forum.ferndale-wales.co.uk

As promised, here are some of my thoughts and memories of Rhondda Terrace.

But before starting on it, what about the street above - Tudor Street.
Tudor Steet has a prime location, ending at the entrance to Darran Park and the (then) wondrous "Baths", plus being adjacent to Ferndale Grammar -as it was in my day.
However, the thing that Tudor Street lacked was..........kids.

Back in 1954 I passed for Porth County. The sole kid in Tudor Street was Trevor Phillips, the son of Phillips 'the shop'. Trevor was landed with the duty of getting me to Porth County in one piece on my first day. (He succeeded). Trevor was about 5 or 6 years older than me. He was studying for his 'A' levels as I was starting in Porth. He subsequently passed with flying colours and went up to Oxford - I believe, and successfully studied geology.
From the time that Trevor left Tudor Street I cannot remember any children actually being born in Tudor Street - very strange. All of the Martin children - Tony, Gaynor and Teddy, used to visit their grandmother who lived there, but I still can't think of a child 'resident'.

So, with that thought on Tudor Street and it's lack of kids, I will list the kids that I remember in Rhondda Terrace.

When my grandfather - Reg Hayes was promoted to Head Buyer of Aberaman Colliery in 1948 he had to leave the NCB house - 55 Fountain Street. I was born there, as was my brother. Reg and my nanna - Irene, or Rene to most, moved to Abernant and our family bought No 20 Rhondda Tce and we moved there in early 1948. So, back to the kids.........

Starting from lowest to highest house numbers, here I go - (I hope I don't offend anyone if I miss them out, and hope others will add their threepennyworth).

No. 7 Enid and Helen Davies. Question?. Is/was that a photo of Enid on the old Ferndale-Wales website as a part of the set-up team?
No.10 Jessica Morgan. Morgan 'the bookie's' daughter.
No.11 Lynne, Gareth and Raymond Evans. Mavis 'the baths' and 'Rhondda Hotel bar' kids.
No.13 Roger and Peter Williams.
No.14 Ronnie Privett, and I think there was a sister - whose name I forget.
No.17 Kay and Michael? Evans.
No.20 Me and my brother - Gary and (Chris)Topher Lockyer
No.21 Lilwen and Tecwyn Jones. Their dad was a Grammar School teacher. They moved down to Teifi Terrace, just higher than Tal Farmer the cobblers. (I never did find out what Tal's full name was, anyone have any thoughts? Tal's sister was Mair, and they lived up in Darran didn't they Sheila?).
No.24 Elaine Morgan. Her dad was Aneurin Morgan who was at one stage manager of Thomas & Evans's shop next door but one to Lloyds Bank.
No.26 Howard Evans. Who moved out very soon after we moved into Rhondda Terrace.
No.30 Gareth Jones - good allround sportsperson.
No.37 The William's. Malcolm, Barbara, John and David.
No.42 Did not have kids, but it is the end house, and the Darran Terrace Smiths grandparents lived there and so Ray spent as much time down in Rhondda Tce as up in Darran.

OK. That is my starting point for Rhondda Tce.

I look forward to any/all comments - especially if your name is up above Gary

Yes, that was a strange point about Tudor St. Trevor Philips was the owner of the house my parents bought when they moved from No 21 to No 6 Darran - bottom of the street was flatter and so there were fewer steps up the front door and up to the garden. I never thought of No 6 as 'home' though when I visited.
Well, most of the names of the kids you mention from Rhondda Tce I have no memory of - if they were in a different class down the Lower and then went to Ferndale Grammar or Sec Mod then that's my excuse! I would probably remember their faces.
Enid Davies ended up being the head of Darran Park Primary in the old Grammar school and is now retired.
Jessica Morgan was the year below me in County.
I can't remember any relation of Tal Farmer in Darran. The only Mair I can think of there was Morris Williams' daughter, a brother of 'Jumbo' - Emrys, who married Tom Condon ( he took over Arthur Powell's butcher shop). If 'bouncer' on this forum reads this he may remember.
Wasn't there a Hicks family in Rhondda Tce near the Darran steps?
Now, if you ask me the kids up in Darran .......

Sheila

I'm Blanko on most of this. Rhondda Terr was the other end of town. There were 2 teachers called Jones at Ferndale Grammar. Brymor Jones who was a deputy head I think. and then there was G.M. Jones Can't remember what the initials stood for but he was a very genial and talkative man and possibly the art teacher (?) perhaps this was the Jones at No 21.

On the subject of Grammar school teachers, the most senior teacher lived at No 2 (Ithink) New Street plus her daughter who was the biology teacher the names escape me. There was another english teacher Miss Turner who aquired the nickname Lana Turner (film star) but she didn't have celluloid looks!

