The Development of The West Cross Housing Estate by Wendy Cope
Photo: The site of West Cross Station, visited by the land train 'Swansea Bay Rider.'
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Linden Avenue ,1948
Linden Avenue , 2020
Table of Contents
An aerial view of Grange Primary School, c1951
THE DEVELOPMENT OF
THE WEST CROSS HOUSING ESTATE
1945 Swansea Council planned the estate to help overcome the shortage of housing which followed the war. Negotiation took place to compulsorily purchase Grange Farm.
GRANGE FARM
When Grange Farm was compulsorily purchased by Swansea Council in 1945 it covered 62 acres which were let on a yearly tenancy to Mr. A. D. Thomas.
Buildings consisted of —
Homestead — Stone with slated roof. Parlour and kitchen on ground floor and 3 bedrooms on first floor.
Old house — Stone with slated roof. 2 rooms on ground floor, 1 fitted with bath and 2 rooms on first floor.
Cowhouse — Stone with slated roof; 10 ties; loft.
Stables — Stone with pantile roof; three stalls and calves cot. A leanto of brick with tile roof, used as a 2 stall stable.
Toolhouse — Brick with a slate roof.
Pigscots (2) — Brick with corrugated iron roof.
Dairy and Coalhouse adjoining — Stone with slate roof.
Earth closet — Stone with slate roof.
Garage and toolshed — Corrugated iron throughout.
The farm was valued at £14,500.
West Cross
By Jacky Dodd
We moved into our new home on 22nd December 1952, when houses were still being constructed all around us on West Cross estate.
I was one of the first pupils at Mayals, was it 1959 or 60?.
Photo: Google Maps.
Houses in Cypress Avenue, West Cross, where the roads are still under construction, as well as the gardens. Photo: around 1953.
From our Facebook page, A History of Mumbles
Criss Barry commented, 'Cypress Avenue,'
Colin Rees added, I am on the left, Colin Craven, my mate is on the right and we are helping my dad.'
John Quinn posted this photo on Fond Memories of Swansea and comented: I moved into 22, Cypress Avenue in May 1953 and in this photo, dated 1955, I am with my friends, Edward Price, John Summers and David Passmore.
Robert Dickie Rhodes, is pictured on his Lambretta at Fairwood Road, in the mid 1960s. We had moved to Cedar Crescent West Cross, in 1950 when the estate was built, where I lived for 26 years. I then got married and it was, for a number of reasons, more convenient to move to Manselton. But I am still very much a Mumbles boy, as I was born in 680 Mumbles Rd Southend, 4 doors away from The Mermaid Hotel.
That Lambretta was my first vehicle which I loved but had to get rid of it as my job required me having a car. A friend told me he had seen the bike in a wonderfully refurbished condition and I would dearly love to be re-united for one last ride before I fall off my perch.
Have you copies of other suitable photos, which you would be willing for us to add here? Please contact co-editors >
1946 Arrangements were made for the erection of 150 temporary aluminium bungalows (pre-fabs) by Kent and Sussex Ltd. and 188 permanent prefabricated British Iron & Steel Federation houses (steel houses) for which R. Costain won the tender.
1947 All 150 aluminium houses were completed. Sometimes the bungalows were ready before the council could provide the services due to shortage of materials such as electric cable.
The first steel houses were completed in September. All were fitted with gas cookers and wash boilers.
1948 Costain completed the 188 steel houses.
More land was purchased to the North of Grange Farm, which belonged to the Clyne Estate, to build another 200 houses.
Some land not yet built upon was made available for allotments
1949 Approval was obtained for a new primary school — Grange.
Plans were drawn up to divert the lower end of West Cross Lane so that instead of joining Mumbles Road opposite the West Cross Inn, it would run parallel to the shore and join Fairwood Road. To do this, the owners of Ty Nant in West Cross Lane exchanged part of their garden which ran down beside the stream, for 1016 yds. of council owned land.
