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Today, an asteroid wrongly named 2012, or maybe it is just late and should have been here last year, came an astonishingly close 17,200 miles from the earth. No- not 27,700kilometres (You may understand this decision if you have seen my previous missives...).
This evening, I am reliably informed, I should be able to look up into the night sky and somewhere near the plough see the passing of 2012. I thought that was a wish of my last New Years Eve, but I can understand that in these days of science fiction, there are many ways of seeing the passing of an era.
No, the night sky, which is actually quite clear this evening, should divulge some indication of the passing of an object universally measured as "the size of an Olympic swimming pool" to those with binoculars or small telescope. I do not intend to here dilate upon yet another system of measurement.
Well Susie has found our old binoculars in the mire and dust at the top of the basement stairs, and an hour washing and wiping have left them pristine and glistening. A nasty scare on the BBC News that the meteor had already passed Australia is put in its place as a mere rumour and the schedule is still that 2012 will pass over Llanelli between 9pm and 10pm this evening.
However, on the same day, no-one seems to have seen the link between this close passover and the real disaster in the Urals today, where a shooting star fell to earth, witnessed by so many vid cams and mobile phones, striking a frozen lake and injuring 950 people ( the current figure at 8.50pm )
Okay - the injuries are mainly cuts and bruises and the result of shattered glass, but video shows the shock wave knocking people over. The Street CCTV shows the glow as the "thing" passes - lighting up the sky. Mr Putin, the body builder leader of the metamorphosis of the USSR, promises help and Russian television is full of scared schoolchildren and Vox Pox.
However, I am totally surprised by the the lack of recognition from my Re-enactment, LARP and generally Geek friends.
I have seen this before - surely they have too?? Why am I alone in seeing what is really happening?? Is it really an age thing?
Turn back only a few decades.... well actually quite a few... 1976.
I so clearly recall the strange intervention onto the world of film when David Bowie became an enigmatic "Man who fell to Earth". Oh how we thrilled at the funny little globe thing that fitted into a small stand and played music which seemed to have no source!!!. Oh how we marvelled at the television images, not at a maximum 20 inches ( not centimetres!) but wall sized and almost, shock at the thought, in three dimensions.....
How we laughed at the ridiculous concept of private enterprise raising sufficient funds to put a commercial tourist rocket ship into space.... These things were pure science fiction and could never come to pass!
1976 (not 2012). But I also recall the start. A Meteor flying through night sky, lighting up the horizon.
All right - it was flying over the United States of America, but that was a geographical nicety, it was an American funded film, and was therefore filmed in that great country. It landed with a great explosion in a lake somewhere in the midst of remote states. Today, a flaming body passes over all those remote parts of the Urals ( they have a population but who would have thought ??) and then strikes a frozen lake in the middle of nowhere.
I am not saying that there is a connection. It is just an observation. But while we talk about 2012 passing so close that our Sat Nav satellites are further out in the night sky, my mind once again reviews the statements of the US Defense when they (laughingly) gave their reasons for not building a Death Star, and the claim that it was not Defense policy to blow up other planets. Was this their real reason??
9pm, and the sky over Llanelli has clouded over. I am not one to be paranoid, but it was crystal clear when I started writing this blog, and now, when I have the opportunity to examine more closely this body called 2012, the skies are misted and there is no way that I can examine the profile of the celestial body to see if it may be perfectly round, bristling with weapons, and hiding an asthmatic Goth leader.
No, I cannot investigate further here in Llanelli. But there are those out there who will strive for the truth. Those who may search the ice and waste of the Urals to see if we have and alien bristling with futuristic technology, or maybe an annoying golden robot and Dusty Bin on wheels.
I am not paranoid. Nor am I demented. But Mr Putin has said that he will sort everything out. The Pope has resigned. We are more worried in our press about the possibility that we are eating Horse Meat, than we are about the utterings of politicians which would better be described as bull***t. I have 200 channels on my satellite TV and nothing worth watching this evening, not even in the night sky....
They are among us!! And they do not want us to know ... tell your friends ...
