Part Three - A Trek through old Mumbles Village by Stuart Batcup
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A Trek through old Mumbles Village
and Thistleboon
Part Three
The Hill House Tavern to Higher Lane
We finished the last part of the trek still at Thistleboon Stores, No 1 Thistleboon Road enjoying an imaginary pint there when it was an Ale House.
We finished the last part of the trek still at Thistleboon Stores, No 1 Thistleboon Road enjoying an imaginary pint there when it was a Tavern or Ale House.
This could not have taken place in either the 1840s or the 1950s for, as appears from Brian E Davies’ excellent book on the Mumbles and Gower Pubs it was a pub called ‘the Hill House’ which only existed in the second half of the nineteenth century.
The tales of after-hours drinking and dancing in 1862 and its closure in 1907 for being a ‘troublesome house’ which Brian describes are well worth reading.
As Brian says there was an earlier pub of the same name with a malthouse further up the lane which I was told about as a child, but not much was known about it.
With the marvels of modern technology, it is possible to find out a lot more, and a simple search of the National Library Website takes you to an overlay of every parcel of arable land in Wales shown on the 1844 Tithe Map. The overlay reproduces the details set out in a Schedule to the Act of each parcel including Farm name, Field name, Land use, Occupier and Owner.
It does not identify the pub, but it does identify the nearby Parcel No 1107 as ‘Glebe land with a Malt House and Arable Garden’, then owned and occupied by ‘Nicholls, Johns and Thomas’ of ‘The Farm’ (otherwise ‘ Craig y Mor'’) Thistleboon. There will be more to be read about the Nicholls family later.
I am indebted to Marilyn Jones the Swansea Local Studies Librarian for drawing my attention to the fact that this earlier ‘Hill House’ had once belonged to her husband’s Great Grandfather, Evan Williams of Killay as an investment. It came up for sale by Auction twice within two years in 1877 and 1879.
On the first occasion it was described as:
Copyhold Property for sale at the Cameron Arms Swansea by Messrs Edward Roberts and Sons on Tuesday, March 13th 1877. “Lot 1 All that DWELLING-HOUSE with Garden front and side, situate near the top of Thistleboon Lane, Mumbles, formerly a public-house, and known as Hill-house, also two cottages adjoining. This lot is let to the several tenants at rents producing £14 a year” Solicitors: Brown and Collins, Worcester-place Swansea (my old firm).
On the second occasion it was described as:
Copyhold Property for sale at the Waterloo Stores, Mumbles by Messrs Beynon & Hughes on Monday March 24th 1879 “All that COPYHOLD DWELLINGHOUSE with gardens in the front and side thereof situate near the top of Thistleboon Lane Mumbles formerly a Public House, and known as ‘Hill House’ now in the occupation of Thomas Lloyd at weekly rent of 2s.6d. Also, all those two Copyhold Cottages adjoining thereto, now in the occupation of James Cook and William Jones, at a weekly rent for 3s for both”. Solicitor E Austin Williams Castle Street Swansea.
This property I was told about is now 19 Thistleboon Road shown on the modern photo just taken by me. In the nineteen fifties it was occupied by the Kift Family. Margaret, Nancy and Isobel were the daughters with lots of older brothers!
The old Malt House and Garden was on the opposite side of the lane to the left-hand side of the photo. Later records show that this lane was known as ‘Thistleboon Lane’, and as you proceeded up it the first house that you came to on your left was called ‘Westward Ho’ This was the home of the McKay family, including Don ‘the Duke’ Mckay and his Uncle Percy both remembered for their connections with the Mumbles ‘Tivoli’. Next was the other half ‘Highcliffe’ the home of Hilary Mackenzie and her mother Mrs Thomas. Both families have contributed to the History of Mumbles Website with articles entitled A stroll around old Thistleboon > and A Thistleboon Childhood > respectively. Both Articles are well worth a read. This house seems to be the ‘Marine Villa’ shown on the copy of the 1844 Tithe Map below.
For completeness I should add that the last house on the left hand side of that lane, which has ‘Thistleboon House’ in concrete lettering, was the home of Jack Gammon the Lifeboat Mechanic and his family, and the last building on the right hand side was the old Slaughterhouse. All of these properties and ‘the Milking Bank’ can be seen as they were in about 1960 from the next photo taken by Jeff Court from ‘St Ives’. At that time the Slaughterhouse was well run down and used by Jack Wynter to make concrete fence posts and slabs. I always thought that the Milking Bank was so named as the cows used it on their way back to the Farm for milking, but Christine Discombe hands down a tale that it was so called as it was a quiet corner for mothers to breast feed their offspring. Who knows (cf ‘Milk Wood’)!
Coming back to ‘Hill House’, apart from the fact that the rent had almost doubled to nearly £24 a year, both sets of Sale Particulars confirm that the property had been closed as a Pub for a while by 1877. The later Pub was also owned by Thomas Nicholls whose much larger ‘Brewhouse etc’ is clearly shown opposite ‘The Farm’ on Plunch Lane on the 1844 Tithe Map, which also belonged to him. It is fair to assume that the Nicholls family replaced one pub with the other. As I start my ascent of Thistleboon Road I am mindful that before World War 1 the houses on the road only went from No 1 to the Thistleboon Orphanage and as the Tithe Map shows, it was mainly fields beyond. Who then was the resident of Thistleboon named Slater who wrote to the Oystermouth Urban District Council in November 1908?