Grange School, West Cross
Grange School Reunion, May 1997
1951 The council planned to build 150 2 & 3 bedroom houses using direct labour and then a further 150 were planned. (West Cross 3 & 4)
1951 It was proposed to extend Fairwood Road to join up the two parts of the estate as building had begun at the Mayals Road end on West Cross 4.
POSTWAR PREFABS
A typical floorplan
1952 Land was put aside for Mayals Primary School (photos later).
1955 99 year lease granted to the Church in Wales for the site of a church and parsonage.
1957 Lease granted to West Cross Community Association to erect a Community Centre.
1958 Land to the rear of Cedar Crescent leased to the Boy Scouts to build a headquarters.
1960 Plans made to erect 12 flatlets for old ladies at the corner of Linden Avenue and Fairwood Road to include a common room and oil fired central heating and to have a female warden. The flatlets to be built by Central Works department at a cost of £20,000.
1961 The flatlets to be called Thomas Harris House. They are the first purpose built flatlets in Wales. The Minister of Housing was asked to perform the opening ceremony. Miss N. P. Moseley was appointed as attendant.
1962 Some prefabs were being pulled down.
1964 William Hancock & Co. Ltd. applied for the site allocated for a public house at the junction of Linden Avenue and Fairwood Road and was granted a 99 year lease.
The erection of 34 traditional dwellings was awarded to Davies Construction Co. (Severn) Ltd.
1965 Upper Boarspit Farm acquired to extend the estate.
1968 Estimate for 177 dwellings at Upper Boarspit, phase 1, was £564,222.
1969 A site in Fairwood Road was chosen for a new fire-station.
1970 Secretary of State for Wales formally opened the first dwellings on the Boarspit estate.
Upper Boarspit, phase 2, to be constructed by the Central Works department.
The last tenants in prefabs in Ilston Place, Warwick Place and Fairwood Road, moved to the Boarspit estate. The last prefabs demolished.
The architect recommended that this site should use the Crux Design method of building produced by Messrs Williamson of Porthcawl and be erected by Central Works department.
Land for a children’s playground set aside at Boarspit.
1971 Application from J. M. Sampson for a lease of land at Elmgrove Road to erect a non-conformist church.
Rees & Kirby’s tender accepted for building 191 dwellings.
1972 20 additional dwellings to be erected on land between the Linden Tree and the new fire station. Rees & Kirby to add these to their contract.
1973 No builders showed interest in tendering for the 200 dwelling Crux Development scheme.
Swansea council’s Housing Committee minutes end in 1973 when West Glamorgan was created but by then most of the land had been built on. The development replacing the prefabs either side of the lower part of Fairwood Lane was completed in the next few years.
Jeanette Williams commented on our Facebook page: 'Lot's of lovely Memories,I can name every Household in the street. We were the tophouse on the left, I think that would be my Dad's car top right,'
Kieth Greenslade added: 'Linder Gammon at the end of the street Jimmy Tayler next door and Bob Morris first house on the right. Great days mid Sixties on.'
THE SHOPS AT ALDERWOOD ROAD
In 1950, 10 shops with maisonettes above were built in Alderwood Road and leases were offered for 21 years at a rent of £150 per annum exclusive of rates.
The earliest potential tenants were —
1. Cooperative Wholesale Society self service grocery
2. “ “ “ butchery
3. John Belli café & ice cream parlour
4. Gwyn Jones chemist
5. A. L. Evans newsagent, tobacconist,
Confectioner & post office.
6. J. H. Barrett fruit, greengrocery & wet fish.
7. Roy Matthews fish and chips
8. Montague Black drapery
Two of these withdrew.
In 1952 one shop was taken by Trevor Dick Barton as a fish and chip shop and café.
In 1953 one shop was leased to Welsh Dry Cleaners Ltd. and another, number 14 Alderwood Road, to Mrs Harriet Morgan, boot and shoe retailer, while South Wales Electricity Board negotiated for a shop for the sale of electrical goods.
In 1955 Mrs Morgan was permitted to carry on an off licence business at her shop and the following year sub-let her premises to P.M. Lock as a baker’s and flour confectionary business.