It is Saturday evening and Wales have apparently saved their reputation on the 6 nations rugby competition which I managed to miss by not switching the television on! The news channels are reporting large amounts of snow across America, something I should have warned my sister about when she decided to fly from the USA to Wales near to my birthday.. But she has a couple of days to let everything sort itself out. It is cool but wet here in Llanelli, but there are chances for more snow across parts of the United Kingdom in the next couple of days.
There is a lot of snow in the States... There will be large areas of Great Britain covered with white stuff over the next few days.. but how much ??? I really do not know !!
It is not that I have not been listening to the succession of weather reports. It is not that I have somehow not listened to radio reports. If I read newspapers, which I do not as they are a good example of that oxymoron (paper I will accept - but clearly devoid of anything that could be defined as news.!!) then it would not be because I had failed to assess the content of the text.. It is the loss of the common inch that confuses me. All the snow apparently is has gone European and now not only falls in flakes that never duplicate, but also now falls in amounts that can only be understood by those in the Eurozone.
It is bad enough that they want to take over the pound and drive us into the common currency - a task in which I feel that they will fail. But afterdecimalisationand the loss of good old LSD (pounds shilling and pence not Lysergic acid diethylamide) the half crown and the florin, we have managed for the most part to resist many of the incursions into pints, pounds and ounces.
But snow??? Surely it is acceptable for snow to fall in Britain in inches!! If it is thick it certainly should be in feet!! Listening to CNN on my satellite television I do not hear that snow is falling in yards !!! but in Metres!!
My favourite weatherman here tells me that there may be 10 centimetres of snow ... How much is that ?? More or less than a banana?? It means nothing and does not inspire me to put my wellies on or get a snow plough out.
Snow is cold. I have noted the geographical penchant to vary Celsius and Fahrenheit, seemingly a national trait here in the UK to refer to cold by Celsius "it is 2 degrees today" but look at the hot weather only in Fahrenheit "It is going to be in the low seventies today"... I understand this!!. We have a climate that does not "do" extremes. Therefore it is quite acceptable that we would prefer the "hot" weather sound hotter, and the cold weather less extreme....
But snow falls by a certain volume and lies at a certain height when still. Damn it !! If it is British Snow it should damn well fall in British quantities. And that means in Inches not in centimetres.
I do not know what a centimetre is in real money. I know I have looked up the conversion rate many times but it is not something that will stick in my brain. 16 degrees Celsius is about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. I can remember this. But there are no conversion from the centi-lies to inches that are exact without using those other foul calculations - the decimal point!! No good telling me that there are 2.54 centimetres to an inch.. How can that help? I know children for the last thirty years have used calculators where we used slide rule, and now probably have an "app" for it on their phone but for a simple soul, I would like to know that there will be up to 3 inches of snow ( take wellies ) 6 inches of snow (will need a shovel to get the car out) or a foot of snow ( stay in and have a cup of tea and watch television).
So, I know it is unlike me to have a rant, but surely it cannot be too much for British television and the news media in general to revert to a sensible measure.... sorry - I suppose I have just answered my question !!
So here are a few shots of snow at Furnace Quarry, nr Llanelli. I can tell you there were three inches of snow.. I measured it with my thumb, which I learned at school was three inches from tip to base...
Over a week since I have managed to get to the blog - and indeed a query from an unexpected reader to ask whether there was a problem!!! Unexpected as I never really expected anyone to be reading the meandering thoughts of and ex-barkeep and prospective farmer / entertainer, but it seems that there are those out there who care - to you - thank you, and yes I am back.....
Well I am back this evening after ten days of hacking and coughing, and generally feeling the affects of Manthrax and Manflu, and after a day of full recovery am rather despondent that this evening I seem to have the phlegm back in the throat and am spluttering over the keyboard. There was a time when I thought it may be allergy based, but the extreme version seemed to warrant the five days of antibiotics, and the symptoms disappeared with deceptive ease.... But this evening I have the thought that I pulled down the interior canvass from the Crimson Moon Tent, and laid it out in the living room so Susie could build her chicken run for the bedroom... Yes - I know what wrote there, and it is correct, the chickens are getting to big for the incubator and warming box - and I still have not been able to clear the basement for the few weeks that is required before they get their freedom into the garden.... So .. they have to live in the spare room for a while... Rusty the dog feels that this is a good idea - well when he is allowed inside!!!
