The game was hard fought and Halfway deserved their victory. They took all their chances and were smart in the follow up, which secured them two tries. The two Thomas’ were the pick of the backs, while Pascoe’s kicking was one of the features of the game. The Halfway captain, Tom Lewis, received the cup amid cheers and was shouldered to the dressing room.’

Back row extreme left: William Henry John. Second row: Sixth from left – Will James (Bynea) Seated: Third from left – Sammy John (secretary) next to Captain Tom Lewis. Others included in photograph: T. Hopkins; E. Pascoe; J. Hopkins; Gomer Thomas; T. Mack; H. J. Bowen; J. Rees; George Stagg; W. Griffiths; W. Harland; Arthur Williams.

In September 1904, the cup winners were invited to play a Llanelli XV at Stradey Park, and despite the absence of five first choice players, Halfway won comfortably. There was evidence that they were fitter than the Scarlets, and some players would prove a successful acquisition to the town team, Harry Morgan being specially mentioned. During the Christmas period, Halfway met the Llanelli Barbarians and beat them by a goal and seven tries to a try.

This period of instant success was short-lived however as in the following year the club disbanded. At the same time the Dafen club also disbanded and several members of both teams joined Felinfoel. Halfway

52 reformed for season 1907/08 under the name Halfway Wallabies, but disbanded once more when Llanelli Soccer Club took over the ground.

The Halfway club was reformed again after the end of the World War 1 by two local rugby referees, W. J. Davies, Bryncladd House and W. H. Hopkins, Square Hall, Pemberton. Through the efforts of the secretary, Idwal Thomas, the club secured a playing field opposite the Smith’s Arms, Penceiliogi. It was leased from the Board of Guardians, who had purchased it from Leonard Jones owner of Llandafen Farm for £1500, intending to use it as the site of a new infirmary for the town. The lease was for three years from September 1921, providing the land was not required for building purposes. The rent for the first year was £12-10-0, with an increase of £2 per annum for the second and third years: after an appeal in 1925 it was reduced to £10 per annum.

The club ran a senior team and junior side for the under 17’s. At first the club’s changing room was the stable at the rear of Halfway Hotel; teams then walked up to the playing field at Penceiliogi, a quarter of a mile away. Later a shed was erected on the field and used as a changing room that alleviated the situation.

Lady Howard Stepney was club president from 1922 to 1928, with T.G.Rees, JP; Sir Mervyn Peel;

53 Dr. Rhys Paton; E. M. Dickens vice presidents. The chairman was T. Rudge; secretary, D. J. Henton; treasurer, Brin Morgan, captain John Clement.

During most of season 1927/28 the club failed to field their strongest team due to several late withdrawals of first team choices, which was reflected in their poor playing record. It was evident that interest was waning, and it was to prove the last season of the club’s existence. They failed to raise a team for the coming season in September 1928. A meeting was called in October with the intention of reviving the club, but despite an appeal, it was to no avail. The club became defunct, never to re-form.

Rees Thomas of the Bear Inn, Llwynhendy, (known to most as Rees y Bear) started his playing career with Halfway as a junior. He had one season in the senior side before transferring to Bynea and then to Llanelli. He played seven seasons for the Scarlets during the 1920s with legendary figures Albert Jenkins and Ivor Jones.

Ken Jones was born and brought up at the Pemberton Arms. He started playing for Llanelli in 1945, and spent nine years at Stradey, captaining the club in season 1950/51. A strong mobile prop forward, at the peak of his career he was selected for a final Welsh trial. Following his departure from Llanelli he captained the successful Felinfoel team that won the West Wales Cup. Later he became secretary of Llanelli Rugby Club, a position he held for 24 years. He became club president in 1992, but died the following year whilst delivering his presidential address at the club’s annual general meeting at Stradey Park clubhouse. Ken’s brother, Arthur John Jones, was also a rock-hard prop forward who began playing for the Scarlets in 1946. He played in that memorable match against the Australian Wallabies in 1947 when their captain Colin Windon was sent off.

54 Chapter Seven: Halfway Football Club

The first soccer team formed in Halfway, which previously had been a rugby stronghold, was in 1917 when they joined the newly formed Munitions League. At the end of that season in April 1918 they qualified for the league cup final. The game was played at Halfway Park, and despite their home advantage lost 4-1 to Gorseinon.

During season 1918/19, several former Llanelli players assisted the club, namely Reardon, Morris, Payne and Jim Hughes. Two local players who assisted the club in those days went on to enhance their reputations as versatile sportsmen by achieving fame in the rugby code. They were Islwyn Evans, who was capped several times for Wales from Swansea, and Frank Evans (Frankie Dafen), capped against Scotland in 1921 before ‘going north’ to Swinton. He later toured Australia with the British Rugby League team.

Halfway Football Team c.1920

No other record of a Halfway soccer team can be found until one was formed to join the second division of the Carmarthenshire League in 1932. The team comprised local youngsters including three boys from Dafen. Their trainer was also from Dafen and he arranged training sessions on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Players not turning up for these sessions were not considered for the game on Saturday. Their home ground for that season was a field behind Llygad yr Ych House situated at the east end of Capel Isaf Road.

In April 1933, Halfway beat New Dock Rovers 7-1 in the semi-final of the Carmarthenshire Intermediate Cup at Stebonheath, but lost to Union Rovers 2-1 in the final. The following years were the most successful in the club’s history when they won most of the league’s honours. During the summer of 1933, W. J. (Willie) Rees and Mrs. Minnie Rees, Uplands House, Bryn, keen supporters who had helped the club the previous season, became co-presidents. They donated the playing kit of black and amber jerseys and black shorts, and also provided a playing field for the club opposite their home, Uplands House, free of charge, and a changing room at the back of the house.

Norman Thomas, 9 Llandafen Terrace, club secretary that, ‘it was a great asset to have such a sporting gentleman as Mr Rees to assist the club’. Willie Rees was not only content to offer advice, but gave moral support by attending matches, and but for his benefaction the club would not have continued to exist. 55 Other benefactors were, Bryn Jones, butcher of Penallt, who donated a ball; Handel Harries, butcher of Llwynhendy gave a bath and Wilf Howells, Penallt, provided a ‘dripper’.

Aneurin Hopkins was elected captain for season 1933/34, and E. (Si) Evans, New Dock, was in charge of the training on Tuesday and Thursday evening. A reserve team was formed under the care of J. Isaac, Havard Road; W. Newman, Glyncoed Terrace and H. Hopkins, 9 Halfway Terrace.

Halfway United 1932/33 outside Uplands House, Bryn Club President Willie Rees seated on extreme left; Norman Thomas, secretary seated on extreme right.

Two trophies were won during the season, the second division championship cup and the Morris Hospital Cup that was a competition open to all senior teams in west Wales In the latter competition, after beating Llwynhendy 3-0 in the semi-final, they met and beat Llanelli reserves 4-1 at Stebonheath. The game was marred by rough play culminating in D. Evans, Llanelli’s centre half and Halfway’s Trefor Williams being sent off the field. Scorers for Halfway were Don Leonard (3) and Issy Samuel.

It was a credit to the club that in only the second year in existence, with the average age of the team only 20, they had been so successful. They had players of outstanding talent, and one feature was their solid defence; not one goal was conceded in the last seven games. They were not a physically big side and created a reputation for attempting to play attractive football Top scorers for the season were, Don Leonard, 17 goals; Trefor Williams, 16; Ben (bach) Thomas, 14 and Euros John, 12. The playing record was - played 33, won 24, drawn 3, lost 6; goals for 109 and goals against 49.

56

Team with Presidents Mr and Mrs W.J. Rees

Halfway United 1934/35. League Champions, League Cup Winners and Morris Cup Winners Back row l-R: E Jones; Jim Samuel; Norman Thomas (secretary); Sammy John; H. Jones. Second row l-R: I.Evans; E. Thomas; Vic Thomas; Dick Anthony; Albert Green; Willie Rees (President); Cliff Smith; Owen Morgan; Oliver Lewis; Master Peter Morgan; D. Morgan (chairman); Master Jones; Tal Davies. Seated. Cliff Samuel; Euros John; Don Lennard; Evan Jones. Front: Issy Samuel, G.Owens.

The season 1934/35 was one of consolidation: no trophies were won and the team finished in the top half of the league. The club had more success the following season. They met Dafen in the semi-final of the 57 league’s Senior Cup competition at Stebonheath in March, winning 3-1. A superb defence and outstanding goalkeeping by Albert Green had much to do with Halfway’s victory. They went on to beat Gorsddu in the final 5 goals to 1.

In May 1936, a tribute was paid to the club’s standing in local football when they were asked at short notice to field a team against the Carmarthenshire League at Stebonheath, because the league’s fixture with the Gwalia League was called off due to a mix-up in dates. Halfway fielded a depleted side but gave a good account of themselves by drawing 2-2.

The season 1936/7 was uneventful but for the fact that Halfway were asked to play a prestige match on Easter Monday at Stebonheath against a Birmingham Works’ League team. Also, three players, Issy Samuel, Don Leonard and E. Butler were selected to represent the Carmarthenshire League against Gwalia League in the West Wales Benevolent Cup.

The team was strengthened in season 1938/39 by the inclusion of several players from the disbanded Dafen club, namely, Llew Davies, John Jenkins, Will Williams and Brin and Lem Green. The team reached the semi-final of the League Shield competition, losing to Bwlch 3-1, but won the Roberts Cup in April by beating Borough Rovers 4-3. After this success the club’s president, W. J. Rees, presented the team with new playing kit.

Halfway United at Stebonheath, late 1930s.

Season 1939/40 was Halfway’s last in the league until after the war years. The captain for that season was Bob Bush. The Christmas Day fixture against Borough Rovers kicked off at 11 o’clock and signified an ominous sense of what lay ahead – the entrance fee was 6d with the proceeds going to provide comforts for Halfway and district boys who were already with the Armed Forces.