In 1956 Mrs Freer and Mrs Campbell opened a hairdressing salon and A. M. Lewis became the pharmaceutical chemist.
The last shop, 7 Alderwood Road, failed to find a tenant so it was turned into a bed-sitting room flat.
By 1966 the Coop had 3 shop units, numbers 10, 11, & 12, but there were disputes among the lessees concerning the trading restrictions as more than one shop would like to sell confectionery, cigarettes and tobacco.
There were further changes over the years. By 1985 David Beynon was the proprietor of the chemist’s shop, A. G. Williams was selling fruit and vegetables and frozen food, while number 14 was now Fran’s Wool shop.
In 1998 the shops consisted of —
No. 8 David Beynon, pharmacist.
No. 9 The Meat Loaf, a Happy Shopper store.
Nos. 10, 11, 12. Abdullah’s West Cross Supermarket.
No. 13 West Cross Post Office and newsagent.
No. 14 Movies video shop.
No. 15 M’s International hairdressers.
No. 16 Dick Barton’s fish and chip shop.
Since then the Co-op have bought the pharmacy, the supermarket has changed its name to Best One and No.14 has become a takeaway called Hot Stuff.
For many years there were 2 shops in Mulberry Avenue just below Chestnut Avenue. There was Forrester’s Wine Stores and Pritchards stores selling groceries, sweets and tobacco. Close by was R. C. Roberts Sunnybank Nurseries.
THE WEST CROSS LANE SHOPS
When the Boarspit estate was being built a parade of 6 shops was built at the top of West Cross Lane.
The topmost shop was V. & K. Superstores in 1985, with the hairdressers next to it, while Dickens & Law, chemist and off licence was next to the Chinese Takeaway at the other end of the row.
The topmost shop now belongs to West Cross Community Church, then comes the hairdresser, off licence, newspaper and confectioner, Spar mini market and West Cross Chinese takeaway.
Parkland on the corner of Mulberry Avenue and Elmgrove Road, Sept. 2006
The bus used to run down Mulberry Avenue.
The fare to Oystermouth was 2½d. The return fare was 5d.
Mrs Shenton
THE PARKS DEPARTMENT
The Parks Department - - - to clear the dell on the South side of the stream. The area to the North of the stream, cleared, pathed and maintained for public pleasure, also the woodland to the North of the estate.
Swansea Housing Committee Minutes. 25 October 1961.
Unfortunately some people found this woodland stream a handy dumping ground. In the last few years litter picks have been organised to improve the environment. Now further management of the trees, paths and fences is being carried out.
When my husband left the army after the war we rented a furnished cottage in Newton. We were pleased to be offered one of the new steel houses at West Cross and were about the second family to move in. We were delighted with our new house.
Some of the people who moved in had been living in old army huts at Bracelet and Limeslade.
We had our Coronation party on the ground where Mayals school is now.
Muriel Heckler
West Cross Community Centre
THE BAYWOOD BELLES
The Baywood Belles concert party was formed in 1996 by Angela Hughes and friends with the idea of providing entertainment for people in nursing homes and day centres. Their shows have proved very popular and they have raised large sums for charity and other causes.
In 1992 shopkeepers and shoppers petitioned the council to improve parking outside the shops. Michael and Julia Morgan-Swinhoe of M’s hairdressers presented the petition to Councillors Martin Caton, Maurice Jones and Des Thomas. The parking area was later widened to allow chevron parking.
Evening Post. 19 March 1992.
Mohammed Iqbal, Zahid Abdullah and Shafqat Abdullah of Abdullah’s supermarket. Evening Post. 24 April 1999.
1969 A site in Fairwood Road was chosen for a new fire station.
When the estate was first built, the tenants had problems with 50 or 60 sheep which had been left to graze on the adjacent common by the farmers and which were invading the estate and causing havoc in gardens. They arrived at the crack of dawn, waking residents with their bleating.
In 2004 the school was threatened with closure to make way for the new Welsh language school. Evening Post.11 September 2004.
