16th January 2013 - Snow Update

There was a flurry of snow in Llanelli today - but it did not stick
That's all...

15th January 2013 - No Snow

It did not snow in Llanelli today
That's all

14th January 2013 - Hunting Haggis

Burns Night is looming.
The grammar gurus can have fun with that statement, and decide whether it needs an apostrophe or not!  Is it a night belonging to Burn, was his name actually in the plural, in either case an apostrophe is required either before or after the "s" unless of course the evening is not belonging to him at all - he being dead and everything and as far as we are aware not resuscitated in the zombie mode.
But with or without an apostrophe, it is coming.
Burns night for me means getting into my kilt and revising the Address to the Haggis in my best (false) Scottish accent. I say false accent as it is my best rendition and though I originate from Glasgow my Scottish accent really departed in the playground of Stanburn School, Stanmore in North west London. You quickly learn to speak the same as everyone else when you can't be understood in the playground.
But more important is the fortnight before, when it becomes necessary to become an expert upon the supply and quality of the Haggis itself.
Burns night comes once a year and therefore it also becomes the one time in the year when stores know that there will be demand - so the prices start to vary between stores.
Luckily, there appears to be little price fixing in the Haggis Standard - and each year the offers change, but for a Burns night with 80 people sitting down - a 454gm haggis will feed between 4 and five people. Dependent upon the "tattis and neeps" - the mashed potato and suede, you are still looking to buy about 20 haggis - or haggii I am not sure of the etymology!
 
And prices range from £2.99 as a standard. Tesco fail to have their normal haggis and have a new version at smaller size for £2, as though you won't notice!!.  Morrisons are running at normal price, though ASDA are offering the same at two for £3 bringing the price down to £1.50 a piece. Though I may be using an excess of diesel travelling and sorting through the various stores in the area, I am also looking at the prices of Malt Whisky (yes .. without the "e" we are looking at Scotch not Irish) which also seems to have doubled in price following the Christmas Period.

LIDL, the German store becomes my saviour. "No" the nice lady in Lidl tells me - " We don't sell Haggis"
As I turn to go she adds "Of course we are getting a shipment in next Thursday for Burns Night!!" It does not appear to occurr to her that there may have been a connection with my request. "The leaflets are by the door"  she advises me - and there on the leaflet of fresh fruit and vegetables is a picture of Haggis - Special Offer - 30p off at 99p each..

Well, I do not need to be that accurate with my mathematics to work out that it is worth my while waiting until Thursday to finalise my purchases for the evening ...

So, I will probably have a penny or two extra to buy the Malt.
" A Haggis is a Haggis for a that

13th January 2013 -Who the ... is Alice???

I managed to wade my way through the first section of my basement on Friday. Only cleared a space of about 3ft by 3ft from floor to ceiling, but that took most of the day and didn't include checking the papers in the file boxes, which contained records of the Inner Wheel and NSPCC for the last 30 years - that was a job I could leave to Susie. But that block of 3ft by 3ft was an important start!!

Two bags of rubbish, one full of paper for recycling of course, another full of electrical bits and pieces, again to make their was to the amenity centre. We don't have dumps any more... Would be a sad day for Arlo Guthrie to write his Massacree today "When we go to the Amenity Centre we found a chain across the drive and a sign that said "Amenity Centre closed on Thanksgiving!!"
Remember Alice?? It's a Blog about Alice..
But not that one!!


No the Alice that was brought to mind was small shop near to the end of Upper Park Street in Llanelli, on the right hand side as you left Stepney Street. Bars across the window and some form of grill. Thick glass and panes that did not appear to ever have been washed - how could you - you could not get near the inside. Alice's!!  Many a time I would stop and gaze into the window at the cornucopia that was Alice's Window. I did go in on occasion, and thank my stars that I was thin in those days as there was very little room to make your way through the small front room of the shop. Often the door was locked, and I am sure that it was shut more often than it was open. But the interior was an Aladdin's cave of  items, stacked apparently without order, but somehow you always felt that Alice knew where everything was.

I never saw anyone come out of the shop with anything. But I never saw anything taken in their either - but there always seemed to be just a little more space for another piece of furniture, some more trinkets for the glass cabinet, another lampshade, portrait or those green glass balls that hung from fishermen's nets. I remember those Green Balls, I am sure that we have some somewhere. Probably in the next 3ft by 3ft of the basement..

