When Dylan and his family returned from Italy in August 1947, they settled in South Leigh and lived there until May 1949. They moved into the Manor House, a dilapidated cottage, with a caravan later provided for Dylan's writing. He described the cottage as having three bedrooms, with two rooms downstairs, with a tiny kitchen and washhouse, but no bathroom, and a garden back and front. The rent, he said, was £1 a week, plus a couple of shillings a week rates: “Attached to the house at the back is a cottage inhabited by an old couple who work for the neighbouring farmer – but looking the other way.” [1]
Caitlin thought the house was “bloody awful....drably unpleasant...a sad place, really, with all those dismal fields and elm trees...I felt quite helpless, trapped in that desolate place with his children and his parents...”
There was no electricity or inside toilet and cooking was done on a coal-fired range. [2]
In April 1948, Dylan’s parents moved in with them, before renting the nearby cottage of Cordelia Sewell, who lived there, off-and-on, with the comedian Harry Locke. Other friends with rooms in the village were Bill and Helen McAlpine. [for more on the McAlpines, Locke and Sewell, see Family and Friends: A Who's Who on this site]
Phyllis Broome's books describe the village at the time. Mrs Betty Green briefly described life in South Leigh in a BBC Country Magazine broadcast in 1943, reproduced in The Shopkeeper, the Farmworker and the Milkman on this site. She also gave a BBC interview in 1963, and mentioned that Dylan:
"used to go into the caravan so as to do his poets and he used to be there all day long…he used to write all day long. Dylan was never still, but he must do his poets first, but if he could do his poets, he could go and have a drink. But unless he had done that, he couldn't." [3]
The Mason Arms became a second home for the Thomases. Caitlin went to use the bath there, and to buy coal from the landlord, Albert Hopkins. Dylan joined in the village coach outings, turned up at the dramatic society’s rehearsals and wrote a Christmas play for them – see the interview with Dosh Murray on this site.
Dylan’s time in South Leigh was largely taken up with broadcasts for the BBC. His creative work at South Leigh is described on another page: What else did Dylan write at South Leigh?
The villagers who figured large in Dylan’s life in South Leigh included the Rev. Frank Freeman; Herbert and Alice Green, post office; their son, Bill Green, shop owner, driver on pub outings and piano player (married to Betty Green); Albert and Mary Hopkins of the Mason Arms; Bill Mitchell, station porter; and Mary Walters, Caitlin’s home help, of College Cottages, South Leigh.
In May 1949, Dylan and family left South Leigh, and returned to live in Laugharne at the Boat House.
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Notes
[1] Letter to his parents from Italy, June 5 1947.
[2] Caitlin on the house: see C. Thomas and Tremlett (1986) pp102-107.
[3] Country Magazine, Oxfordshire, August 1 1943, Home Service. The interview with Mrs Green during the programme is in the Country Magazine book (see above), pp72-73. Dylan Thomas, a programme transmitted on November 9 1963. Mrs Green, nee Talbot, was the wife of Bill Green.
Books
1. P. Broome (1997, 1998) South Leigh Remembered, Broome
2. F. Dillon ed. (1950) Country Magazine: Book of the BBC Programme, Odhams
3. C. Thomas with G. Tremlett (1986) Caitlin: Life with Dylan Thomas, Secker and Warburg.