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Local History  

Rebecca In Pontarddulais (Below)
Potted history of Pontarddulais 
Church on the Marsh 
From Fountain to River: Dylan Thomas and Pontardulais or visit 
Churches and Chapels

REBECCA IN PONTARDDULAIS
by Ivor Griffiths 

150th Anniversary of the Rebecca Riots
The year of 1993 marked the 150th anniversary of the Rebecca Riots in South Wales which reached its peak with the first and only pitched battle between the Rebeccaites and the civil forces at the Pontardulais gate on September 6th 1843. where an unknown number of the rioters were wounded and three of the leaders captured.

The Cause
What caused these riots? How did a normally peaceful and God fearing people, so accustomed to hardship and injustice, suddenly resort to violence to try to right their wrongs...and why the name 'Rebecca'? It was first heard during an attack on the Efail Wen tollgate in 1839 led by a huge man dressed in a woman's nightgown and wearing a wig of ringlets. This formidable figure was Thomas Rees (Twm Camabwth), a devout member of Bethel Chapel, when sober and also a well known prize fighter. The story goes that only one woman - a tall and stout old maid named Rebecca could provide him with a suitable garment, and during the raid, Twm was laughingly addressed as Rebecca by his followers. But the biblical quotation from Genesis, chapter 24, verse 60, was continually on people's lips during the disturbances:

A POTTED HISTORY OF PONTARDDULAIS AND HENDY
By Ivor Griffiths

A question asked by many children blessed with an enquiring mind is "What was Bont and Hendy Iike in the old days?" or "How did the two villages develop?" This question can only be answered by the scrutiny of old documents - parish records, quarter session minutes, etc. From these old writings and visits to various places in the area, a picture can be built up of the two parishes of Llanedi and Llandeilo Talybont as they were in the early part of the last century.

When Iolo Morganwg walked through Pontardulais in 1796, it does not appear that anything in particular impressed him. He saw signs of early morning stirrings in the cottages along the highway; heard the sounds of milling on the Dulais River bank, and in the early evening the gathering of coracle men preparing to catch fish. Fair play to him, he gave a kind word to the place, especially the inns. He did not name any particular one, but the most prominent one on the map published in 1813 was the 'Whistling Inn' (The Whit) . Iolo also had a good word for the village of Fforest which he described as being 'very neat'. At that time there was no village of Hendy.

In the early 1800s the cluster of buildings including the 'Black Horse Inn' and the 'Red Lion Inn' was marked on the parish map of 1840 as 'Pontardulais'. From this Black Horse Square' along the road to Llanelli the few dwellings were 'Neuadd Fach' occupied by Dr. Gwynne who later moved to London. A few hundred yards further on the left was 'Ystomenlle Farm' which was farmed by Richard Davies and his wife Bessie who would later become the great grandparents of the well known author and broadcaster the late Wynford Vaughan Thomas. A few hundred yards further on the right was 'Hendy Farm' worked by the widow Jane Jones and her son William. This farm would later give its name to the village. And finally, over Gwili Bridge to the fork in the road, one road leading to Llanelli and the other to Llannon. At this fork stood 'Maesdref Gwili' the cottage of John Thomas the carpenter and his wife Margaret. Today the spot is occupied by a telephone box and bus shelter on the Hendy Village green. Across the road on the right was the tollgate house where Sarah Williams the tollgate-keeper would be shot and killed during the Rebecca Riots of 1843.

At that time, Pontardulais was a busy and prosperous place with two mills and two factories powered by the river Dulais as well as numerous hostelries, because the river Loughor was famous for its fishing, the boast of the local fishermen being that 'their fish was better than anything that the Towy and Teifi could produce', and anglers from all parts would converge on Pontardulais at weekends, staying at the various inns along the main road. There was the 'Wheatsheaf Inn' run by Griffith Thomas and his wife Mary; 'The Farmers Arms' run by John Morgan and his wife Anne; then there was the 'Queen's Head' with Henry Jones as 'mine host', with the 'King's Head' run by Daniel Gregory and his wife Margaret only a few yards away.

Further along the road towards Swansea was the 'New Inn' owned by John Davies the tailor and the 'Whistling Inn' run by William Mathews, while across the road was the 'Royal Oak' with Mary Jones as Landlady. Finally the 'Fountain Inn' run by Edward Williams and his wife Mary. This couple had ten children, and the big extension added later to the old building may have been built to house the children or make room for the customers. Although there were about 35 dwellings along the road between Loughor Bridge and the 'Fountain Inn' in 1840, the main concentration seems to have been between Loughor Bridge and the Dulais Bridge. Here there were two shops, the tollgate and the Post Office.

The old Post Office with William Harris as postmaster stood where the hoardings stand in front of the Bont Surgery today. When the Post Office was moved to new premises opposite the present day war memorial, the old building became 'The Prince of Wales' public house under the landlordship of William Griffiths until 1872, when the retiring headmaster of the National School, Mr. Isaac White took over the tenancy. The LNWR railway from Swansea needed sidings and cattlepens, so the 'Prince of Wales' was demolished to make room for them, and the 'Gwyn Hotel' was built across the road with Mr. Isaac White as landlord. It was named the 'Gwyn Hotel' in reference to the owner of the land on which it stood, Mr. Howell Gwynne of Baglan Hall. 

The Pontardulais Shop which stood where Walter's garage is today was run by Mr. Henry Lewis, while on the opposite side of the road alongside the tollgate house, Martha Philpot had her 'Gate Shop'. Martha Philpot was a very enterprising woman. As well as the 'Gate Shop', she was also the landlady of 'The Black Horse' across the river, and in 1851 she was also Postmistress with her son David as Post Messenger. At the Fountain end of the village there were two shops to serve the people living around Bolgoed and the Goppa. Elizabeth Jones kept a grocery shop on the 'Whit' , and Mr. David George had his 'Bolgoed Shop' opposite the 'Fountain Inn' near the Bolgoed Tollgate.

Weaving and spinning was carried on in many of the dwellings, in fact, the cottage alongside the Goppa Chapel where Daniel Lewis and his father had looms was called 'Ffactri Fach'. But there were two factories in the Bont. The Lewis factory stood by the bridge carrying the road from Alltiago to Glynhir. The other factory was on the corner of Dulais Road and Caecerrig Road where the old Labour Exchange stands today. Dulais Road was originally called Factory Road. There were two Mills powered by the River Dulais. Upper Mill with the Phillips family living in the attached house and the Lower Mill standing on the bank of the Dulais near the bridge and opposite where St. Michael's Church stands today.

Although the Bont was on the main turnpike road, in the early part of the last century it was a peaceful humdrum almost isolated existence. The main excitement would be the local coracle races when the fishermen would display their skill with these awkward crafts. The patter of hooves as a string of donkeys laden with panniers of iron from Llandybie trotted through the village on their way to the Lliw Forge would bring people to their doors. But the main excitement would be the arrival and departure of the Mail Coach heading for Carmarthen or Swansea. It was from the passengers on these coaches that the inhabitants would obtain news of the outside world, as newspapers were few and far between and mainly for the gentry. In any case, few of the inhabitants could read or write. Educational facilities were practically non-existent. A British school was built on the Goppa in 1827 by the Nonconformists. The building is now a private dwelling. A Charity school was opened in Llanedi in 1834 with Mr. D.P.Llewellyn of Penllergaer as patron. But the majority of the population were illiterate, so most of the happenings in the outside world came by word of mouth.

The importance of the Mail Service was made clear when the Post Office demanded an improvement to the road to Carmarthen because the steep road alongside the Black Horse and across what is now Squirrel's Walk was a constant problem to the Mail Coach especially in bad weather. On "Telford the engineer's" recommendation, a new road was cut forming the present Fforest and Carmarthen road to Crosshands. This work was carried out in 1835 and the present 'Black Horse' was built in front of the old one. The old 'Black Horse' later became Mathias's Butcher Shop. 

