Correspondence

Castle Graig - Tim Swain

Castle Graig

Acrylic on Canvas 24" x 30" by Tim Swain,Gowerton.

Private Collection, Copyright of the artist

***

Correspondence from David Beynon on 19/03/10 - Living in Treboeth

I was fascinated to see reference to David Evans and his foundry. Known as Uncle Davy, he was I think, brother to my grandfather, David John Evans who followed him to Swansea to work in the foundry.

The house shown at 109 Manselton Road was my Uncle Mog's house (Morgan Evans)

A myth existed that the railings were part of the fencing surrounding the racecourse, but they are not.

The railings were erected by Swansea Corporation around 1955, prior to work starting to create the housing estate between Penderry Road and Hollett Road. The railings are not wrought iron, as they would have been, but are fabricated steel and fenced off the quarry edge and the area between the old track of the railway then extended to the edge of the garden of the house occupied by Mr Frayne and his son, which stood on the flat part of the Racecourse alongside the quarry, almost opposite Penlan Farm and Stores and the two bungalows built within its grounds. On the Quarry side of the house the railings protected the quarry edge and at our age, initially proved difficult to climb over. Once the earth-moving work started on the site great big machines scraped up earth and transported it across the track-bed of the railway line to the Quarry where it was dumped and gradually filled the Quarry burying the two air raid shelters that ran side by side through the bank supporting the railway, which ran right into the quarry itself. The traffic of earth carrying vehicles had the effect of widening the original railway trackbed while further over, beyond the incline, the track bed was lost under the new streets and houses.

***

Correspondence from David Pope on 17/03/10 - Living at Wootton Bassett - worked in IT in Mettoys Factory

Hello Ivor,

I came across your excellent website as I was googling Manselton Racecourse, which was a favourite haunt as a child.

I was fascinated by the features and photographs, and to see my brother, Mal (Maldwyn) Pope in a Brynhyfryd School photo.

I think that he is also the boy holding a model 'bomb' with the Taylor family in the Treboeth Gospel Hall section.

Also, the teacher standing at the right in the early 1950s Brynhyfryd Junior School is my father, Stanley Pope.

Other topics were- Philip Street Gospel Hall - David Hopkins, coal merchant Cwm Lan Terrace and choir master at Siloh Chapel- Mynyddbach Chapel - David John Hopkins, coal merchant, Tirdeunaw

Comments from other viewers welcome - email - [email protected]

Main content of page