The Old Village of Newton

Church and Chapel

Public Houses

There were four public houses in the old village—The Rock and Fountain, The Ship and Castle, The Ship and the Caswell Inn.

The Ship was a small public house which was replaced after it went out of business, by the Garage. The Caswell Inn has also vanished. It was situated in Nottage Road, probably opposite Roger Woollacott’s Butcher’s Shop. Beer was delivered to the two surviving public houses in casks. It came from Hancock’s, ­the brewers, on a dray pulled by strong handsome shire horses. It was a great pull coming up the hill, but even worse going down. Heavy brake shoes were put on the wheels of the dray to lessen the strain on the horses.

Newton Garage

The first garage in Newton replaced ‘The Ship’ public house. It occupies the same site today—albeit in a very different building than it did in the 1930s. There were few cars then needing servicing, petrol and oil. Jim Davies was the owner and mechanic. Tragedy struck the family when Jim’s youngest daughter, Mary came down Nottage Road on a scooter, ran into the wall and died instantly. The close-knit small village community was stunned. Everyone in the village attended the funeral, including every child from the village school. 

John Ace took over the garage in 1957 and made many improvements. One of his customers, Stuart Thomas, a local solicitor who lived in ‘The Dingle’ at Newton Villas, commissioned John to service his very posh Alpha Romeo car—making sure that the driver, Joe, stayed with it—even sleeping in it! When that was completed, he commissioned John to purchase a caravan for Dylan Thomas’ wife, Caitlin. By this time, the two cottages adjoining the garage had been demolished and the new garage was larger and had more modern facilities to deal with the increased number of vehicles, as well as an extended area for petrol pumps and vehicle parking.

The next owners were Mr. and Mrs. Greenslade. They employed mechanics but Sally Greenslade saw to customer bookings, the bills and the accounts. Sadly her life ended tragically. She was found dead in one of the vehicles by a mechanic.

The two chief mechanics decided to take over the business and the garage was run by Stuart and Robert Mills.  

The Post Office

The original post office in Newton was in the old off-licence, next to the Rock and Fountain. Before 1898, Miss Gibbs became Post-Mistress. She had come from Cardiff and took up her duties at the tender age of 18. Later, the present Post Office was built on the site of a little white stone cottage next door to the Ship and Castle/Newton Inn. In front of this cottage in the middle of the road, stood the village pump.

Miss Gibbs expanded her business in the new Post Office, selling items of clothing and newspapers, which came down to Mumbles on the old Mumbles steam train and were carried up to Newton by the paper boys. In 1914, Miss Gibbs married Mr. Vosper Bevan of Mumbles and they lived in the Post Office. Denzil Bevan was born there.

The next Post-Master was Mr. Ironside, who had a bungalow in Slade Road with a very large garden and next to it were allotments. Later, the land was sold for The Orchard and Sherringham Drive developments.

Mrs. Phyllis Williams and her son, Raymond ran the later Post Office and shop in the same building. The village pump was removed in about 1927.

At the top of Nottage Road, next to Woollacott’s Farm was Newton School. It had been standing there since before 1860, providing the village children with an education for which they paid ‘school pence’—usually 2 ‘old pence’ per week.

              The little school looked like a farmhouse. which was stone built and white-washed every spring. The schoolrooms behind were light and airy with high ceilings and long windows. There were plain board floors, which were scrubbed white by the caretakers, Mrs. Luckham and Mrs. Ivy Barry, both of Nottage Road. The heavy wooden desks could seat two children. They had heavy iron supports, which could give you a nasty bruise. These desks were always well polished by the caretakers. There was a coal fire in each of the two schoolrooms, which were tended by the teachers.

            There were 15 elm trees in the playground, which gave great scope for imaginative play. The toilets were outside, froze in the winter and in the summer, boys were sent to the village pump, to collect water. The youngest children used small blackboards and chalk for their first figures and letters. Later, they used pencils with lined or squared paper. At the top end of the school, they used pen and ink. The ink was blue-black and the inkwells were washed out each Friday afternoon and refilled on Monday morning, when each child was given a clean square of blotting paper. 

It changed hands, the new owners being Mr. and Mrs. Griffiths who continued to run it as a restaurant/hotel. When they left the new owners converted it into two houses.

          Although it remained almost the same for 100 years, since the 1960s the Old School has gone through great changes.