So, there is an option that the canvass has set off a reaction again... I prefer to think that rather than dwell upon actually being ill, always a downer, or the other options of allergy, the latest batch of home made wine that I have started yesterday, which we have enjoyed with the home made bread, home made cheese and home made apricot jam for breakfast, the home cured ham this evening ... No they have to be the healthy option - even if they are likely to cause my final demise through obesity....
But there is a connection with a further possible cause - which relates to the future clearance of the house, both to move the marquees to their new home, and to try to sell the house, and that is the next stage in the "boxing of 41". I spoke at an early stage of Alice and my attempt to clear 3 square feet of the basement .
But as my health started to improve, and after a foray up to Morrison's where a very nice storeman promised me all the banana boxes I need - especially if I call in themorningbefore they have to break them up, saving them an hour of effort!!! I began to look towards the top floor of the house...
Books!! Plenty of Books!! that seems to be the story of my life - indeed the storey of my life (see what I did there ?? Here all week!!) But we haven't really looked in the top bedroom for a number of years. The damp patch in the corner was new!! New to me .. if not to the house - we have had so much rain I cannot really tell if it is a problem or a symptom of the flood. But in our case - most of our books are happily esconced in a shipping container down in Pembrey so it was only three full shelves of economics reference, Norah Lofts and Lensman Series... and then - the main and daunting task that loomed on the landing that lies between the second and third storey if the house..... Not books .. No - though equally as bulky!!
The lovely thing about the eighties and nineties was the availability of being able to watch television, more than once!. The onset of the Video recorder was one of those jumps forward in technology that I embraced. Luckily, the issue about the VHS or Betamax missed me and I was able to amass my collection of VHS over many years. The early days were far too expensive forpre formattedfilms so my collection was gleaned through many hours of television watching. My music videos were compiled over weeks and months, collecting from various sources from Multi Coloured Swap Shop to Top of the Pops - but each with the aim of capturing those illusive new things - the "Pop Video" - no live performances for me ....
Of course - Youtube now provides a glimpse back into the past - but have they collected what I collected in my 193 three hour videos?? I do not know any more - I have not watched any video for at least five years since DVD cam along. But I do have a catalogue which has a full list... but though I know that the technology is out there now to transfer from VHS to DVD - that looks like another plan - as it will take a commitment of many hours. The task will be to watch all the videos and decide what cannot be duplicated elsewhere and transfer to computer medium. My daughter is particularly interested in the hours of video I took of them in their childhood - and I am concerned that it gets transferred correctly when I have the time and the equipment.. And so - two ceiling high bookshelves, double stacked with videos get transferred into banana boxes for that time in the future when I "might just get the time".
I recall when we moved into this house twenty five years ago, the removal men looked with sheer consternation at the mountain of boxes that comprised our book collection at that time. After the second hour of carrying boxes one mentioned briefly " are this lot for the rabbit to read??" after deciding to stack next to the rabbit cage. But that was twenty five years ago, and twenty five years of more book collecting.... and the videos of course!! Most of them will probably end up in the plastic recycling of course - but only after they have been carried to a new house, viewed and transferred to new media for the future...
But that means that the removal Man will be required to carry all the additional boxes. They are in a neat stack - but there are a lot of them !!! They will stay here until we are ready for the move..
But they may well be singing the new refrain - "Video killed the Removal Man !!""
Llanelli is not usually bothered by snow to any large extent. The palm trees at the bottom of the road, at the junction of West End and New Road lay witness to the warming influence of the gulf stream which hits the south west coasts of England and Wales. It is normal therefore for the snow to pass over "Tinopolis" and start further inland, on the banks of Swiss Valley - perhaps so aptly named.
However, while mydaughterresiding in Crete gloatingly tells me that temperatures are resting at 20 degreesCelsius we are huddling in our house, with blankets and a fan heater, looking out the window upon a mainly white vista.
