by Tudor Jones
Although it is almost 60 years since I moved away from Iron Lane, memories remain fresh in my mind.
In many ways it was a typical Welsh working class community replicated in Merthyr and throughout the whole of Wales. I lived at Number 29 with my parents and grandmother. These are personal memories. I am certain that others who lived in Iron Lane would remember other facets of the community. I will divide my memories into three sections – the house, the street and the people.
The house was part of a terrace of cottages. It consisted of a two up, two down with a ‘lean-to’ at the back. None of the modern conveniences were in the house – no indoor toilet, bathroom, piped hot water etc, so when I was old enough to realise, I knew that the area was ‘slum clearance’.
To enter the house, there was a large step going into the front room – ‘the best room’ for special visitors, with heavy Victorian furniture. This led to the next room – for eating, television and radio. Stone stairs led upstairs where a walk through bedroom led to another bedroom.
At the back downstairs was the ‘lean-to’ – for cooking, washing, food storage, plus one sink the ‘bosh’ with an electric water heater. This led to the garden – a path dividing raised sections. I remember having my part to grow flowers. There were tulips, chrysanthemums, bluebells etc. At the top right was the ‘coal cwtch’ with an asbestos roof with ‘snow on the mountain’ covering it. On the left a non-flush toilet – cool in the summer, freezing in the winter. To modern readers it seems an age away.
However, Iron Lane was a close community supporting each other in time of need. The street was parallel to the present day Nantygwenith Street. It was bisected by Howell Street. Iron Lane was a long street with the Georgetown Schools at the top and George Street at the bottom. At the top was a small factory belonging to ‘Dai the Up’ – an upholstery business. Leading off Iron Lane were some courts. Next door but two to Number 29 was Chandler’s Court, with a few houses leading to a small shop – Dai Chandler’s, and Nantygwenith Street. None of the houses had modern day conveniences.
I remember a few events in the street. In 1955, a group of children marching and singing:
“Vote, vote, vote for S. O. Davies.
He is the bestest of them all.”
Later on I remember a fight int he street. A highlight (pardon the pun) was a fire in the top part of Dai the Up’s business.
Georgetown was convenient was convenient for town, but it also had its own schools, pubs, shops, chapels, a club, a ‘community centre’, fish shop and small factories. It was indeed a living community.
The people in Iron Lane I remember vividly. Next door were Uncle Willy and Auntie Maggie (not relations), an elderly childless couple. Auntie Maggie took me once to a service in Bethel Chapel on a Sunday morning. Next to them, Mr & Mrs Phillips and their daughter Beryl – so the names go on – Cloakley’s, Chamberlain’s, Twose, Coleman’s, Richards’. It was a working class community with the men (and some women) working in factories, in the pit or for the council. Of course there were no cars or phones. We children played in the street, or on the tip, or on a field by Chapel Row. We all went to local schools – Georgetown Infants, Abermorlais Junior and then in my case to Cyfarthfa.
I continued visiting Iron Lane as my grandmother was still living there until 1975 when she passed away. As time went on and people died or moved away, the houses were boarded up. My last visit was in the late 1970’s when there were just a few people left until the bulldozers came to destroy what was once a living, breathing society.
My Grandparents ,lived in Iron Lane. My Mother and her Brothers ad sisters was brought up there. My Grandad was a tin smith and worked from the back room. I remember spending holidays there when I was small. Especially having to go out the back to the toilet. The family name was Mochan. You mentioned Colemans. My Grandmothers maiden name was Coleman. I believe they were family. My self, I was born 22 Denvyor street.
Hi Eileen
My geandfather and his family also lived there, the same family name. My dad was Tom, I wonder if we are related?
I was born 1966 in number 42, my father was Ken Stephens. My nan Katy Stephens played the piano in the OAP hall on the corner of the street that led to Nantygweneth Street (I think) where I passed Belts shop on the way to my father’s friend Rufus who I think worked at Pullman’s Yard. I remember Mrs Northwood and Dai Up, Jean Sherwood and the Woods family – and many more. We had a gas lamp upstairs and a gas street lamp which I think my father tore down, don’t know why, possibly scrap🙂 I could write for hours on my memories of Iron Lane!! A character building childhood
I lived at 23 iron lane with my mother Ann Parle and my brother Stephen, next door to Dai the Ups, it was a lovely place where everyone knew everyone, happy memories , we moved in 1969/70. The house had been in my mother’s family for many years, I remember our tin bath and outside toilet, my mother built a shed out of breeze blocks , we had a geezer for hot water , it took for ever to fill bowl , the pipe was so thin, my bother and me shared a bedroom , we had to walk through my mothers bedroom to get into it, we had stone stairs . Seems so long ago. But then line yesterday!!!
My grandmother, Rose Price, lived at 13 Iron Lane when she was a child, according to the 1911 Census.