This almost idyllic environment in the area changed dramatically with the arrival of the tinplate works. In 1866, Mr. Octavious Williams built the Hendy Iron and Tinplate Works for Messrs. Boughton & Smith of Birmingham, and this caused a massive influx of people from all parts of the country seeking employment in this new industry. Houses were being hurriedly built along the Hendy road to house the workmen and their families. In 1872, Mr. Williams built a one mill works in Tynybone called the 'Glamorgan Works' for Webb Shakespeare & Williams. Two mills were added in 1893.

The heat of the tin mills demanded constant liquid refreshment, and the 'Red lion' and 'Black Horse' were too far to provide it, so some of the new houses along Hendy road became public houses to cater for this need . There was the 'Gwili Inn' run by David Jones, a blacksmith from Llannon and his wife Elizabeth. The 'Salutation Inn' was run by John Morgan from Llandybie and his wife Sarah. The 'Red Cow Inn' was kept by Lewis Thomas, a farmer, and his wife Anne. Finally, the 'Green Dragon Inn' was held by Mr. John Parry, a carpenter and his wife Margaret. In all cases, the men carried on their normal trade during the day with their wives looking after the public houses. John Parry of the 'Green Dragon' built a wooden partition in his bar because of the draught created by the wind when the front door was opened. Having great faith in the preservative quality of red lead paint, he painted the partition with red lead paint, and to complete the' decor' , he hung red curtains on the windows. Since then, the 'Green Dragon' has always been known as 'Ty-coch'. Of the four public houses, only the 'Red Cow Inn' had a spirit license. The other three were just beer houses.

In Pontardulais, the Cambrian Tinplate Works was opened in 1874, and in 1875, Mr. Josiah Griffiths of Morriston, in company with Mr. William Bright, Samuel Williams and Stephen Jenkins formed the Pontardulais Tinplate Company and opened the Ffoesyrefail Works near the railway station. The first enterprise failed and the works closed in 1882. In 1880, Mr. William Bright had joined with Mr. Rees Harries (Bolgoed) and Thomas Williams, the father of Sir Evan Williams, along with Dr. David Griffiths and Mr. Evan Isaac to build Teilo Works. In 1883, the Clayton Tinplate Company was formed when Mr. Edward Jenkins bought the Ffoesyrefail Works and opened it under its new name... Clayton. In 1885, Mr. John Williams came from Abertillery to successfully manage Clayton Works.

Although other industries and enterprises contributed to the growth and development of the Bont and Hendy, such as the railways and collieries, tinplate was the main factor. By 1910, Mr. William Jones of Llanelli and Mr. Samuel Williams of Foesyrefail had opened the Dulais Tinplate Works, and about the same time, Mr. Morgan Michael built Glynhir Tinplate Works. Tinplate had brought men from all parts of the kingdom to Pontardulais and Hendy where they married and raised families that were as Welsh as any of the natives. For instance, Mr. James Cottle came to Hendy towards the end of the last century. He was born in Lydney in Gloucestershire, and his wife Olive was born in Hay, Herefordshire. Their son Archibald was born in Gloucester, and their other two children Cyrus and Grace were born in Cinderford, Gloucestershire.

John Hiddlestone, who raised one of the most well known families in Hendy came from Scotland. He married a young widow, Mrs. Miriam Grant, and their youngest son David became a Welsh Rugby International. I am not sure where Mr. Croft of Bryngwili came from, but his outstanding achievement was his successful determination to speak Welsh. He eventually became a highly respected Deacon with the Welsh Independents in Capel Newydd, Hendy, and one of his descendents has gained international fame in the cricket world.

To cover every facet of the development of the Bont and Hendy would take several thick volumes. I have not touched on education or religion, or the unstinting efforts of the many public spirited people in the field of culture and music. In this brief article I have tried to give a rough picture of the Bont and Hendy as they used to be...you can use your own eyes and ears to picture them as they are today. Back to top of page

The Old Church on the Marsh

The late Ivor Griffiths recalls Llandeilo Talybont Church - known locally to the people of Bont and Hendy as being 'The Old Church on the Marsh'.

From the time I was old enough to wander beyond the bounds of my village of Hendy, my feet always took me towards the marsh. I was fascinated with the marsh and seldom looked in any other direction.

On the marsh there were strange mounds called Banc-yr-Eithin, Banc-y-Rhyfel and Castell Ddu. The one place that left me in awe was the white washed old church that was known affectionately for years by the people of Bont and Hendy as 'The Old Church on the Marsh'. I found out the correct name of the old church was Llandeilo Talybont when my father took me to attend a service there on a last Sunday in August in the 1920's. This was the one and only occasion that I was inside the church, and I can vaguely remember the almost clinical whiteness of the interior walls in sharp contrast to the dark beams of the roof and high-sided pews.

How had the church been built on a place that the residents of Pontarddulais and Hendy considered to be fairly inaccessible? Well, it has was not always so. During the Roman occupation of Britain there was regular traffic between the Roman fort in Loughor and the Roman settlement in Carmarthen, the journey taking the Roman legions past the place where the River Loughor was crossed, and where it is believed that a pagan temple once stood. From this crossing the journey was continued through Hendy and on to Llannon and Carmarthen. Although this is pure conjecture, it is a known fact that in the Age of the Saints, many Christian churches were raised on the sites of ancient pagan temples, and it is reasonable to assume that this was the case with the church of Llandeilo Talybont, dedicated to St. Teilo, the name Talybont being added because of the river crossing nearby and to distinguish it from the church at Llandeilo Fawr.

The earliest written record of Llandeilo Talybont was during a dispute about boundaries between the Bishopric of Glamorgan and that of St. David's. Urban, Bishop of Glamorgan (1107 - 1134) claimed several parishes far across the Loughor river as being part of his diocese, stating that they had been given to Dyfrig and Teilo by Meuric ap Tewdrig. This claim was strongly contested by Bernard, Bishop of St. David's (1115 - 1148). So Urban took his case to Rome to appeal to Pope Calixtus the Second, and to his successor Honorius the Second. No decision was made, and Gower, including Llandeilo Talybont, remained in the Diocese of St. David's.

Llandeilo Talybont was again mentioned in the 'Valor Ecclesiasicuus', a report made in 1535 for King Henry VIII , giving an account of the financial resources of all religious houses in the kingdom as well as who were their patrons, and who were their priests. Llandeilo Talybont was valued at £3: 14: 6 a year, and the priest was David Jones. The living as considered to be below average.

The wall paintings on the interior walls of the church came to light shortly before the removal of the church to St. Fagans, were probably covered with lime wash by puritans during the Cromwellian period. These ancient murals reappeared when exposure to the weather due to the theft of the roof slates caused the lime to flake away revealing the wall-paintings underneath.

Of all the clerics that served in the ancient church, the longest serving and the most notable was the Rev. Edmund Nash Leigh, who served as curate in the parish of Llanedi, and also ministered at Llandeilo Talybont for over 50 years. Edmund was ordained by the Bishop of St. David's in 1760. He was apparently a remarkable man, 'an example to the world and an ornament to the church'.

In the first half of the 19th century, the need for a church in a more convenient place became obvious, and one August 29th, 1850, Howell Gwynne of Baglan Hall laid the foundation stone of the new St. Teilo. It was consecrated by Connop Thirwall, Bishop of St. David's on October 31st, 1851, and formally opened in January 1852. This was the beginning of the decline of 'The Old Church on the Marsh'.