The Newton children now had a totally new environment, with the luxury of playing fields, new furniture, a large assembly hall and many other advantages. There was one disadvantage however. The narrow entrance to Slade Road made for great difficulties. It was dangerous for the children going to and fro and difficult for large delivery vans, the fire engine and the ambulance.

                     Parents protested that the road should have been widened before the school was built or occupied. Eventually Pear Tree Cottage which stood at the entrance to Slade Road was demolished for road widening, as well as another cottage at the end of Whitestone Lane. We now have a very wide entrance to Slade Road and therefore to the school. Today, the school has an additional entrance at the back of the playing field, through Hatherleigh Drive.

                    The school at Slade Road could not be a greater contrast to the Old School at the top of Nottage Road.

Around the village, there were many large houses, where the affluent people lived. They gave employment to many of the villagers, as cooks, housemaids and gardeners etc.

 On the edge of the village, at the lower end of Highpool lane and looking majestically down Newton Road, stands the Manor House. It was built in 1861 by the Rev. Secretan Jones for his fiancée. No expense was spared. it was built in the style of a French chateau. The roof slates were imported from Belgium, the metal window furniture from France. French tradesmen built the house.

          Yet, in spite of all the style, the story goes that his fiancée jilted him and they never lived together in his wonderful house.

          The Manor House still stands there and has many occupants. It is one of the unchanged houses of Newton.

 Havergal House was originally called Park Villa and was where Frances Havergal stayed.

Caswell House was a large house dating from Edwardian times. it had a nursery wing, a cellar, two kitchens, dining room, sitting room and conservatory.

          it was sold for development in the early 1990s. It was demolished and replaced by ten two-bedroom luxury apartments, known as Victoria Court.

Strathmore House was built on the edge of Newton, in Southward lane. It was a gentleman’s residence with a wonderful outlook across Mumbles and the bay. It had large gardens and a tennis court. Phillip Birkinshaw and his family lived there before the war. The tennis courts have been replaced by a detached house. Strathmore was sold to become a nursing home—still to be known as Strathmore House Nursing Home.

          It has been re-sold and is now known as Newton Grange Residential Home.

 Llwyn-y-Môr was a large well-built house on the Caswell Road. it stood 500 feet above sea level and overlooked the sea. it stood in extensive grounds

          In 1932, it was sold to the P.N.E.U. School whose headmistress was Miss Brooke-Gwynne, the sister of Bishop Gwynne of Cairo.  It was a day and Boarding School for girls from 6 to 18 and for boys under 11 years of age.

          The extensive grounds provided tow tennis courts, a Badminton Court as well as Playing Fields.  Miss brooke-Gwynne retired in 1946 to live in one of the lodges in her grounds. Llwyn-y-Môr House has been demolished and in its place today, we have some blocks of modern flats.

There were five farms in Newton, which was surrounded by fields used for growing crops or as pastureland for the animals. Cows ambled slowly down the lanes and roads at milking time. Horses and horse-drawn carts clattered along the roads.

The Golf Course was Langland Farm originally, where Cyril Gwynn, ‘The Bard of Gower’ lived with his parents in the early 1900s. In 1906, the farm was sold to make way for the golf course. But sheep belonging to Newton farmers continued to graze there, and early morning also found many people there, picking mushrooms.

Spring was a busy time in the village. Houses were whitewashed. There was ploughing and ploughing matches. Crops were planted. The village children gathered seaweed from the bays to fertilise the fields and gardens. Later in the summer came hay making, which needed many hands to make light work.

Autumn was another busy time, with the gathering in of the harvest, the threshing and storing of grain and vegetables. The Threshing Machine would arrive at the village with its noisy steam engine. It travelled from farm to farm to thresh the grain. Everyone would help to bag the grain, collect and stack the straw.

At Harvest Festival, the Church and Chapel were filled with thankful offerings from the gardens and farmers, always including the harvest Loaf and a sheaf of corn.

The farm holdings around Newton had fields, scattered about the village and were not compact farms as seen further North in the Parish. There were five farms:— Bosworth’s at Highpool, Woollacott’s at the top of Nottage Road, George Owen’s at Whitestone, John Owen’s, New Hill Farm next to Paraclete Chapel and another John Owen’s in the middle of the village.

 In the early 1900s, there had been a small farm, known as Bidder’s Farm just opposite the bottom of Nottage Road. Bryn Parc in Slade Road, which was built in 1868, was also originally a farmhouse. 