Is Rhondda Terrace the last row of houses above the former Girls School? If so, Keith Phillips who used to live in North road moved there nearer the baths end. Names of these streets and locations certainly is challenging.
On the subject of teachers at the Grammar School - I was there 1957-1962:-
Brynmor Jones Deputy Head & Music Teacher; Jack Harper - History; Dai Leslie - Geography; Miss Lewis (known as Buffy?) English and lived in New Street; Lana Turner lived in Elm Street I think, corner house; Miss Phillips - Latin; Miss Williams - French; Mr Melmouth - Chemistry. My school photos of 1957 & 1960 I sent to South Wales as these can end up in bins so I have found a home for memorabilia that should belong in Wales. If I had the photo now, I'd probably remember more names - my eldest brother worked in the Chem Lab in 1960 - David Evans.

Rhondda Tce was opposite the Grammar school entrance - girl's side. Next up the hill was Tudor street opposite the park gate and then Darran Terrace had the Baths wall at it's end. Llyn Crescent - where Emrys Howells lived was off Darran.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?sourceid= ... q=ferndale

Sheila

Tal (Talford) Farmer was a cousin of mine, married to Mair and living just along from me in Brynhyfryd, Mair certainly had relatives in Rhondda Terrace.I often used to go down to Cardiff on the train with Tal to buy leather for his cobbler's business. Ron Privett was also distantly related,
one of the sisters was Mary (who move down to Boscombe) and I think there was a second.

Having attended the Grammar school I returned 1954-7 to teach Maths, alongside Bill Jones ("Tich") and others mentioned such as GM Jones (English),
Ken Harper, Olive Phillips (from Carmarthenshire and a good singer),and Beryl Williams (whose father was a councillor and who moved on to be head of Porth County girls). Difficult to recall all the names now though!

Regards

Howard

I'm on the hunt for my 1960 photo-roll of the whole Grammar school that year that will get a few memory cells going.
I remember "Tich" [that makes 3 teachers so far by the name Jones!] I think he just made the 1960 photo as did the new Physics teacher (name?) and later T G Phelps - maths.


Nobody has mentioned Mr Miles (Physics) lovely guy from the 'old school' (literally - he retired in my first year).
When he did the experiment linking two soap bubbles, [a large and a not-so-large joined by a tube which had a tap in the middle].
Here's a good question, can anybody remember:

1/ What you would naturally expect to happen when the tap was opened.
2/ What actually happened to the 2 bubbles?
3/ Having Observed it Mr Miles asked what Bible quote it reminded them of?

Can anybody answer these 3 questions??

Back again.
Scouring the memory banks to come up with Ronnie Privett's sister was Glenys I think.
George Hicks's son is Robert.
The Williams's in 37, eldest son is Norman not Malcolm.
I think that it was Norman and/or John that did the engraving behind Darran Terrace.
Etched into the big rock - VALLEY OF THE FOUR HILLS.

When we went out to play - standing at the outer back door and yelling out the name of the person you wanted to see. The street used to resound with "GARY- OOOOOOO, TECWYN-OOOO, GARETH-OOOOO" and out we would come.
Off to play.
Up the gully and then up the big steps to Darran.
Onward and upward to the Well.
Dam the well with clodges to make a swimming hole.
Go up further and mess at the head of the spring.
Then over to the quarter-crack, onwards to the half crack.
If we had time, go right across the top of the park and climb down the devils ladder.
If short of time, cut down from the cracks through the Valley of the 4 Hills at the back of Wilcox the milk.
Climb over into the Girls Senior school and home via climbing through the railings.
Shin down the wall, cross the road and home for tea.

Another teacher's name. TJ HOWELLS used to live in No 1 Rhondda Terrace.
I also remember Mr Miles - Gordon. He married Selwyn Gooch's sister, from Oakland Tce. The Gooches were my Lockyer grandparents neighbours, before they built the bungalow across the road next to the garage.

In another post, about Duffryn St I said that Bert Rosser's daughter was Wendy. Wrong - her name is Diane, but she still married Jim Salt the bobby.

OK. I am jumping around a bit so it must be time to stop again.
See you later
Gary

GaryLockyer wrote:
.....
If we had time, go right across the top of the park and climb down the devils ladder.
.....

Gary

If you felt suicidal you could climb down 'angel's ladder' - but This was more of a sheer cliff face than any semblance of a ladder.

Whew

Hi.

Just talked to my cousin who lives in Rhondda Terrace and she said that Alun Arwel Clement
is her second cousin, her grandfather and Alun's grandfather were brothers, her front door is
almost opposite his back door. Small world we live in.

Ann