Welcome to the first instalment of our new series of articles featuring postcards from Tongwynlais. I’ve been collecting postcards for a few years now and I’m planning to post them regularly over the coming months.
I’ve got lots of postcards featuring Castell Coch but I thought I’d start with one of my favourites of the village. It was produced by Hardings (Bristol and Cardiff) and part of their “Progress series”. I like it because it’s not a typical “picture postcard” of beautiful scenery or interesting sites. It’s an unusual photo of what looks like a field or garden with two young boys and an older gentleman with a white beard in the background.
I prefer to buy used postcards that have interesting messages on. I’ll attempt to decipher the handwriting where I can!
The postcard is dated August 9th 1911. The stamp features King Edward VII even though King George V had been on the throne from May 1910. It’s addressed to a Miss Baldwyn in Llanilar, Aberystwyth. (Ceredigion was known for centuries in English as Cardiganshire.)
Miss B. E. BaldwynLlydeardau
Llanilar
Aberystwyth
Cardiganshire
The text reads:
Dear Ethel,
This is the pc I promised to send you the week I returned, but it is a good many weeks now. The house with the cross on is the one we live in. Hope you are keeping well. Glad to say we are all quite well. How did you enjoy yourself Bank Holiday. I enjoyed myself fine.
With best love
Ivore
Please tell Mrs C to write soon. I am anxiously waiting.
Who is Mrs C? Why is the writer waiting anxiously? It looks like the postcard is signed “Ivore” but this isn’t a name as far as I can tell. Do you have any idea what it could be?
I think the house is 6 Queen Street. I wonder if the current owners know “Ivore”?
Let us know in the comments (or get in touch) if you have any photos or information about the village’s history.
According to the 1911 Census on Ancestry.com , living at 5 Queen Street, Tongwynlais was Mr John Bennett Irons and his daughter Irore Russell Irons aged 15. Family originally from Cornwall. Hope this info helps.
A reader emailed me with some comments on this postcard. He says, “The cottage with the white front on the right of the picture was Caewal Cottage, and stood where the white bungalow of the same name now stands at the end of Queen Street. Behind it can be seen the old Bethesda chapel building (where the smaller, current-day Bethesda chapel is now). The garden in the foreground was belonging to the cottage but both went when Cross Street and Clos Cae Wal were built in the 1960s.”
I live at number 8 and I will ask gill at number 6 if she knows?