Notable players of the pre-war period included Don Leonard and Ben (bach) Thomas, both of whom also played for Llanelli Town. The latter held the goal scoring record in the Carmarthenshire League with 83 goals in one season. Isaac (Eisie) Samuel was regularly selected to represent the league team, while Aneurin Hopkins, Euros John, Dick Anthony, Cliff Samuel, Cliff Smith, Owen Morgan, Oliver Lewis, Evan Jones, G. Owen, Trefor Williams, Ivor Bennet, Ivor and Will Hopkins were all good players.

Up to the outbreak of war Halfway was one of the leading clubs in the Carmarthenshire League, having a strong team backed by an efficient committee and actively supportive presidents in Mr and Mrs Willie Rees.

58 After the war, however, it looked as if the loss of their ground at Bryn and the death of Willie Rees would mean an end to their activities, but under the guidance of Lewis Rees, Cliff Owen and Ben Jones, a junior team was formed in 1946. The club continued in existence until the1960s, playing their home games at the ‘Cwm’ field, Coedcae. Hafan y Coed Residential Home was built on the site in the 1990s.

Halfway Junior Team 1949 Back row L-R: Mal Thomas (secretary); Not identified; Howard Toft; Raymond Owen; Des Jenkins; Arthur Snicker; Dennis Harper. Seated L-R: Gordon Davies; Llew Marks; Ken Davies (captain) Lionel Thomas; Ken Evans. Front row: Not identified.

Sadly, Willie Rees’ house, the imposing Uplands House, containing many grand architectural features, was acquired by the local authorities in the 1960s and razed to the ground to make way for the building of Llys y Bryn and Ty’r Gelli retirement homes complex.

Uplands House, Bryn.

59 Chapter Eight: The Health and Strength Club

The Health and Strength Club had its headquarters at Pemberton from the early 1930s to the mid 1950s. It was located in a gymnasium in a back lane off Pemberton Road on a plot of land known as ‘Cae Cefn March’ owned by Tom Garfield Williams. The gymnasium was housed in a large hut that had been previously used as a dressing room by Halfway Rugby Club on their home ground at Penceiliogi. When that club disbanded, weightlifting enthusiasts transported the structure to Pemberton.

The weightlifting club flourished and, under the supervision of their trainer, Johnny Phillips of Cefncaeau, produced several World and British record holders. The first of these was Jack Jenkins of Llwynhendy, whose brothers, Tom and Horace, were also leading club members. Jack Jenkins’ weightlifting record reads as follows:  6th December 1929 at Battersea Weightlifting Club, London.  British record in 8 stone class with a left hand dead lift of 296½ lbs.  World record in 8 stone class with a right hand dead lift of 302½ lbs.  World record in 8 and 9 stone class with two hands dead lift of 437 lbs.  3rd April 1930 at Loughor.  World record in 9 stone class with two hands dead lift of 452¾ lbs.  25th April, 1930 at the Welsh Amateur Weightlifting Association Headquarters, Llanelli.  World record in 9 stone class with two hands dead lift of 458½ lbs.  13th June 1931 at Llanelli Health and Strength Club.  World record in 9stone class with two hands dead lift of 470¼ lbs.  24th June 1931 at Llanelli Health and Strength Club,  World records in 8 stone class with a-:  Two hands lift of 453¼ lbs.  Right hand dead lift of 315 lbs.  Left hand dead lift of 330¼ lbs  The last named feat was also a record in the 9 stone class.

Members of the weightlifting club with trainer Johnny Phillips of Cefncaeau, c.1930

60

Left: Johnny Phillips (seated) with Cliff Hall (standing middle) Right: Cliff Hall

Two Pemberton club members, Nat Evans and Cliff Hall, became notable record holders. In October 1931, Nat won the Welsh Light-weight championship with a total lift of 528 lbs. Later in the evening he astounded everyone by winning the light-heavyweight title with the best ever lift of Olympic lifts in Wales - 552¼ lbs. Nat’s body weight at that time was only 10 stone 4 lbs. In 1932, Nat and Cliff ‘swept the boards’ in the Welsh Olympic Championships, winning Light, Middle and Heavyweight titles; Nat retaining his Lightweight title for the fourth time.

Cliff Hall held numerous official world records, and was regarded as the most ‘scientific’ lifter produced in Wales up to that time. In February 1933, he broke the world record for ‘two dumbbells anyhow lift’ with a lift of 247 lbs, breaking the record by 3lbs. In May 1934, he set seven new world records by lifting-:

 240½ lbs with two hands clean and jerk, a poundage that constituted a record for 11 and 12 stone and heavyweight classes.  Two hands snatch of 170 lbs in 11 and 12 stone classes.  His body weight at the time was 10 stone 13 lbs.

Nat Evans (left: with Jimmy Rissoles and young friend) was a known entertainer, who during the Second World War toured the Middle East with E.N.S.A. in a variety show comprising Welsh performers, performing a ‘strong man’ man act, although he was better known locally as a ventriloquist. His brother, Lewis, who managed the touring troupe, toured the music halls after the war as a magician and illusionist, under the stage name of Maskar.

61 Gareth Howells

Gareth Howells, a nephew of the Jenkins brothers, became a member of the weightlifting club as a teenager before the war, and after completing his naval service, came home to run the club until its closure in the 1950s.Later he became founder member of the Trostre Boxing Club.

Euros Lewis was born at Halfway and made his mark as a cricketer. Euros joined Dafen Cricket Club at the age of fiftee and was immediately placed in the first eleven. He went on to have a successful County Cricket career, playing ninety five matches for Glamorgan between 1961 and 1966. He joined Sussex in 1967, playing eighty six times for them until retiring from the County game in 1969. He represented the MCC against West Indies in 1966 and was on the short list to tour Pakistan in the following season. Wilfred Wooller, secretary of Glamorgan Cricket Club, in his History of Glamorgan Cricket Club said of him ‘he bowled right arm spin with real skill and had the technical ability which made him capable of reaching great heights but did not fulfil the promise he had shown nor realise his full potential’.

Ken Smith, Euros Lewis’ cousin, was a stalwart centre half for Llanelli Football Club during the Club’s most successful period in the Welsh League under manager Gwyn Grant in the 1970s. Ken followed in his father Cliff’s footsteps who also played centre half for the successful Halfway Soccer Team of the mid 1930s. As did most boys, Euros and Ken learned the rudiments of their respective sports on the local play area – Penshwt. Euros and Ken are grandsons of sportsman Tom Lewis who captained the victorious Halfway Rugby team of 1904 and the successful Quoits team of the 1920s.

62 Chapter Nine: Halfway Primary School

On 5th May 1892, a meeting was held at Halfway Inn for the purpose of considering suitability of petitioning the Llanelly School Board to establish an Infants school at Halfway. It was stated that there was no intention of weakening the position of Llwynhendy School, but merely to provide the educational needs of the St. George and Halfway areas. A petition was sent to the School Board, who were informed that on Llwynhendy School’s register there were 180 children who lived below the Pemberton area: a large number of whom travelled from St.George, a mile away.

Seventeen years later, in 1909, the Llanelly Education Committee decided that the time had come to build a new school to serve the Halfway – Dafen community. The Dafen Tinplate Works’ school was over-crowded and population was on the increase. The Committee first looked at the possibility of buying ‘second hand’ school buildings that the Surrey Education Authority was selling. These were corrugated iron and wooden buildings still on site at Raynes Park, Surrey, where they had been erected in 1906. The cost of dismantling these buildings and their removal and erection at Halfway would be approximately £425. This proposal was turned down as being too costly.

In December 1909, two sites were suggested as being suitable for building the new school on land owned by W. J. Rees, Uplands House, Bryn, trustee of Gelli Estate. They were;

 The site adjacent to the proposed new road (Havard Road) and situate to the east thereof comprising of 1 acre and for sale at £275.  The site on the upper side of the same road, comprising of 1 acre for sale at £370.

The Education Committee recommended the purchase of the second offer.

In December 1910 plans were drawn up for the new school to accommodate 300 pupils. In September, a tender of £3,520 for its construction submitted by Benjamin Howells, building contractors, Llanelli, was accepted by the Board of Education. Building began in October 1911 and was completed in December 1912.

63

In the meantime applications had been invited for the post of head teacher. There were 28 applicants from all over the country, and eventually a short list of seven was drawn up:

. Mr. Lobbitt, 37, Burry Port. . Mr. Llewellyn Morgan, 52, St. Clears. . Mr. Griffith Morris, 46, Llangennech. . Mr. Thomas Nicholas, 33, Pontarddulais. . Mr. Thos. Beddoe Phillips, 37, Laugharne. . Mr. Evan Roberts, 42, Idole , Carms. . Mr. Edgar Wyn Thomas, 33, Llwynhendy.

Evan Roberts, currently headmaster of Idole Mixed School, Carmarthen was duly appointed head teacher of Halfway Council Mixed School.

Further staffing of the school had also to be considered as the proposed movement of staff and pupils from Dafen National School would not happen. Therefore, new staff had to be appointed and the position of two unqualified teachers was advertised. Miss Mary Lewis from Bynea Council School and Sarah Maria Lewis of Pembrey were appointed, despite the latter not having previous teaching experience whatsoever, neither as a student nor pupil teacher.

The Early Years

The school was opened on Friday 3rd January 1913. No children were received until the following Monday, 6th January 1913, when 146 pupils, accompanied by their parents, were registered in the morning session and a further 7 in the afternoon. Another 24 pupils were registered in the next three days, making a total of 177 scholars.