MAYALS SCHOOL OPENS
The new Mayals County Primary School on Fairwood Road took in its first children in January 1960. It was officially opened on 29th March 1960 by Miss Olive Stewart, newly retired headmistress of Glanmor School for Girls. Built to accommodate 280 children it now has 154 pupils.
Mayals Primary School, the teacher is Mrs. Burgess, 1970s
Pupils nclude: Jill Evans, Gwen Suff, Valerie Feaver, Elizabeth Powell, and Mary Thorpe.Do you know any more names? Please contact Editors >
WEST CROSS FIRE STATION c.1981
WEST CROSS FIRE STATION
The fire station at West Cross was built to replace the old station at Southend, which had itself replaced the original station at the council yard in the Dunns, now the site of the library. The West Cross station cost approximately £46,000 and was officially opened by Councillor Ken Hare on 7th April 1972.
The first major incident for the station was a grass fire and tragically the fire engine left the road in Southend and collided with a tree killing one of the firemen, 24 year old Alan Sherratt, and seriously injuring the Officer in Charge, Arthur Thomas.
The fire station continued to serve South–west Swansea and East Gower until November 1972 when the service was transferred to the new Sketty Green Fire Station.
The building found a new use as a day centre. This still operates today.
from Flames over the Tawe by Keith Mills.
West Cross Fire Station Green Watch, c.1981 from Terry Ryan
Other Firemen Include- Searching to add these photos
West Cross firemen including Jeff Jones, Nick Auerbach, Jeff Wilkins, Terry Greenslade, Steve Williams, Station Officer Bob Rees and Chief Fire Officer Jim Windsor arrive at the new Sketty Green station. Evening Post.27 Nov.1992.
Firemen of White Watch leave West Cross fire station. Ev. Post. Nov. 1992.
The official opening of the fire station. Cllr. H. Minney, J. G. Gwilliam, architect, W. F. Dancey, chief fire officer, R. J. Morse, his deputy, and Cllr, Ken Hare, mayor. Evening Post. 8 April 1972.
The official opening of the fire station. Cllr. H. Minney, J. G. Gwilliam, architect, W. F. Dancey, chief fire officer, R. J. Morse, his deputy, and Cllr, Ken Hare, mayor. Evening Post. 8 April 1972.
THE LINDEN CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
The Linden Christian Fellowship began in the early 1960s with the creation of a Sunday School that met first at Mayals School and later at West Cross Community Centre where services began to be held on Sunday mornings and evenings. By the early 1970s the Sunday School attracted about 100 children on Sunday afternoons.
Although a plot of land at Elmgrove Road was found and permission to build a church on it was obtained from the council in 1971 it took a long time to find sufficient finance to start building and it was not until January 1983 that the Linden Christian Centre opened its doors for the first time. Much of the electrical, painting and decorating work was done by church members.
In summer the church has at times met at Southend or Caswell and baptisms have been conducted in the sea as well as in the pool in the church. When Mumbles had a carnival, the church members would enter a float in the parade.
In the early 1990s Linden folk became involved with aid to Albania, working especially to improve the conditions at an orphanage at Vlore. A few years later they turned their attention to Zambia and gave a minibus to a church there.
The Centre has always had a thriving youth group but they were concerned about other teenagers who had nowhere to meet. Linden Christian Fellowship members bought a building at Southend and in 2001 opened the Red Café as a safe non alcoholic meeting place which provides activities and training.
THE RED CAFÉ
The building at Southend has three stories. The ground floor is the café. There are training rooms above and the top floor is the manager’s flat. In January 2001, Kristina Williams and Helen Hunter were appointed on a job share basis as project managers. The café began by opening three nights a week and attracted about 30 young people a night. The first workshops offered were DJ-ing and music production.
The 1988 summer play scheme with a circus theme. Wendy Vent, the organiser and ringmaster in the front. Evening Post. 9 August 1988.
A Linden Christian Fellowship meeting at Caswell - - - - and at Southend.
The Linden float in a Mumbles Carnival.
A baptism in the Centre’s pool - - - - and in the sea.