Ivor Griffiths

This article was originally published in the Pontarddulais, Hendy and District Carnival Programme 1997. We wish to thank Leighton Griffiths and his family for allowing us to republish it. Anyone wishing any further information on the late Mr Ivor Griffiths' works can contact Leighton Griffiths on griffspeed2000@yahoo.co.uk

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From Fountain to River: Dylan Thomas and Pontardulais

Dylan Thomas and Pontardulais by Deric M John and David N Thomas published in Cambria autumn 2010.     

When a leading film producer asked Dylan Thomas to write about the Rebecca riots, he soon realised that the poet was “passionately interested” in the subject. Dylan set his story in Pembrokeshire in 1843, presumably drawing on the destruction of several tollgates in the county that year.[i]   

But there are passages in Rebecca’s Daughters which suggest that Dylan might also have drawn upon the far more significant events of 1843 in Hendy and Pontardulais (the Bont). Both settlements were hemmed in by tollgates and on September 6 Rebecca planned a simultaneous assault on two of the gates. Police were called to the Bont to defend the lower gate by the Llwchwr river. Soldiers were also sent to the Hendy but the attack there didn’t come for another three days.[ii] 

The confrontation in the Bont was one of the most serious of Rebecca incidents, involving a pitched battle between the rioters and the civil forces. It was also the only time that police and troops had managed to get in position before a tollgate attack happened.[iii] Dylan’s script seems to reflect this. An assault is planned on what he calls the Rhos Goch gate. But, just like at the Hendy, the rioters fail to appear, and the soldiers sent there vent their frustration at not being at the nearby Carew gate, the flames from which are lighting up the sky.

Dylan also describes how a young woman, Rhiannon, falls in love with the leader of the Rebeccaites. Her love deepens as she and her maidservant watch from her carriage as he leads the action at a tollgate. Was this just the writer’s imagination at work, or did Dylan know about the romance behind the Pontardulais riots?

In July 1843, the Bolgoed gate at the top end of the Bont, near the Fountain Inn, had been destroyed.[iv] The leader was Daniel Lewis, a weaver and poet, said to be a man of “unusual culture” who fostered “the radical ideas of the time”. As he led the attack on the Bolgoed gate, his love Elizabeth Davies looked on with her maidservant, not from a carriage, but from an upstairs window of the Fountain. Betrayed by an informer, Daniel was arrested but eventually released. He and Elizabeth later married and had several children, the last being a girl they called Morfydd.[v] 

If Dylan did draw on the Pontardulais riots, where did his information come from? One source could have been Morfydd’s son, Wynford Vaughan Thomas, a life-long friend of the poet, and a man who was proud of his grandfather’s part in destroying the Bolgoed gate. Wynford’s parents had lived in the Bont, and he had several cousins there. Thereafter, he came back to the Fountain throughout his life, the last time to open the new Rebecca lounge just before he died.[vi]

Dylan already knew the Bont well. St Teilo Street was the A48, the main road to Carmarthenshire and all points west. From an early age, he came through the town by car and bus on his way to visiting his many aunties who lived on the farms around Llangain. There were beach holidays in Llansteffan followed by extended stays at Fernhill. Later in his teens, he sought refuge from his father’s temper at Blaencwm, the family cottage just down the hill from Llangain.[vii]

And then there was the Swansea Little Theatre in which the young Dylan played an active part. It carted plays around the valleys, as he put it, to audiences that he suspected didn’t understand a word. He was on the road in 1933 and 1934, travelling by bus through the Bont, making two trips to Llandybie and another to Llandeilo.[viii] 

He had very mixed feelings about the communities he passed through on his way west. Writing from damp and miserable Blaencwm, he conceded that at least the cottage was a lot better than the industrial small towns he had passed Back top of this article

“in the bus coming down here, each town a festering sore on the body of a dead country, half a mile of main street with its Prudential, its Co-op, its Star, its cinema and pub. On the pavements I saw nothing but hideously pretty young girls with cheap berets....thin youths with caps and stained fingers...little colliers, diseased in mind and body as only the Welsh can be, standing in groups outside the Welfare Hall.” [ix]

This was far from the poet Edward Thomas’ affectionate description of the Bont some thirty years earlier, but it is quintessentially the town of the 1930s and 1940s. [x] Its industries were coal and tinplate. St Teilo Street boasted not one but two Co-ops, the Star grocery shop, the Tivoli cinema and a handsome Mechanics’ Institute that put on political talks, improving lectures and even Displays of Dancing by Madame Parsley and her daughter.

The Bont was also a pub crawlers’ paradise, especially for someone like Dylan, who disliked spending too much time in just one pub. Amongst the things he loved doing, said a friend, “was going on the sort of boozing trip that you read about in The Outing.”[xi] Dylan could arrive from Swansea on the United Welsh doubledecker, and get off at the Fountain. Like scores of the town’s young men before and after him, he could then stumble his way down through the town, eight pubs in all.

This was no furtive affair. The pubs were all on the main road, making it a very public pub crawl indeed. The forces of law and order were close at hand: the police station and no fewer than seven chapels and churches also sat, watchfully, along the main road. This was a community that did its drinking and praying in the open, and took both seriously, just like its rugby and choirs.[xii]  Back top of this article 

It was a long walk from the Fountain to the next pub, the King Hotel, but Dylan could always stop at the police station, where the sergeant knew his relatives down in Ferryside. His daughter remembers several encounters in the Bont: Dylan playing a tune on the milk churns outside the police station; walking thoughtfully through St Teilo’s churchyard; and visiting Granny Williams, across the road from the station, to talk at length about the Rebecca riots.[xiii] 

Granny was “old Bont”, born in the village, just like her father and his parents before him. She and Dylan would have got on well; she was a real local eccentric, toothless and unwashed, sharing her damp, tumbledown cottage with her chickens and pets, perhaps bringing back memories for Dylan of his holidays at dilapidated Fernhill. What’s more, she was family, related by marriage to one of Dylan’s Llangain cousins.[xiv]

Eccentric she may have been, but Granny Williams was nobody’s fool. She was well read, even scholarly, and some of her books and papers have survived. She contributed material to Lewis Evans’ book on the Bont, and she certainly knew her Rebecca history. At the time of the 1843 attacks, her grandfather was living near the lower tollgate by the Llwchwr. He was also a weaver, just like Daniel Lewis whom he undoubtedly would have known for much of his life.[xv] Sitting round the cauldron in her cottage, Granny Williams would have fired Dylan’s imagination with stories about turnpikes and tollgates, stagecoaches and rioters. 

The King Hotel was the colliers’ pub. Whilst Dylan had sneered at them in his letter, he enjoyed their company and the pubs they used, as one of his teenage friends observed:

Like Dylan, I loved a damn good argument…I used to enjoy going out to these pubs…you take The Penllergaer Inn…The Castle in Pontlliw. Go on into the Hendy – well, you go in with the Welsh collier…I never enjoyed it more than when I could get in amongst a few Welsh colliers, a few Welsh farmers…Dylan enjoyed that sort of company.[xvi]

After the King, Prayer Alley started in earnest, four chapels and a church in the short stretch to the river. Passing Trinity, Dylan might have remembered from his own theatre days that it was the home of Cwmni Dan Matthews, one of the most successful drama groups in Wales. Both he and his company had won many awards. But Matthews, whose first production had ironically been Jack y Bachgen Drwg/the Naughty Boy, is also remembered as a man who “did the rounds”, using his work as an insurance agent to indulge his “liking for the ladies”.[xvii]

And on Christmas Day, 1918, Matthews was wandering hopefully along St Teilo Street. He called at Myrtle Hill, the home of painter Alf Williams, who was one of Dylan’s Llangain uncles. Alf and the children weren’t there, but Matthews had come to see Alf’s wife, Margaretta. They had it away, and again on Boxing Day, followed by a night of passion in a Builth Wells guesthouse.