64 On the second day of school, the school’s managers namely the Reverend Thomas Johns, the Reverend B. Humphreys, Mrs. M. Humphreys, Mrs. M Jenkins-Lloyd and Mr. W. B. Lloyd informed the Education Committee that 159 pupils were present and the staffing was totally inadequate!

Mr Roberts the new head had his own problems. As with rural appointments, living accommodation was provided at a ‘School House’, usually attached to the school. When the occupier relinquished his post, either through promotion or retirement, then he vacated the ‘School House’. The new headmaster of Idole School was unable to move into his school’s house since Mr Roberts was still living there. The latter was sternly reprimanded and given 7 days to vacate or his appointment at Halfway would be cancelled. Mr. Roberts later bought a house in Palace Avenue, Llanelli.

The financial statement at the end of the financial year on 31st March 1913 reads: Salaries - £20…Expenses - £11-3-11…Total - £31-3-11.

Teachers had to negotiate their own salaries, and Miss Sarah Maria Lewis, an unqualified assistant, was informed that her claimed salary of £2-16-0 would be reduced to £2-1-1. Mrs. A. Lewis, the caretaker, claimed 17/- for lighting the fires previous to the opening of the school. Mr. Henry Wilkins presented a bill for one jar and oil filler and further claimed £4-4-5 for hanging lamps and for his purchase of coal shovels and pokers needed for caretaking. The school managers were given permission to buy a school clock as long as it did not cost more than £2, also 5 fireguards that were to be purchased locally. The request for 6 ‘blowers’ was turned down.

The H.M.I. report of the first year noted a ‘weak staff, a shortage of books and repeated staff changes are not helping conducive progress, especially as a teaching head prevents efficient supervision. Records and syllabus books are unsatisfactorily kept and there is insufficient cupboard accommodation. A suitable library is needed. The shortage of books must be remedied and we be informed’.

With the appointment of Miss G. Jones, certificated mistress, the staffing was brought up to the minimum demand of the Registered Code. Mr. Frank Phillips began as an uncertificated teacher in September 1913, who proved to be extremely popular with staff and scholars. He departed to continue his studies at Aberystwyth University, but frequently returned to the school during college vacations and later, during his war service as a private, to assist voluntarily. Frank was for many years music master at the old Llanelly Boys’ Grammar School. By January 1914 there were two certificated assistant teachers, two uncertificated and one supplementary teacher plus the head teacher on the staff. Fifty new pupils were received from Llwynhendy Mixed and Infants School in September 1913, but ‘they were not very regular’.

A former pupil, Mrs Madge Williams of Pemberton, remembers her time at the school in these terms: ‘Mr Roberts was a brilliant mathematician. I knew all about decimals before I left the junior school. Mr Roberts would shoot out questions like ‘ what is 13 shillings and 6 pence as a decimal’, and we would tell him the answer in a flash. He would set a composition for all the class to write, and would walk around the class looking over our shoulders. If someone had made a spelling mistake, he would tell us to stop working, and he would write the error on the blackboard and correct it and tell us to learn the correction. I must have been one of the first infants to attend Halfway school. I can still remember the master standing in the yard by the wall, jinny-cane swishing at his side, waiting for the stragglers. Only there never seemed to be stragglers; we were to terrified to be late’

65 Low staffing continued to be a problem; the weekly average attendance was 287 but the staffing level provided for 220. War had been declared, and young men student teachers were either called up to the armed forces or to Nobel’s Laboratory, Pembrey, as assistants. Staff morale was low and working conditions were poor. Teachers had to travel a considerable way to work, but were expected to be in school ‘before the time of the first bell to make necessary arrangements’. A supplementary teacher was sent from Dafen school to strengthen the staff number but whose lateness was recorded thus: ‘Miss T has been advised to attend at the opening of morning assembly. That is before 9.33 a.m’. Another member of the staff, a Mr. T. ‘ has to be made to sign in, unless he has overcome his weakness. It is impossible to have early scholars when teachers are late’.

The 1913 H.M.I. report criticised the fact that a hall had not been included in the initial planning of the school. The lack of this amenity added to the other difficulties and the problem was to continually arise in the succeeding years.

The innovation to the curriculum of 1916 was the introduction of light woodwork. The first lesson in woodwork dealt with ‘tools and the use of same’ and was greeted with enthusiasm by staff and scholars. However no one had foreseen that there would be a shortage of wood because of wartime with the result that lessons had to be cancelled.

Another ‘first’ in 1916 was the St. David’s Day celebration. Staff members and scholars performed songs and solos to an invited audience of parents and older people. The junior pupils were kept in their own rooms, where each class performed their own concert, simultaneously – noisy but necessary. This arrangement was compulsory because of a lack of a hall.

Annually, outside agents visited the school to deliver lectures to the older pupils; e.g. Temperance, Hygiene and the bad effect of alcohol on corpuscles. There was strong emphasis on character building and on moral education – clean minds and healthy bodies. The teaching of the virtues of bravery, unselfishness and patriotism were reflected in the stories related by the teachers.

The main reasons for absenteeism fell into four groups, namely:

 Illness and disease  Weather  Rural/ Town administrative differences  Social factors.

Measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, mumps, ringworm, chickenpox, whooping cough and German measles were fearful diseases. Coughs and colds were common, especially amongst the infants. Every contagious disease had to be reported to the County Medical Officer, who decided upon the action to take.

The after effects of such illnesses were also responsible for absences since it took a very long time for the children to fully recover. Girls ‘very delicate in health were allowed a prolonged lunch-break, returning to school at 2.30 p. m. each day’. November and December 1915 was a time of great concern over the outbreak of scarlet fever, resulting in the sudden deaths of a boy and girl. The girl’s mother had not reported her illness to the health authorities and her brother had attended school throughout the contagious period.

66 Ringworm was spreading throughout the school in June 1916. Since the attendance percentage was such an important part of administration, it was advisable to close the school completely rather than have a low percentage. Further periods of scarlet fever and diphtheria closed the school for periods well into the mid- 1920s. In those days of the ‘extended family’, scholars would be sent home from school during the day with the certainty there was always someone there to receive them.

Some scholars had unexpected holidays: ‘Willie and Betty Rowlands are on holiday in Glanamman. Since diphtheria has broken out in the area the MOH has forbidden their return to school’ (1927)

The Attendance Officer (‘the Whipper-in’) visited the school every Friday at about 3.45 p.m. and took the names of persistent bad attenders. He then called at the offending parents’ houses and demanded the child (ren) be returned to school, unless a reasonable excuse was offered.

The school’s log books of the early days seemingly record weather reports of endless rain abundant snow, strong gale-force winds in winter and overwhelming heat in summer; amounting to unsuitable working conditions for staff and pupils. In the days of pre-electricity and pre-central heating, the teachers and scholars’ lot was not an envious one! Children would go home to lunch at the end of the morning session and return to school for registration and the afternoon session. However, if it rained on a dinnertime, the children would get wet and could not then return to school for the afternoon session, since they would have to walk all the way. The logbook entry for 3rd February 1916 reveals. ‘Heavy rain forced no registration – a very unusual happening – the first time since school has opened’.

For years there had been differences in the administration between the governing bodies in town and rural areas, and this caused many problems. There are so many instances of discrepancies; chapels in town had teas and trips and town scholars enjoyed a granted holiday, while rural pupils had to lose school. Sometimes in a family a brother might attend the rural school and sister the town school. More than one family shared a house (living in apartments), which meant town and rural school children living under the same roof. Town and rural schools had different holiday dates. Most times this was not satisfactory as parents would not send their ‘rural schoolchildren’ to school when ‘their town schoolchildren’ were still on holiday. It is noted that the Attendance Officer would deal leniently with these cases.

A former pupil recalls children at Halfway staying home on the day of the Prince of Wales’ visit to Stradey, since no holiday had been granted them. On the following morning the names of the ones who had played truant were displayed on a big board and a ‘fine’ marked along side. The shame of seeing their names on the board was greater than the financial loss.

School managers saw it fit to close the town schools on ‘special days’ whilst the rural schools remained open. The head master deplored this situation that always affected the school’s attendance.

The following illustrate the situation: ‘July 7th 1914, due to Sion Sunday School trip to Mumbles, there are absentees. Town schools have been given a holiday’ July 14th 1914,‘town and chapel and church holiday-making’.

67 When the town school sports were held, the town children were excused from their school, but no such favour was granted to Halfway children, resulting in absenteeism. The headmaster wrote in May 1918, ‘there is no organized influence to keep the children at home, although some parents adopt a strange attitude and keep them at home’. The Great War had deprived the family of the man in the house, be they fathers or sons: he was still away, wounded or perhaps dead. Who but the older children could attend to allotments, the vegetable plots most people kept for home-produce? Fine weather in September meant potato picking at the local Capel farm and a chance to earn a few pence. In the early 1920s coal was in short supply, and families were rationed to half a hundredweight of coal – when it was available. In February 1920, the over 14s returned to school after being ‘home’, they had stayed away from school to go coal picking on the tips and although a dangerous practice was a necessary one for survival of families.

Certificates were given to the scholars for good and perfect attendance. School normally finished at 4 p.m. but the good attendance class could leave a few minutes early. The reward for general good percentage attendance was to grant pupils a Friday afternoon’s holiday. Sometimes these half-days would be accumulated, ‘earned but not taken’ and result in a long weekend in November. Half-day holidays were also granted for Singing Festivals (Cymanfa Ganu); the traditional Annibynnwyr (Independent Denomination)) Cymanfa Ganu was held every May in the Market Hall, Llanelli from 1915 until 1939. Suitability of weather conditions was a consideration when arranging half-day holidays. For example a half-day’s holiday arranged in February one year was postponed; ‘the dirty, misty and wet day was thought unsuitable for the little ones to be at home’

On a wet September 17th 1914, the approach road was flooded, and the children were sent home as they were soaking wet. It was noted that the area around the school was ‘very pleasantly green and rural’. Pity the poor school cleaner, who had to try and keep the corridors dry and clear especially on such wet days. Mrs Cowley, former cleaner/caretaker recalls: ‘The coal merchant would unload the 25 hundredweight of coal just outside the school gates and I had to carry the coal from the pavement in a push cart or buckets up to the school coal shed. Members of my family would assist in this chore for a few pennies’. (1/- a bucket in the 1950s.)