It is my basement that now reminds me of Alice's.
Maybe she did not sell anything. Maybe she also just accumulated "things" that were too valuable to throw away. "Things" that might come in useful one day. "Things" that nowadays you could probably sell on Ebay. I know people who do so - but getting the first item onto the selling list is the worst. "Things" that may have once been alive. Standing at the bottom of my basement steps it is possible to conjecture that there may be "things" with their own alien life form evolving in the morass.

I never knew Alice by any other name - spoke to her seldom, but she was that strange figure, like a curator of some seventies version of Warehouse 13 museum. Reading Harry Davies' recollections in his book "Looking around Llanelli", I find that her full name was Alice Davies, and she had been in the business  40 years when he interviewed her. I read that she nearly went out of business in 1970, some six years before I would get to meet her, when she sold about half her stock including most of her African Items to a dealer in South Carolina. He, while visiting Llanelli, had made a conditional bid for all the contents at the shop. Apparently the deal was a modest down payment and a 50 percent share of profits on the sale in America. Eight days it took to load everything into crates and ship it to the States. Sadly the dealer died suddenly, the stateside business had no-one to run it and the goods disappeared into limbo. Harry tells us that Mrs Davies put it down to bad luck. "It was a heavy blow" she said, " but not so much the result of bad faith but of bad luck". A restrained way to consider your entire business ruined at the age of 57.

So looking at the timing of the article, it seems that Alice and I started our collections of various useful and possibly variable valued items at about the same time. Mine in the natural course of raising a family, and hers in the acquisition of more stock for her shop. For by the time I met her, there was no indication that she had once more started from scratch. I thought that the portal I entered in her shop had been there from time immemorial. No indication was there that it had started not only in my lifetime but in my recent history.

And so it is with my basement, I know that within living history of my children, we used to sit and watch television here. That once I traverse the next corridor, there is a bar and a three piece suite hiding under crates and marquee canvass. But, as you step carefully watching for trip hazards and peer into the rows of costumes hanging like a demented Narnian Wardrobe, it would be possible to see Alice's Tiger skin, a real one not the imitation that is in the living room upstairs. There would be swords and daggers and rifles and bayonets, relics of previous wars unlike the replicas and latex covered axes by the front door. And Assegais. African throwing spears which form the centrepiece of Harry's story - I never had one of those... Maybe they would be valuable if I collected one...

At 72 Alice was still collecting stock for her business, and presumably making a living in her small shop in Upper Park Street. Falcon Music Closed. Circles the bar closed, but Alice's seemed to just continue.  Harry  reported that she seemed happy as ever and showed no signs of retiring. Alice had her favourites though. She loved to collect elephants. She accumulated over 300 in her herd, china, porcelain, ivory, ebony. But were they a white elephant to her I  wonder?

I will try to tackle the next 3ft of flooring in the basement tomorrow. I took a day off today because I found too many old photographs, and in the spirit of 2013, found that I had to scan them for future generations and store them in perpetuity.. by uploading them to Facebook and tagging family members. It is the modern way.
Tomorrow I will take another step towards sorting my accumulated wealth of nick-nacks. No elephants for me !! I don't have these sort of foibles - well unless you count the flying pigs that festoon the house. They don't count really..... but there are a lot ...

I didn't see when Alice's shop closed. That area of Llanelli grew shabbier and shabbier over the years. Tesco moved out and Tinopolis the TV studio took over. Stepney Hotel got demolished. Island House Public house fought to live and failed, and a new theatre complex opens with hotel and entertainment establishments. The Subway is replaced and access to Upper Park Street is difficult to find in the new road complex but maybe I shall take my camera and see if I can find where Alice once stood.

But there is hope. All the contents of her shop must have been transported, and though I do not know what happened to them, at this stage of basement clearance, the knowledge that it can be done is more important than details of what happened...

As long as it is not the City Dump....  Remember Alice ? It is a blog about Alice...

12th January 2013 - O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick.

Seems that January 12th is National Pharmacist day. This has certain interests as after starting to clear the basement - we came upon a number of old documents that have been held in a box over a couple of house moves -one of which was the birth certificate of my paternal grandfather. Following some searches using google and some history we discover that my Great Grandfather was a Chemist - in Fulham - London, not so far from where Susie's ancestors plied their wares.

