I lived with my parents at Gwenlais for about 10 years – from about 1963-73.
Location of Gwenlais - picture taken in 1905.
The house was small and unmodernised – being a basic ‘two up two down’, with a small box room on the landing, a side pantry behind a shed type structure, and a black zinc shed on the southern side, with a tank outside for catching rainwater.
1905
There were no modern amenities – water came from a tap in the zinc shed and the outside toilet was half way up the garden.
Viewing it on the hill in Google Streetview it had changed considerably.
Front of Gwenlais - Mum Dora at door.
In the 60s most of the windows faced the graveyard of Calfaria – apart from one in the kitchen and one on the half landing (I believe there were five steps, then a small half landing and window – then another five steps to the upstairs).
Ruth with elder sister Daphne
Ruth - the black zinc shed which contained our water tap.
Our green and cream front door - you can just see the stairs
at the back of the small passage - and Snowy our stray of course!
The front door was always painted in wide green and cream stripes – being rented my father didn’t believe in wasting money on redecorating! Paintwork was mostly grey – especially upstairs – and the wallpaper in my room was a sort of pattern with blue and yellow flowers – still recalled but hard to describe.
Ruth standing on the lane up to Sunnybank.
You can see the little white single storey shed at the side of the house.
There was an old fashioned range in the kitchen – with an oven at the side, and an ordinary fireplace in the living room. There was also a fireplace in the northern bedroom with a large chimney breast and mantle piece – but I can’t recall one being in the other bedroom. There was also an under the stairs little cupboard – with a door opposite the front door.
Dora, Laurence and Ruth.
In front of the house - you can see the dividing line above the window.
There seemed to have been a dividing line outside between the ground and first floors – looking as if the second floor had been added later.
The two downstairs rooms had beams and a wooden ceiling – which was the floor of the bedrooms – so with only a thin divide sound did carry.
The small shed at the north side of the house was divided into two – the front half being where our dog lived – but the back part was joined on to the kitchen via a door and was a sort of pantry with shelves. It looked as if a window had looked over the valley from here at one point but this was now boarded over and a small one looked into the side garden.
This shows the pavement in front of the house and the garden gate in the background.
Next to this was a small coal shed – then a wooden gate into the long side garden that stretched north.
Sketch showing house and gardens.
The garden was never tended much as my father was not very well. The first part would have been for vegetables. Then there was a sort of divide – where the toilet was, as well as a broken greenhouse and what would have been a pig sty.
The next section of garden was where the clothes line was – also lots of apple trees, and where I had a swing. There must have been a sort of well there at one time as there was large stone slab which probably covered the well.
Up the very top of the garden was another small shed.
The eastern boundary of the garden sloped down sharply to the valley bottom – and I had strict instructions not to go near!
This was at the end of our drive near the corner - see the dark shape to the right - that was an old oven embedded in the hedge for milk etc - thats where Blackie would sit and wait for us if we had gone on the bus to Carmarthen.
There was a side driveway into the property, as well as small steps leading up to the lane that passed the front door. This lane was raided and about window height and the wall supporting it was made up of lots of small stones – where little lizards would bask in the sun.
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