But Alfred Hayden Williams was not a man to mess with. He was well-known in the Bont, not least as a secretary of the rugby club. He immediately started divorce proceedings and won custody of the three children, with costs. Matthews soon bounced back, winning at the 1921 Eisteddfod in Caernarvon, though it took him several more years to get elected to the  committee of the rugby club.[xviii]

Dylan’s next stop would have been the Farmers Arms. It had been involved in the July attack on the Bolgoed gate, when a tollkeeper was taken there and chained in the pub’s stables. And it was also Wynford Vaughan Thomas territory. His mother, Morfydd, had kept the pub for ten years, and her brother before her. Was this where Wynford told Dylan about the Rebecca in his family?[xix] Back

After the Wheatsheaf, Dylan could move on to the Dulais Glen, where the tinplaters drank, and enjoyed themselves in the high-class Function Room, with its boxing, concerts and ballroom dancing. It was then just a short walk over the level crossing to the Gwyn Hotel. No doubt Dylan took the railways for granted but without them he could not have earned a living as a poet. And trains were in his blood; both his grandfathers and an uncle had been railway men, as had Florence’s cousin, William Proper Williams, a platform foreman at the Bont station, who made sure that people, cattle and tinplate were kept on the move.[xxvi]

The end was now in sight. The Red Lion and the Black Horse, both of which had seen action in the attack on the tollgates, stood at the bottom of the Fforest hill, the road out of the Bont to Carmarthen. A little way up lived the painter Vera Bassett.[xxvii] Then came the home of Catherine Williams. She had married into Granny Williams’ family and was Dylan’s third cousin, related three times over, once by blood and twice by marriage.[xxviii] 

At the very top of the Fforest lived another aunt, Minnie Olive. She had spent part of her childhood with Dylan’s paternal grandparents. She later married D J Bowen, whose twenty years as headmaster at Hendy school have been described as “inconspicuous”, marked by his use of the whip, as well as his indifference to both the Welsh language and the local community.[xxix] 

Dylan’s journey through the Bont from fountain to river can be seen as a rite de passage, and not just as an opportunity for a few drinks. The Bont was a border settlement, the main river crossing between sooty Glamorgan and sheepy Sir Gâr. For the young Dylan, it was also the crossing point from his nuclear to his extended family, from his mother’s apron strings to the looser reins of the aunts to whom he was farmed out. This estuarine line of aunties stretched from the Bont through to Ferryside and Llandyfaelog. It was at its most intense in the square mile around Llansteffan and Llangain, where the farms were mostly occupied by his various relatives. Such was their impact on his life that one of his girlfriends later observed that Dylan grew up with “a thing about aunties”, but that is another story.

And the film script that had been helped on its way by a toothless old lady from the Bont? It finally appeared in 1992, starring Peter O’Toole, Joely Richardson and our very own Ray Gravell. Back top of this article

Notes

*(ph) indicates a photo – please go to Bont Photos on this website and follow the link.
*The Llangain farms mentioned in the article and in the following Notes can be seen on the map on the page “Dylan’s Llangain farms” on this website.

[i] He was asked by Gainsborough Films in November 1948. Gainsborough had bought the rights from Rank, for whom Dylan had previously worked. Gainsborough sent him a copy of the first draft of the script, which Dylan himself might have written whilst he was working for Rank. Gainsborough also sent him reading material about the riots (letter from Jan Read to Dylan November 16 1948). Dylan was probably sent newspaper cuttings. In 1948, the only book on the riots dated from 1910, and consisted largely of extracts from newspapers. Welsh newspapers had carried reports of the riots, as had The Times from June 1843. The Carmarthen Antiquary, I, 1943-44 also carried articles on the riots, as well as listing the handful of other articles that had been written up to that date. It also listed a small number of works of fiction about the riots. It's possible that Dylan might also have consulted Killay author Amy Dillwyn's fictional The Rebecca Rioter, published in 1880, which refers to the riot in Pontardulais. Passionate interest: Sidney Box of Gainsborough in his Foreword to the published script, in which he also described it as an original story. Pembroke: elements of his script that are consistent with the Pembrokeshire riots include the participation of some local gentry on the side of the rioters, as well as their betrayal by an informer. See Williams 1986 and Pugh 2002. Back top of this article

[ii] Hemmed in by tollgates: Hendy tollgate and house at the junction of the Llannon road; Fforest gatehouse at the junction of the Llanedi road; Gwili Bridge (Pont Abram) tollgate on the Carmarthen road; Pontardulais tollgate near the Llwchwr river on what is now the A48 (ph); Bolgoed tollgate opposite the Fountain Inn (ph) and the Gopa bar at the junction of Gopa road and the turnpike road, which is the A48 today. (The Hendy gate was near the junction of today’s A4138 and the B4306 road to Llanon, close to the river Gwili where it joins the Llwchwr on the estuary (ph). Dylan locates his Rhos Goch gate on a river estuary.) The attack on the Hendy gate on September 9^th resulted in the death of the tollgate keeper, Sarah Williams. Back top of this article

[iii] Serious incident: second in importance only to the storming of the Carmarthen workhouse, according to Williams (1986). The Times carried a lengthy report of the incidents at the Bont (September 9 1843). First time troops/police in position: such was the general ineffectiveness of the civil forces that the Home Secretary wrote to the Prime Minister to point out that the officer in charge in Wales had more than enough troops to conquer the country, “let alone keep it in order…if a crime is committed he instantly sends soldiers to the place the following day.” Quoted in Williams, 1986, p266. Back top of this article

[iv] See Williams 1986 and Griffiths, 1997, on the Bolgoed, Pontardulais and Hendy attacks. The Bolgoed gate was near the Bolgoed quarry; access to quarries was amongst the grievances of the rioters, as Dylan noted in his script (p64, Sphere, 1968).

[v] Daniel Lewis: Lewis was not just a weaver and poet (with the bardic name ‘Petrys Bach’) but also an auctioneer and budding entrepreneur. A history of the Gopa chapel noted that Lewis, unlike his father, “was not one of the godly of this earth but he was, despite that, a man of unusual culture. He immersed himself in the traditions of the Druids, and he fostered the radical ideas of the time.” (Hopkin 1973) According to a report in the Cambrian, “he was known as a writer in the Welsh periodicals” (July 29 1843). Lewis was also a leading Ivorite in Pontardulais. The Ivorites was a friendly society that prospered in the mid-19C;  it was “uniquely Welsh in many of its aims and attitudes, including its promotion of the Welsh language.” In 1841, Lewis was recognised, in a ceremony at the Fountain Inn (ph), as ‘Ovid’ of the Iorwerth Mystic Lodge of True Ivorites, and in 1866 at the Fountain, he was awarded a Druidic silver medal for the work he had carried out for the Lodge (the Cambrian 27.11.1841 and 8.6.1866 respectively). Indeed, Lewis had helped to put the Lodge on such a sound footing that the Cambrian reporter was moved to write: “Who is the Parliamentary semi-lunatic who will say that the working man is not to be entrusted with the franchise!” Back top of this article

[vi] Daniel Lewis (1815-1886) and Elizabeth Davies (1824-1907, of Ystomenlle farm, Hendy) were married in December 1847. They had eight children. The eldest was Taliesin and the youngest was Morfydd (ph). By 1891, she was living at home with her mother, working as an assistant teacher but then followed Taliesin as the licensee of the Farmers Arms (ph) from 1893 to 1903. Morfydd married David Vaughan Thomas (ph) on October 12 1906. Back top of this article