John Sampson, a well known leader at Linden, who was awarded the MBE in 2004. Evening Post. 12 June 2004.
A survey on love was carried out in the village one Valentine’s Day.
Sorting goods collected to be shipped to an orphanage in Albania.
At the beginning of the 1970s we were living in Clase. In 1973 we were given a key to a new property in Ilston Way, West Cross. Having lived in Norton Road until after my marriage I was delighted to be coming home.
When I opened the front door I was surprised to see two sets of stairs, one down and one up. We then discovered it was a split level home with the living and dining rooms, kitchen and WC upstairs and three bedrooms and bathroom downstairs. The house was built to take in the beautiful view over Swansea bay from the kitchen and the view of Mumbles from the lounge window.
New visitors still look surprised when taken upstairs.
After thirty odd years here I love it and find it very convenient.
Pam Buller
FROM PREFAB TO NEW HOUSE AT WEST CROSS
On a very cold day in December 1968 we moved into our prefab in Kenilworth Place, West Cross. Having been born and brought up in Mumbles and now living in Swansea it was a wonderful opportunity to “come home”.
The prefab was a two bedroomed unit with a large living area, bathroom and kitchen. The heating system was a coal fire which also heated the towel rail in the bathroom. I will always remember the day that I set the chimney on fire and the firemen being on the roof sending gallons of water down the chimney, what a mess!
The layout was excellent with every space put to good use, if there was a gap then a cupboard would be built into it! The kitchen was way ahead of its time and was the first truly fitted space that we had seen. Running along the length of the main wall sat a washer/boiler, cooker and fridge all powered by gas. The rest of the space housed store cupboards with a narrow bit at the end which had been boxed in for use as a broom store, it was fantastic!
A typical prefab bathroom
The kitchen window overlooked a large enclosed back garden complete with clothes line and lilac tree. The floors were made of Canadian pine and as we were not to be there for long we decided to varnish them and throw rugs down, it was so easy to maintain.The highlight came for us in April 1969 when my daughter was born at home in the prefab with neighbours popping in and out and our local doctor boiling “things” in an egg saucepan in the kitchen.
We had wonderful memories of our time spent in our little home but in 1973 we had to move across West Cross Lane to the new development in Ilston Way as Kenilworth Place was to be demolished to make way for new flats on the site.
We were told that our new house was split level but did not know what that meant until we moved in. We now had three bedrooms and full central heating which were great advantages and the views from the windows were magnificent. The only worry that people in these new houses had was how to afford the £6 a week rent. We were very comfortable there and stayed for 36 years.
Mary Adams
HOLY CROSS CHURCH
The site of the church and parsonage were leased to the Church in Wales in March 1955 with a commitment to contributing £441 10s toward the cost of making up the road on the frontage. The building, designed by C. W. Mercer, was to be used as both church and church hall, with the sanctuary at one end which could be closed off by a screen, and a stage at the other end. It would cost about £20,000 with some of the money coming from war damage compensation for churches destroyed in the Swansea blitz and not rebuilt.
By the middle of November the foundations had been completed. A concrete cross was cast above the foundations which was later secured to the wall of the church. The new church was opened on 29th October 1956 when it was dedicated and named Holy Cross. There was a procession from Bellevue House where the congregation had been meeting while building was progressing. On November 11th the Bishop consecrated the altar and the first Eucharist was held. The bell tower was added later and houses the bell which originally hung at St Faith’s church in St Helen’s Road.
The church was licensed for weddings in 1961 and the first wedding was that of Sunday School teacher Brian Morgan and Beryl Nicholls.
Until 1974 Holy Cross was within the parish of Oystermouth but in September that year the Northern part of that parish was separated to form the parish of Llwynderw with its own two churches of Holy Cross and Clyne Chapel and with its own vicar, whereas it had previously been served by a curate. The first vicar was Rev Anthony Pierce who is now Bishop of Swansea and Brecon.
In 1978 plans were made to build a separate church hall behind the church. This was achieved with a grant from the Manpower Commission under a job creation scheme and was opened in January 1979.
