A Swansea Valley Man

The chapel was another source of our social life, the speaking and singing in Welsh. Both Mollie and I were brought up in a Welsh environment, myself more than her, as she had an English speaking father, so the languages were mixed in her family home. Her mother spoke only in Welsh to me and a mixture of Welsh and English to Mollie. I spoke in English to all the rest of her family except to Islwyn.  All her family were able to speak Welsh if it was necessary, and in a predominantly Welsh area it was.

As for my own family, we spoke only Welsh at home. My Mother’s mother could only speak a few words of English. She could not read and writing was very difficult for her. This is not surprising as she never, to my knowledge, attended any school.

Welsh was also the language at work and at play. At school I had very few Welsh lessons. I learnt to read Welsh at Sunday School, and I’ve always found it easy, if necessary, to write in Welsh. I well remember my great-uncle Dafydd Protheroe. He used to write us letters in Welsh, in a beautiful script. It was a pleasure to read them. Yet he, like my grandmother, had no schooling, but, being a lifelong bachelor, had the time to teach himself.

Easter was the time of the Gymanfa Ganu, when the many chapels in Pontardawe would join together and meet in the biggest, which was the Alltwen Tabernacle, and have a musical festival from Saturday night and continue all Easter Sunday. As Easter was in spring this meant new outfit and, of course, hats for all the ladies. The children were a joy to see, the little girls in white dresses and white shoes and the boys in blazers and grey shorts and, of course, new shoes. This was a custom I remember from my own childhood to my own children’s childhood.

Autumn was the time to prepare for the Winter Oratorios, normally Elijah or The Messiah, which were held in the Public Hall, with a full orchestra of gifted amateurs, of which there were plenty in the Swansea Valley. Professional singers would be hired to take the solo parts. This was at the time when Sir Henry Wood was alive and conducting the Proms in the old Queen’s Hall, which was used before the Albert Hall and was destroyed during the air raids. Our Musical Society was the local amateurs, performing the Doyle Carte operettas, and the dramas were also performed by local people.

For a few short years after the War Mollie and I enjoyed going to Mount Pleasant chapel in Swansea on a Saturday night. This was a very big chapel, capable of seating well over a thousand people comfortably. It was situated in what was called Princes Way. It would always be filled to capacity, mostly young people, and for about two hours we would sing our heads off. All the well-known hymns, mainly from the Sankey and Moody hymnal. It was like a revivalist meeting without the sermon.