Bits & Snippets

All pubs were shut in Wales on Sunday

By ancient law, alcohol was not allowed to be sold in Wales on a Sunday.   Many people travelled across the border to England to avoid the law and buy alcohol.  One Uncle I was told about, took his niece for a walk from Llanhilleth up to Trinant every Sunday.   A farmer made his own cider there, which he ‘shared’ with the local community.

“Overfed, overpaid and over here”

The American GIs arrived in the UK in 1942.    Their relaxed cheery manner meant they easily charmed the British Girls, more used to the reserved British male.    American soldiers were based in Ebbw Vale, Pontypool, Newport, Crickhowell and Cardiff, and word soon got out that they had supplies of nylon stockings, and chocolate.   They sympathised with the war worn children and female population, which did not usually impress the miners.   Often they held parties for the children with mounds of delicious food, winning both hearts and minds, before leaving to fight on D-Day, June 1944. 

“Overfed, overpaid and over here,” was to become a popular description for them.   It was used mainly by the older male population as they watched the charm offensive on the younger females in their family.   “Bloody tack,” was a term used by some to describe the local women who succumbed to these charms.    Many, as young as sixteen years old, married and travelled to America with their own GI.

Shops & Offices

Abraham Hunt opened his own business in Llanhilleth in 1909.   He advertised as a saddler, collar maker, and fancy leather goods dealer, specialising in colliery requisites.   His three brothers joined in with the expansion of his business.   A second shop was opened in Llanhilleth, and then one in Blackwood. As part of his "colliery requisites" he was known to have made helmets for men who sunk pit shafts. To have special helmets for such a profession shows just how many pits were sunk in the area at the time.

Co-operative  (locally pronounced ‘Cwarp’)

In the Illtyd Operatic Soc. Programme for The Gipsy Baron in 1957, the Co-operative Retail Services Ltd., Blaina Branch at 53-54 High Street, Blaina advertised as follows:

            “If you pay £3 per week at one of our 19 branches in this valley, you would receive:
                        1. £5 A year in Dividend
                        2. £40 free Life Assurance
                        3. Free Convalescent Treatment
            In addition to best quality goods at fair prices.”

Many people belonged to the Co-op for the benefit of the ‘Divi’ which was shared annually.   The £40 free Life Assurance was a big plus.   At a time of uncertainty and hardship, it gave reassurance, as it would help, if necessary, to cover funeral expenses.

1945

After the War, wages slowly improved, giving people a little extra cash each week.   This was enough to take out a Hire Purchase agreement on more expensive items, even luxury goods.    Radios, radiograms, and later television and motor cars.    Although HP had been used as a form of purchase since the previous century, it now developed a “bad name.”   Anyone unable to pay the weekly instalments would lose the goods to the finance company.    Less reputable people took out an agreement and then “did a midnight flit,” with the goods.    With the finance company unable to gain information on their new address, the goods would be theirs to keep.

Emigration

Between  1945 and 1972 people were encouraged to emigrate to Australia for the cost of £10 per person.   Many took advantage of the offer and went in search of a new life.   These included people from Llanhilleth.   Some stayed and adopted their new home, but many returned to the UK.  

One of the emigrants, John Gwilym had worked in the engine sheds at Aberbeeg.   He took his passage in 1958 just after completing his National Service.    He stayed in Australia, and was a steward at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney returning to the UK the following year to a welcome get-together of his old friends at the ‘Stute bar served by ‘Shilling’ Smith.

Unfortunately, I have no image of John Gwilym, but his brother Arthur won the Mr Wales competition at the Institute in 1947, and his niece recently got in touch and sent me a photograph of her father, David Gwilym on his honeymoon in the 1950's.

Arthur Gwilym

David Gwilym

1947 – Coal Industry Nationalised – many pithead baths quickly followed, although Llanhilleth’s opened in 1944.  Girls now remained at school until 15 years of age.

Robert Roberts was manager at the Institute, but due to his wife’s illness they did not live on the premises.   This residence was occupied by the Assistant Manager.

1948 – National Health Service established.    It improved people’s  health and inoculations for children made the next generation stronger.

Although Legal Aid would offset the costs of divorce, women could not take out a mortgage or hire purchase agreement without a male guarantor.   (This was not changed until the Consumer Credit Act 1974.)   They could then, however, remain working as a nurse even after marriage.

Some women whose husbands were at war, found themselves with money from ‘helping the war effort,’ and time on their hands.   Local girls working at the munitions factory near Usk, “the dump,” were paid very well.   Developing their independence didn’t always bode well for a happy marriage when the husband returned from the war.   

Numbers of divorced women in Wales rose from 623 in 1932 to 4,935 in 1951.

Evacuees

The pay for taking an evacuee was 7s. (35p) per week.   Many young children were traumatised, never being away from home before, and living with complete strangers.   One person recalled her evacuee wet the bed every night and with no central heating or washing machine, it was difficult to provide clean bed linen every night.

After WWII

After WW2 ended the coming of the Labour Government brought hope, optimism and opportunities became available to young parents.   But women were still expected to give up employment when they married.   A job was only a stop-gap between school and marriage.  

Carnival at Llanhilleth Fields

“There’s no point in educating a girl, she will get married and have children,” 

was a common reason for families giving priority and available financial means to educating their sons.  To help the family finances, and with little education, in the event of the husband being unemployed, or ill, women would often take in washing or sewing.  To add to their household chores, they would go out cleaning for others or childminding.   A housewife’s skill soon spread by word of mouth and wallpapering for neighbours could prove lucrative.