The central heating boiler churns and groans as it attempts to push water around the house. A few years ago I called an engineer to check the boiler, and as he looked aghast at the contraption. We discovered that it was an old industrial grade boiler probably best suited to small businesses, but capable of circulating around our quirky four storey house. Of course that was before someone added a few radiators back in the dawn of time and I must confess to adding to the problems by adding the basement heaters when we arrived in the eighties. I am no plumber. Sadly the artisans who complied with my request to add radiators followed my enthusiasm rather than examine the actual capabilities of the system and the flow from the pump. This all results in half of the radiators providing an artistic backdrop to a room rather than any actual heat.
My latest engineer took a look at it and stated that he really did not want to touch it, and if he did he felt he would probably have to condemn it! I was satisfied when he agreed to simply test the fumes - and pass it as safe. I know that it is not that economical, however the cost of a new boiler and probable replacement of the whole system means that we currently shiver a little in the winter... summer we can manage fine!!!
And so, recovering from coughs and colds, and sucking on the occasional amoxicillan to kick the whoop in cough, I look out upon the gentle fall of white stuff on the road, mentally pull up the draw bridge, and get on with composing some music and practising the lyre. That's Show Business... Mulled wine sees to be the answer.
I could go for a walk... I could add another section to "Walks in Llanelli" with a nice "Snow Section". The dogs certainly consider this a good option - they are restless and going stir crazy, throwing a plastic up into the air and chasing it when not sitting next to the chair and pawing at my leg.
But it looks cold out there...
Maybe tomorrow - I may be feeling a little better then.
or the next day....
I managed to wade my way through the first section of my basement on Friday. Only cleared a space of about 3ft by 3ft from floor to ceiling, but that took most of the day and didn't include checking the papers in the file boxes, which contained records of the Inner Wheel and NSPCC for the last 30 years - that was a job I could leave to Susie. But that block of 3ft by 3ft was an important start!!
Two bags of rubbish, one full of paper for recycling of course, another full of electrical bits and pieces, again to make their was to the amenity centre. We don't have dumps any more... Would be a sad day for Arlo Guthrie to write his Massacree today "When we go to the Amenity Centre we found a chain across the drive and a sign that said "Amenity Centre closed on Thanksgiving!!"
Remember Alice?? It's a Blog about Alice..
But not that one!!
No the Alice that was brought to mind was small shop near to the end of Upper Park Street in Llanelli, on the right hand side as you left Stepney Street. Bars across the window and some form of grill. Thick glass and panes that did not appear to ever have been washed - how could you - you could not get near the inside. Alice's!! Many a time I would stop and gaze into the window at the cornucopia that was Alice's Window. I did go in on occasion, and thank my stars that I was thin in those days as there was very little room to make your way through the small front room of the shop. Often the door was locked, and I am sure that it was shut more often than it was open. But the interior was anAladdin'scave of items, stacked apparently without order, but somehow you always felt that Alice knew where everything was.
I never saw anyone come out of the shop with anything. But I never saw anything taken in their either - but there always seemed to be just a little more space for another piece of furniture, some more trinkets for the glass cabinet, another lampshade, portrait or those green glass balls that hung from fishermen's nets. I remember those Green Balls, I am sure that we have some somewhere. Probably in the next 3ft by 3ft of the basement..
It is my basement that now reminds me of Alice's.
Maybe she did not sell anything. Maybe she also just accumulated "things" that were too valuable to throw away. "Things" that might come in useful one day. "Things" that nowadays you could probably sell on Ebay. I know people who do so - but getting the first item onto the selling list is the worst. "Things" that may have once been alive. Standing at the bottom of my basement steps it is possible to conjecture that there may be "things" with their own alien life form evolving in the morass.