In August 1993 Llwynderw had a new vicar, Rev George Bennett, who stayed in the parish until 2006.
The induction of the first vicar of Llwynderw, Rev Anthony Pierce, in 1974.
D. J. Harris, J. R. Winter (Holy Cross wardens), Canon David Walker, Ven H. C. Williams (Archdeacon of Gower), Rev Anthony Pierce, Bishop J. J. Thomas, Canon W. C. Williams (Rural Dean of Lwchwr), Canon J. E. C. Hughes (Vicar of Oystermouth), J. Evans, E. Davies (Clyne Chapel wardens).
DAYS IN THE FIELD AND ON THE BEACH
My Mum was a Mumbles born girl and my Dad an East-sider. When I was seven we moved to Heathwood Road in West Cross. There, my sister Sandy and I spent an idyllic childhood. In the school holidays this alternated between time spent in the field outside the house and on the beach nearby.
In those days the rather marshy field was only mowed once a year, not regularly as it is today. We, with our friends, some of whom lived locally and others who came to holiday with their grandparents, spent many happy hours trying to catch butterflies and ladybirds which abounded there. We would put them in jam jars accompanied by pieces of dock leaf and ‘study’ them before letting them fly free.
Walking waist high among grasses and meadow flowers such as dandelion, buttercup, clover, lady’s smock, ragged robin, sorrel, wild orchid and yellow iris, we gathered bunches for our mothers to display. To this day my ideal summer decoration is a small bunch of wild flowers on my kitchen window sill. In late August the men would arrive to mow the grass and leave piles of grass for us to play in. We had endless fun making ‘houses’ and haystacks to jump on.
Sometimes we made ‘perfume’ from lavender flowers or rose petals from the garden and were invariably amazed when it turned rancid within a week! Somehow we always convinced ourselves that it would be perfect the next time
Beach days were spent swimming both morning and evening, if the tide was right. Our costumes were made of a crinkly material which sagged when full of water! On the evenings when the tide was out we would play games of cricket on the beach with a pile of stones or even the garden spade as a wicket. During the day we would make sand houses with shaped sandy beds and kitchens into which we would invite our neighbours.
Sometimes we would climb the trees in the cutting at West Cross > (another story) to wave to the upstairs passengers on the Mumbles train. On other occasions it was peaceful and private just to sit on a branch hidden by leaves, absorbed in my School Friend weekly magazine or an Enid Blyton Famous Five book
Carol Powell (nee Symmons)
Mrs Coats cottage which used to stand on the Mumbles Road opposite Grange Army TA Depot,. A painting by Carol Symmons, 1957. The same gate is seen in a Victorian photo, shown below.
Today, on the road outside the Grange Army TA Depot, Mumbles Road, West Cross
Pre 1890, on the road outside The Grange and Mrs Coats's Cottage. The gate mentioned earlier is on the right. After 1890, the railway was transfered to the shore. This is the site of today's promenade.
Its story is told in an article by Wendy Cope.
West Cross Hotel - Fires at West Cross 1896 and 1913 by Kate Jones ->
The Pub re-opened after the fire on 15 April 1897 as the West Cross Hotel .
The Pub re-opened after the fire on 15 April 1897 as the West Cross Hotel .
The modern West Cross Hotel
Advert 1920s
West Cross Station
From West Cross, looking towards Norton For over twenty years, the anti-tank blocks were a feature alongside the track
The electric train at West Cross Station - looking towards Blackpill c1955
At West Cross Station - looking towards Blackpill, 1950s
The Land Train near the same spot, July 2018
GATHERING COCKLES
Every September our family would get together to walk out across the beach at low tide at West Cross to gather cockles. Armed with rakes and buckets, some would use the rakes to uncover the cockles which nestled just below the surface of the sand, while others would then gather them into pails.
We would then struggle back home with our heavy cargoes, which would then be washed and put into clean water with a ‘feed’ of oatmeal, as my grandmother always insisted that they had to have a good feed inside them!