Teacher training was expensive and there were few opportunities for women.   As there was a marriage ban,   A woman would have to give up her teaching post after her wedding.   Hence so many spinster school teachers in those days, reluctant to give up an attractive salary for household chores.

During the 1950s and 60s, two thirds of the population living around Llanhilleth and Brynithel worked in the colliery.  

The 1950s saw the rise in catalogue shopping and packmen bringing goods around door-to-door.   They  took orders for clothing to bring along the following week.   The housewife would pay “a bob a week and missings.”    She would have the goods “on tic,” and pay each week, or when she could.   At the present time the shops in the village barely number double figures, but many house fronts along High Street and Commercial Road provide clues to where some existed.

Carnival float - The original Toppers were a dance troupe appearing regularly on TV.

British Nylon Spinners

A new factory was built at Mamhilad, near Pontypool.   It was to spin a synthetic yarn to make new fabrics.    A large manufacturing plant, it required both production and office workers.   As this was new technology, they also required chemists and researchers.    

British Nylon Spinners (BNS), later to become Du Pont, now closed

Private coaches collected employees from the valleys and took them directly to the factory site.  This provided necessary work for the ex-miners and other people from Tredegar, Abertillery, Blaina, Nantyglo, Llanhilleth and Pontypool. An exhibition of the history of British Nylon Spinners is on show at Pontypool Museum.

Across the dual carriageway from the factory was the Social Club, now demolished, which sported a snooker table, bowling alley, tennis courts, as well as a bar and dance hall with stage.  Many famous singers and groups appeared there in the 1950s and 60s including the Moody Blues, Lulu, and Johnny Kid and the Pirates.

Carnival

Local carnivals were held with a float from each street.   There were walking entrants as well as those on floats.   The parade finished in the park where each entrant would be judged and prizes awarded.

A group of girls in the hulla skirts spent a great deal of time making their outfits from artificial flowers and raffia, but one Mum in the 1940s put her foot down.    Her daughter was not allowed out unless she wore her vest underneath.

Boggsy Woodward and Boyo Phillips carried the mace before the carnival queen, but unfortunately I have no dates for these particular gentlemen.

National Service

was compulsory for all boys aged 18.   They were required to join one of the armed forces for a period of two years.   This was imposed in 1939 and continued until 1960.   The legislation was repealed in 1963.  

Girls were always attracted by boys in uniform when the boys were home on leave from exotic places such as Hong Kong.   Many relationships that started by talking or dancing at the ‘Stute went on to become very happy marriages, with the couples settling in the village itself or nearby in Sofrydd, Aberbeeg or Brynithel.   Often couples would become engaged to be married just before the boy was conscripted.   These couples could be parted for months or even perhaps years.   This was a difficult time,  Christmas or New Year being particularly difficult with little or no contact.   Friends would rally round to ensure the girl left behind had a good time, even if tinged with sadness at her partners absence.    “It was a celebration of the New Year, but it was a sad time as well.”

Annual Welsh Miners’ Gala Day

http://www.agor.org.uk/cwm/themes/Life/society/leisure_culture_sport.asp

South Wales, unlike British coalfields, has no long tradition for galas, but they quickly became important social and political miners’ gatherings.    The first gala was held in June 1953 in Cardiff, and the miners marched through the streets to Sophia Gardens with brass bands and banners.   They heard speakers such as Aneurin Bevan MP for Ebbw Vale, and Arthur Horner, Chief Secretary of the NUM,  before joining in musical and sporting competitions.  Later, in the 1970s and 1980s, folk dancing and art and craft exhibitions were also included.

Carnival Queen

The Monkey Walk

Groups of teenagers from Llanhilleth, as with many valley towns, did the ‘monkey walk.’   The term seems well-known in certain areas.   Groups congregate together and walk to and fro along a short stretch of road;  perhaps the High Street of a town;  perhaps between two landmarks.   As these groups walk they overtake each other, or pass each other coming the other way.   This gives them time to ‘eye each other up,’ or make some brief comment.   On the next passing there would be a longer dialogue which could lead to a date.

Llanhilleth youth would walk to Crumlin past the Royal Oak, or to Abertillery, hoping to meet other groups doing likewise.   It was a way of meeting up without it costing anything.

1960s

An important national event occurred  in 1961.   The contraceptive pill was made available, which immediately  reduced family sizes and changed the lives of teenage girls and women all over the world. The new generation would find freedom unheard of in their parents' days.

Other Inventions which changed lives…

Late 1960s                  electric iron, vacuum cleaner, washing machine, refrigerator
1969                            9 out of 10 had a Television with commercial advertising
1977                            Welsh Women’s Aid established.

1984-March 85       Bitter miners' strike – women had the confidence and time to provide        support for their menfolk.

--oo0oo—

Mind your Head

Living along Commercial Road was a lady who was quite mischievous for whatever reason.  Miners walking beneath her bedroom window at 5.30 in the morning would have to run the gauntlet of her chamber pot being emptied out of the window.   Many men were caught unawares, but during the snow it was visible that the footprints through the snow ran along the pavement until just before her house, they then crossed over the road, and then a few houses along they crossed back to the original pavement.

One man, hearing the rumble of the sash window opening, ran and shouted ‘missed.’   On his way home after shift, probably tired and less aware, he fell victim to the dreaded chamber pot.

Pit Closure

Lanhilleth Colliery closed 22 March 1969, and many moved out to find work.    Others moved nearer their work, because the passenger railway was abolished by Dr Beeching during the 1960s.  

Inventions by year

Late 1960s                  electric iron, vacuum cleaner, washing machine, refrigerator
1969                            9 out of 10 had a Television with commercial advertising
1977                            Welsh Women’s Aid established.

1984-March 85           Bitter miners' strike – women supported