Glimpses of Mumbles Christmasses Past edited by Carol Powell
Glimpses of Mumbles Christmasses Past
Edited by Carol Powell
Christmas is a time of celebrating the Nativity with family and friends, but also for taking a nostalgic look back to times past and remembering happy occasions spent with relatives. Over the years, a collection of irreplaceable Mumbles memories from local people has been recorded for posterity, which include these recollections of Mumbles Christmasses of yesteryear.
The Christmasses of my childhood always began when Dad dug up our tree from the garden and brought it indoors to be decorated.
Amy Winters née King spent her childhood at Thistleboon Orphanage in the 1930s and recalled that 'With Christmas approaching, we were caught up in an atmosphere of excitement, when the Cook would make the plum puddings, containing a thru’penny piece, a shilling, a button and a ring. When the mixture was all ready, Lady used to come and tell us all to line up and come to the kitchen to stir the batter. We were told not to forget to wish and we each had 3 stirs and 3 wishes.
Baking Day
Amy Winters in 1930s and The Orphanage
Every year, my 3 wishes were all the same — one being that my father would visit me. But he never did, although He did send presents and pocket money with which to do my Christmas shopping. We usually were taken to Swansea to Marks & Spencer’s and Woolworth’s, where we would buy small gifts for each other, - bath cubes, writing paper or beads. Before we went to bed, we hung up our stockings and pillowslips. On the 'big' day, if you had the money in your portion of pudding, you would be rich, if you found the button, you would be an old maid, and the ring meant that you would be married. We all wanted to find the money!! Every year we went to the pantomime in Swansea and we usually went to a Christmas Party given by the TocH.
R. Chambers, Fish, Game, Poultry & Fruit
Grafton Maggs recalled the 1930s, when ' with school over, the first task was decoration making, all made with scissors, glue and crepe paper. Holly was purloined from woods and gardens, but mistletoe was bought for a few pence from Mr. Chambers, the Fish, in Newton Road. Christmas trees were never artificial and cost 3d for a small one and 1/- for a four footer. These were festooned with carefully conserved tinsel, glass ornaments, real candles and the odd fairy.
'Sharper', The Horses Head
Marjorie Bowden of Clifton Terrace, born 1902, 'used to look forward to Christmas more than ever, as we used to help Mother dress up the Horse's Head. (This was a custom akin to the Mari Llwyd) We would go to Kemp’s for quarter yards of ribbon in several pretty colours. Then we had the job of making rosettes to dress him up and all the boys of Southend would call and see him and ask what could they do to help and was there a chance of going out with him. I well remember my brothers saying to them ‘caste thee sing? well let’s hear thee’ and they would pick out the best. They used to be asked to all the parties and pubs around the village, walking for miles. 'Sharper' is now well over a century old and is still kept by the present-day family.
Out and about, groups of children would sing carols outside individual houses and the All Saints’ choir, fully bedecked, forty strong and carrying picturesque lanterns on poles, would sing at strategic places such as Oystermouth Square, the Parade Gardens, Southend and in Albert Place.
Most homes came to life very early on Christmas day, perhaps aroused by the Postman (Yes! there was a delivery on Christmas day). Voices trilled as plasticine sets, water colours, annuals, and maybe a Conway Stewart fountain pen or a Marks and Spencer wrist watch were discovered.
There would be a turkey, goose or chicken to prepare. Cooking a large bird was impossible in the small ovens at the side of the kitchen fire so the local Baker, Tom Davies, helped out by cooking them in his oven often for no charge. Early morning would see a procession of people carrying large platters covered with white cloths up to the bakery in Gloucester Place. Midday would see this procession in reverse as the cooked birds were taken back to the homes. Waiting in the house would be a cooked selection of vegetables, probably from the allotment and fed on local seaweed.
Mumbles Coastguard Station
Pat Symmons is 2nd from left, with her Mum and sisters, 1930s
Pat Symmons (née Hoare)
whose father worked at the Coastguard Station, remembered that there were Christmas parties in each house on the site and everyone was invited.
whose father worked at the Coastguard Station, remembered that there were Christmas parties in each house on the site and everyone was invited.
Olive Gluyas remembered that 'At Christmas time, some women made their Christmas cakes at home and I can remember accompanying my friends to Allen’s, the Baker at the bottom of Queen’s Road, for the cakes to be baked'.
Sylvia Bagley says that the smell of Christmas puddings always reminds her of the times when her mother would make six or seven, but as they had no facilities for cooking them, they would take them on the steam Mumbles Train to Blackpill, where there were some huge black cooking ranges for steaming them.
Hannah Williams, Anne Willkinson & her parents with a friend
Anne Ardouin, daughter of the Rev Wilkinson, Vicar of All Saints' Church, during the Second World War, recounted how 'On Christmas Day Hannah Williams who had been brought up in the orphanage and spent her working life in service, would join us for Christmas lunch, together with another little old lady, Miss Thomas, of the China Shop from Southend. She was bent and pale and lived in the backroom of her shop with nothing more than a paraffin stove, for heat and paraffin lamp for light.
Michael Charles went to the Church School in the 1960s and 70s and highlighted the last day of term when Carol Services were held in the hall followed by a Christmas party, where two trays of cakes and macaroons from Pressdee's baker shop and cans of orange were served. But you had to be quick otherwise you ended up with two cakes the same!
But, not everyone was at home in convivial surroundings. Harry Libby in his monthly letters to the forces (sent to every Mumbles servicman and woman from the Correspondence Committee from 1939 to 45) believed that no one is more homesick than at Christmas and he must surely have brought a tear to the eye of those faraway, as he described the bustling village back home, ‘shops are decorating for Christmas,’(30 Nov 39); ‘wild shepherds have begun to ‘ark the ‘erald’ every evening‘ and ‘Scouts are going to see that every Serviceman’s kiddie gets a toy’ (30 Nov 44)
Cleeve Maslen & his brother Ivor, c1916
Joyce Ellis recalled that her father, Cleeve Maslen spent Christmas 1916 on the coast of France in a village called Le Crotoy near the Somme Estuary, near Abbeville.
Mr. Wilfred Mock began working on the Mumbles steam Railway when he was thirteen and used to work 12 or 14 hours a day, 365 days a year with only a half-day on Wednesday, for the princely sum of £3 a week! This included Christmas Day, Boxing Day and Bank Holidays, although he was paid double time then.
These are just some of the yuletide memories of yesteryear and I hope that you will make your own Christmas memories to hand down for the future.
My grateful thanks go to Anne Ardouin, (née Wilkinson), Sylvia Bagley (née Tucker), Marjorie Bowden (née Jenkins), Michael Charles, Joyce Ellis (née Maslen), Olive Gluyas (née Whale), Harry Libby, Grafton Maggs, Wilfred Mock, Pat Symmons (née Hoare) and Amy Winters (née King).
