Hiraethu: (to long for) by Richard Savours

I'm afraid I cannot remember the names of any of the teachers or pupils, or even what I was taught at the school. Everybody knew it as ‘Miss Pinkham's’, of course, and it wasn't until later that I realised that its formal designation was ‘Ynyswern Preparatory School for Girls and Little Boys’. I think there was a notice-board to that effect outside the premises; and I have a vague recollection of what would now be called a logo consisting of the letters YPS in yellow on a green background.

I lost touch with Kenneth and John when, following my father's death in December 1922, we moved back into Swansea, to be near my grandparents who lived in Bernard Street and to enable me and, ultimately, my two brothers and sister to go to Brynmill School. The wheel came full circle and I met up with Kenneth again when I joined Mumbles Probus Club, of which he was a member. Brynmill was a first-class school and I spent 5 happy years there. In 1927 I sat and passed the scholarship exam for the Grammar School, and was due to start there in September of that year. But word then came through that I would be going to the Royal Masonic School at Bushey in Hertfordshire in the following February. As there would have been no point in going to the Grammar School for just one term - and possibly denying someone else a place - it was decided that I should stay on in Brynmill until the end of the year.

Though I cannot be entirely certain that I am one of the children in the Pinkham's photograph, there is another Mumbles photograph to which that uncertainty does not apply.

I mentioned that I was born in Cwmdonkin Terrace, as it happens, some 9 or 10 months after Dylan Thomas's arrival on the scene in the adjoining Cwmdonkin Drive. My mother told me that we played together as toddlers, but I have absolutely no recollection of it. If I had gone on to the Grammar School, I suppose I would have got to know him there. My claim to fame in that connection is a negative one as I may be one of a few men of his generation in Swansea who, if his name came up, would claim NOT to have known Dylan Thomas! Which is a pity, since I have a great admiration for his poetry.

Going away to school in 1928 marked the start of a period of exile from my roots (apart from holiday visits) that lasted nearly 45 years. After leaving school in 1933, I became a Civil Servant, working and living in 8 or 9 different towns in England, Scotland and Wales. I was never without a feeling of nostalgia for Dylan Thomas's ‘ugly lovely town’ and Gower with all it had to offer, but most of the time was resigned to the thought that any hopes of ever getting back here were something of a pipe dream. In fact, I remember saying as much, when on a holiday visit, to a friend who asked, as we were driving across Fairwood Common, whether there was any prospect of my coming back.

However, In 1971 as I was coming to the end of a spell of duty at Inland Revenue headquarters in London, the opportunity presented itself to have some say in the choice of my next posting; and needless to say, I grasped it with both hands. There was a vacancy in our Llanelli office, of which I took charge in 1972. I bought this house in the Mayals and - now retired of course - have been here ever since, enormously contented to be back where I always felt I really belonged.

More: Grandpa was a Grocer by Carol Powell >

... Taylor's Provision Merchants in The Dunns, 1922 is in the background of the earlier photo along with Mrs. Savours (pictured with son, Richard and baby, Norman in the foreground of the photo) might have shopped here.