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Our father, Brinley McKay lived with his parents, Harry and Esther, his brothers, Cyril, Archie, Percy, Sidney and Louie and his sister, Edith in a cottage directly opposite Thistleboon Orphanage. Next door lived his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Rees. Later, they moved to a big house, nearby known as Westward Ho! Our mother, Esther was one of the two daughters of Charles and Edith Jackson who lived at 21, Village Lane.

On Higher Lane was a house known as 'The Blossoms' which was the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Evans, where flowering plants of all descriptions were grown in the nursery gardens. Mrs Evans was a recognised horticulturist who grew the most beautiful flowers in the green houses. On passing there one day, Brinley came across a huge tortoise. He picked it up and took it to Mrs Evans who was overjoyed as it had disappeared many years before and had for some reason reappeared. As a reward Brinley was able to choose any plant he liked, so he chose a bright red polyanthus.

Other people who Brinley remembered with admiration were Mr Pelosi, his wife and children, who kept a shop and cafe at Southend (pictured). Brinley and other local boys would be invited to visit them on Christmas evening for tea, followed by a raffle for boxes of chocolates

One afternoon, Brinley was there with his mother to collect something. He remembered that at the top of Lambswell was an old iron seat where a young man who was a soldier and a young lady were seated. They both seemed very sad. Some days later it was discovered that for reasons unknown, they had bound themselves together and thrown themselves from the top of the cliff into the sea. The young man perished but the young girl, no doubt against her wishes, survived.

In his childhood, Brinley attended services at the Wesleyan Chapel, which at that time were also held in a converted cottage in Village Lane. The preachers were Mr. Macnamara and Mr Edmund Phillips and the organist was Chrissie Skinner.

At the Castleton Gospel Hall, the Superintendent was Mr. Wilcox and Preacher was Mr. Edwin Varley. Sunday-school teachers were Mr William Bevan and Mr Fisher. They used to run Summer Outings, travelling together in a charabanc. The women members would see to the catering and the setting up of tables.

Other memorable characters in the 1920s were the French onion sellers who would arrive in Swansea Bay and lay anchor off Mumbles around the beginning of September. They would stay for a few days and sell their cargoes of harvested onions. They were known to the locals as 'Shwni Onion Men'. Grandma Esther McKay always welcomed them with cups of tea and home-made cakes. On one occasion, they told her that their fellow villagers at home had been struck down with food poisoning, from eating mussels which had been gathered from the rocks near their village. Grandma suggested that if they cooked them again they should place a few onions in the pot to 'draw out' the poisons and then discard the onions.

Permanent fishing nets in the bay were owned by the Lawson family and the fish were collected by Mr. Davies who had a pony and cart.

The girls' grandfather, Harry McKay was an engineer at the mines and a number of Mumbles boys were employed there too, including Uncle Archie and William Thomas who, one day saved a young boy from drowning at Bracelet Bay and who was destined to lose his own life in the 1947 lifeboat disaster.

The story was told that no man would walk alone as it was believed a woman dressed in white would appear and walk in the woodlands during the night. They would gather at Blackpill to walk the lonely valley as there would be safety in numbers. One night having missed the group, Harry and William walked together to work the night shift and saw the woman in white who passed them not uttering a word.

Talking of ghosts, our other grandmother, Edith Jackson told of an incident when she was standing at her front door and horses and a carriage passed her and vanished into thin air. The horses were wearing their funeral plumage!

Uncle Cyril was a splendid ploughman, who worked at Woolacott's Farm and could plough the straightest furrow with a team of horses, led by a mare called Doll. He also gardened at the 'Home of the Good Shepherd' at West Cross, which was a home for orphans.

Other articles concerning Thistleboon

Thistleboon Orphanage: extracts

from the autobiography of Amy Winters

A Thistleboon Childhood

by Hilary Mackenzie

My mother was an Air Raid Warden

at Thistleboon by Michael Llewellyn

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More: Discover the area >