Their son, Wynford Vaughan Thomas (ph), was born in 1908 in Swansea. He had several relatives from the Bont, including his auntie Bess (ph) whom he writes about in Trust to Talk. His paternal uncle, Jenkyn Thomas b.1868, lived near the Farmers Arms. In 1901, he was working in the wash house of the tinplate works. By 1911, he was running the newsagent and book shop at Caxton House on St Teilo Street. Jenkyn is also remembered as a fine organist at Hermon. He had married Martha Catherine Parry of Brymbo, Denbigh, in 1896. One of their sons was the conductor, T. Haydn Thomas, who married Gwyneth, the sister of Rhidwyn Davies, Manchester House, St Teilo Street. Besides Haydn, Wynford’s other Bont cousins through Jenkyn and Martha were Hywel Parri Thomas who took over the running of Caxton House; Eluned Parri Thomas who ran the Woolshop on St Teilo Street, near the corner with Cambrian Place; and Jenkyn Parri Thomas. Some of Wynford’s visits to the Bont are noted in the Llwchwr Gazette; for example, he came to give a talk in February 1946 at the Mechanics Institute on his experiences as a war correspondent (February 8 edition).  Back to top

[vii] See Thomas 2003 chapter 6.

[viii] See Thomas 2003, chapter 7.

[ix] Letter to Pamela Hansford Johnson, late October 1933.

[x] Edward Thomas on the Bont: in Beautiful Wales, 1905, and quoted in a helpful National Library article at http://www.users.ic24.net/~terrynorm/edward%20thomas.htm. Edward Thomas frequently stayed in and around the Bont, where his relatives lived at 17, Woodville Street. His close friendship with the distinguished theologian and poet John Jenkins (Gwili) of the Hendy also brought him to the area. For more on Edward Thomas and the Bont, see R. G. Thomas (1987). Back top of this article

[xi] Boozing trip: Mably Owen in Thomas 2004, p41. Other examples of Dylan’s “boozing trips” are in Thomas 2004 e.g Carreg Cennen  and Glanaman p184, Kidwelly p183, Ferryside p188. Brinnin (1965 pp86-90) also describes a trip round some Pembrokeshire pubs. Back top of this article

[xii] Seven chapels and churches on the main road: from the Llwchwr up, they were St Michael’s, Hope, Hermon, Trinity, Presby, St Teilo’s and Y Babell. There were two others just off the main road: Siloh and Gopa. Please see Bont photos on this site. Back top of this article

[xiii] Encounters with Dylan: Hughes, 1998. Hughes, the police sergeant’s daughter, reports that Dylan talked “at length” with Granny Williams about the riots (p61). Back top of this article

Hughes provides no biographical information on Granny Williams so what follows comes from Pontardulais residents, parish registers and the census: Granny Williams was Sarah Ann Williams, b. August 2 1875 in the Bont, and known to many as Saran. She lived at The Whit cottage on Banc y Whit, opposite the police station – Banc y Whit ran from the King Hotel to the corner of the little lane that ran to St Teilo’s church, and Whit cottage was exactly on that corner. Whit cottage had once been the Whistle Inn, a coaching pub. Granny Williams lived in the cottage with her parents, Griffith (ph) b.1842 in the Bont (PR baptisms and census), a stone mason but formerly a quarryman (1861), who had lived on the Whit since at least 1851, and Elizabeth b.1844 in Loughor. Griffith’s parents were William and Mary Williams; he is given as a weaver on the baptism record and they had several other children, including David, on whom see the next Note. In the 1881 census, Griffith and family were at 3, Trinity Row, near the Farmers Arms. In the 1891 census Sarah Ann is listed as a “day school teacher”, and is shown in that census and in 1901 as living at the Whistling,  i.e. Whit Cottage, on Banc y Whit. In the 1911 census, Sarah Ann is listed as living at The Whit. (Whit cottage is plot 1058 on the map on p145 of John 2008. Also see John 2008 pp141-43 on the etymology of Whit etc.).

[xiv] Granny was family: Living next door to Granny Williams were Samuel Vaughan Williams b. May 1st 1881 and his wife Margaret (d.1934) and then his second wife Annie. Samuel had been born on the Whit (birth cert.), the son of David Williams b.1844 in the Bont (a labourer then stamper in the tinplate works) and Elizabeth, nee Anthony, b.1845 in Llanedi. Samuel and Granny Williams were first cousins; their grandparents, William and Mary Williams, were the parents of both Samuel’s father, David, and Granny’s father, Griffith (PR baptism records and 1851 census). Samuel’s son David Handel Williams married Dylan’s third cousin, Catherine Mary (nee Williams) in 1933 – see Note 28 below – and it was this marriage that turned Granny Williams into one of Dylan’s relations.  

Samuel and Annie were still living next door to Granny Williams in 1949 (electoral register). After a short period living with Samuel and Annie, Handel and Catherine moved to the Fforest at the other end of the village – see Note 28 below. Back top of this article

[xv] Knew each other: the probability of William Williams, Granny’s grandfather, and Daniel Lewis/Petrys Bach (1816-1886) knowing each other is extremely high. They were both weavers, and Lewis was a well-known figure, not just as a Rebecca hero and a poet but also through his wider position and status – see Note 5 above. By 1851, they were living within 400 yards of each other in what was then a small hamlet: William Williams (1804-1879) lived on the Whit (Black Cock) and Daniel Lewis in Dai Phill’s house (on the corner of what would much later (1880s) become the present-day Glynllwchwr Road and St Teilo Street – the plot of land that would later become Tass Harris/Aldo’s Café). William Williams probably worked as a weaver in the Lower Factory with Lewis, most likely in the 1850s when Lewis managed, and probably owned, the Lower Factory. Furthermore, William Williams’ son-in-law, William Parcell (see below), was living on the Gopa, just a few doors away from Daniel Lewis’ sister, Anne. William Parcell’s son, William b.1866, lived at Whit Cottage with his grandparents, William and Mary Williams, from about 1870 (census). His half-sister, Mary Parcell b.1871, was working as a servant for Daniel Lewis’ widow in 1891. Back top of this article

William Williams, weaver, could also have witnessed the 1843 tollgate riots in the Bont for himself, or even taken part in them. In 1841, he was living near Y Felin Isha/the Lower Mill within a few hundred yards of the lower Pontardulais tollgate; he was still there when his son, David, was baptised in 1846. By 1851, William Williams had moved to the Whit (Black Cock), just a few hundred yards from the site of the former Bolgoed gate. Granny was too young to have heard about the riots from her grandfather William (he died just after she was born) but the stories would have come down through her father, Griffith, who lived with Granny at the Whit until his death in 1921, and who himself would have known Daniel Lewis for much of his adult life. Indeed, Griffith might even have been in the same Ivorite lodge as Lewis: there is a report in the Cambrian July 1873 of a scuffle between Lewis and a Griffith Williams during a Iorwerth lodge meeting in the Fountain (Lewis, as chairman, refused to let Williams speak). We cannot be certain that this was Granny’s father, but we have not been able as yet to find any other Griffith Williams living in or near the Bont, Hendy or Fforest at or around this time.

William Parcell: the back story: Parcell, from Pembrokeshire, married Rachel, daughter of William (the weaver) and Mary Williams of Whit cottage on January 2 1865 (parish registers). Their son William was born later that year (Swansea, September quarter 11a 536). Rachel died in 1867 age 28.

In  1870, William Parcell remarried and lived in Gopa St (1871 and 1881 census) with his new wife Ann and had several children, including Mary, who later became a servant at Daniel Lewis’ home. When William Parcell remarried in 1870, his son William went to live with his grandparents at Whit cottage.  He was still living with his grandmother Mary at the cottage in 1881, working as a “Raiser of Tinplates out of Pickle”. He married Cath Emily in 1890 and lived in St Teilo Street, working as a labourer on the railway.

