大象传媒

The village of Abercarn

Abercarn is set in a valley, a sort of 鈥楾鈥� shaped valley surrounded by mountains, Mt Rhyswg to the East, Mt Mynydd Lan lay to the South with Llanfach to the West. In the valley running north south, was a mountain stream known locally as The Brook. When in spate it was wild indeed, but in summer was a nice gentle stream about twelve to eighteen inches deep carrying tiddlers, sticklebacks and some large trout. I once saw a local man catch a large trout by tickling it. This requires a great deal of patience - the fish must have weighed around two pounds. The Brook was dammed off causing quite a large deep lake, which we called the 鈥淒istillery鈥� (I don鈥檛 know why because I cannot recall any breweries nearby). Sometimes if there had been a lot of rain the water used to pour and cascade down some steps set in the wall of the dam. There were some large pipes coming away from the distillery so I think the water was stored for use in the tinworks, perhaps in their cooling process.

At the base of Mt Rhyswg and towards the village was an old quarry with several piles of spoil from it, known as the 鈥渢umps鈥�. The main one was about twenty feet high with several small mounds around it. They were long since grown over with all manner of scrub, small trees and bushes which were ideal for playing war games, Cops 鈥檔鈥� Robbers, Robin Hood and his Merry Men and also my favourite, Cowboys and Indians.

I have one abiding memory of a walk on Mt Rhyswyg on my own, which was forbidden because I was only eight and obviously not wise to the ways of the mountains. I was about three quarters of the way up the side of the mountain, which was around one thousand feet, when I heard the sound of an aeroplane engine. I looked down and saw a Gloster Gladiator flying down the valley below me. I was able to see into the cockpit and could see clearly the pilot with his helmet on. I remember feeling utterly amazed at seeing an aeroplane flying below me but of course I had to keep it to myself because I was not supposed to be there in the first place.

Further memories

I thought I had finished my memories of Abercarn but lying in bed this morning, half asleep and reliving those years again, some more memories have come to mind. The first one is of an initiative test, when our class in early autumn of 1940, one fine afternoon were taken into the hills behind our school. The class was divided into two groups, one group was given a piece of card to hide on their person and were then told to go and hide somewhere on the hillside, while the other group, of which I was one, had to hide their eyes. This allowed me time to think. We then had to go and find them once they had had enough time to hide (the time was signalled by two blasts on a whistle). We duly found them and their cards. Now it was our turn. On the hillside were some trees, bushes and rocks, by my reckoning these places were too obvious to hide in or behind. There was a large area of bracken (wild ferns), so hiding the card on my person I hared off into the bracken desperately trying not to leave a trail behind me. When the whistle blew I dived into the bracken and crawled on my stomach for some distance away from the starting point. I could hear the other boys foraging about and shouts of glee as each one was found except me.

After quite a while of searching I could hear the teacher calling my name. I did not go out immediately because I thought it was a trick. I think Mr Lowden was a little worried by this time, (and thoroughly fed up with me,) so I crawled out when I heard him calling me again. They searched me thoroughly, including the teacher, but could not find the card. He then asked for the card, I was reluctant to show any of them where the card was hidden as we might well be playing this game again, but eventually I had to. I had hidden it in a fold on the inside of my blazer. I was very proud of the fact that I was the only one to have beaten all of them, including the teachers. I have often wondered since then why we were put through that test but having read a lot about World War Two I think that had we been invaded and indeed over-run by Germany we would perhaps have been used as couriers by the Resistance. As we all know now, that by this time hundreds of resistance groups had been set up all over the country.

Another memory is in the early winter of 1941, I think it was November, when we were asked to go potato picking. With pound signs in my eyes and visions of having wealth beyond belief I went potato picking for a fortnight, half days only earning the princely sum of 鈥楾wo and Sixpence鈥� (12 陆 pence). Needless to say I was disappointed. With the money I had earned I bought a gun and holster, for our games of 鈥楥owboys and Indians鈥�. Unfortunately they cost more than two and sixpence but I was allowed to pay the extra weekly. That was my first encounter with buying something on the 鈥榥ever never鈥�. The shop where I bought the gun was called 鈥淔oxon鈥檚鈥�. It was situated near the road bridge over the canal.