The new fog-horn
Who then was the resident of Thistleboon named Mr G W Slater who wrote to the Oystermouth Urban District Council in November 1908? He wrote requesting the council to support a letter he was forwarding to the Swansea harbour superintendent, in which he appealed to that official to either remove or mitigate the serious nuisance caused to residents (and invalids more especially) by the fog-horn placed on Mumbles Head a year or so ago. If the thing were necessary it would, of course, have to be borne, but he was informed that it was not, and that the same end could be obtained by other and less objectionable means. It was intolerable that dying persons should be tortured in this way in their last hours, as was, unfortunately the case at his house.
The Chairman, whilst not agreeing with the statement that the fog-horn was unnecessary, described the sound as most unnatural, and not a bit like any fog-horn he had ever heard. He also considered that it was sounded when not needed.
It was decided to ask the authorities to see that the horn was not unnecessarily sounded”
This account appeared in The Cambrian of 12 November 1908, but there was no follow up. All I can say is that the foghorn has always been a hazard of living at Thistleboon, and probably nothing was done. Fifty years later it often used to wake me as a child in the middle of the night, accompanied by some pretty terrifying nightmares and a cold sweat. Below the Orphanage the sound cannot have been as bad as it was on the top, so, perhaps Mr Slater was another of Mumbles’ ‘peculiar’ people?
The Mixen Bell
The other ‘sound in the night’ was and is the tolling of the Mixen Bell at Limeslade which has always been a reassuring comfort. After living for eight years in exile in ‘Leafy Surrey’ under one of the Heathrow Airport Flight Paths, and within earshot of the constant hum of the M25 and the Parakeets in the mornings, it was wonderful to come back to the Mixen Bell and the Seagulls in the mornings in 2012
Time to move on with my nineteen fifties trek up Thistleboon Road. The first encounter would be with that young couple Les and Hazel Batty who lived with Hazel’s Mum Mrs Perry and baby Mark at No 7, with a wave to Pauline Durk (now Lloyd) and her Dad the butcher on No 2 on the bank opposite. A quick word with John ‘val der kwk’ Edwards and his sister Maureen at No 8 (now Igam Ogam) would be followed with some Wolf Cub chat with Peter Davies and his sister Barbara at No 11. Barbara was ‘Baloo’ to the 1st Mumbles Pack and I was very fond of her. Occasionally I would see their Mum or Dad, but most of their time was occupied running the T & G Davies family bakery at Gloucester Place.
From there, there was and is an amazing view out over the Bay. I’m not sure how clear the copy of the Water Colour of this view comes out. It was painted by Gareth Thomas and given to me by my Staff in 1992 when I left Practice as a Solicitor, and has been a constant anchor since
Behind No 11 are Nos 13, 15 and 17 beyond the arched entrance opposite the old ‘Hill House’ pub, but I have a niggle that these three cottages might have been those described in the Sale Particulars? Alongside there is the steep path leading up to the Mumbles Hill. That was a good place for sledging too, but no more as it is now stepped.
Forging on to what became Pauline Williams’ Garden Gnome fantasy at No 21, I recall that Annie who worked in the Kitchen of the Mumbles Pier Hotel with May Bartlett lived with Pauline for some while. She ruled that kitchen with a rod of iron dishing out the Pier’s famous stuffed chicken rolls to the Ballroom on Friday and Saturday nights.
The photo of Annie, Elsie, Ruby and me with chicken bones in our hands taken in about 1965 was a rare breach of Annie’s protocols…and ‘Elf’n’Safety’!
Next door at No 23 was where Captain Mock the Water Board man and his wife and daughter Joyce lived. Joyce of course later married David Williams and they lived their married life at Cleveland Avenue with their children James and Kate. Joyce was a ‘much older’ teenager and was entrusted to take me out for walks in my pram when I was a baby with Pamela and Pauline Seacombe who were the same sort of age and lived at 9 Higher Lane.
There is some evidence of this in the photo taken in the front garden of Thistleboon Orphanage in about 1947/48 with me and my sister Sylvia in our Silver Cross pram, and Susan and Pip Wooldridge in theirs.
Joyce and I were always fond of one another and it was a joy for David Silvey and me as Churchwardens in the nineteen eighties to work with David Williams when he was Parish Treasurer. Needless to say, the two families became much closer when James married Katherine, and Alfie and Grace came along.
Next door to the Mocks lived the Francis family. My Mum became very friendly with Betty, a bond that was strengthened by both of their husbands having served together in North Africa during World War 2. Their daughter Christine still lives up the road in New Villas. Then there was Margaret Hanusiak, the Llewelyn and the Vanstone Families.
The road was still very narrow at this point (the present lay-by did not exist) with a high stone wall between it and the back garden of Thistleboon Orphanage. There was a door in the wall up some steps, which gave access to what had been the playground when the building had been a school, which for some reason had a Maypole on it. We used to get in there quite often to play, the great attraction being the Japanese Knotweed that had overgrown the back garden. It was a wonderful place to play Hide and Seek, and when the stalks dried, they made great ‘blow pipes.’ I can’t remember dancing around the Maypole, but I do remember being tied to it! Stuart Turnbull tells me that when the Orphanage was demolished in the nineteen seventies the Maypole went to Murton.
Back on the road there were only a few yards to go before reaching the junction of Thistleboon Road, Higher Lane and Plunch Lane. The last three cottages on the left, Nos 37, 39 and 41 Thistleboon Road, were occupied by three widows. Mrs Curle lived in 37 and was old, Mrs Mackay lived in 39 and she liked children, and Mrs Mayfield lived in 41, and definitely did not like children.
But more of that again.
Stuart Batcup
July 2020Back to : 'A Trek' collection by Stuart Batcup >
Next: Part Four - A Trek . . . > >
Aknowledgements:
Brian E Davies, 'Mumbles and Gower Pubs' page 58, (Tempus Publishing Ltd.)