Mrs Pat Bagguley. Mrs Joanne Hewitt (nee Bagguley)

Mrs Pat Bagguley
Years in the Village 73

Mrs Joanne Hewitt
Years In the Village 48






I spent an entertaining afternoon listening to  Village History anecdotes from the mother and daughter team of Pat and Joanne.
This is the briefest of excerpts from a comprehensive "interview". As in all of the contributors to this blog, I shall return to Pat and Joanne's stories.

PAT:
Reviewing the 1958 photograph of the Village Welfare Committee*

"Everyone seemed to have a nickname back then. It was a way of differentiating between Mr Jones here and Mr Jones there....
For example the man in the centre of the back row was always known as
"Jack Garreg-Llwyd" (or Jack Greystones -The name of his house)
The nickname of the man on the end of the second row
Di "Socks"
The rather smart lady (Bottom row third from left) is the famous Miss B.A.Jones who was known by all as Miss Jones "Bryn Teg" (Bryn Teg was the smallholding she shared with her sister Jenny-The house still stands behind Byron Street)
and the first man on the second row was known as
"Maldwin-the-black!"
(Maldwin-the-black was so called because he lived in the house where the old pub The Black Boy was situated on High Street)"

This is the old row of houses on high street ( opposite to Bonc terrace)
The Black Boy pub was situated at the bottom of the row)

*The Village Welfare committee ran for many years in the village and was concerned with raising funds for the upkeep of the village Hall. There are four surviving villagers from the above 1958 photo
Islwyn Thomas (second from left top row), Bob Davies ( Top Row first on right),Gladys Jones (first left bottom row) and Bryn Davies (second row, second from right)
Just out of interest Gladys Jones' husband had a nickname too he was known as Bob the Railway

JOANNE:
"My very first memories of the village was sitting in the road with my friends. It was London Road and the surface had just been covered with tarmac.We just sat on the side of the dusty road prodding the bubbles in the tarmac with sticks
Even then there was little traffic and I remember that every so often one of us kids would shout "CAR!!!!!!" and we would amble to the side of the road to let it pass by"
(You have to be a present day villager to appreciate just how ironic this statement is-given the often dangerous amount of "modern day" traffic