Yn seiliedig ar gyfweliad gyda Mrs Doris Jones, Mehefin 2011. Treuliais fy mhlentyndod yn ystod y 1930au ym Mhenparc a safai tu allan i Aberaeron i gyfeiriad Neuaddlwyd ac yn agos i’r afon Aeron a’r rheilffordd. Roedd fy nhair chwaer a minnau’n amseru’n symudiadau wrth ddyfodiad y trên. Collais fy mam yn ifanc iawn a roedd fy nhad yn gadael y tŷ am 5.30 y bore i seiclo i’w waith yng Nghapel y Groes (heb fod yn bell o Gribyn). Ei gyfarwyddyd i ni’r merched oedd i godi am 7.30 pan fyddem yn clywed y trên yn cyrraedd y groesfan, a dyna beth fyddem yn ei wneud bob bore. Mae gennyf nifer o atgofion o garedigrwydd criw y trên i ni’r plant. Un diwrnod roedd fy chwaer ieuengaf a minnau wedi mynd i hel mwyar duon ar bwys Wig Wen ac wrth chwarae roeddwn wedi rhoi sudd y mwyar o’m dwylo ar wyneb fy chwaer nes iddi edrych fel petai’n waed i gyd. Dyma’r trên yn cyrraedd a Williams y gard yn sylwi ar gyflwr fy chwaer. Ar unwaith fe stopiodd y trên a dod draw atom yn syth i sicrhau ei bod yn iawn! Yn aml byddwn yn dod adref o’r dref wedi fy llwytho ar ôl siopa a byddai Oswyn Evans bob amser yn stopio’r trên wrth y groesfan ar bwys y tŷ fel nad oeddwn yn gorfod cerdded o Holt Neuadd-Lwyd.. Roedd gennym berthynas a alwem yn Wncwl Dafydd, er nad oedd yn ewythr go iawn. Roedd Wncwl Dafydd yn archwilydd ar y rheilffordd a byddai’n dod weithiau yn rhinwedd ei swydd i Aberaeron. Byddai bob amser yn ysgrifennu i roi gwybod i ni a byddem yn cwrdd ag ef ar Holt Neuaddlwyd ac yn ddi-ffael fe roddai hanner coron yr un i’r pedair ohonom – swm anghyffredin o hael ar y pryd! Pan fyddai priodas yn digwydd yng Nghapel Neuaddlwyd, a bod y trên yn mynd heibio, byddai chwiban y trên i’w glywed a byddai’r chwibanu yn para am tua milltir heibio’r Capel. Digwyddodd hyn ar gyfer fy mhriodas i ac ar gyfer fy chwiorydd. Rwy’n cofio un damwain angheuol yn y 1950au. Roedd dyn a oedd yn adnabyddus i bawb fel Jim Llain yn crwydro ar hyd y lein fel y gwnâi yn aml rhwng Bryn pithyll a Llety Siôn. Roedd yn fud ac yn fyddar ac felly ni synhwyrodd fod y trên yn dod tuag ato ac yn anffodus methodd y gyrrwr stopio mewn pryd. Roeddem hefyd yn defnyddio’r bysiau rhwng Aberaeron a Llanbedr. Rwy’n cofio’n direidi ni fel plant yn procio un condyctor yn arbennig am ei fod mor ddiamynedd gyda ni. John poenus fyddem yn ei alw – gwell peidio rhoi ei enw iawn – ond byddem yn cael sbort trwy ddweud wrtho ein bod am fynd i Grey Hall yn lle Neuaddlwyd neu Black Gate, yn lle Clwyd Ddu. Rwy’n cofio hefyd adeg pan oedd Doreen, y ferch, yn teithio ar ei phen ei hunan i’r ysgol gynradd yn Aberaeron. Nid oedd ond tua pum mlwydd oed pan aeth un diwrnod ar y bws anghywir. Wrth i’r bws droi am Aberystwyth dyma Doreen yn sylweddoli ei chamgymeriad ac ar unwaith fe stopiodd y bws ac aros nes i’r conductor sicrhau ein bod yn ddiogel ar fws Llambed!

