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The Garw Valley Heritage Society are a group of local people who are enthusiastic about creating an archive of our valley’s industrial and social history.We are keen to record the progress and events in the valley in pictures and notes from the 1800ʹ′s to ensure that this valuable and rich source of information does not disappear forever.We aim to develop exhibits and educational material to enable the future generations to see what was once a thriving industrial community, and to compare present day sights with historical views in a “Now and Then” theme.

Additionally, it is intended to gather together in one place a vast collection of materials and personal memorabilia, as well as recording where other items can be located and viewed. It is also proposed to create geographical displays to show where points and places of interest are situated.The scope of the project is to cover the area between Bettws and Blaengarw; taking in the two parishes within the current parish boundaries.In conjunction with other groups it is hoped to be able to make these records available to the public and eventually to supply copies of particular pictures and written records if there is sufficient demand.

Meetings & EventsMeetings at “Lets” Building, Pontycymer at 2pm.

Held on the first Thursday of each month.

3rd January 2013

Monthly Meeting

7th February

Monthly Meeting

We welcome new members!

WHO ARE WE?

Welcome, Croeso!

Email us enquiry@garwheritage.co.uk

Find us on Facebook!

Can you provide any information on this photo?

We are keen to borrow historical material so it can be indexed and maybe copied with the consent of the owner. We would be very grateful for anyone who has old photos, family reco!ections, funny stories, tales

of excitement or adventures within the va!ey to join us and share the memories.

@garwheritage

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STATION CAFE AND THE ASSIRATI ERA IN PONTYCYMERStation Cafe has been a well known landmark in Pontycymer for many years and has featured in films such as “ Very Annie Mary” and television programmes such as “Fallen Hero” and “Framed” as it was a typical Italian Cafe which had not altered much over the 75 years it had been run by members of the Assirati family.Giuseppe Assirati and his wife Teresa were from Bardi which is about 50 km southwest of Parma in Italy. Giuseppe had worked in West Wales before World War 1 but had returned to Italy and enlisted in the Italian Army when war broke out. After the war ended he borrowed enough money to return to Wales and he rented a sweet shop that was near where the Vetz Club is today. The shop was later owned by the Greenslade Family but is now a residential property. Giuseppe's wife Teresa and his son Giacomo joined him in Wales in 1927 while his daughter Gina arrived in Pontycymer later, having stayed to help on her grandparents’ farm in Italy. A second daughter Maria was born later. In 1932 Giuseppe decided to buy the cafe on Pontycymer Square from the Cavacutti family who had previously owned the cafe. The cafe was bigger then than it is now as the family had made a side entrance so that they could get to the living quarters without walking through the shop. The Assirati family had to work hard, opening sometimes before 6am and closing at around midnight to cater for the miners working their shifts in the local pits. They would scrub the cafe clean every day because of the coal dust left by the miners as there were no pithead baths in those days. They would sells twists of tobacco to the miners for them to chew in work. They would also sell Domino cigarettes in packets of 4 or even sell them singly. Cold drinks were popular in the cafe over the years, with teas, Oxo, cordials, and in later years coffee became much more popular. Giacomo, who was known as Jack in the valley bought a Gaggia cappuccino machine when this happened. Palethorpes Pork Pies with jelly were popular there, along with Dan Hanson Steak and Kidney Pies. The family also made their own ice cream from milk that they bought from local farmers in their early days in the café, but later bought their ice cream ready-made. Jack was a keen gardener and he used to sell eggs laid by his own hens, and in the summer tomatoes , k idney beans and sometimes other vegetables that he grew in his garden behind the cafe. Jack recollected a story

about serving a gentleman with a pie and chips dinner who had asked him for tomato sauce. Jack told him it would cost an extra penny. The man said that was fine so he was given the sauce bottle from which he squeezed every last drop on to his plate so that it was completely covered in the sauce. Jack did not say anything and charged him the penny, but put the sauce on customers’ plates for them in future until he had sachets.The Second World War was a particularly hard time for the family because Mussolini the Italian leader entered the war on the side of Hitler. This resulted in Italian families being classed as enemy aliens. Giuseppe, like other Italian males in the area, were taken by the police and sent to the Isle of Man where they were interred. The Italian women left behind were not allowed to go within 25 miles of the coast in case they would try to signal enemy boats or try to smuggle enemy spies into Britain, so Teresa went to live and work with a family who lived in Aberdare. Gina went to work in a miners’ canteen in the Pontypridd area leaving Jack and his youngest sister in Pontycymer. Jack was in the sixth form in the Garw Grammar School where Mr. Dan Harry was the headmaster but he was made to leave to do war work, which he did on Braichycymer Farm, working for William Tudor and his family which he remembered with great fondness. This made Jack's love of the countryside stronger and he was a keen supporter of the hunt for the remainder of his life; at one time he had ridden in a hunt point to point race. Jack Morris, who had the shop next door as well as running a local taxi service, was very helpful to Jack and Maria at this time. Both of Jack's parents returned home before the end of the war and continued to run the cafe. Jack always said the people of the Garw were always kind to his family and there was no hostility towards them at all. Continued page 3

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STATION CAFE AND THE ASSIRATI ERA IN PONTYCYMER, CONTINUED.