Nurse Stephens, Schools’ District Nurse, made regular visits and the County Medical Officer, Dr. Davies, carried out the first medical examination in 1914. Weighing scales were passed round from school to school, from Hendy to Dafen. Pupils were weighed periodically and a careful check kept on any sign of malnutrition.

The Great War is only mentioned occasionally in the school logbook: ‘October 16th 1916; a fete was held to assist the soldiers, and collections made’. ‘War Savings Association, started savings in school and £2-11-5d collected’.

Waste paper collecting was energetically carried out. As a ‘thank you’ to all ‘good collectors of the school’ a half-day’s holiday was granted in March 1918. Later that month there was great excitement during afternoon ‘playtime’ when a warship hovered overhead. A former pupil recalls: ‘We were out playing in the schoolyard when we looked up and there was this huge warship in the sky. I didn’t know whether it was German or not, but every body around Havard Road said it was. I was terrified but I shouted with excitement the same as the others did’.

October 1918 and the school fell victim to the dreaded Spanish ‘flu, which ravaged the nation, and closed the school from 25th October to 18th November. Wet weather and no coal worsened the awful situation. No 68 mention is made of the end of the War because of this closure, although the Armistice Day half-holiday became an annual tradition and great celebrations were held locally and nationally.

Post-war school was in dire need of maintenance. Slates had blown off and the schoolyard presented many problems. It flooded so often that it had to be drained regularly. This problem continued to occur, although to a lesser extent, up to the time of writing - 1995 It was dangerously surfaced, the tiny gravel causing minor scratches, cuts and major injuries, including broken arms. Inside the school, there was dreadful overcrowding (although sickness caused much absenteeism), understaffed ‘teachers are in straits, relieving and replacing, and so very cold – no coal despite second request’, a situation which lasted until 20th November1919.

The Nineteen Twenties

This was a decade of more overcrowding, understaffing and maintenance problems. Saint David’s Day celebrations 1920: ‘Owing to the awkward construction of the rooms, three concerts have to be held simultaneously in their rooms’.

During June, scholars spent a considerable time in the yard watching the eclipse of the sun. Strangely enough, not one former pupil interviewed recalls this event.

The H.M.I. report of 1920 stressed the need for the ‘babies to have Welsh lessons throughout their lessons’. Scholars now numbered 315 and there was still a shortage of staff. Frank Phillips returned periodically and the top two classes were delighted to hear his ‘music and tunes’. The general maintenance and services were extremely slow and inadequate: water pipes burst but repairs took so long.

The New Central School opened at Prospect Place and 12 boys and 17 girls, the quota allowed by the Education Committee, left Halfway school to go there.

The ex-Prime Minister, David Lloyd George visited Llanelli in October 1923, and pupils were marched outside to stand in line on the footpaths. ‘His car slowed down and scholars had a good view of this noted national character’.

Administrative problems arose with 362 pupils on the school register in 1925, and classes had to fit the size of rooms, rather than ability of children. The headmaster writes; ‘There is an urgent need for teachers and chairs’. The overcrowding meant that shelters and playground space had to be utilised in suitable weather, when children would sit on newspapers for lessons and waiting time for medicals. On very wet medical examination days the rooms and corridors became very congested. The cold weather made waiting in the corridor most unpleasant, and on such days, parents could not be invited to accompany their children except those with special claims.

The visit of a famous film star of the silent screen from Hollywood, Halfway-born Gareth Hughes, brightened the lives of the scholars in 1925. 69 As national and local unemployment spread during the Depression, social life was affected, vandalism and breaking and entering was on the increase. A pupil was charged with stealing cigarettes from a van and the headmaster was called in to deal with it. The local policeman, Sergeant Lewis, made several visits to the school in an attempt to stop the upward trend. The Attendance Officer also had his work cut out in chasing up the ‘carelessness of parents who did not their children to school’.

Boots were badly needed and the Halfway children of the unemployed were under constant scrutiny by the Attendance Officer who checked the condition of their boots as well as general underfeeding. Regular weight checks were held and recorded by the school nurse.

The peak arrived on 6th September 1927 when 413 scholars were on the books. A cheque for £10 was received from the ‘Save the Children ‘fund and 26 pairs of boots were given to pupils of the middle classes. In October 1928 the headmaster appealed for, and received, pairs of stockings and used boots as a reserve on wet days. To save going home for lunch on wet and windy lunchtime the parents brought food in.

In January 1928 the headmaster appealed for the school to be closed to save the healthy children and staff from the influenza epidemic. In Standard 1V only 27 out of 65 pupils were present. The reply from the school managers was - ' definitely not’. The headmaster’s anger was evident as he writes that ‘children are coming to school to catch the flu’. He called for the disinfecting of the classrooms whilst the children were away, for he knew that the overcrowded rooms were the main source of infection.

It was during the last year of the decade that changes were coming to Halfway School. Firstly there was talk of installing electric light in the school and secondly the increased numbers brought the need for a separate Infants’ department. In January 1928 a terrible storm brought down the new building’s roof and delayed the opening of the new department. It was not until April that the new Infants’ building, ‘The Hut’ as it was affectionately known for years afterwards, was ready to receive the infants. There was no furniture until a month later when cupboards, tables, teacher’s desk and stools were put in.

Evan Roberts, the headmaster, retired because of illness in July 1929, and the news of his death in September through jaundice was greeted with sadness. Despite the distance to travel, many scholars and staff attended the funeral at Penygraig, near Carmarthen. Ironically, a half-day’s holiday was willingly granted! So the master who had fought so many times with his school managers for equality of holidays with town schools, had, by his own death, given one to his school.

The year 1929 saw a big change in the life of Halfway School. The first headmaster was dead and the school had become two separate schools – Halfway Junior Mixed and Halfway Infants, each with their own head teachers and administration.

70

Halfway School Football Team.Winners of Llanelli Schools Cup 1922. Back row left to right.George Harries; J. Downing; Les Russell; A. Lewis; H. Evans. Seated left to right.H. Thomas; I. Evans; D. Hughes; Tom Lewis (trainer); G. Lewis; J, T. Lewis;H.Hall

Photograph taken at Halfway Park, former home ground of Llanelli Football Club.

Infants School from 1929

The ‘Infants’ became a separate school in 1930. The staff comprised three teachers; a Miss James from Glanamman was appointed headmistress. Miss Sal Jones, ‘delicate in health’, had been placed temporarily with ‘the little ones’, until her health improved enough to go back to the more demanding ‘mixed’ department. There were 142 children on the books and the school had two ‘streams’ – the Welsh stream being 3½ years to 6½, mixed ages. Children were moved up at 7 years of age or 7 in the term.

In the 1937 HMI report it was noted that two teachers took the English pupils (40 and 30) and one took the Welsh (44). Despite the teachers being accomplished pianists no music or percussion was taught, as there were no pianos in school. However, this situation was soon remedied.

Former pupils remember the ‘Hut’ as ‘a pretty building, something like a chalet, with a pretty wooden balustrade outside, where we would play hide and seek, or clamber all over it’.

During the Second World War the Infants were transferred to the Mixed School, since the ‘Hut’ was considered too dangerous. With central heating installed the arrangements were comfortable but frost caused the system to break down and children were obliged to receive their instruction at the Parish Hall, Dafen.

Former Infants’ pupils always speak of a happy environment and of great change felt when they had to move up to the ‘big school’ One former pupil recalls being sent on messages to the headmistress’s room and being petrified whilst waiting for an answer!

Staffing remained constant until the 1950s and 1960s. Previously, most of the children had come from Welsh speaking homes but now the intake was becoming more anglicized. The ‘delicate’ Miss Jones remained an Infants teacher and retired after 43 years’ service; Miss James retired after 36 years’ service.

71 Mrs Meriel Davies (Harries) started duties in the Infants school in 1961. Miss Ceinwen Davies, who had embarked on her teaching career at the school in 1933, was appointed the new headmistress in 1965. She was awarded the MBE for education in June 1970. Two other teachers started in the mid-1960s, Mrs Anne Thomas (Rees) and Mrs Wendy Pugh (Charles).

In October 1971 a proposal to amalgamate the Infants and Junior schools was announced, under the headship of John Nicholson. Divided in 1929, it returned to its original form on 30th March 1972, to be known henceforth as Halfway Junior/Infants School, and has remained thus up to the time of writing.

So another chapter in the life of the school had been reached.

Into the Seventies

In 1972 the 6 rooms formerly occupied by the junior pupils, housed the 3 infants classes and 3 junior classes. One more junior class was in an adjoining building (the old ‘hut’). Affect of the coal miners strike was felt at the school when use of coal had to be curtailed and coke was used in the stoves. These stoves had been installed in 1955 and produced excellent heating in the school.

In 1973 another chapter in the life of the school was brought to a close. Although the infants were now in the main building, the ‘ hut’ had remained, housing a library and one junior classroom. In June, the ‘hut’ was demolished and, in its place, two new classrooms and a Nursery classroom were built. Changes were taking place in local administration and, from 1st April 1974, the county of Carmarthenshire ceased to exist, becoming the larger county of Dyfed.

Halfway Nursery / Infants / Junior County Primary School continued to expand. Over the next four years the school roll increased to 262 pupils, and two new demountable huts were erected in the schoolyard in 1976 and 1978 to accommodate the increased intake. In 1979 the school was categorised as Group 5, one of the largest in Llanelli area. The old days of ‘area discrimination’ had long past!