Prysurdeb y iard oedd yn taro dyn gynta’ – loriau masnachwyr lleol yn cywain glo, blawd a nwyddau eraill o bob math i siopau, busnesau ac unigolion yn y dre. Y lorïau rwy’n cofio orau yw rhai Josiah Jones, Glanmor Stores, a Dewi (Glo) Jones, Regent Street. Dewi oedd yn cludo y bagiau, llythyron a pharseli o Swyddfa’r Post i ddal y trên ddiwedd y pnawn. Cofiaf Ivor Jenkins (minnau yn gwmni ac ychydig o help) yn mynd â bocsed o gimychiaid wedi eu pacio mewn blawd llif i’w danfon i Billingsgate ar y trên chwech. Bore wedyn byddent yn Llundain mewn pryd i ddal y farchnad. ‘Rown yn meddwl fod Ivor yn lwcus drosben i gael gadael yr ysgol yn bedair ar ddeg i fynd i bysgota gyda Mr Twm (Crescent) Morgan ar y ‘La Belle’. Yn ystod misoedd yr haf byddai ymwelwyr yn treulio’u gwyliau yn y ‘Camping Coach’. Yn y iard tu ôl i’r Monachty roedd depo bysiau Crosville. (Rhai coch rwyf yn cofio gynta – a’r Western Welsh yn las.) O tu allan i’r hen Geltic a Manchester House y safai’r bysiau i fynd i Aberystwyth, Aberteifi a Llambed. Byddai’r Western Welsh yn rhedeg i’r Cei a Llandysul a Chaerfyrddin, a bysiau James bob dydd a.m. / p.m. i Rydaman trwy Lambed. Yn 1946/47 byddai tua hanner dwsin o ni gryts Aberarth yn dal y bws 11 a.m. i Aberaeron. I mewn â ni at Enoc y barbwr i gael ein cneifio – byddem i gyd yn dal yr un bws yn troi ‘nôl am Aberystwyth. Ni fuodd barbwr cyflymach nag Enoc! Roedd ei weld yn eillio cwsmer yn brofiad brawychus – atsain o Sweeney Todd. Dylid nodi y nifer sylweddol o ddynion lleol oedd yn cael eu cyflogi ar y bysiau ac yn y stesion. Gwyddai pawb yn y dre pwy oedd y ‘drivers’ a’r ‘conductors’ – gallwn enwi nifer ohonynt hyd heddi. Dylid cofio bysiau bach Llyseinon yn eiddo Dafydd Evans a’i feibion. Roeddent yn rhedeg gwasanaethau gwledig, e.e. i Lambed ar ddiwrnod mart trwy Mydroilyn a Dihewyd. Y bysiau hyn gariai tîm ffwtbol Aberaeron ar hyd a lled Sir Aberteifi. Nhw oedd yn ein cludo i Gaerdydd i weld Cymru’n chwarae; cafwyd nifer fawr o dripiau cofiadwy, a rhai fyddai’n well eu hanghofio efallai. Y trip mwyaf anturus oedd yr un i Lundain (1959) i chwarae tîm yn Chiswick – ond nid dyma’r lle i adrodd yr hanes hynny. Os methai rywun i gael trên neu fws i rywle roedd tacsi Moc Jenkins ar gael, dim ond bod digon o amser gan y sawl oedd eisiau. Nid oedd Moc o’r un dras ag Enoc. Mehefin, 2011Mehefin, 2011.

