Glimpse down the years from Pwll School
I was kindly lent a book on the history of our village, Pwll, entitled ‘A Long Mile’. It gives fascinating insights into the changing economic and social landscape and a remarkable concentration of historical significance for such a modest coastal village in Carmarthenshire.
Here follows some selected snippets from the Pwll School record diary revealing how times have changed!
June 1870. The majority of pupils had never attended any kind of school before. 75% could not speak English, The Master, David Morgan, could not speak Welsh. – interesting!!
Sept 1870. Very low attendance. Nearly all the women in the village involved in potato raising. Girls at home nursing and many boys involved in the general work.
Nov 1872. Find that John Davies, who had left the school for work about the colliery, gets one shilling and a penny and a ha ‘penny a day which may account for boys leaving school so young.
Jan 1874. Reading requires constant care. I find that an absence of a few weeks with children ignorant of English is a serious drawback while teaching them to read. Regularity of attendance is indispensable in purely Welsh districts like this.
Sept 1874. The attendance today of the school late arising from the passing through the village of a menagerie.
Feb 1880. Compelled to give a holiday last Wednesday afternoon due to a sale at Pwll colliery on that day.
Oct 1888. Yesterday and today a fair is held at Llanelly. Attendance is very low.
Oct 1888. The scarlet fever has broken out in the locality and the school will be closed for a week as a precaution against the distemper.
Sept 1890 School board officer present this afternoon and supplied with list of absentees. Attendance decreased. Children blackberrying.
June 1897. Received notice to close the school on the 18th and reopen on the 28th in commemoration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Reign
Dec 1899. Several elder boys employed part of this week by CMM Lewis, Stradey, to assist a shooting party in beating bushes and carrying game. The younger ones kept home -the weather being so severe.
March 1900. School closed on Monday to celebrate the relief of Mafeking, also Thursday and Friday on account of the Llanelly Fair.
May 1906. Six boys went down to the sands during the dinner hour today. One of them, David John brown, got drowned.
May 1908 It is market day and fair day in Llanelly today. The school work is suspended for the day to enable the children to attend with their parents who usually go with their vegetables to sell in the morning. Some children are kept at home in the morning for fear of passing cattle.
April 1909. The policeman lodges complaints against Miss Silver sending a lad to wash is hands at the public tap near the school in the dinner hour as it was not nice to for him, and others, to handle after the soapy fingers of the boy.
June 1911. Work suspended until June 26th to celebrate the coronation of the King and Queen.
Jan 1915. A visit by the Inspector of Cruelty to Children. Attendance good.
June 1918. There are present today seven boys and nine girls. The others have gone to see the incoming tank at Llanelly.
Sept 1918. A small shrine fixed in the schoolroom today to commemorate the fallen men in France who at one time attended this school.
Dec 1919. School Inspection Report. Too much use of English is made in the teaching, which should mainly be in Welsh in the Infant’s Department. The use of slates for writing should be discontinued as soon as possible.
May 1921. Soup kitchens are established at Salem and the children proceed after school daily to dinner and tea. Attendance has considerably increased.
July 1921. Representatives of the Distress Committee met at the schoolroom this morning, examined the shoes of the children and recommended a large number of new boots.
July 1921. The miner’s children withdrawn from the soup kitchen. The tin and steel worker’s children will continue to be fed.
Jan 1928. The electric light was installed in the schoolroom this afternoon.
March 1929. In excavating the foundations for the new Infant’s School an old coal level was discovered on the South west corner. This has necessitated removing the building ten feet in an easterly direction and re-inforcing the foundations on the westerly side.
July 1929. I have been authorised the school to close this day that the children may attend the proclamation of the National Eisteddford in Llanelly.
July 1929, Mrs Pickering, Temperance Lecturer, addressed the upper classes this morning on ‘Alcohol and cell life’. A number of children were allowed to leave early to attend this afternoon. They were taking part in a local carnival.
Nov 1931. The school will be closed this afternoon for the rugby football game between Llanelly and the South Africans by order of the school managers.
July 1937. Thomas Wyndham Williams, a pupil of this department, was awarded a silver watch today in recognition of eight years unbroken service. The watch was presented by Lady Howard Stepney. Thomas only missed one half day at school in eleven years when he went with his father and elder brother Cedric to see Al Jolson at The Regal performing Danny Boy.
April 1940. Occasional practice in the care and use of gas masks will be taken.
July 1940. In the light of an air raid warning the school will assemble at 10.30am
Nov 1940. School is closed today for the reception and dispersal of the Evacuees (108 in number).
May 1942. School is closed today. A holiday is granted for the efforts made during Warship Week.
May 1945. The school will be closed today and tomorrow for V.E. celebrations.
March 1949. Mr Idris Francis, an old boy of the school, brought a wireless set to the school today. Permission has been granted by the Authority to ask Mr Francis to install two electric points in the school to facilitate broadcasting.
May 1951. The school was closed today on the occasion of the induction of the Rev Cadfan Phillips to the pastorate of Libanus Chapel
June 1961. School Classification. It is not satisfactory for classification as the Welsh and English streams are in the same room in the top class. This does not make it easy from the standpoint of language.
October 1966. The school reopened after the half -term holiday. At 10.30 am the school observed a two minutes silence in connection with the Aberfan disaster.
April 1991. Burry Port Power Station stack came down at this morning at 9am. The whole school assembled on the junior yard to watch. We had a panoramic view of the whole event. The two remaining stacks will come down in July and October, we understand. Hopefully we can watch those.
June 1992. An unexpected visit from Lori Jones and Sheila Evans from the Special Needs Department took place during the afternoon. Their visit was to talk about the possibility of accommodating an Autistic Unit for the school. At the moment there are no facilities for autistic children in Dyfed. (It was opened in Nov 1992)
The book follows with a entertaining account of the various games played in the yards by pupils, some of which I recognise from my own childhood.
This is my favourite quote of all though.
“There was very little cricket played on the school yard – I don’t know the reason for that – probably no bats or balls”