The author has recorded observations from logbooks, admission registers, school documents and conducted interviews with former staff and pupils of the school. It is a factual representation of the history of Halfway CP School and is not meant to contain personal comments. However, let the reader permit one observation, echoed by present pupils, staff, governors, parents and friends of the school: ‘It is January 1995 and the school is in its 81st year and is still without the hall that the HMI report of 1913 stated was desirable.’

This research was carried out by Mrs Molly Rees, former teacher at the school, who has kindly given permission for its use here.

Chapter 10 Reminiscences of the school by my mother-in-law Mrs Violet Jones.

“ I started in Dafen School in 1911, when I was between five and six years of age. It was nearly a mile from my home to the school, and I used to walk to and from there every day in all weathers with my older brother and sister. We walked along a narrow, often muddy road, which was considered the worst in the district. There was only a few houses built on it then; it was later named Havard Road, after farmer Harvard who farmed Capel Uchaf at the time.

72 After passing through the village of Dafen, we approached the most dangerous part of our journey, when we had to cross a railway line leading in to the tinworks. I remember a little girl from Dafen being killed by the works loco. We then went over a wooden bridge that went over the Dafen River, to a path that led to the school. The school was not built in a good spot as it was surrounded the works, the works pond, river and railway. There were many incidents of children either falling into the river or pond, some resulting in fatalities.

I changed schools in January 1913, when I started at Halfway School on the very first day it opened. My sister, Gertrude, and my brother, Fred, were also transferred from Dafen School at the same time. The teachers I remember there from those days were Mr Roberts, headmaster, Miss Jackson, Miss Harries (Old Castle Road), Frank Phillips, Rees Griffiths (Five Roads) and a Mr Williams, who taught the older children.

I remember one day one of the male teachers asking my brother’s class, who could bring a cane to school. Fred put his hand up immediately, and volunteered to bring one the following day. My father cut a long, sturdy stick of ash from the hedge surrounding our field, which Fred took to school. At the end of the school day my brother came home, despondent and long-faced. My mother asked what was the matter; ‘I’m not taking a cane to school again’, he said, and it became obvious that he had been the first to test the strength of the new cane!

My family had sold the land on which the school had been built, and we still owned the surrounding fields. One day, the headmaster sent me home to ask my father if the school could use a piece of ground for a football pitch. I don’t know whether he gave permission, but wherever they played, they won the Llanelli Schools’ Cup a few years later.

I left Halfway School when I was 12 years old to go to Kelvin Private School in New Road, Llanelli, run by two Scots ladies (sisters?). I transferred to the Intermediate School two years later, and left when I was 16. I would have liked to be a teacher, but had no parental encouragement to do so, or follow a career of any sort. I enjoyed my time in all four schools, and look back with fondness on the happy days spent in each”.

73 Chapter Ten: Reminiscences - Edward Owen

Being a native of Pemberton I have much pleasure in contributing to Byron Davies’ research on Halfway and Pemberton. I am impressed with the thoroughness of his work and have learned much about the district’s past and its inhabitants. Many Llanelli folk will benefit from reading the contents and, like myself, will be intensely interested in its details. For instance, people who have never heard of Halfway Park will be surprised to learn that such a well-planned stadium ever existed in the locality, and that it disappeared within the first half of the last century.

Situated on which was then the main Llanelli to Swansea road, Halfway and Pemberton were well provided for with public transport from the earliest times. From the beginning of the last century, John Williams (y brêc) provided the local community with a horse-drawn brake. Later, Llanelli Traction Company provided a tram service from Llanelli Station to Bynea on the same route. Tramrails for this service ran along the centre of the road with electric power supplied overhead. The service ran every fifteen minutes in both directions, and the fare for children travelling from Pemberton was one penny. In the early 1930s the trams were replaced by comfortable double-decker trolley buses, also driven by overhead electric supply. This service was extended to Loughor Bridge, and the return fare for schoolchildren from there to Llanelli Station was 2½d.

A regular bus service between Llanelli and Carmarthen was provided by South Wales Transport Company; Bassetts of Gorseinon, and later by the United Welsh Company. The return fare from Pemberton to Swansea was 1/11d. The Great Western Railway Company provided excellent service from Llanelli to Fishguard and London, and LMS Railway Company ran a daily service from Llanelli via Bynea to mid-Wales with connections to Shrewsbury and Crewe to north Wales. The latter half of the last century has seen a rapid increase in car ownership, and consequently bus and train services are in decline.

There is no church or chapel situated in the immediate area with which we are concerned, but its inhabitants had the opportunity to attend various places of worship that existed in Llwynhendy, Bryn and Dafen, be they Nonconformist or the Church in Wales. On the Sabbath Day during my childhood, it is no exaggeration to say that the streets were literally black with pedestrians dressed in dark clothes on their way to Sunday services – ‘Yn ddu gyda pobl yn cerdded i’r cwrdd’. Of course, this attire was regarded as ‘Sunday Best’, and was otherwise only worn at funerals and weddings.

The various Nonconformist denominations held special celebratory services twice a year in May and October, when the chapels were full to capacity. The culture of us children was a Welsh culture, cultivated in our churches and chapels. Our mother tongue was predominantly Welsh, and it was at Sunday school that we learned to read the Welsh language. Our ministers of religion were Welsh scholars, many of them graduates of the University of Wales, and the high standard of their spoken word was imparted to their congregations. Although our primary schooling was mostly, if not totally, through the medium of English, we would revert to our mother tongue at play.

Halfway produced two well known Nonconformist preachers during the first half of the last century, notably Benjamin Howells of Letterston, Pembrokeshire, a product of Zion Chapel, Llanelli, and Hugh Evans, latterly of Swansea, a product of Nazareth MC, whilst Thomas Isaac Daniels of Halfway, became a Church of England clergyman. At Pemberton, two neighbours were called to the Welsh Baptist ministry from Tabernacle Chapel, Llwynhendy, and were fellow students at Cardiff University College. They were Wynne

74 Evans, who served at Talog, Narberth, Ynystawe, Birmingham and Toronto, Canada. Edward Owen served his ministry at Tonypandy, and Dinas Cross, then, after a period as teacher of Religious Education at Bexley Heath and Hatfield, he returned to Llwynhendy, where he now lives in retirement. The Reverend Trevor Watts from Pemberton was called as a married man with a young family from Bryn Chapel. Probably the most notable and distinguished of all was from the borders of Pemberton and Llwynhendy. He was John Heywood Thomas, Professor of Theology at Durham University, and a widely travelled lecturer in Philosophy. Howard Spriggs, Gelli Road, Pemberton, headmaster of a Cardiff school, became a regular bilingual broadcaster on soccer for the BBC in Cardiff. Professor John Williams, born and bred in Cefncaeau Villas, is Director of the Renal Unit at University of Wales Hospital, Cardiff, and is physician for Cardiff Rugby Club.

Shops and businesses of the area from the 1920s onwards.

 Mrs Morgan, dressmaker, next to tollgate house, Halfway.  Mrs Tegg, confectioner, Glyncoed Terrace.  Tom Bevan, butcher, Waunwrla, stall on Llanelli market.  Mrs Williams, craft and wool shop, corner of Glyncoed Terrace and Coedcae.  Mrs Howells, chipshop.  Martha, sweet and bread shop, near Llandafen Gate (Railway gate?)  Will Hopkins, newsagent.  Ethel John ‘y bara’, home made bread.Tŵyn Terrace.  Getta Turner, Sunny Terrace, ginger beer.  Lizzie Davies, Snowdrop House, chipshop.  Marged Thomas, sister of above, general shop.  Samuels ‘y crydd’, cobbler in a shed on Pemberton Square.  Fred Evans, Pemberton, undertaker and carpenter.  Glyn Brain, cobbler.  Davies, boot and clog maker.  Garfield Thomas, barber.  Ruby, daughter of above, gents and ladies hairdressers.  W.J. Davies, Bryncladd House, wholesale tobacconist and confectioner, and a well-known rugby referee. Ivor Harries, grocer.  Owen Thomas, Pemberton Hall, next door to Pemberton Arms, draper.  W. J. Hopkins succeeded the above.  Sarah Jane Phillips, post office and newsagent.  David Phillips, painter.  Picton Evans and two sons, Gelli Road, carpenters.  Nat and Cliff Owen, butchers.  Dick ‘y fruit’ Thomas, mobile fruit and vegetables.  Llewellyn ‘Llewel bach’, mobile fruit and vegetables.  Rachel and Bade (Baden) Evans, chipshop and grocers.  Siop Leonard, Mrs. Leonard and Muriel, grocers.  Gordon Leonard, wholesale tea merchant.  Maud Leonard, dressmaker with assistant and apprentices.

75  Don Leonard, well known soccer player for Halfway and Llanelli.  Mrs Margaret Harry and David Harry, ‘Siop Cefncaeau’, Carnhywel.  Mr Davies and daughters Blodwen and Gladys May, chipshop.  D.J.Thomas, ‘Sea View’ Pemberton Road, electrical engineer.  William Llewellyn and son, Morgan, stone masons and builder

Carnhowell c.1910 - the original name for Pemberton

Beyond the hedge to the left of picture was ‘Y Waun’ or ‘Cae Waun’; now the site of White Lion garage. To the bottom right is a gap in the wall where a pathway leads to Heol Fach y Cae and ends at the Smith Arms, Penceiliogi. The first house to the right was known as ‘Sea View’. This was the home of electrical engineer, David John Thomas, and his family, and where he began his flourishing electrical business. Later, the premises was used as the Pemberton off-license. The building projecting out to the road is ‘Siop Cefncaecau’, the residence of Mr and Mrs David Harry, grocers, and grandparents of David JohnThomas. The taller building next door is the White Lion Inn.