Yn seiliedig ar gyfweliad â Mair Rees, Castell y Geifr, Mehefin 2011. Yn ystod y 1920au roedd fy nhad-cu a mam-gu, Jos a Lil Rees, yn ffermio yn y Rhondda. Ar ôl y dirwasgiad cawsant gyfle i rentu Fferm Castell y Geifr yn Llanarth ac yn 1927 dyma nhw’n deithio yno ar gefn motor-beic gyda ‘sidecar’ a dilynodd y dodrefn, yr ieir, y ci a fy hen dad-cu a mam-gu mewn lori a chanddi teiars rwber soled. Ar y pryd roedd fy nhad yn 17 mlwydd oed a theithiodd ef i Aberaeron ar y trên: Nid yn unig oedd rhaid iddo edrych ar ôl ei frodyr a chwiorydd iau ar hyd y daith ond ef hefyd oedd yn gyfrifol am gludo’r anifeiliaid, ceffylau, gwartheg a moch ar y daith a barodd 17 awr. Ar ôl cyrraedd Aberaeron rhoddodd y stesionfeistr gyfarwyddiadau i’r plant ac bu rhaid iddynt gerdded gyda’r anifeilaidd yr holl ffordd i Gastell y Geifr. Ar hyd y ffordd daeth pobl allan i’w cyfarch a’u croesawu i’r ardal. Roedd pawb i weld yn gwybod pwy oeddent a ble roddent yn mynd. Yn rhyfedd, roedd Fferm Castell y Geifr yn wag ar gyfer fy nhad-cu a mam-gu am fod y tenantiaid blaenorol wedi symud i Aberaeron. Roedd Tom Lloyd Evans, y tenant blaenorol, yn ffermio moch ac yn allforio bacwn i Dde Cymru. Pan ddaeth y rheilffordd i Aberaeron, gwelodd Mr Evans ei gyfle a symudodd i Fferm Pengarreg a sefydlu busnes tebyg yno, gan ddefnyddio’r rheilffordd i gludo bacwn i drefi De Cymru. Roedd gan fy nhad stori ddoniol am y rheilffordd yn y 1940au. Roedd fy nhad ar bwyllgor rheoli y Co-op ac un diwrnod roedd angen lifft ar Jack Jones, rheolwr y siop, i deithio i Aberaeron er mwyn dal y trên i fynd i gyfarfod pwysig. Yn anffodus roedd y trên wedi gadael pan gyraeddasant y Stesion a dyma’r Stesionfeistr heb oedi yn ffonio stesion Ciliau Aeron ac o fewn ychydig o funudau roedd y trên wedi dychwelyd i Aberaeron er mwyn codi Jack Jones.

The Cwmins and the railway crossing was our playground as children and we’d often watch the train going by with Mr Bowen in the guard’s van. I thought the following might be of interest to you. My aunt Miss Nellie Jones, kept a flock of geese on her farm Penwern, Cilcennin. Her uncle Canon David Ambrose Jones and family who had retired to Sketty, Swansea would receive a dressed goose for their Christmas lunch. The goose would be taken to Ciliau Aeron halt, by one of the farm servants, and put in the goods van for delivery to Swansea.

BASED ON EXTRACTS FROM A TRANSCRIPT OF A RECORDED INTERVIEW WITH LLOYD THOMAS, 2007. Oh, Aberaeron’s changed a lot since my day, when I was a kid. It was quite a busy town. A lot of people used to come in then, in horse and cart. There were cars, of course, but the old-fashioned cars. My father was on sea and he used to send telegrams in those days. (Remember the little, yellow little envelopes?) They used to come through the post office to say ‘Arrived safe in Liverpool, home on the 8:15 train tonight.’ There used to be trains then, and I used to run up to the station then to meet him and then, if he‟d been away for six months, he'd probably be home for a month or five weeks and then be waiting for another ship. Then they'd send for him then when his five weeks was up to join another ship, off again to Liverpool or Southampton or Glasgow, wherever the ship was. He always used to go by train from Aberaeron no matter where he went, or Aberystwyth. The first train from Aberaeron used to go out at quarter to seven in the morning and I used to go up with him as a kid before going to school to see him off on the train. I can see him waving now going beyond the signals from the station [and] going out of sight towards Llanerchaeron, and I probably wouldn't see him again for 8 or 9 months. I suppose most people know of Mr Byron Lloyd, the school dentist. I used to be a big friend of Mr Byron Lloyd, I used to drive him here and there in his car when he had to travel long distances and I used to drive round the school for dental work, but I remember one morning quite clearly – I was a steward in the yacht club, on this particular Sunday morning and Mr Gareth Owen came in and said “Have you seen your friend Byron Lloyd today? I’ve only just past his house and he’s made a tunnel down to his garden … the car has gone right through the garage!” Anyway, after I got home my wife said that Byron Lloyd had phoned. I‟d recommended him to buy an automatic car, because he had kept burning clutches and so he’d he bought an automatic car. Previous to this, I’d been with him for 2 or 3 days telling him how to drive it and he thought it was marvellous to sit down, forget his left leg, etc and all this and that. It was marvellous! He’d driven it round Mydroilyn and everything had been fine. Anyway, he’d left a message asking me to go and see him because there something had gone wrong with the car. I went u to his house, and, true, as I went down the drive, the car had gone right through the garage, right down to his lawn where he had a turntable sun house, and that had spun right around, so I said ‘What happened here?” “Well,” he said, “I only put it in gear.” You know with an automatic car, once you put your foot down, it revs up straight away, and of course, Byron’s foot was heavy, and he’d put it in drive – put his foot down – and , whoosh, straight through! It was a wooden garage, mind you! ……. Wyn Aberarth a carpenter, came down and repaired the garage. Anyway, I went up and saw him the following day and I said to him, “Now listen, reverse into the garage, so that you‟ll be coming out head first and take a bit more time to put it in”. “I'll do that Lloyd,” he said. “I’ll do that”. A few nights went past now and Byron came down to the house. “I’m doing it now, Lloyd,’ he said. “I’m reversing it in and of course, if I’m a little bit heavy on the throttle coming out in the morning, I’m going to just shoot up to the main road and then stop” Lo and behold, a couple of days later, the garage was in the same state. He’d made a tunnel again. He’d gone into reverse and he‟d gone right back, and – this is the gospel truth – he’d gone right back into the lawn and he’d taken the whole pine end of the garage and it had landed on top of the car….”