[xvi] Colliers’ company: see the interview with Gwen Bevan Courtney by Colin Edwards, National Library of Wales. Also reproduced in part in Thomas 2003. See many others on this theme e.g. R.M. Glyn Thomas in Thomas 2003 p83. Back top of this article

[xvii] Dan Matthews: Daniel Matthews (ph) was the founder of Cwmni Drama Pontardulais, whose first production was in 1901 – see Evans 1949 and Owain 1948 (The D. R. Davies Collection at the National Library of Wales contains Davies’ book of cuttings on Dan Matthews, 1924-1985). Denver Evans has written of Matthews and his company: "Culturally, local inhabitants were well catered for. The Dan Mathews (sic) Drama Company, after winning the National Eisteddfod in 1921, were famous throughout Wales and were in great demand everywhere. It is doubtful whether any drama company ever achieved the fame that was so worthily earned by Mr Dan Mathews and his band of accomplished actors. Dan Mathews himself, was to reign supreme in the world of Welsh Drama over the next two decades and he became the doyen of the Welsh acting fraternity and was a master of elocution." (D. Evans, 1980, p189)

Matthews was born in 1877; in his book, Lewis Evans says that the birth was in Grovesend, a few miles from the Bont. In the 1901 census return, Dan himself states that he had been born in the Bont. Certainly, in 1871, his mother Charlotte Davies, 23, was living with her parents in the Bont and working as a washerwoman in the tinworks. She also married in the Bont in 1874, to a John Matthews, the son of William Matthews (PR records). By 1881, Charlotte, had been widowed and she was working in the tinplate works as a Plate Opener. She, Daniel, aged 4, and his sister Hannah were living in a multi-occupied house in Factory Road (Dulais Road today) with Charlotte’s parents, David and Harriett Davies, as well as three of Charlotte’s siblings and their children. By 1901, aged 24, Dan was living in Parlas Cottages, a few hundred yards along the road from Glanyrafon at the junction of Alltiago and Glynhir roads. He was working as a labourer in the tinworks, recently married (Swansea December quarter 1899 11a 1567) to Sarah Ann Roblin (ph), a tinplate duster (1891) who had lived next to the Farmers Arms.

By 1911, Dan and Sarah were living at Grove Place, Glanyrafon Road, with their three children, Harriett, 9, Ceinwen, 6, and Goronwy,1 (a second son, Meredydd, was born later). Dan had pulled himself up in the world and was now an insurance agent. His drama company was also thriving, and he had won the recitation contest at the National Eisteddfod in Carmarthen in 1911. By 1919, he was an insurance superindentent and an elocution teacher, in his early 40s, with a reputation, that is remembered today amongst some in the Bont, for “liking the ladies”.  Insurance agents went from house-to-house each week to collect premiums, a task that provided Dan Matthews with excellent cover. In 1919, he was named as co-respondent in a divorce case involving Alf and Margaretta Williams – see the next Note. Back top of this article

[xviii] Alf Williams: he was the second cousin of Dylan’s mother, Florence – see the end of Note 28 for the family tree. Alfred Hayden Williams b.1880 was the son of Mary Douglas Hayden (b. 1847 in St Brides Major, Bridgend) and William Proper Williams. William Proper worked at Bont railway station but had been born and brought up in Llangain; he was the nephew of Dylan’s maternal great-grandfather, Thomas Williams of Waunfwlchan farm, Llangain (see Note 28). Alf was a painter and decorator. On September 30 1905, aged 25, he married Margaretta Barraby, aged 19 (Llanelli, Sept quarter 11a 1739; Margaretta’s birth June quarter 1887 Llanelli 11a 891). She was the daughter of Charles Barraby, a millman in the copper works, of Swansea Road, Llanelli. At the 1911 census, Alf and Margaretta were living in Glanyrafon Road, Pontardulais, with their two children, Phyllis b.1906 and Ron b.1908. In 1913, their third child, Kenneth, was born and sometime after they moved to Myrtle Hill, Hope Street (later St. Teilo Street), Pontardulais.

In April 1919, Alf petitioned for divorce from Margaretta on the grounds of her adultery with Daniel Matthews of Llys Myfyr, Grove Place, Glanyrafon Road, Pontardulais, an “insurance superindentent and elocutionist”. The court was told that the adultery had taken place in Alf and Margaretta’s home, Myrtle Hill, on December 25 and 26 1918, at the Bridge Restaurant, Builth Wells on January 11 and 12 1919 and at Daniel’s home, Llys Myfyr, on February 8 1919. The divorce was granted in November 1919. Custody of the three children was given to Alf, and costs awarded against Daniel (Divorce papers, National Archives). At the time of the divorce, Margaretta was living in Reading, and nothing is known about what happened to her afterwards. Alf went on to marry Mary Hannah Jones (Bal) on June 1 1921 – see Note 21  below. The divorce papers are at: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATLN=7&CATID=-3103749

Alf’s community activities: he was very involved with the rugby club, and was elected Club Secretary in 1906. In 1922 at a public meeting in the Mechanics’ Institute, he seconded the motion that 'That a memorial be erected in memory of those from this place who have made the supreme sacrifice.' Dan Matthews was elected to the rugby club committee at the 1927 AGM (D. Evans 1980)

As for the children from Alf and Margaretta’s marriage, Kenneth married Elizabeth Mary Thomas and had a son Colin who lives in Swansea today, 2010. Back top of this article

[xix] Tollkeeper in stable: see John 2008, pp93-94 – it was the keeper of the Pontardulais Gate. Morfydd at the Farmers: from 1893 to 1903. See John 2008, pp96-97, and the 1901 census which shows the daughters of her dead brother Taliesin, a former licensee, living at the Farmers with her. Taliesin took over the pub sometime after 1875 and is shown there on the 1881 census. He died in February 1888, aged 35. Back top of this article

[xx] Farr: John 2008, p116.

[xxi] Mary Hannah Jones: Bal’s parents were  Capt. David Jones and Amy Williams (daughter of Waunfwlchan farm, Llangain), b.1854 and 1847 respectively. The half-sister that Bal and Florence had in common was Anne, Amy’s daughter by Florence’s father, George (see Note 24). David Jones is described as “pilot” on various census returns. They were married on May 7 1882 and lived at Alpha House in Eva Terrace, Ferryside. They had four children: Elizabeth Ann (Bess), Sarah Jane (Sal), David Thomas (Tom) and Mary Hannah (Bal), born in 1884. Bal is a dressmaker on the 1911 census (Florence was a seamstress). On June 1 1921, Bal (ph) married a cousin, Alfred Hayden Williams, on whom see Note 18 above.  Alf and Bal’s son, Allan (ph), was born in c1924 and died in 1998 (and see Note 23). Alf died in February 1947, and Bal in October 1955. Bal’s siblings, Tom and Sal, remained in Ferryside throughout much of Dylan’s life, and help to explain his visits there. On Bal, see Thomas 2003 p184 and Thomas 2004 p25. Bal and Alf’s wallpaper and decorating shop was at 56, St Teilo Street, just opposite the Mechanics Institute, and a few doors up from the Wheatsheaf. (Information on Bal came from Colin Williams, David Williams and Richard Thomas of the Bont and from a family memoir by Rowan Stanford-ffoulkes.) Back top of this article