The three small boys at the end of the road are presumed to be Mr Thomas and his brother, Tom and Willie. Their mother is standing outside the family home, ‘Mor Awel’.

Edward Owen

76 Chapter Eleven: Characters

Gareth Hughes: Actor 1895 – 1965 Christened as William John Hughes, son of John Elias and Annie Hughes was born in 1895 two doors away from the White Lion Inn, Carnhywel. He also lived for a while in the first house from Halfway Bridge, opposite the Halfway Hotel.

At the age of thirteen he borrowed £5 from his grandmother and set out for London; four years later he was bound for America. During the latter years of the First World War, he began making his reputation on Broadway as an actor specialising in Shakespearean roles. He moved to Hollywood in the hey-day of the silent film era, but at the peak of his career he turned his back on fame and became a church missionary to a tribe of 700 Paiute Indians on a reservation in Arizona.

Father David, as he became known, returned to Llanelli in 1958, but only stayed 3 months because of the unaccustomed damp and cold climate of South Wales.

Lizzie’s Chip Shop (Siop Lizzie) There were four chip-shops situated within a distance of half a mile, and by popular opinion the finest of these was run by Lizzie Davies. She started the business after the First World War in a shed just down the road from her home in Llandafen Road. Later, she opened a shop in the front room of her house, and the shed became home to old Mari Jones (Shed Mari). Living conditions in Mari’s humble abode were basic; her water supply had to be carried daily from a neighbour’s house, an oil lamp provided lighting and a cast- iron stove was her only source of heat. Mari is remembered as a tall, wrinkled old lady, always dressed in Victorian, ankle-length black clothes. She is also remembered for the luxuriant growth of strong-scented, leafy mint in her little herb patch, and its profuse growth was due, it was said, to her habit of decanting the liquid contents of her nightly ablutions over the herb bed. All this, I agree, is far removed from the humble chip, but childhood memories re-emerge from time-to-time and, however tangential, remain pertinent to the picture as a whole.

Chip-shops became focal points of their communities, and could be compared in their social function with the Italian cafes, the eponymous ‘Bracchi’s’ of south Wales. Whereas the cafes’ nightly clientele comprised mostly of males, the chip-shop was predominantly a female domain, as it was in Lizzie’s shop. Her shop became the Mecca for all who appreciated a good chip, a commodity which Gwyn Thomas, the Welsh novelist and humorist, called ‘the fundamental luxury of the valleys’. The shop was open every night of the week, excluding Sunday, of course, and in summer time would open on Saturday afternoon as well. During non opening hours the house was virtually an ‘open house’ to various visitors; friends and neighbours would pop in to pass the time of day, as well as tradesmen either making deliveries or toting for business.

77

Lizzie with Bessie Davies, the author’s mother

Only the best dripping was used in the cooking and, as a consequence, the product became renowned over a wide area. Besides local patronage, customers travelled by trolley bus from Loughor, 3 miles away; others walked along the G.W.R. Company’s pathway from the village of Dafen to sample Lizzie’s chips. Helpings were generous, ranging in price from a pennyworth upwards. Children who came for a basinful of chips for the family’s supper were given half a dozen extra chips in a wrapping on top, which allayed the temptation of depleting the basin’s contents on the way home, but did nothing for Lizzie’s profit margin.

At the shop, news and current affairs of the district would be gathered and transmitted so quickly that today’s technological communicators would have been impressed. Births, deaths, engagements, marriages, pregnancies, shotgun weddings, who was living with whom (a cardinal sin, and expressed in Wenglish as cydfywing – cohabiting), all these facets of everyday life were aired; even more personal medical concerns such as bowel malfunction was not ignored.

The perennial and sometimes spiteful interdenominational and chapel rivalries still reared its head occasionally. Manifested by a discussion of which chapel had given the worst performance during the oratorio season; and the muted satisfaction that a rival Sunday school’s annual outing had been marred by dismal weather!

Some memorable moments were experienced over the years. One evening, during wartime, a black G.I. who was billeted in a transit camp in Llanelli, came into the shop. His presence caused quite a stir, for this was the first time that customers had seen a Negro in the flesh. The youngsters, who had gathered after the news of the stranger’s arrival had spread, were particularly enthralled, holding on to his every word as he related how life was lived in his home city of Chicago.

Another memorable occasion was when a behatted, heavily lipsticked, masculine ‘lady’, wearing a 5 o’clock shadow, walked in and sat on one of the forms provided for customers. No one paid particular attention until she lifted her dress up to her waist, displaying her knee length bloomers to one and all. After this exhibition was repeated a few times, she departed amid titters and speculation as to who’she’ could have been. Was the ‘lady’ a local male who did it for a dare, or was it a dormant transvestite who decided to ’come out’?

78 Whatever the reason, his identity was soon revealed, but pity on him if his colleagues at the local tinplate works found out.

An occasional customer was Twm ‘Harriet’, a middle aged waif from a neighbouring village. Twm was termed ‘backward’, and was affected by speech and hearing difficulties from birth, but survived through his resourcefulness and guile. He would make a regular round of calls at sympathetic households in his native village, a cup of tea and a bit of toast here, a bit of bread and cheese there. In the chip-shop he would have warmth and sustenance in the way of fish batter and a few chips, after which, if trade was quiet late at night, he would play a tuneless melody on his kazoo, a cigar-shaped instrument with a sound effect similar to humming through a comb.

The V.I.C.s – the Very Important Customers -the favoured few, such as visiting relatives, friends or chapel dignitaries, were ushered down the passage into the living room, where they ate their chips in homely comfort. The minister of the Baptist chapel where Lizzie was a faithful member was singled out for preferential treatment. A fish and chip supper for the minister was sometimes delivered to the manse by a fast runner, who was instructed not to dally on the way; occasionally, a pound of dripping was included for cooking use by his housekeeper.

During wartime Lizzie was not averse to some innocuous black marketing. There was restriction on the movement of various foodstuffs at the time, but this did not deter Lizzie’s farmer relative from the depths of rural Carmarthenshire walking through town once en route for Llandafen Road with a side of bacon on his shoulder. A Food Inspector detained him, but he was assured that the bacon was a gift to a well-loved aunt, and that no money would change hands. When the Inspector called to make further enquiries at Lizzie’s home, Snowdrop House (although not one snowdrop was ever seen growing there), it took all of her condescending charm to convince him that no trading had taken place.

Another time, towards the end of the war, through her associations with potato and fruit wholesalers, a box of red Canadian apples was delivered with a consignment of potatoes to the house. The apples were transferred to a locked cupboard where lay other ‘under the counter’ items, which were not available in the shops until sometime later.

The shop was a meeting place for local boys, and was often a target for their youthful pranks. On top of each side of the chip range sat a pair of ornamental ducks made of lightweight material. These ‘sitting ducks’ became potential targets to the boys; one of them would be challenged to enter the shop, buy a bottle of pop, shake it vigorously and, with thumb on top, would aim and squirt the contents in an attempt to knock off one or both ducks.

Once, the deed was witnessed by Lizzie’s husband, Jõhnny, a silent partner for most of the time, in contrast to Lizzie’s fiery temperament. He chased, but failed to catch the culprit who, as he raced up the road, heard Johnny shouting this immortal threat.

“Os dalai ti’r diawl bach, cei di gic yn dy dyn sbo dy drwyn yn gwaedu”. (“If I catch you, you little devil, I’ll kick your arse till your nose bleeds”!

In the final years, with advancing age and a diminishing profit margin, the shop was virtually kept open by force of habit, and a way of life that Lizzie was reluctant to give up. After over 30 years in the business, the daily tasks of preparing for the evening opening proved too much for her and, in 1950, Lizzie called it a day. 79

The closure of the shop marked the beginning of the end of an era, not only for Lizzie but for the community as well. There were several contributory factors in the gradual change in social life; the natural demise of the older indigenous generation, replaced by incomers with different personal and religious attitudes; the growth of surrounding council estates, resulting in an influx of people with a different cultural background to the established ‘way of life’ and the steady growth of car ownership, which meant a complete transformation in social habits.

All these factors contributed in changing the character, and indeed the street language of the people, from monoglot Welsh to bilingual, and then to predominantly English. Lizzie was born and bred in Pemberton or Carnhywel as it was called, a product of her environment, and played an integral part in the old community. Both the community and Lizzie left an indelible impression on a child growing up in her household; reared on her chips and pop; her blue-eyed boy who could do no wrong!

Yes, Lizzie was an unforgettable character. She was also my surrogate grandmother, but that’s another story.

Byron Davies, 2005

80 Chapter Twelve: Research Paper – D.K.Rosser

Extracts from a thesis by the late D. K. Rosser of Denham Avenue, Llanelli, on the social and cultural changes in Pemberton between 1950 and 1980.

The locality of Pemberton constitutes Pemberton Road, and the adjoining and adjacent streets of Llandafen Road and Gelli Road. During the early part of the 19th century Pemberton was predominately enclosed meadowland bisected by a road along which were scattered a handful of thatch roofed cottages, whose inhabitants in all probability worked in the nearby Llandafen Colliery.

With the rapid industrialisation of the Llanelli area the combined population of Halfway and Pemberton increased and by 1890 had exceeded 500. According to a document published at the time, its inhabitants lived in ‘fairly well built dwellings of modern construction’. By 1910 most of the available space bordering both sides of the main Llanelli to Swansea road had been used for building purposes, although the surrounding area was still rural.

In the decades dividing the two World Wars, Pemberton developed into a flourishing self-contained locality well provided with community amenities. Although the Llanelli town centre was easily accessible by a regular trolley bus service, the locals confined much of their shopping to the various commercial enterprises available in Pemberton Road. They comprised four grocery stores, a tobacco and confectionary shop, an electrical goods shop, a butcher’s shop, barber’s shop, a bakery and post office. Llandafen Road in addition offered a fish and chip shop, which opened most evenings, and a cobbler’s shop.