We didn’t know we were poor until things got better, and the better they got, you realised how poor we were in respect of, stuff like, you couldn’t afford a bike, for instance. There were only about two kids in the town – and they were sons of captains – who had bikes in those days, so, if we wanted a spin on the bike, we had to coax our friend to lend the bike for a 5 minutes or 10. You wouldn’t get it for very long, mind you! At the age of 8, I went to work for the local chemist as an errand boy. I’d put advertising boards and signs out in the morning and the mat in the front and would go to school and on the way back from school in the evening then, go back to Mr Thomas’ Chemist and take the post and deliver some of the medicines to the crach as they’re called, because the hoi-polloi used to get their medicines delivered, whereas the common herd like ourselves used to have to collect the stuff from there! Transport? Horse and cart, Shank’s pony (walking) – did a lot of that! I remember going on a Sunday school trip, and it was one of these charabancs that was convertible, because the canvas tops came off. I don’t exactly know where we were going, Llandrindod Wells I think it was, but we were travelling over the Plynlimon and it was raining, and it was my misfortune to be sitting in the seat where the hole was in the top of the canvas. By the time we got to Llandrindod, I was soaking – it was really like a snake going like a bat out of hell in the Sahara desert. The rain kept coming in so, that was one of my first recollections of transport as it was. I suppose we didn’t go very far. Come to think of it, I hadn’t been very far before the beginning of the war. The furthest I’d ever been was Towyn in one direction, and Swansea in the other direction – Towyn, by coach and train, that was a big event! We went by train from Aberaeron to Swansea, and that was in the very early30s,or the end of the 20’s. Otherwise, the only time you ever went anywhere was on the big Sunday School trips. You never went very far, apart from Aberaeron unless you could walk or cycle. The train station in Aberaeron was where Jewson and the Council offices are now, by the bridge. It took you an hour and a bit to get to Lampeter from here, and you’d stop quite often. You’d see someone running across a field, waving a piece of paper, so they’d stop the train, and the guard would get off, saying, ‘OK Mrs Jones’. ‘It would be an errand she wanted from Lampeter and the guard would go and buy it for her and then they’d deliver it on the way back. There were frequent stops as well as the official stops – every little village had a stop to it. There were not many privately owned cars. Mr Thomas the Chemist had a car; the doctors had a car, and the insurance man had a car, an Austin 7. I remember once he stopped at the bottom of Vicarage Hill, then got back in and my mates and I were there watching him. He started off, so we ran behind him, cwtched down (stooped) and all four of us grabbed the back of his car, while he was going through the gears and we sort of lifted it off the ground, and then he put his foot hard down and we dropped the car down – it suddenly shot up the hill, and must have given him the fright of his life.. The car took off without him realising it was going! The roads were rough. There were more potholes, compared with today. If you go round some of the backstreets here today, they are a bit rough, aren’t they?.Well, they were slightly rougher than some of them. They were tarmaced – the main ones anyway, though some of them didn’t have much tar! Out in the country they were more or less cart tracks. It was a big occasion in the summer when certain parts of the town had fresh tarmac, and I will say that the council in the town in those days ran things very very well. They knew exactly what they had to do: they would go round, inspect the harbour wall, the groynes and the roads and then certain sections of the roads would be done once a year with a horse drawing a big container full of tar with the coal burning underneath it to soften it up and then they’d squirt it all over, and, prior to that, they would have dropped a pile of chippings every couple of yards and then the council boys would come with shovels and spread it over and then there was a steamroller to flatten it down. The chippings would come in via boats into the harbour and they’d dump all of the chippings onto the harbour wall. (BASED ON AN EXTRACT FROM A TRANSCRIPT OF A RECORDED INTERVIEW WITH RON DAVIES, 2007)

