The whole of Penyard was a great adventure playground. It was a lot of money in those days. Her husband worked in the Merthyr Express and she fetched the paper over early, for me before it reached the shops. They’d black lead the grate and clean the brasses around the fireplace. In my time they had to be 14. My teacher was Mr Hopkins, I’ll never forget him. The Local History Collection at the Central Library has a great deal to offer including maps, old local newspapers, school records, chapel / church source material, photographs, and more. As I walked into Scruffy’s shop, the stink was enough to blind me, the faggots said, God strike me dead, and the peas walked out behind me. When looking into your history it is recommended that you gather as much information as possible from older relatives and try to identify any dates/addresses that can help when working through the records. They were known as the bottom Legion and the top Legion. Up on the Dandy I remember Jack Jones the playright, who was a Penyard boy, writing stories. As you left the old park, you went straight into the new park, and a lovely park it was too. We were always playing football in the street and there was only the odd horse and cart that would pass us by. Celeste Davies – worked with young children at the Horse Street site, James Sullivan, gym instructor (was he known as ‘Jim’? He believes that his curious, questing, questioning nature has helped him find a place in the grand scheme of things, which is both informed and balanced. I remember fighting Dai Bedford, Georgie Hammond and a few others. The following article is taken from a tape recording sent to me by Mr Dai Harmon who grew up in Penyard, Merthyr Tydfil. Turning round into Penyard, up by Garth Terrace you’d have Pugh’s the shop. The bowling green was a very important place, as Thomastown bowling club was one of the oldest in Merthyr Tydfil. Were they perhaps members of your family? In the 1930’s, at one of the lowest points in the economic history of the area, with high unemployment and boarded up shops, a fashionable hosiery and underwear manufacturing company, Kayser Bondor Ltd, was the first new company to start operations in the borough. Merthyr Tydfil Wales Family History Centre This article describes the services and resources available at a Family History Centre, a branch facility of the Family History Library. It had a nice stretch across it with rocks everywhere. Thankyou. Further up the street was Bakers. The locomotive, invented by Richard Trevithick, ran very successfully from Penydarren to Abercynon Basin on 21 February 1804 – 21 years before the ‘Locomotion’ built by George Stephenson which ran in 1825 – and that even had to run on rails rolled at either Penydarren or Dowlais. Mrs Lucas who lived next door but one would come in and she’d be talking away as we were bathing in front of her. // -->