Most of the women folk tended to purchase their goods in one grocery store, but social obligation demanded that others bought in several shops. The street shop, as will be shown later, played a central part in the life of the locality. Not only did it provide an adequate consumer service, it was also a meeting place, a significant social centre. Casual traders such as milkmen, coal and fish merchants further supplemented the consumer service available to local housewives. 81 Two public houses were positioned at opposite extremes of the street; the Pemberton Arms, a ‘off licence’, on the Square and the White Lion at the periphery of Llwynhendy Road, an elongated road leading to the village of the same name. Within easy walking distance were also the Smith Arms in Gelli Road, and the Halfway Hotel in the neighbouring locality of Halfway.

Sociologically and historically, this study is mainly concerned with the life of the community in the years immediately following the Second World War. Taking therefore 1950 as a landmark, Pemberton Road had a population of approximately 330 inhabitants, comprising 157 males and 173 females housed in 86 dwellings. Roughly three-quarters of these had been born in the street or within half a mile away, many in adjoining and adjacent streets. Of the sixteen per cent born in other areas of Llanelli, the majority were males married to local girls, the remainder were young married couples who purchased houses in the street. Only ten per cent of the inhabitants could be classed as true immigrants in the sense that they had been born outside the Llanelli area. A large proportion of these had joined the rural migration from west Wales to seek employment in the rapidly expanding industries of Llanelli.

Strong local attachment was further complemented by length of residence. Many of the immigrants who settled in Pemberton during the first half of the 19th century came from the Welsh speaking settlements of west Wales. These migrants who were to form part of the new urban proletariat of Llanelli, brought with them their language and culture. Is not surprising therefore, that Welsh became the dominant language of the locality, and religion in the shape of nonconformity the dominant element of its culture.

Looking towards Pemberton Square from Carnhowell. The cobbler’s shed (Samuels y Crydd) is at the centre of the picture, and the Post Office is situated in the fourth house from the immediate right of the picture.

Of the 330 street residents in 1950, 307 (93%) were fluent Welsh speakers. Most were bilingual in the sense that they understood a second language, although a large majority of these had difficulty in using English. Many of the aged inhabitants were pure monoglots. A substantial proportion of the remainder possessed a vague conception and a slight smattering of Welsh. Yet despite this apparent language dichotomy, the cohesive character of the community enabled both the Welsh speaking and the non-Welsh speaking residents to live amicably together.

In religious affiliation, the street was overwhelmingly Non-conformist. Apart from sixteen inhabitants initiated in the Anglican faith, the remainder had been nurtured in the various nonconformist denominations, 82 157 Baptists, 107 as Congregationalists and 50 in the doctrines of Calvanistic Methodism. A few of these had diminished in religious zeal and were no longer members of any denomination. Six places of worship, concentrated in or around the nearby village of Llwynhendy, served religious needs of the neighbourhood; Soar and Tabernacle (Baptists); Bryn and Berea (Congregational); Nazareth (Calvanistic Methodists) and St. David’s ( Church in Wales).

The inception of nonconformity in the area extended back to the latter part of the 18th century and early19th century – where it is recorded that dissenters gathered in various farmhouses to hold religious meetings. Four chapels were built in the neighbourhood of Pemberton during this period; Soar in 1832, Bryn in 1842, Nazareth in 1865 and Tabernacle in 1895. A branch chapel, Berea, was established in 1911, comprising an initial membership of 156, of whom130 had been communicants at Bryn Chapel. It is difficult to assess when the actual decline of Welsh nonconformity took place, as the erosion was far more evident in the urban areas than in the rural settlements. One factor responsible for its decline was the Second World War, although its impact in the area in 1950 was relatively insignificant. Numerically, the Baptists had always constituted the strongest denomination represented in the neighbourhood, with the Calvanistic Methodists being the weakest in affiliation.

Members of Bryn Chapel meet on Pemberton Square for annual outing c.1930

Denominational affiliation of active chapel-going street families 1950.

Baptists 6 families 40.4% Congregationalists 25 families 28% Calvanistic Methodists 14 families 15% Church in Wales 3 families 3.3% Non-Active Families 11 families 12.6%

The eleven families who had disregarded tradition and severed connections with all religious denominations frequently sent their young children to one of the various Sunday Schools in the neighbourhood.

The position of the chapels during the first half of the 20th century as the central focal point of Welsh community life can never be over-emphasised. Apart from the Sunday Schools and the traditional Sabbath services, these chapels provided a weekly programme of various religious and secular activities. Although the extent of such activities had diminished slightly by 1950, a typical weekly programme provided by most chapels in the neighbourhood comprised the following; Band of Hope, Prayer Meeting, Bible Class or

83 ‘Seiat’, Choir Practice, Cultural or Young People’s Society and the Women’s Guild, usually held during one afternoon of the weak.

Within the chapels males held all the important offices although it was women who usually constituted over 60% of every congregation. In latter years this percentage has increased to well nigh over 90% in some chapels owing to the lack of male members, which has necessitated the appointment of women to most of the major positions.

During the early decades of the 20th century, much public behaviour was indicative of the ethics of the chapels. ‘Sabbath Keeping’ was a traditionally and rigidly observed maxim while the frequenting of such places as cinemas and dance halls were often forbidden to young people. Intense antagonism was generated by the chapels towards any social institutions that were considered detrimental to the moral and social well being of the community. This is exemplified in the case of an unemployed resident from an adjoining street who was excommunicated for opening a small billiard hall in the locality. Such practice at the time incurred ‘personal shame’ upon the individual and his ostracization from the community.

By 1950, the influence of this strict moral dogma had begun to wane as people became more secular in their outlook. Whereas smoking and ‘drinking’ were accepted habits among men-folk, it was inconceivable for women to enter public houses or to smoke in public. As one former male resident remarked, ‘if a woman smoked or entered a public house in those days she was considered common’. Observance of the Sabbath continued to be practised to the extent that male inhabitants refrained from visiting social clubs and housewives from carrying out such domestic chores as washing and cleaning.

The intervention of the war years however was instrumental in reshaping social attitudes; younger women became more emancipated in their social habits, and although frowned upon by older inhabitants, would often visit places considered ‘taboo’ in their parents’ young days.

Although Pemberton evolved initially around coalmining, by the end of the 19th century most of its male inhabitants were involved in the flourishing steel and tinplate industries of the town. With the opening of the nearby Bynea Steelworks in 1912, and the Gorse Galvanising Works at Dafen a year later, employment became more localised, and neighbours frequently worked next to each other. Throughout the early decades of the 20th century, life chances for the majority continued to be confined and centred on the physically arduous demands of the tinplate mills and steelworks as sons tended to follow their father into these heavy industries and often to the same place of employment.

By the mid 20th century, the heavy industries still dominated the structure of the streets male work force. However, it is indicative of the changing conception and occupational ethos of the male fraternity that the extent of the occupations became more diversified.

The predominantly working class culture of the street inhabitants was bound up and determined by three main factors: religion, work and family.

Religion not only prescribed the standards and values of family life but also provided and demanded an aura of individual respectability. It was traditional and accepted custom to wear one’s best clothes (dillad parch) on Sunday when attending chapel services, while faithful and regular attendance at such services elevated a person to a position of respectability within the community.

84 Work provided economic viability and political perspective. Men usually adopted the role of breadwinners. Within the community it was the responsibility of the husband to provide for and maintain the financial needs of the family. Place of residence and place of work were closely related, as neighbours often worked side by side. Because of the predominantly manual nature of the work undertaken by the male residents and the strong affiliation between such employment and the trade unions, it is not surprising that the street community were overwhelmingly ‘socialist’ in political ideology. An overwhelming majority of the residents voted ‘Labour’ at both the General and local elections. Older inhabitants still tended to maintain their allegiance to the Liberal Party, while some of the more devout chapel attenders patronised the nationalistic cause under the banner Plaid Cymru.

Indicative of the industry and initiative inherent among the street residents was the fact that the vast majority of houses in Pemberton Road were freehold, occupier owned properties.

Of all social groups forming the social structure on any community, the family is by far the most important. In Pemberton Road with its close-knit connotations, the family was the nexus of community life. Whenever neighbours met on the road, in a shop or in a bus, the topic of conversation invariably centred about their respective families. In Pemberton, the mother – mam - was the central force of the extended family. Most women took it for granted that mam belonged on a pedestal. Whereas dad remained a shadowy and latent figure, mam in contrast projected a dominant presence. Whereas the husband adopted the role of breadwinner and family provider, the wife tended to be confined to a life of domesticity, caring for the home and rearing children.

All families living in the street were ‘respectable’ in the sense that they conformed to the ascribed norms and values of the community and that they showed no traits of anti-social behaviour, Characteristic of the close- knit nature of the community was the familiar face to face relationship that existed between residents; everyone knew each other, and as a woman resident stated, ‘there were not many secrets one could hide from the inhabitants in those days’.

During the daytime, street activity was dominated by the presence of women. The workings of the ‘female trade unions’, so apparent with extended families, were further reinforced by the close interaction of many of the neighbours. Neighbours were frequently elevated to the minor circle of friends with whom one went on the weekly shopping spree to the town, or attended an occasional concert or visited mutual acquaintance. They also provided help in sickness and in health. Where a mutual tie existed between a small of households, it was common practice of a morning for women to visit each other’s house for a cup of tea and a chat. Wider daily contact between women normally took place in the various shops scattered along the street. The street shop, apart from providing an adequate consumer service, acted as a social centre for the convergence of local gossip and the transfer of information. In many respects the street shop for the womenfolk was the equivalent of the male dominated public house.