On 5 October 1956 at the age of 20 I was sent to Aberaeron for six months’ training to become a signalman and to learn the duties involved. This was to make me the youngest signalman on British Railways. I had previously worked as a porter in the Goods Department in Aberystwyth Station. The intention was to become a relief signalman on the Aberystwyth –Moat Lane Section, covering holidays and sickness. However, when the time came to return to Aberystwyth, I had got engaged to my landlord’s daughter and had no wish to return to Aberystwyth, so Mr Oliver Veltom, Manager of Oswestry Division, decided I could stay in Aberayron. Aberayron Station was small: there was an office, a waiting room, a toilet, a stove, an oil store and a concrete cabin where the train staff ate their food. The work in the station was varied and interesting. In the morning I would open up the yard and assist the guard with the shunting to form up the train points on the yard – these were hand-operated for each siding. As signalman I would then contact Felinfach Station and obtain permission for the train to occupy the section of the line between the two stations. This was done with the control of a ‘staff’ (a kind of key) which, when handed to the driver, gave him the right of way for that section: signals and points were set to ‘Go’. If a ‘staff’ failed, a request form permission to take the train forward had to be put in writing and a taxi was called to take the request to the next station. The train could not move forward until a written reply was brought back by the taxi driver (Mrs Ann Jones of Regent Street). Whenever a train departed, all times were recorded on a log book, and again when it reached Felinfach. The work in the office was more or less that of a clerk, answering telephone enquiries, taking orders for cattle-feed from farmers or the agent of the cattle-food company. I would also assist in making up loads for delivery by lorry and assist in loading the lorry from store, and record all parcels for delivery. Parcels being sent off were weighed, charged and stamped, much as the Post Office does. There were two lorries attached to the station – one for collecting and delivering parcels within the town and the other for collections and deliveries over about a 10 mile radius, as far as Plwmp to the south, Llanrhystud to the north and from Bethania to Trefneter and Felinfach inland. A lot of pups were sent from Aberayron to Birmingham, London, Manchester and other destinations. We had to arrange for these animals to be fed and watered at various stations they passed through. We kept a daily rolling-stock return, which had to be submitted to Oswestry every afternoon and usually we would phone them with the details during the morning, especially if we had any unusual rolling stock in the station, things like ‘ crocodiles’ for carrying telegraph poles, as a close watch was kept on specialist vehicles. We made out the pay-sheets and worked out the PAYE tax codes for all the Station staff. Pay day was on Friday and all cash arrived from Oswestry on Thursday. We sorted wages and each man had a tobacco tin with his name on it to contain his pay. Once a month the pensioners would get paid and they talked of times gone by when they called in the station to collect their pension. Once a week all signal lamps had to be brought in, cleaned, trimmed, re-oiled and taken out to the signals again. The distant signal was 800 yards out from the station oil store and we could usually jump on the train for a one-way journey and walk back with the old lamp to clean up. A lot of the day was spent assisting the porter to unload trucks of cattle food, etc. into the stores. We had two, one for Silcock’s feed and the other for Levers Feed, Crosxxxx and Calthrops. Flour arrived weekly and we delivered it the same day to Bowen, Crown Bakery and Spillars, Quay Parade. J D Lloyd was a big user of the railway and several truck-loads a week were delivered to their warehouses in Water Street, South Road and behind the Monachty Arms. Coal merchants were notified of coal deliveries and were given 3 days in which to collect the coal, which was bagged at the station. Failure to collect would lead to a charge for leverage. In practice, we usually gave the coal merchants four days. in my time the cola merchants were Dewi ‘Glo’ (Dewi Jones, Regent Street) and Lewis ‘Y Glo’ (Iorrie Lewis, of Ael y Bryn and later of Weston), whose business was later bought by his assistant Ernie Lewis (father of John ‘Y Glo’). One troublesome consignment was day-old chicks, arriving at 7 20 p.m. when one had to phone out to a country address and get the farmer to call for them. As a result, the shift could often not finish until 9.00 p.m. The