Of course, in my family I have discovered more about my paternal side of the family through research rather than direct information. I remember my Grandmother, a Grandma rather than a Nanny, from Scotland, and she baked Grandma's special biscuits - coconut and chocolate.  I remember Grandpa, he sat in the corner and smoked his pipe, but he wasn't my Grandfather I found out later .. he was my grandmother's brother - a Grand uncle I think.  My father did not speak of his father, some complication about running off with another woman and marrying her without divorcing his current wife, but rumour tells me that he was in the Merchant Navy, and was an electrician - and was responsible for bringing the "talkies" into Scottish Cinema - but that may be a story for another day. I never claimed that my ancestors had a simple life....

But now, through the certificates, we can trace his father back to the apothecary business in Fulham. And Google allows us to find the actual house that he was born in - and that business strangely is still a Chemist.

So, after all these years, the Pharmacist Day, brings me a small insight into the past and the present.

Personally, I do not like to take pills. 

But history is never bitter sweet .....unless writ by Shakespear

11th January 2013 - An Icy stroll.

A clear sky and the promise of a good sunrise. Crisp air and a touch of "huff" breathing through teeth. For many years I have spurned the use of gloves, always warm handed, but this morning the old black woollen offerings found in an old raincoat are welcome as I reach the galvanised gates at the bottom of the garden. Delft, the Blue Merle is bouncing like Scrat the Squirrel from Ice Age despite her 15 years and Rusty is yelping like a demented soul. The problem is that the lock to the gate has frozen!

Unwilling to retrace my steps back up the garden, I persevere by blowing into the lock. Finally the key slides in but fails to turn in either direction. By now, Delft is bouncing on my feet and Rusty is chasing his shadow around the van. A few more gentle exhalations, and the lock releases and two canine tumbleweeds bowl in to the back lane. There is ice in the broken tarmac, and the ground is slippy. We pass cars glistening with icing sugar frosting, and agitated drivers scraping windscreens as they check their watch or phone to see how late they are....

No work this morning for us...   But the light looks as though it may catch the morning scenery, so I head off past the old Stradey Grounds, up Denham Avenue and into the woodlands below Stradey Castle. The ground is crisp, but after all the rain in the last weeks, the woodland paths are saturated and muddy, the cover of the trees preventing the ice reaching the ground.

Path into the Woods - Council Houses to the left & Castle to the right

The grounds of Stradey Castle are private but unfenced at this point, and there is clear sign that the paths are well used, though the woodland needs clearing and the stream beds are blocked. Looking straight ahead, you travel a woodland path, but ever concious of the contrast of the Council houses to the left and the Castle to the right.

At the end of the woodland, the land opens up into fields, bordering the Castle and forming a boundary between the Stradey Welsh School and the Sixth Form College formerly known as the "Boy's Gram"
The light is just right to catch the russet glow of the trees in winter in contrast to the white frosted grass...

Crossing the fields, there are remnants of the summer growth, glistening in the sunlight.

It is at times like these that I realise why my friends - the "professional" photographers, always carry their best camera with them - but I have only brought my handheld Samsung. But, note to self, this is a good time to be up and about to get a different light. I find the fields are well fenced and stock proof and wander around looking for a way across and come across a stately old tree - lying on the ground.

Further on we skirt Stradey Castle itself, the ground too boggy to cross, so we follow the playing fields of the two schools and out towards the front entrances. The Castle can be seen through the trees, but the sun has gone by now, and it will have to be another day to try to catch the stone and setting.

The day turns cloudy, still cold, and the ice starts to soak into the feet and ankles. Time for a cup of tea and some home made bread and cheese. I think I will have to put the central heating on when I get home ...

10th January 2013 - Old Castle Llanelli

It is with a certain degree of irony that I note that over the last week, my blogs have been concerned with walks around the Llanelli area. This may not seem strange to many, but those who have known me over the years will be aware that exercise and walking are not favourite pastimes!  I have friends who walk, I have supported friends while they tramped over Hadrian's Wall. I have dogs and acknowledge that they sometimes need more than the large Dog Flap in the back door and access to the paved yard. I do not "do" the gymn, and rarely feel the need to put on waterproofs and boots and head off in to the moist... "I may be gone a while !"