Next day they would be put in large pans of water and brought to the boil. After cooking and cooling, the by-now open shells would be emptied by hand. This was a laborious task only lightened by sneaking a few to eat without my mother knowing. Later, the remainder could be eaten cold sprinkled with vinegar and pepper, accompanied by bread and butter, or fried in bacon fat with little cubes of bread and eaten hot with laverbread (often gathered from Bracelet Bay) and bacon.
In later years the bay became so polluted that notices appeared on the sea wall advising people that the cockles from Swansea Bay were not fit to be eaten, and so our September excursions came to an end.
Carol Powell
My adventurous and generous parents would jet us off to the West Indies for Christmas and to European resorts for Easter but I was never happier than during the summer months when, with my younger brother Andrew, I spent most of the summer holidays with our maternal grandparents at Heathwood Road, West Cross.
Every morning there was an exciting expectancy when we woke up in the little terraced house with the pebbledash walls. From the bedroom window we could see across the shimmering sea to Mumbles pier where our Bampa would take us, as a treat, to see the lifeboat and buy us commemorative pencils.
Straight after breakfast we would cross the field, where the long grass tickled our legs as we ran, to see my best friend Sandy. We trampled our own path between the two houses because we used it as a short cut so often. The three of us would then hold hands across the main road, watched from the window by Sandy’s mum, and head for our small private universe, ‘Lilliput Bay’.
We could spend hours on the beach playing make-believe games or we’d jump off a high concrete block onto the sand until our knees ached or search the beach for seaweed to pop and shells to collect. We’d sit on a tree branch to wave to passengers on the Mumbles train and hope to get a glimpse of our great-uncle Cyril in his inspector’s uniform.
We’d hide when we heard gran shouting for us to come home for dinner and at the end of the day we would sit on the stone step at the front of the house, look out to sea and consider ourselves the luckiest and happiest of Children.
Jennifer Secombe
Jenny, age 8
This is what remains of an old mile stone on the Mumbles Road set in the hedge between Alderwood Road and the bus stop below the shops. It used to say 4 miles to Swansea and 1 mile to Mumbles.
Have you noticed it?
GRANGE SCHOOL VISIT THE WEST CROSS EXHIBITION
Children from Grange School, West Cross, visited Ty Hanes in Dunns Lane, Mumbles, to see the exhibition about the growth of the West Cross estate. What was formerly farmland began to be built upon at the end of the Second World War with an estate of prefabs and steel houses. Over the next 30 years the estate grew to engulf all the farms and the community developed with the building of community centres, churches and schools. One mother was delighted to find herself on a Mayals school class photograph and the children recognised another mother. The boys especially enjoyed the section about the fire station, which is no longer there, and a display about the Territorial Army base at the Grange.
The editor is searching for copies of these photos which include –
John Blake, Clive Twells, Christopher Gee, Jean Twells, Anita Halliday, Mary Thomas, Audrey Riley, Brenda Roberts.
Another photograph includes – Colin Riley, Maxine Onson, John Bevan, Anita Atherton, Geoff Griffith, Geoff Riley, Viv Williams, Billy Thomas, Colin Riley, Dennis Bevan, Hughie Picton, Peter Evans, Lyn Bevan, Tanya Armstrong.
Have you copies of these, or other suitable photos, which you would be willing for us to add here?
We would like to acknowledge contributions towards the West Cross exhibition from —
West Glamorgan Archives
Swansea University Archives
Swansea Library Service
Swansea Museum
South Wales Evening Post
Swansea Leader
Mumbles News
The Children’s Society
Captain Gerry Briggs & Russell Williams of the T. A.
Sue Barr
Colin McRae
Dorothy Evans
Bryan James
Caroline Davies & Roy Estcourt of Brynhyfryd
Bob Harragan
Gary Gregor
Alan Thomas
John Morgan
Hilda Venn
John Sampson
John Tancock
Keith Mills
Bryan Taylor
Therese Griffiths
Gaye Mortali
Jean Twells
Mary Adams
Pam Buller
Jennifer Secombe