I never knew Alice by any other name - spoke to her seldom, but she was that strange figure, like a curator of some seventies version of Warehouse 13 museum. Reading Harry Davies' recollections in his book "Looking around Llanelli", I find that her full name was Alice Davies, and she had been in the business 40 years when he interviewed her. I read that she nearly went out of business in 1970, some six years before I would get to meet her, when she sold about half her stock including most of her African Items to a dealer in South Carolina. He, while visiting Llanelli, had made a conditional bid for all the contents at the shop. Apparently the deal was a modest down payment and a 50 percent share of profits on the sale in America. Eight days it took to load everything into crates and ship it to the States. Sadly the dealer died suddenly, the stateside business had no-one to run it and the goods disappeared into limbo. Harry tells us that Mrs Davies put it down to bad luck. "It was a heavy blow" she said, " but not so much the result of bad faith but of bad luck". A restrained way to consider your entire business ruined at the age of 57.
So looking at the timing of the article, it seems that Alice and I started our collections of various useful and possibly variable valued items at about the same time. Mine in the natural course of raising a family, and hers in the acquisition of more stock for her shop. For by the time I met her, there was no indication that she had once more started from scratch. I thought that the portal I entered in her shop had been there from time immemorial. No indication was there that it had started not only in my lifetime but in my recent history.
And so it is with my basement, I know that within living history of my children, we used to sit and watch television here. That once I traverse the next corridor, there is a bar and a three piece suite hiding under crates and marquee canvass. But, as you step carefully watching for trip hazards and peer into the rows of costumes hanging like a demented Narnian Wardrobe, it would be possible to see Alice's Tiger skin, a real one not the imitation that is in the living room upstairs. There would be swords and daggers and rifles and bayonets, relics of previous wars unlike the replicas and latex covered axes by the front door. And Assegais. African throwing spears which form the centrepiece of Harry's story - I never had one of those... Maybe they would be valuable if I collected one...
At 72 Alice was still collecting stock for her business, and presumably making a living in her small shop in Upper Park Street. Falcon Music Closed. Circles the bar closed, but Alice's seemed to just continue. Harry reported that she seemed happy as ever and showed no signs of retiring. Alice had her favourites though. She loved to collect elephants. She accumulated over 300 in her herd, china, porcelain, ivory, ebony. But were they a white elephant to her I wonder?
I will try to tackle the next 3ft of flooring in the basement tomorrow. I took a day off today because I found too many old photographs, and in the spirit of 2013, found that I had to scan them for future generations and store them in perpetuity.. by uploading them to Facebook and tagging family members. It is the modern way.
Tomorrow I will take another step towards sorting my accumulated wealth of nick-nacks. No elephants for me !! I don't have these sort of foibles - well unless you count the flying pigs that festoon the house. They don't count really..... but there are a lot ...
I didn't see when Alice's shop closed. That area of Llanelli grew shabbier and shabbier over the years. Tesco moved out and Tinopolis the TV studio took over. Stepney Hotel got demolished. Island House Public house fought to live and failed, and a new theatre complex opens with hotel and entertainment establishments. The Subway is replaced and access to Upper Park Street is difficult to find in the new road complex but maybe I shall take my camera and see if I can find where Alice once stood.
But there is hope. All the contents of her shop must have been transported, and though I do not know what happened to them, at this stage of basement clearance, the knowledge that it can be done is more important than details of what happened...
As long as it is not the City Dump.... Remember Alice ? It is a blog about Alice...
A clear sky and the promise of a good sunrise. Crisp air and a touch of "huff" breathing through teeth. For many years I have spurned the use of gloves, always warm handed, but this morning the old black woollen offerings found in an old raincoat are welcome as I reach the galvanised gates at the bottom of the garden. Delft, the Blue Merle is bouncing like Scrat the Squirrel from Ice Age despite her 15 years and Rusty is yelping like a demented soul. The problem is that the lock to the gate has frozen!
Unwilling to retrace my steps back up the garden, I persevere by blowing into the lock. Finally the key slides in but fails to turn in either direction. By now, Delft is bouncing on my feet and Rusty is chasing his shadow around the van. A few more gentle exhalations, and the lock releases and two canine tumbleweeds bowl in to the back lane. There is ice in the broken tarmac, and the ground is slippy. We pass cars glistening with icing sugar frosting, and agitated drivers scraping windscreens as they check their watch or phone to see how late they are....
