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,