coffins of those who had died away from Aberaeron were sometimes brought back by train for burial. These would be collected at the station by Mr John Elwyn Evans in his hearse. When I began work at Aberayron Station, there were two holiday carriages on site. Holiday-makers would send us their grocery orders in advance and we would then pass them on to local grocers, who often gave us a discount in appreciation. Accidents were rare but I do remember an engine going off the rails, as it was being shunted into a siding and a crane had to be brought from Machynlleth to recover it. This led to an official enquiry. There was also a sad incident when Jim ‘Llain’, a deaf and dumb man, walked along the line between Aberayron and Llanerch Ayron Halt and was struck down by an oncoming train and killed. As signalmen, Bill Bowen and I were in charge. We worked a shift system – early (5.45 a.m. – 12.55 p.m.) and late (12.40 p.m. – 8.00 p.m.). On one occasion the auditor’s visit produced an interesting result. For two weeks every year we had to cover the holiday period at Ciliau Aeron. I used my car for the 4 mile journey only to be told that this was not permitted. Instead, I was allowed ‘walking time’ to and fro – 8 miles at 20 minutes per mile, which came to 2hours and 40 minutes a day. I received back pay of around £50 and so I bought my first camera from Thomas the Chemist (Aeron Pharmacy, now Freddie Moulton’s shop in Bridge Street)! I was at Aberayron Station from 1956 to 1964 and a list of my colleagues during those years is provided overleaf. ABERAYRON STATION STAFF, 1956 (Supplied by John Andrew) Herbert Evans John Andrew (Regent Street) William (Bill) Bowen (Newfoundland Terrace) Evan Jones (Maesycrugiau) Will Jones (‘Will Dolgader’) Johnny Jones (Queen Street) David Leonard (Darkgate Street) Bill Williams (Quay Parade) John (Jack) Evans (Racine) Tommy Owen (Llanilar) Oswald Evans (Darkgate Street) David Roderick Jackie Edwards (Llanbadarn Fawr) William Griffiths (Will yr Erw) Owen Davies (Cau) Haydn Davies Tommy Handley (Lampeter) Roy Williams (Tenby) Other staff at different periods Engine Cleaners: Guard: Porters: Station Master Replacements: Gwilym Jones (Ystrad Meurig) Glyn Roberts (Llithfaen, North Wales) Haydn Davies (Fireman later in place of D Leonard) Len Wiseman (in place of Oswald Evans) Idris Evans (in place of Bill Williams) Bill Andrew (Regent Street) Gerald Davies Glyn Jones (Pennant) Ron Evans (Lampeter) Eifion Rees (Carmarthen)

MEMORIES OF MY WORK ON THE RAILWAY I started my work on the railway in 1958 after being demobbed from the army. I was a porter to start with at Llandysul, later at Cardigan & then transferred to Lampeter as a lorry driver, ending up in Aberaeron around 1960. At Aberaeron I was a lorry driver delivering goods from the train – cattle feed to the farms, parcels to the shops & houses. I left the job a year before the railway closed & went to work at the MMB at Felinfach – loading the milk to the tanks on the siding until the whole line was closed in 1965. I used to travel up to Lampeter in the guards van when I worked in Lampeter – lodging in Paris House before I acquired an AJS motor cycle. John and his brother Bill Andrews were signalmen. Tyrrell Evans & Lewis Williams were yardmen. Training for the fight: Dick Richardson, the boxer, trained in Aberaeron for his fight against Brian London at Coney Beach Arena, Porthcawl, 29 August, 1960. Johnny Lewis had family connections in Cardiganshire & had been evacuated here during the war. As Richardson’s trainer he brought him down to the country to prepare for several fights. They were familiar figures running around the countryside. Locals remember them well. As I remember, they couldn’t find a weighing scale large enough to weigh Richardson in town, so they came to the station at Aberaeron where I was working to use one of our scales! Ron Davies came to take a photo of the celebrities, probably for the local paper. The staff present on the day were invited to join them in the picture. I purchased copies as a memento. After the fight: “The Brawl at Porthcawl” was the headline in the papers after the fight. Brian London challenged Newport’s Dick Richardson, the reigning European Champion, in a bad tempered brawl but it was the post-fight chaos that caused outrage. London was cut in what he claimed was a head-butt & the referee stopped the fight at the end of the 8th round because of the cuts. Carnage followed. London threw a punch at Richardson’s trainer Johnny Lewis, sparking a massive mass brawl between the seconds from both corners. The police were called in to the ring to sort them out!