[xxii] Close all their lives: They had been apprenticed to the same dressmaker in Carmarthen, during which time Alpha House in Ferryside became Florence’s home-from-home. It is Bal who is the unknown woman in the charming picture (ph) in Paul Ferris’ book of the young, angelic Dylan sitting between his mother and sister. The photo, taken in the studio of a Swansea photographer, confirms Bal’s importance within the Thomas family, as does Dylan’s use of the names of his own aunts in A Child’s Christmas in Wales: Dosie, Bessie and Hannah. Dosie was Theodosia, Bessie was Elizabeth (also known as Polly) and Hannah was undoubtedly Bal (Mary Hannah). Back top of this article

[xxiii] Information on Allan Williams came from his wife Jean and nephew Colin, from Roy Gubb, David Williams and Richard Thomas of the Bont, and a Gorseinon history website. The Roy Allan Band were the Wales winners in successive Melody Maker competitions post-1945. Two bob = ten pence. Allan played for the Bont rugby team and, like his father Alf before him, became Hon. Secretary of the Club (in the 1960s). Allan spent a lot of time in Ferryside - he was "very close" to his first cousin who lived there, Raymond Jones, who was also Dylan's second cousin (interview, 2010 with Lynn Jones, Raymond's son: "Allan was very close to my father."). Dylan and Allan’s drinking in the Bont and in the White Lion in Ferryside is described in Stanford-ffoulkes 2004. For more on Dylan and the White Lion, see Hughes 1998 (who misses the Alpha House connection) and, in a 1960s interview, Billy Williams of Laugharne – an edited version of the interview is in Thomas 2004 p188. Back top of this article

[xxiv] The scandal: Hannah and Amy were the daughters of Thomas and Anne Williams of Waunfwlchan farm, Llangain – see the family tree at the end of Note 28. On the scandal, see Thomas 2003 p10, p185 and Note 52, and Thomas 2004 p25. Stanford-ffoulkes’ family memoir also has a report of the scandal. This seems to be independent of Thomas 2003 because it has some details he does not have. George and Amy’s child was born in January 1866, a girl named Anne, who married, first, John Gwyn of Plas Ucha, Llanybri and, sceond, her cousin, Robert Williams of Waunffort, which was just down the road from Waunfwlchan and opposite Blaencwm. For more on Anne and her first marriage into local gentry, see Thomas 2003 p185 with more in Thomas 2004 pp21-23. Back top of this article

Anne and Robert had a daughter, Doris. In a 1960s taped interview with Colin Edwards, Doris said "Dylan was my cousin, mother and Dylan's mother Auntie Florrie being sisters." Off tape, she told Edwards that George Williams, Florence's father, was also the father of her mother, Anne. Edwards recorded this information in one of his notebooks that are in his archive in the National Library of Wales. In his 2003 biography of Dylan, Andrew Lycett indicates (p45) that he is aware of the story, as he puts it, that George Williams had fathered a love child, Anne, by his wife's sister, Amy. But in his family tree he has a David Jones as Anne's father. Lycett writes that Amy and David had been having an affair and that they did not marry at the time of Anne's birth because David was already married. This is wrong on two counts. David Jones was only 12 at the time of Anne's birth; and when he married Amy in 1882 at the age of 28 he was a bachelor, as the wedding certificate shows. Back top of this article

[xxv] See Note 21 above.

[xxvi] Railways: Dylan could not drive, so he relied on the train to take him around Britain for poetry readings and talks, and for travelling back and forth to the BBC studios in Swansea, Cardiff and London. The uncle was his paternal uncle Arthur, who worked in Port Talbot. See Note 28 on William Proper Williams. He was a Platform Foreman at Pontardulais railway station from sometime in the 1890s to his death c1910. In 1867 a new line had arrived from Swansea, and Pontardulais became an important railway junction (ph): “A magnificent Victorian station was erected with four platforms, joined by two staircases and a covered overhead walkway. Wagon sheds for repairs and unloading goods were added, as were cattle pens and a coal unloading yard. Prior to the First World War there were some 150 movements a day at this station.” The station was demolished in 1965, and only a small platform and shelter remain today. Back top of this article

(see Gwyn Griffiths, http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southwest/sites/pontarddulais/pages/history_2.shtml)  

[xxvii] Vera Bassett held her first one-woman exhibition in the Hendy Urdd Centre in 1943, followed by others at the Mechanics Institute in the Bont in 1948 and the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, in 1949. She was born on the Fforest, Pontardulais, in 1912, and lived in Glenview and, after 1946, at 7, Fforest Road. Her parents were William John Bassett, a furniture salesman, and Mary Sarah Lloyd – they married in 1907 (FreeBMD). They had six children, of whom Vera was the youngest. She married William Owen Reynolds in 1956 and they moved to Burry Port in 1969. Vera died in 1997. In 1938 her sister, Edna, married Gethin Morgan, who later ran the Spot newsagent’s shop on St Teilo Street. His father, J. Rhys Morgan, had established the Spot newspaper about 1920. It ran to 1938. Back top of this article

[xxviii] Catherine Williams: of the Fforest, Pontardulais, b.1907. Her great-grandfather, Daniel Williams (b.1812) of Waunffort farm, Llangain, was the half-brother of Thomas Williams (b.1816) of Waunfwlchan farm, Llangain, who was Dylan’s great-grandfather – see the family tree at the end of this Note. Put another way, Catherine and Dylan were third cousins i.e. Catherine’s father, Edward Daniel Williams, and Dylan’s mother Florence, were second cousins. The blood relationship was augmented by two marriages. First, in 1929, Catherine’s uncle, Alf Hayden Williams, married Mary Hannah Jones (Bal), Florence’s first cousin – see Note 21 above. Second, in 1895 Edward Daniel’s cousin, Robert Williams (b.1867) of Waunffort (grandson of the above Daniel), had married another cousin, Anne, who was also Florence’s half-sister, by virtue of being the daughter of Amy Williams and George Williams (see Note 24 above).  (In census returns, Robert Williams is listed as Daniel’s grandson, but on Robert and Anne’s marriage certificate Daniel is given as Robert’s father. Robert’s real father is unknown. His mother was Eleanor, Daniel’s daughter).  Florence and family, including Dylan, took holidays with Anne and Robert in Llansteffan until Anne’s death in 1922. After her death, Anne and Robert’s daughter, Doris, came to live in Cwmdonkin Drive until her marriage to Randolph Fulleylove.) 

Catherine Mary’s father, Edward Daniel Williams b.1873, was the son of Mary Hayden (b. 1847 in St Brides Major, Bridgend, the daughter of school teachers) and William Proper Williams - they were married in June 1872. William Proper was born on April 6 1850 at Pencelli Uchaf, Llangynog, the son of Daniel Williams (see above para, and below) and Harriet Proper. Daniel and Harriet formerly lived at Pencelli Isaf and later at Penlanfach, Llansteffan and then at Waunffort. William Proper is shown at Waunffort with his parents in the 1851 and 1861 census returns. At the time of his marriage to Mary in 1872, he was a grocer in Aberkenfig, Bridgend.

By 1881, William Proper was living in Dulais Terrace, Pontardulais, working on the railway as a porter At the 1891 census, he is a railway checker; he and Mary were at Rachal House, Forest Road, Llanedi with the following children: Edward Daniel b.1873, Robert Henry b.1875, Emily H. b.1877, Alfred Hayden b. 1880, John R. b.1884, William David b.1887 and Mary Ellen b.1891. By 1901, William Proper was a railway foreman, living with his family at 12, Forest Road. He had died by the 1911 census, probably in 1910 (FreeBMD), and his wife carried on at 12, Forest Road, taking in lodgers to make ends meet. Back top of this article

 

Of William and Mary’s seven children, we know that: 

Robert Henry was born at his grandparents’ farm, Waunffort, on May 7 1874. He married Letitia James (September quarter 1895 11a 1491 Llandeilo Fawr)  and, at 1901, had two small children, Albert Haydn and Edith Muriel. He was a relief signalman, and they lived at Mill Terrace, Llanedi. By 1911, he was an Inspector, living at 25, Penvillia Road, Brynhyfryd, Swansea.