 Miss Bosworth farmed on the West Cross side of Highpool, where we now find new housing development. She was known for using a yoke to carry her milk pails

John Owen’s farm built in 1776, and known as New Hill Farm, was a working farm until his death in 1944. His fields were scattered over a quite considerable area, and he kept a wide variety of livestock.

His younger brother, Alf, gave riding lessons to the children in the local private schools. The land behind the house, alongside Summerland lane, was, after his death, set out in allotments. Later, this land was sold, and today, there are three modern houses on the site in Summerland Lane. The farmhouse and outbuildings are still in existence and are being sensitively restored by their new owners.

 In the middle of the village, stood the farmhouse of John and Maggie Owen. John was never seen without his bowler hat—even when driving the cows and was therefore always known in the village as ‘Bowler John.’ To the side of the house, near the road was the barn, where the cows were milked. This barn was burned down some time in the 1950s. However, the farmhouse, modernised, still stands in Newton Road.

At the top end of Nottage Road were the farm and farm buildings belonging to Dick Woollacott. A boundary wall divided the old school from the farmhouse, farmyard and outbuildings. The old farmhouse, dated about 1630, was last occupied by the Skilbeck family. It became more and more run down and eventually had to be demolished, as it had become a danger to the children in the adjoining school playground.

The children at the school derived much pleasure and gained much knowledge from the day-to-day running of the farm. They saw the farrier shoeing the horses, the cows coming in to be milked, foals and calves with their mothers. Then, in autumn, came the threshing machine. All windows in school were closed to prevent the chaff blowing in. The straw stack was built alongside the boundary wall.

George Owen and his twin brother, Eric were born in the little cottage next to what used to be Newton School in 1904. Their father, Thomas farmed there and the cow-stalls were behind the house (they have now been converted into a kitchen).

In 1908, Thomas Owen had a new farm house, cow stalls and stable etc. built in White Stone Lane on land he owned. The family then moved to White Stone Farm.

George Owen took over the farm in 1933, when he married Selina, and they had two children, Ivor and Valerie. They had twelve milking cows and milk was delivered around the houses of Newton in large cans and the milk was measured out into people’s jugs on their door-steps—before the war, twice a day, but during the waronly once every morning. Later on towards the end of the War, it was bottled on the farm and then delivered to the houses .The cows were a mixed herd of Jerseys, Guernseys, Herefords and Freisians. They had to be milked twice a day and it was a very common sight to see them walking through Newton Village—not much traffic then! They had three horses—Captain, Polly and Bess. Pigs, chickens and a cockerel were also kept and Lark, the sheepdog.

Until the 1970s, Newton was a farming village. Where now we have houses at Highpool, Highmead, Summerland Lane, Woollacott Drive, Millands Close, Briarwood Gardens, Caswell Drive, Havergal Close, Long Shepherd’s Drive etc., where there once were fields.

Farming in Newton around 1900

by George Owen, 1982

Newton was a locality of small farms, seven in all, with less than 50 acres each, where they kept, a few cows and one or two had sheep. The milk from the cows was delivered to the houses in the area in cans, and measure out to customers at their door into jugs twice daily.

In those-days the ploughing was done with two horses pulling a one-furrow plough, with the man walking at the handles of the plough. Then came the hay harvest. The hay was cut with the mower, left to dry for a day, after which it was turned by hand with wooden rakes and then raked into rows with the horse rake.  When it was harvested, it was pitched into the cart by hand picks.

 Until the Reaper & Binder arrived on the farming scene, about this time, the corn was cut by hand with the scythe and we followed the scythe cutters, binding the swathes into sheaves and putting them to stand in stooks, 6 sheaves to a stook.     After a few days drying they were pitched with picks into the cart, which had a wooden frame fixed on it called a Treble and when the load was well up it was roped tightly and taken to the yard.

 About October a big Steam Engine pulling a Threshing machine arrived on the scene, went around to each farm and threshed the corn. This was the time when all the local farmers joined together and helped each other - a very busy time indeed.     Next came the potato harvest.  This was done with a plough-like implement which split the row open and the potatoes were raked out of the earth with a tool called a Gaff, then the-boys picked them up. The root crop was next on the calendar.    Mangolds were grown for the cattle in winter, so these were brought in and stored in big, long heaps and covered with earth to keep the frost out.

 These, then, were the main items of the farmers' year. In the Winter, of course, they were kept busy hedge cutting and keeping the fences tidy.