Yes , my walking friends know that I delight in the views from remote points, love the smell of the countryside and the open expanses. Yes I love these things - and normally from behind the wheel of my trusty 4 x 4. I relish in the ability to be able to take a maverick or terrano into locations that no mechanical vehicle has gone before.. in the warmth and comfort of the interior cab, and with the elements properly tamed behind the windshield...

Yet, over the last week or so, I have found myself expounding upon the history and landscape of Llanelli, with camera in hand and dogs at my side. Please accept that this is because we are within close proximity, and reasonable walking distance of the house - and not as a result of some new perambulatory perversion...

But I promised Ceri from Americymru, a fine website for ex-pat and resident Welsh people   that after my walk around the Old Castle exercise track .. I would research more into the Old Castle itself.. And so, with the weather dry, and the temperature dropping - the dogs took me once more onto the Pont Agen Bridge - the best place to overlook the remnants of the Motte and Bailey that was once a mighty castle - possibly even built on Roman settlement ... but I run ahead of myself .....

From previous blogs, I have the pictures and history of Pont Agen, and as I stand upon the start of the bridge, I look behind me over the Old Castle Pond - or Pond Twym - which I learn means "Warm Pond" which I will come back to later .

For the Motte and Bailey, the castle site itself,  is in the middle of the Pond. Even with the winter sun and lack of leaves on the trees it is almost impossible to get a clear view of the island in the middle of the water. But the island is the site of the old castle itself.

The Central Island - site of the Castle

January Morning - Old Castle 

The records of Carmarthenshire state that " an early mound castle unquestionably stood at Llanelly, the name of which has fortunately survived and lead to the identification of the site". The island in Old Castle Pond ( pond Twym) was once the Motte of the castle Carnwyllion. It is believed that the Motte was established by the Normans in the late 11th Century.

The Motte would have originally had a wooden tower known as a keep with a palisade on top of the mound with , below it, a defensive "bailey" containing the main living quarters, stables and administration buildings.

The castle was attacked by Rhys ap Gruffydd in 1190 and burnt in 1215 by Rhy Ieuanc during his onslaught on the Norman strongholds of Kidwellu and Gower. In the Red Book of Hergest, a version of the Brut reads for 1215 " Rhys Ieuanc gathered a host of immense size, and gained possession of Kidwelly and Carnwyllion, and he burned the Castle"

Of course back in those days, the river Lliedi wended its way around in a different direction and the Motte and Bailey was on solid ground.

Here the Lliedi river can be seen to wind around from where Old Castle road will be in the south towards where Raby street will be in the North.  From here - the coast would have been visible - but access inland would also have been easy. A later map shows both streets and the new Tramway ( now the Cycle track ) before the pond was created as a reservoir for the new Tin Plate Works.

Here we can see Old castle Road at the bottom and Parkview Terrace at the North, with the old course of the Lliedi River.

It is then I discover that the Old Castle Pond was created as a quenching reservoir for the tin works, and is not natural. It is called Pond Twym - or the Warm Pond as the water would raise its temperature as a result of the works in the tin plates. Other sources suggest that Goldfish were resident in the pond for many years due to the warmth of the water, and there are youtube links of giant terrapin still in the pond - though  have never seen them as I pass by.

For me, in my early days working in Llanelli, my recollections are travelling up Old Castle Road, up to the level crossing which i now know was over the Tramway - not the railway as I thought in those days.
The Old Castle Pub was the last building in the street - still there now - but a bed and breakfast now - not a pub.

I have had many a pint here and more than one Christmas party. When I first knew the building the rear section was not there. I remember as  they built into the back room, and then further out again. The last extension lasted about 9 years, and now is the tea room in the back..  but it is now a bed and breakfast and tea room ..

as seen in the early morning 

And so - to retrace my steps of years before, I look once more down Old Castle Road from the level crossing that is no longer there ....

Cars on pavements and for sale signs...  but as I turn around - I can still see the Tin works building - now listed and protected - though finance for the development that was expected has drifted away and it now stands as a monument to the past .. stark .. but that can be the subject of another walk...

I mentioned that there were Roman links to the old castle - rather than just repeat, here is the link to another friend Lyn John who knows so much more than me about Llanelli History...  LINK HERE

But the rain is beginning to fall - and so I make my way back home for a fine cup of tea, an opportunity to sit in front of the computer, and reminisce and post a couple of thoughts fro the past .. and look forward to some day in the future when Ceri will pop across the pond ( the big one) and I shall show  him what I have learned today ...