William David married Mary Hannah Charles in 1907, b.1883 in Pembrey. They had Mary C. b.1908 and William J. D. b. 1910. William David worked as a labourer, and they lived with his mother at 12, Forest Road (1911 census).

Alfred Hayden made two marriages and had four children; see Note 18 above.

Emily Harriet married Timothy Daly in 1897 (September quarter 1897, Llanelli), and in 1911 they were living in 17, Roslyn Road, Tottenham with a daughter.

Mary Ellen was a seamstress in 1911, visiting her sister Emily in Tottenham.

Edward Daniel married Hannah Powell, b.1872 in Pontardawe. The 1901 census shows him living at 13, Forest Road (‘Rosebank’) on the Fforest, working as a Doubler in the tinplate works, with Hannah and two small children, John D. and Clarice. At the 1911 census, they are at 13, Forest Road and Edward is now a weigher in the tinplate works. Hannah  and  Edward had  three sons  and six daughters -  John Douglas, William Edward, Hayden Powell, Catherine Mary, Clarice, Evelyn, Elinor Myra , Emily Corona Maud and  Eileen. Back top of this article

In 1933, Edward’s daughter Catherine Mary Williams married David Handel Williams b.1906 and they lived on the Fforest – see Note 14 above. Handel was the son of Samuel Vaughan Williams and his wife Margaret. Handel was brought up next door to Granny Williams of Whit Cottage, and his father and step-mother, Annie, were still there (on the electoral register) in 1949.

Catherine and Handel had a son, David ‘Dai’ Williams b.1937, a collier, who lives in the Hendy today (2010) and is a well-known breeder of canaries. He married Marian and had a daughter, Llinos, who married Chris Davies. (Information  from David and Marian, Llinos and Chris, census returns and birth and marriage certificates, including William Proper Williams’ birth and marriage certificates.) Back top of this article

Confirmation of Daniel Williams’ parents was from the Ebenezer Baptist Chapel, Llangynog, birth records, which have been filmed by the PRO - ref RG4 3944. These include the births of Anna Williams' children:

 

Mary Williams	5 Jun 1809	William & Anna, Lambstone farm, Llangynog
Daniel Williams	6 Feb 1812	William & Anna, Lambstone
Thomas Williams	10 Mar 1816	John & Anna, Lambstone
Sarah Williams	20 Jun 1818	John & Anna, Lambstone

(thanks to Susan Deacon for this information.)

John and Anna left Lambstone to live at Pen-y-coed farm. Further data on this family are given in Note 44 on p288 of Thomas 2003.

Daniel married Harriet Proper on February 27 1827; she died in November 1871.  They had John b.1838, Elinor (Eleanor) b.1840, Anna b.1848, Hosulah b.1848, William Proper b.1850 and Thomas b.1853. At the 1871 census, they also had their granddaughter Sarah b.1862 and grandson Robert b.1867 living with them

On the 1881 census, Daniel is now married to Jane. This second marriage was in 1878/79 - on FreeBMD there is a Daniel Williams and Jane Jenkins both with the same marriage reference, Carmarthen 11a 1038 in Dec quarter 1878. (thanks to Susan Deacon for this information.) Back top of this article

[xxix] Minnie (b.1890) was the daughter of Alderman William Greville JP, who ran a grocer’s shop in Llanon, just up the road from the Hendy. See Thomas 2003, p188 for the family tree. She lived with Dylan’s paternal grandparents in Johnstown, Carmarthen. (Johnstown school records, in Hughes 1998, p71.) Dylan’s grandparents were, of course, her grandparents as well. She later trained and/or worked as a teacher in Tredegar: 1911 census return for The Poplars, Charles Street, Tredegar. DJ Bowen: it’s thought that Bowen had shell shock from WW1, and suffered from ‘the shakes’ in school. He would stand in the school yard in the mornings with his whip to chastise latecomers. He spoke no Welsh. (Emails, 2010, from former pupils. Also, Glyn Hopkin, Notes on Hendy Schools.) Back top of this article

References
J. M Brinnin (1965) Dylan Thomas in America, Dent 
E. A. Dillwyn (1880) The Rebecca Rioter, Macmillan (also Honno, 2004)
D. Evans (1980) Bont: The Story of a Village and its Rugby Club, Bont RFC 
E. L. Evans (1949) Braslun o hanes Pontardulais a'r cylch, Gomer  
H. T. Evans (1910) Rebecca and her Daughters, Cardiff and at http://www.archive.org/stream/rebeccaherdaught00evanuoft/rebeccaherdaught00evanuoft_djvu.txt 
P. Ferris (1977) Dylan Thomas, Dent
I. Griffiths (1997) Rebecca in Pontarddulais
G. Hopkin (1973) Hanes Eglwys y Gopa, Pontarddulais 1773-1973, Gwasg John Penry
G. Hopkin (197?) Notes on Hendy Schools, mimeo 
B. Hughes (1998) The Cat’s Whiskers, Hughes
D. John et. al. (2008) Historical and Hysterical Tales of Pontardulais Public Houses, Llygad Gwalch
O. L. Owain (1948) Hanes y Ddrama yng Nghymru 1850-1943, Gwasg y Brython
S. Pugh (2002) Roads, Riots and Rebecca: The History of the Rebecca Riots in Pembrokeshire, Bro Beca Project, and at http://www.brobeca.co.uk/Images/Bro%20Beca%20English.pdf 
R. Stanford-ffoulkes (2004) Before the Funeral (a family memoir), mimeo.
R. G. Thomas (1987) Edward Thomas: A Portrait, Oxford 
D. M. Thomas (1968) Rebecca’s Daughters, Sphere
D. N. Thomas (2003) Dylan Remembered 1914-34, vol 1, Seren (2004) Dylan Remembered 1935-53, vol 2, Seren           
W. Vaughan Thomas (1980) Trust to Talk, Hutchinson
David Williams (1986) The Rebecca Riots, University of Wales Press
Derek Williams (2001) The Roberts and David Dynasties, family memoir (see also http://www.welshleigh.org/genealogy/biographies/davidleigh/davidleigh.htm)    

Acknowledgements. We are grateful to all those who have encouraged and helped us: Margaret Barton, Sadie Clayfield, Llinos and Chris Davies, Susan Deacon, Philip Gill, Leighton Griffiths, Gwyn Griffiths, Roy Gubb, Stevie Krayer, Gail and Lynn Jones, Dan and Indeg Matthews, Spencer Morgan, Susan Owen, Gwen Price, Alun Rees, Hywel Raw Rees, Wyndham Taylor, Dianne Thomas, Richard Thomas, Susan Owen Thomas, Don Treharne, John Walters, Alan Williams, Colin Williams, David Williams, David and Marian Williams, Derek Williams, Jean Williams, Selwyn Williams,,Wynn Williams, Gwilym Games of Swansea Library, Sarah Loud of Pontardulais Library, Ellie Dawkins of the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, staff at the National Library of Wales, Gorseinon History Archive, and Dawn Riley of Bookworm, Aberaeron.  Images: Thanks to John Miles, Sadie Clayfield, Dan Matthews, Dianne Thomas, Les Hayes, Wyndham Taylor, Denver Evans, Ralph Thomas, John Ball, Paul Jenkins, Reflective Images, Pontardulais Library and Hutchinson Press. The photo of Bal came from Paul Ferris' biography of Dylan, where she is referred to as an "unknown friend". Back top of this article

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