As a child, I lived in London during the Second World War. We travelled down to Aberayron by rail for our holidays each year. When we got to Lampeter, I knew we were almost there. After the war we moved to Port Talbot where my twin brothers were born. We continued to come to Aberayron to visit my grandmother and all the other members of the family. The twins’ pram and our luggage was put in the guards-van from Port Talbot to Swansea and then from Swansea to Carmarthen and Lampeter and finally to Aberayron. We would then walk with the luggage and pram to Llysgaer in North Road. Happy days!

MEMORIES OF THE ABERAYRON RAILWAY LINE IN THE 1950s (Based on an interview with Stuart Evans, June 2011) Although the Aberayron to Lampeter line had closed to passengers by the time I remember it, I was fortunate enough to be the grandson of a former ganger on the Aberayron to Lampeter line, Evan Evans, who lived in Pontbrenmydr near the Llanerchayron Halt. David Leonard, one of the engine drivers, knew me well and would often let me ride with him in the engine to visit my grandfather. As we approached the halt, he would lower me down onto the platform and I would then run across the field to visit my grandparents. A game which my brother, Gareth, and I enjoyed playing was placing pennies on the railway track and waiting for a train to pass over them before retrieving our flattened coins. For my grandfather one of the perks of having worked on the railway was to have his newspaper delivered by train. As the train approached his house, the guard, Bill Williams, would throw the newspaper into a field for my grandfather to collect. This kindness was more welcome on dry days than in wet weather! He also received packages and parcels by train but these more important items were not thrown out of the moving train – they were left for him to collect at the halt. MEMORIES OF THE RAILWAY (Based on a conversation with Gareth Evans, July 2011) My grandfather, who had been a ganger, lived at Pontprenmydr near the Llanerchayron Halt and I remember racing between the house and the train with my brother, Stuart. Because of my family connections with the railway, I was known to the station staff. So, one year when, as a child, I was going carol singing but didn’t have a lamp – the street lighting in Aberaeron in the 1950s was not as good as now – I happened to tell Bill Bowen, the signalman, of my problem. He told me that, if I came to the station after the station master had left in the evening, he would see what he could do. I waited for the station master to go home and then went to see Bill Bowen. He produced a shiny station lamp and I proudly set off to sing carols. Bill Bowen was a jovial character but one evening on his way home from work he was said to have been terrified after seeing a ghost cross the bridge!

I worked at Aberaeron Post Office during the Second World War. At that time the mail was delivered around Aberaeron by Oswald Williams, using a handcart. There were mail vans which travelled between Aberaeron and Lampeter, and Aberaeron and Aberystywth, but Oswald would take his handcart up to the station to collect parcels for delivery around the town. At Christmas, however, the volume of parcels was too large for Oswald and one of Willy Hubbard’s lorries would collect and deliver Christmas parcels.

(Based on a conversation with Keith Foulkes, June 2011) My grandfather, Owen James (‘Owen y Fan’), who was a carrier in Aberaeron died at about the same time as I was born and so I have no personal memory of him. I have heard what I know of him from my mother. At first he lived in Mason’s Row and kept his horses in Castle Lane, where Emlyn Jones’s barber’s shop stood later. Afterwards he moved to Arlington, Alban Square, where I now live and kept the horse in stables behind the house. At the time of the building of the railway his horse and cart carried materials to help with the building of the railway. Later he carried goods from the station into town, apparently including heavy items, such as cast iron baths! It was a common occurrence for children to wait for the cart to leave the station and then to jump on board for a free ride into town. Among the items I have found in the stables behind my house are four ostrich feathers, two white and two black. Presumably the black feathers adorned the horses when Owen was carrying passengers to a wedding and the black ones would have been used for funerals. (Based on a conversation with E D Parry, June 2011) I remember as a child in the 1920s watching Owen y Fan takes his horses at the end of a working day to the well (pistyll) at the bottom of Water Street. After they had drunk from the well, he took them to his stables in Castle Lane. He also had two dogs which he kept on a lead and took to the stables with horses. It was said that the work of the dogs was to keep the horses safe in the stables by killing the rats which also made their home there!