Twenty 20 Memories

By  Hywel Gwyn Evans

Carmarthenshire County Council, 2006.  

Compiled by Gareth Hicks, March 2007

**My copy of this book was deposited with Glamorgan FHS in April 2022

At the time of writing the book may be purchased from Ammanford Library or any CMN library, see https://www.carmarthenshire.gov.wales/

• Introduction
• Contents
• Photographs
• Map/diagrams

Introduction

From the book;

"This book is a collection of some of the memories of twenty men and twenty women who were born between 1904 and 1935 and, with just one exception, within a few miles of one another in the villages of Brynaman, Cefn-bryn-brain, Cwmllynfell, Cwm-twrch, Pant-teg, Rhiw-fawr and Ystradowen, that lie immediately to the south of the Black Mountain in the far west of the Brecon Beacons National Park. These villages are essentially less than two hundred years old and are clustered close to the meeting point of the three counties we used to call Breconshire, Carmarthenshire and Glamorgan, and the people who live in them were, historically, welded together by their anthracite collieries, their nonconformist chapels and the Welsh language. It is no wonder therefore that fourteen of the men whose memories are included here worked, at some time or other, in those collieries, that sixteen of the women are, or were, the daughters of coal miners and that some three dozen of the forty were brought up as Welsh Congregationalists. It is also no surprise that it was only the man who came to live in the district, on his marriage to a local woman, who spoke English as his first language. He recounted his memories in that language, whilst all the other memories have been edited and translated from the Welsh language and follow its speech patterns as closely as possible.

The men and women whose memories are included here appear in alphabetical order in every chapter. Those of the men alternate with those of the women and they are enormously varied because they are the reminiscences of forty people who all, to a larger or lesser degree, endured the depression years of the 1930's and survived the terrible years of the Second World War in which seven of the men served in the armed forces and two of the women worked in armament factories. All forty also witnessed the unexpected collapse of the mining industry, as well as Welsh non-conformity, just a few years after that War which make their memories all the more important as valuable primary source contributions to our history as a people.

The Contributors

David Llewelyn Davies* ; Eryl Collins; John Dewi Davies; Gwenda (Powell) Dicker; Llewelyn Davies*; Janice Evans; Melville (Mel) Davies*; Mair Evans;  Glyn Edwards*;
Elizabeth Holbourn; Glyn Evans; Marianne James; Ernest (Ernie) Francis*; Minnie Jeremiah*; Leslie (Les) Griffiths*; Mary Eirwen Jones*; Danny Hamer*; Lillian Maud Jones;
Herbert Rees James*;  Magdalen Jones;  Gwilym John;  Megan Jones;  William (Wil) Lewis;  Maggie Jane Maddock*;  Bryn Lloyd*;  Bessie Morris;  Edwin Morris*;  Janet Newlands;
 Eddie Norman*;  Jean Rees; Ross Thomas; Margaret Ann Rees;  Elwyn Watkin; Sybil Samuels; Daniel (Danny) Williams; Hannah (Nan) Thomas; Gethin William; Hannah Evelyn William; Horace Williams*; Heulwen Williams*. "

*deceased

Contents

• 1. Childhood  1-38
• 2. Local Characters   39-50
• 3. The Chapels  51-68
• 4.  Elementary Schooldays  69-80
• 5.  Secondary Schooldays   81-86
• 6.  College or University  87-90
• 7.  The Collieries  91-122
• 8.  Other Employment    123-160
• 9.   The Second World War: Home Front  161-176
• 10. The Second World War: Front Line  177-194
• 11. After Work Activities   195-212
• 12. Today   213-222
• Appendix   223-224
  Local Anthracite Collieries, 1928
  No 9: Neath Area, National Coal Board Collieries, 1954
  Anthracite Coal Exported through Swansea 1935

Photographs

For the sake of context/continuity these photographs are listed in the same page order as they appear in the book;-  
descriptive text [not necessarily identical to book entry], page number

Map Diagrams

• Upper Aman, Twrch & Upper Tawe Valleys - mountains, feeders, villages, some farms etc, 38
• Upper Aman, Twrch & Upper Tawe Valleys - schools, chapels & churches, 67
• Upper Aman, Twrch & Upper Tawe Valleys - railways, tramroads, collieries & tinplate works, 122
• Upper Aman, Twrch Valleys - halls and certain hostelries, 212