I can also recall some evacuees coming to our school from Birmingham during 1941. This led to several fights between the 鈥淏rummies鈥�, 鈥淭affies鈥� and 鈥淐hathamites鈥�. The youngsters from Birmingham seemed to me at the time to be very rough and they also had something of a chip on their shoulder.

Another memory is rather sad, because it is of a local lad who went swimming in the 鈥楧istillery鈥� which even in the heat of summer was very cold. I believe the locals thought that he got cramp and sadly he drowned. The other memory also involves water but a little happier, although I don鈥檛 suppose the sheep thought so. At the end of Gwyddon Road was a mountain track and about three miles along the track was the sheep dip. They would gather them in off the mountain and force them through the dip, completely immersing them. That was very interesting to watch.

Also another rather sad memory was of a little boy who I made friends with, his name was John and he was the son of the local 鈥楤obby鈥�. He was below school age, but I used to go and play with him very often. Sadly his Dad was very ill, although he carried on working to within a few days of his dying. Of course his Mum had to move out because it was a Police house annexed to the police station. The pity of it was that I had no idea of where they went so I lost touch completely.

I did see Mr and Mrs Davage two or three times after the war. It must have been very hard work for them to take on two boys, not having a family of their own, although before they took us on they had two sisters who were nothing but trouble. I do know who they are but I won鈥檛 name them. Mr and Mrs Davage vowed not to take on any more, but of course, they changed their minds because they could have any kids foisted on them. At least coming to the Reception School they could more or less choose who they wanted. For that I think my brother and I were eternally grateful. Mrs Davage during the school holidays would take me to places such as Newport, Cardiff and Barry also to other places up the valley, such as Blackwood and Crumlin, but a lot of the school holiday was spent playing by the brook and up in the mountains. All in all I had a pretty good time.

It is now late September and Christmas is starting to beckon, which brings me to another memory of the time we (myself and two others) went carolling. We hadn鈥檛 any success money wise so we decided to go and serenade Mr Davage, Mrs Davage having gone out (probably to a whist drive). I persuaded Mr Davage into giving us threepence, one penny each. Mr Davage was not pleased about that either. I think I had to give my penny back. Mrs Davage would sometimes take me to a whist drive with her when Mr Davage had to do some night work. I found that very boring indeed.

Another of my recollections is of visiting Newport, which we did quite often with our parents and Mrs Davage. We would go to Newport by both train and bus, either way we would go by a very big scrap yard. I think it was near a place called Rogerstone. In this scrap yard we saw dozens, if not hundreds of aircraft that had been shot down. The only aircraft we could see were German. They were placed along the side next to the road and railway. I suspect that our aircraft were hidden away in the middle in order to keep up morale.

By the Brook that I mentioned earlier, was the Recreation Ground, which I believe we called the Park. It was quite large because it was big enough for the fairground and also for the LDV to parade there. There were also swings, a round-a-bout, slide and something that resembled a battering ram on a framework at each end. This could be worked up like a swing, from each end. Along the wooden ram were a series of handles which we would cling on to for dear life, because we used to go completely mad on this thing and try to make the ram touch the metal cross supports. This was very hairy indeed because one had to sit in the middle and still risk decapitation, should you not duck in time.

One summer鈥檚 day while playing by and in the Brook, a lot of youngsters were playing on the equipment. I heard the most horrendous scream. A young local girl using the slide had a most awful tear on her thigh several inches long. I had previously seen some boys messing about at the foot of the slide and one of them had undone a wood screw, left the head raised, which she caught her leg on. It was rather gory.

Another thing I can remember is a funfair setting up in the same area in Abercarn with dodgems, carousel and various other side shows. The only tune the carousel played was 鈥淎mapola鈥�; it was very popular at the time. I still remember it today.

When I used to say my prayers at night, either kneeling beside the bed or in it, I used to ask God that should Hitler drop a bomb on my Mum and Dad would he please make sure that one was dropped on me, also I used to blow kisses to them.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.