At night the external image of the street became completely transformed, being dominated in the main by the presence of men. Every evening many of the aged male population gathered in the Pemberton Arms. Through the goodwill of the landlady of this ‘off licence’ they were allowed an illegal drink in the privacy of her front room before taking their purchases back to the more lawful security of their own homes.

On weeknights middle-aged males normally congregated in the cobbler’s shop, but on Saturday nights the venue changed to the White Lion or the Smith Arms in Gelli Road. The cobbler’s shop, with the passing of the years, had developed into an extremely popular and exclusive male domain. Although most of the topics 85 pertaining to working class life were discussed within its confines, it was a common and almost fanatical interest in rugby union football that forged the strong bond between its members. This co-operative, cohesive and structured group, possessed its own secretary and treasurer, whose main functions were to organise visits to various rugby matches throughout the season, culminating in the annual outing to London in early May, paradoxically to attend the Rugby League cup final at Wembley Stadium.

During the next few decades, this close-knit, Welsh speaking community was to go through a gradual transformation. For the male work force of Pemberton Road, the eventual closures in the early 1960s of the tinplate and galvanising complex at Dafen and the steelworks in Bynea meant that work opportunities would become more widespread.

Pemberton Square c.1920. Pemberton Arms (front right) and Square Hall (front left)

Twenty three percent of the total male population of the street in 1950 had been employed in these places of work, and as the majority were over the age of 55 years in 1964, their prospects of obtaining similar employment at the modern Trostre Tinplate Works were extremely bleak. One sixth were forced into premature or compulsory retirement, while 70% of the remainder were fortunate to obtain light manual employment in the Royal Naval Depot at Llangennech. Consequently, place of work and place of residence for the majority did not become segregated and the comradeship formed through years in the mills and foundries was maintained.

The changing industrial structure of the area was further accompanied in the 1950s and 1960s by an extensive programme of public housing development, which resulted in a comprehensive drift of population within the town. In this context, the Pemberton locality experienced a traumatic transformation as most of the available space to the immediate east and north became used up for building purposes. To the east, large, large council estates were built in the early 1950s, on both sides of the main A484 Llanelli to Swansea road, at Cefncaeau and Trallwm respectively. A similar pattern emerged to the north of the locality. The upper extreme of Gelli Road became bordered on one side by the large Trallwm Estate and on the other side by the slightly smaller estates of Brynawelon and Bryncoch, which extended westward to the neighbouring village of Dafen.

Constructed initially to rehabilitate populations from the old industrial areas at the southern end of town, and to provide accommodation for the families of key workers at the nearby Trostre Works. These estates eventually became reservoirs for absorbing people from all parts of the Borough and Rural areas. At the 86 lower extreme of Gelli Road, and immediately behind one side of Pemberton Road, the small estate of Carnhywel was built in mid 1950s, to be followed a decade later, in an opposite position, by the private housing estate of Pemberton Park.

In little over a decade therefore some 300 dwellings encompassed the Pemberton locality, as a semi rural landscape was transformed into an urban setting and Pemberton Road came to occupy a peripheral position in a new, large and expanding working class suburb of Llanelli. Indeed, this radical physical transformation was to prove deleterious to the traditional ‘Welsh way of life’ of the neighbourhood, who’s cultural and social foundations were so deeply rooted in the Welsh language and the respectability provided by the chapels. The new immigrants were to exemplify a different breed of working class, predominantly English in speech and materialistic in outlook, with their social behaviour identifying more closely with the anglicised type of working class culture exhibited in the pubs, clubs and bingo halls of the district.

With the intrusion of the large supermarket food chains into the town in the 1960s, the small family owned businesses suffered in comparison, as local customers chose to shop at these stores. Consequently, the numerous and varied family shops which once straddled the entire length of Pemberton Road disappeared from the local scene. Apart from the Post Office, and a ladies hair salon, only one grocery shop remained in the locality by 1980.

With the closure of these shops, which had provided such a plethora of social interaction and titillating gossip, an important aspect of the street’s social and communal life disappeared. Similarly, the closure of the barber and cobbler shops and the conversion of the Pemberton Arms into a private dwelling, meant that the male population had to move further a-field for social stimulation. Many of the female residents in latter years have had to confine their week-day shopping to the ‘Avenue’, a row of shops situated along the main road in Cefncaeau and within easy access of the surrounding estates. However, gone are the familiar institutions where residents could converse with friends in the congenial and homely atmosphere created by the street’s local traders.

A further factor stemming from the industrial and social changes of the immediate post Second World War era that affected the social life of the street was the increasing problem of traffic. Because of its geographical position at the intersection of the main east and northbound thoroughfares out of Llanelli, Pemberton Road had always been susceptible to traffic pollution. This vulnerability became accelerated from the mid 1950s onwards as the volume of traffic through the street rose significantly.

Although population changes had been frequent prior to 1950, these had not unduly affected the social and cultural structure of the community. The overwhelming majority of incomers who settled in Pemberton during the first half of the 20th century were Welsh in both speech and custom, and enabled them to be assimilated easily into the community.

It is the contention of this study that the root cause of the change in social structure of the community had been the disintegration of the population that resided in the street in 1950. Had this population not disintegrated, then this change might not have occurred, certainly would not have occurred so rapidly. In 1950 Pemberton Road was occupied by a population of approximately 330. By 1981 only 61 of these remained in residence, of which 49% were now over the age of seventy. The bulk of the dissemination was caused by the twin factors of mortality and migration.

87 The three most influential persons directly connected with the Pemberton Road community were the local doctor, schoolmaster and chapel minister. For the young person in the community therefore, to attain any of these professions was to reach the ultimate in parental aspirations, although it must be said that residents considered the Christian ministry as a calling and not an occupation. However, it is extremely doubtful whether many parents could have provided financial support had their children decided to enter medical school. Of the professions ascribed high status within the community, teaching appeared the most popular choice among more able individuals of both sexes.

A short survey of the state of nonconformity in the Pemberton locality shows the following results.

Chapel Membership

1950 1981 % Decrease in Membership

SOAR (Baptist) 719 384 47 TABERNACLE (Baptist) 295 182 38 BRYN (Congregational) 398 178 55 BEREA (Congregational) 216 103 52 NAZARETH (Calvinistic Methodists) 215 92 57

The survey consisted of a series of visits carried out during the months of November and December 1981. Each visit was made on a Sunday evening when a local chapel held its communion service. To obtain a wider perspective of Sunday evening leisure habits in the locality, a visit was also made to a local social club, which was situated a stone’s throw from one of the chapels and had a membership of 430.

The results of the survey are recorded below.

Number Present % of Total membership

SOAR 125 33 TABERNACLE 64 35 BRYN 58 33 BEREA 27 26 NAZARETH 25 27 SOCIAL CLUB 342 80

The figures seem to imply the changing cultural ethos and Sunday social habits of the locality. Paradoxically, 40% of these club members were Welsh speakers, whose antecedents stemmed from the chapels.

In this study we have been concerned with the erosion of a specific culture which, at one time, formed the traditional way of a small Welsh street community. The way of life that developed in Pemberton Road during the first half of the 20th century was centred on three related focal aspects – family, locality and chapel. The family formed the nucleus of social life, the locality provided a setting for interaction between families and provided each with a sense of belonging, while the chapels determined the norms that governed the social and cultural life of both family and community. This way of life was not only characteristic of

88 Pemberton Road, but also of many other localities that grew in the wake of industrialisation, and which formed the town of Llanelli.

The way of life that prevailed in Pemberton Road was bounded by the common affinity of language, as the overwhelming majority of the population spoke Welsh. This made it a distinctly Welsh community, but its distinctive ‘Welshness’ of its way of life could only be attributed to that part of the culture that depended entirely on the Welsh language as its sole means of expression, and in this respect the chapels proved the main proprietors. It would be more appropriate therefore, to describe this way of life as ‘localised’, rather than the ‘Welsh way of life’.

As Llanelli entered the immediate post Second World War era, this ‘localised way of life’ became eroded. It was from the 1960s onwards that Pemberton Road experienced the real impact of change. The continuous changes in population that had occurred since the 1950s became supplemented in the `60s and `70s by an increasing number of English speaking incomers.

This study has chronicled the demise of this traditional Welsh-speaking type of community, with its strong flavour of Welsh Nonconformist dominance, and its close ties of kinship and personal friendships.

With thanks to the late Keri Rosser.

89 Appendix

Residents of Llandafen Road at a Coronation Party, 1953

Daniel Williams can be regarded as a ‘Jack of all Trades’ and master of most! He was born in Llangennech in 1824 and moved to Halfway in the 1850s. He became a leading member of Bryn Independent chapel, serving as deacon, secretary for thirty years and as Superintendent of the Sunday School. He had a great love of music and formed the Chapel choir and was its conductor for many years.

A self-educated man, he was a staunch Liberal and was interested in the leading political issues of the day. He wrote essays and contributed articles to the local press on relevant subjects such as Nationalism, Freedom and on the proposition that the Sunday School was an educational establishment. He was also renowned for his eloquence and expressive readings at Chapel meetings.

As well as pursuing his trade as a tailor, employing several seamstresses, Daniel played a significant part in increasing the area’s housing in the early years. He found time to personally build 15 houses, nine in Halfway Row, opposite the Halfway Inn, and six in Llandafen Row. Consequently the area became increasingly inhabited with his immediate family and descendants for many years.

He died in 1889, aged 65, and in his last Will and Testament he bequeathed that the fifteen properties be divided equally between his four daughters and son. Curiously, he left his wife only £70 and one feather bed – ‘the one and the same which she brought with her’!

His son, Edwin, wrote a history of Bryn Chapel – Hanes Eglwys y Bryn – in 1891.

Mrs Maureen Albright, formerly from Dafen, now of Marlborough, great-great-grand-daughter of Daniel Williams.

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