No work this morning for us... But the light looks as though it may catch the morning scenery, so I head off past the old Stradey Grounds, up Denham Avenue and into the woodlands below Stradey Castle. The ground is crisp, but after all the rain in the last weeks, the woodland paths are saturated and muddy, the cover of the trees preventing the ice reaching the ground.
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| Path into the Woods - Council Houses to the left & Castle to the right |
The grounds of Stradey Castle are private but unfenced at this point, and there is clear sign that the paths are well used, though the woodland needs clearing and the stream beds are blocked. Looking straight ahead, you travel a woodland path, but ever concious of the contrast of the Council houses to the left and the Castle to the right.
At the end of the woodland, the land opens up into fields, bordering the Castle and forming a boundary between the Stradey Welsh School and the Sixth Form College formerly known as the "Boy's Gram"
The light is just right to catch the russet glow of the trees in winter in contrast to the white frosted grass...
Crossing the fields, there are remnants of the summer growth, glistening in the sunlight.
It is at times like these that I realise why my friends - the "professional" photographers, always carry their best camera with them - but I have only brought my handheld Samsung. But, note to self, this is a good time to be up and about to get a different light. I find the fields are well fenced and stock proof and wander around looking for a way across and come across a stately old tree - lying on the ground.
Further on we skirt Stradey Castle itself, the ground too boggy to cross, so we follow the playing fields of the two schools and out towards the front entrances. The Castle can be seen through the trees, but the sun has gone by now, and it will have to be another day to try to catch the stone and setting.
The day turns cloudy, still cold, and the ice starts to soak into the feet and ankles. Time for a cup of tea and some home made bread and cheese. I think I will have to put the central heating on when I get home ...
It is with a certain degree of irony that I note that over the last week, my blogs have been concerned with walks around the Llanelli area. This may not seem strange to many, but those who have known me over the years will be aware that exercise and walking are not favourite pastimes! I have friends who walk, I have supported friends while they tramped over Hadrian's Wall. I have dogs and acknowledge that they sometimes need more than the large Dog Flap in the back door and access to the paved yard. I do not "do" the gymn, and rarely feel the need to put on waterproofs and boots and head off in to the moist... "I may be gone a while !"
Yes , my walking friends know that I delight in the views from remote points, love the smell of the countryside and the open expanses. Yes I love these things - and normally from behind the wheel of my trusty 4 x 4. I relish in the ability to be able to take a maverick or terrano into locations that no mechanical vehicle has gone before.. in the warmth and comfort of the interior cab, and with the elements properly tamed behind the windshield...
Yet, over the last week or so, I have found myself expounding upon the history and landscape of Llanelli, with camera in hand and dogs at my side. Please accept that this is because we are within close proximity, and reasonable walking distance of the house - and not as a result of some new perambulatory perversion...
But I promised Ceri from Americymru , a fine website for ex-pat and resident Welsh people that after my walk around the Old Castle exercise track .. I would research more into the Old Castle itself.. And so, with the weather dry, and the temperature dropping - the dogs took me once more onto the Pont Agen Bridge - the best place to overlook the remnants of the Motte and Bailey that was once a mighty castle - possibly even built on Roman settlement ... but I run ahead of myself .....
From previous blogs, I have the pictures and history of Pont Agen, and as I stand upon the start of the bridge, I look behind me over the Old Castle Pond - or Pond Twym - which I learn means "Warm Pond" whichI will come back to later .
For the Motte and Bailey, the castle site itself, is in the middle of the Pond. Even with the winter sun and lack of leaves on the trees it is almost impossible to get a clear view of the island in the middle of the water. But the island is the site of the old castle itself.
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| The Central Island - site of the Castle |
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| January Morning - Old Castle |
The records of Carmarthenshire state that " an early mound castle unquestionably stood at Llanelly, the name of which has fortunately survived and lead to the identification of the site". The island in Old Castle Pond ( pond Twym) was once the Motte of the castle Carnwyllion. It is believed that the Motte was established by the Normans in the late 11th Century.
The Motte would have originally had a wooden tower known as a keep with a palisade on top of the mound with , below it, a defensive "bailey" containing the main living quarters, stables and administration buildings.
