I remember that….

In the start of what I hope to be a new series, I have made a list of five things….places, occasions, feelings etc. in Merthyr that I remember from my childhood (I have mentioned several other memories such as hot chocolate in Ferrari’s Café in Dowlais – undoubtedly the best memory elsewhere).

  1. The strange multicoloured polygonal playing frame in the precinct. Whatever happened to that?
St Tydfil’s Shopping Centre in the 1970s. The climbing frame is towards the top centre.
  1. Queuing as far as Burtons to go and see the first Star Wars film at the Scala (Temperance Hall)…..I was only 8 at the time, and I made my aunty take me to see it six times – I don’t think she ever forgave me.
  1. In connection to the above, collecting the plastic Star Wars figures. I remember buying them from a shop in the High Street called ‘Cards and Gifts’ (or something like that) – if I remember correctly one of the few places you could get them, and then being totally bereft when the building burnt down. My cousin and I would play for hours with the figures, re-arranging all of my parents’ house plants into various jungle ‘scenes’.
  1. Spending hours playing on the old coal-tips in Abercanaid (by this time grass-covered), and being traumatised when the powers that be took them away (not to mention my grandfather’s garden – a fact he bemoaned until his dying day), to build the extension to the Hoover Factory, and new road into Abercanaid.
  1. Being told never to use the subway under the road in Caedraw…..but being daring, and doing it anyway with the other local children, and being scared to death.
Caedraw in the 1970s. The subway can be seen at the bottom of the picture at the end of the bridge.

Now it’s your turn. What do you remember from your childhood?

Let’s try to make this a successful feature – send me an e-mail at merthyr.history@gmail.com and share your five Merthyr-related childhood memories.

Merthyr Memories: The Last Days of Old Dowlais

Some of my fondest childhood memories are the frequent trips I would go on to Dowlais with my aunty.

This would have been in the 1970s when Dowlais was undergoing what was officially called ‘redevelopment’, but which most people would call total devastation. At the time, of course, I was too young to understand the full implications of what was going on – I was just too fascinated by the ‘tractors’ as I called them……I had a fascination with ‘tractors’, and I had quite a few Tonka toys of diggers, cranes etc. Little did I know then the havoc these were causing and the vast amount of history that was being casually swept away.

The ‘Redevelopment’ of Dowlais. The derelict shell of Lloyd’s Bank in Union Street in the 1970s. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

My aunty, who had lived most of her life in Penydarren, had visited Dowlais just as much as she would have visited Merthyr when the former was in its hey-day. Dowlais, then, had everything – cinemas, banks, shops of every description – everything anyone would need for everyday life. By the 1970s however, most of these had gone, and only a few buildings and businesses held on for dear life as the bulldozers slowly worked their way up Union Street. Yet, my aunty would still do what she could in Dowlais.

I remember that we would catch the bus up to Dowlais – we’d go regularly as my aunty would go to ‘pay the coal’ in a business, if I remember correctly, in Church Row. We’d walk up past the Co-op, never the other side of the road…..I didn’t like walking past the steeple of St John’s Church – it frightened me!!! I remember the adverts in the window for various things, and also the posters advertising ‘Co-op stamps’.

Dowlais Co-op in the early 1900s. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

Sometimes, after ‘paying the coal’, we would go around the corner to see the then derelict Dowlais Stables and my aunty would tell me all about Josiah John Guest and the Ironworks and about Lady Charlotte opening a school there. Other times we would call into Dowlais Library for her to change her books, and she would chat with David Watkins the marvellous librarian there whilst I looked at the books in the ‘Children’s Library’.

We would also call into one or two of the few shops that were remaining. I particularly remembering going to the shop of Mr Segar’s – the watch and clock repairer in North Street, and be fascinated by all the different clocks around the place. Another shop we would always visit was Crynogwyn’s – the dressmaker in Union Street. This was simply because Crynogwyn or ‘Aunty Cryn’ was an ‘honorary Aunty’. My father, had worked with Cryn’s husband Jack on the railway for many years, and they were very close friends. Cryn was a tiny, gentle, very quietly spoken lady with jet-black hair, and she was one of the finest seamstresses in Dowlais.

Crynogwyn’s Shop in Union Street not long before it was demolished. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

After we had finished all we had to do in Dowlais, we would catch the bus home from outside Ferrari’s Café. If I had been very good (and of course I always was), we would go into Ferrari’s and I would have a cup of hot chocolate as a special treat.

Ferrari’s Cafe in Dowlais. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Collection

These were simple things, but they still remain fresh in my memory. St John’s Church, Dowlais Stables and the Library are all still there, but everything else has gone – swept away in the name of progress. Redevelopment or vandalism? You decide.