The castle was attacked by Rhys ap Gruffydd in 1190 and burnt in 1215 by Rhy Ieuanc during his onslaught on the Norman strongholds of Kidwellu and Gower. In the Red Book of Hergest, a version of the Brut reads for 1215 " Rhys Ieuanc gathered a host of immense size, and gained possession of Kidwelly and Carnwyllion, and he burned the Castle"
Of course back in those days, the river Lliedi wended its way around in a different direction and the Motte and Bailey was on solid ground.
Here the Lliedi river can be seen to wind around from where Old Castle road will be in the south towards where Raby street will be in the North. From here - the coast would have been visible - but access inland would also have been easy. A later map shows both streets and the new Tramway ( now the Cycle track ) before the pond was created as a reservoir for the new Tin Plate Works.
Here we can see Old castle Road at the bottom and Parkview Terrace at the North, with the old course of the Lliedi River.
It is then I discover that the Old Castle Pond was created as a quenching reservoir for the tin works, and is not natural. It is called Pond Twym - or the Warm Pond as the water would raise its temperature as a result of the works in the tin plates. Other sources suggest that Goldfish were resident in the pond for many years due to the warmth of the water, and there are youtube links of giantterrapinstill in the pond - though have never seen them as I pass by.
For me, in my early days working in Llanelli, my recollections are travelling up Old Castle Road, up to the level crossing which i now know was over the Tramway - not the railway as I thought in those days.
The Old Castle Pub was the last building in the street - still there now - but a bed and breakfast now - not a pub.
I have had many a pint here and more than one Christmas party. When I first knew the building the rear section was not there. I remember as they built into the back room, and then further out again. The last extension lasted about 9 years, and now is the tea room in the back.. but it is now a bed and breakfast and tea room ..
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| as seen in the early morning |
And so - to retrace my steps of years before, I look once more down Old Castle Road from the level crossing that is no longer there ....
Cars on pavements and for sale signs... but as I turn around - I can still see the Tin works building - now listed and protected - though finance for the development that was expected has drifted away and it now stands as a monument to the past .. stark .. but that can be the subject of another walk...
I mentioned that there were Roman links to the old castle - rather than just repeat, here is the link to another friend Lyn John who knows so much more than me about Llanelli History... LINK HERE
But the rain is beginning to fall - and so I make my way back home for a fine cup of tea, an opportunity to sit in front of the computer, and reminisce and post a couple of thoughts fro the past .. and look forward to some day in the future when Ceri will pop across the pond ( the big one) and I shall show him what I have learned today ...
Sunshine and mild this morning. A good excuse to get up and out with the dogs. Bed is still warm and inviting but the opportunity is there to brave the elements and explore a little more of the countryside under my nose.
And as many people put their thoughts to a new regime of Health and Fitness in January, I took the opportunity of visiting another relic of Llanelli's history, the Old Castle Exercise and Fitness track. I have walked around the Old Castle fields many times and recall times from the past when I had taken the opportunity of running around the track and using the equipment that was built, open and free, for any passer by to use. Try as I might, I cannot find any records on Google of the building, financing, or the later dereliction of the track - but parts are still there to be seen.
Early sunshine rising over Old Castle ponds. Another Llanelli Blogger Robert Lloyd informs me that the Pond is over 40 feet deep in places, a place full of danger in the icy weather.
Indeed, I recall from my early days as a constable in Llanelli, assisting in the recovery of a body from the water. Details are blurred now, but the general consensus was that the deceased had fallen in, possibly drunk, while trying to climb around the metal railings that used to separate the grounds. It was a regular short cut from one end of town to the other. But the fencing required a little athletics to swing around over the water.
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| once there was a sign here |
This one has lost one of its struts, but it is almost at ground level. I recall them as being in a zig-zag, having to walk from one to the next - but there is little sign of this any more.
Here I think was a joint between two sets of balance bars - but only an empty pop bottle adorns the place now.
So - with one last look from the cycle track back onto the exercise fields -
I return under Sandy bridge the way I came. Certainly no fitter than when I arrived this morning, but having captured one more little part of Llanelli before it disappears entirely.