Demolished during the 1990’s on the demise of the railway line and the diversion of the river, this bridge over the railway and the Garw river was opened on the 7th of June in 1901 and became a prominent feature in the Garw Valley.The ironwork for the bridge was made at Swindon and transported to Pontycymer for installation, but the stone for the abutment walls and the capstones was quarried locally, and Mr Joseph Isaacs of Bryn Hyfryd in Pontycymer was the stone mason employed. by David J Dimmick.

Station Cafe often opened on a Sunday as the Italians had a broader outlook on life than the British but they were fined for opening for doing this. Jack remembered f ines of seven shillings and sixpence being imposed but reckoned they made more than that by opening on a Sunday. Many of the miners would go to the cafe where they would discuss the work and politics of the coal industry and Jack became very knowledgeable about the local mines. Giuseppe died in 1956 and Maria died in the 1960s.Teresa, who many people still remember sitting on a box with a cushion on top of it behind the counter in the cafe died in 1987. The family had also bought the Savoy in Porthcawl on the front near the Pier Hotel. Gina often worked regularly in the Savoy and later married and settled with her family in Porthcawl.Jack worked very hard, as he would go to Porthcawl after

closing the Station Cafe and helped in the Savoy. The cafe in Pontycymer also required plenty of work, as a tributary of the River Garw, the Nant Gelli Wern, flows underneath Station Cafe and the walls had to be treated and painted regularly to stop the damp rising from the stream. During the late fifties Jack bought a jukebox which was the first one in the Garw Valley. It was very expensive but it soon paid for itself as crowds of teenagers came there to play the latest rock and roll hits by Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Chubby Checker and many more artists although Jack and his staff would not always appreciate the music and would be glad of an excuse to have a short break from the noise. It cost three old pence to play a record or five for a shilling which would be 5 pence today. In the sixties it rose to sixpence old pence for one or a shilling for three records, to some people’s dismay! Jack also had a pinball

machine where you forced a spring-loaded plunger to send a ball bearing around the machine and you had to use flippers to keep the ball in play to hit the bumpers on the machine to get the highest score you could. This was very popular with the boys.At the end of 2007 Jack was 83 and suffering from arthritis so he decided to retire and the last Italian Cafe in the Garw Valley closed, though Jack carried on living in Station Cafe until he sadly passed away.Hopefully this is not the end of the stor y as Creation have bought Station Cafe and they hope to renovate the building and reopen it as an Italian Cafe again so those red tables and wooden chairs that many of us in the Gar w remember wi th fondness may well be used again.by Ian BlackDo YOU have an anecdote about Jack's cafe? See front page for contacts.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: A MORE RECENT MEMORY……

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FROM THE ARCHIVES:

PARSNIP WINEA recipe "om the 1930’s for those who like a tipple!Wash 3 and 1/2 lbs of parsnips (no metric then) but do not peel them. Put them into a large pan with 5 quarts of water. Bruise 2oz of ginger and add to the pan, together with 2 lemons, sliced. Let it stand for 24 hours then bo i l the mixture unt i l the parsnips are soft but not pulped. Stir in 2lbs of sugar and let the

mixture cool. Put 1oz of yeast on a piece of toast and float it on the liquid, letting it work for 12 hours. Skim, and pour the liquid into a stone jar with ½ lb of raisins and allow it to work over before corking up. Let it stand for 3 months and then put into glass bottles.This makes a splendid wine (we are assured), at little cost.And to eat with this, a recipe for fig pudding, also "om the 1930’s :Ingredients:¼ suet, 5oz breadcrumbs, 1oz flour, 3oz caster sugar, a little salt, 1 egg, 1/4lb figs, a little milk, 1teaspoon baking powder.Method: Mix dry ingredients together. Add egg and enough milk to make the mixture fairly wet, and lastly add the baking powder.

Meet The MembersROGER STOKESChairman. Lived and taught in the Garw since 1999 although born and raised in Essex. Roger is a keen member of the Gar w Val ley Railway Society.JEAN FOWLDSSecretary. Jean was born and brought up in the Rhondda but left to work for an airline in London in the sixties. Interested in the medieval period, she has an MA from London Univer s i ty in medieval European studies, and an MA f rom the University of Wales in Celtic Christianity.DAVID DIMMICKBricklayer by profession and helped in the construction of Bridgend Railway station. A keen amateur archaeologist of the Stone Age period, and is a mine of information on local history.

HAVE YOU VISITED OUR WEBSITE?

Ful l o f photos f rom our archive and local stories and memories, the Garw Valley Society website is building up a collection of local stories of past events and personalities. It has a growing gallery of photos from our archive, and even a forum where you can chat about the Gar w ’s heritage.

www.garwheritage.co.uk

WE NEED YOUR HELP!We are in the process of Building an impressive archive of the history of the Garw Valley but we would like more material to make the archive as comprehensive as possible.What We Need:Photographsa. Past Views of the valley or

events in the valleyb. Photographs of buildings that

have changed their use or do not exist now.

c. Photographs of c lasses in schools, Sports Teams, Society or Groups and Church or chapel groups .

d. Photographs of all types of employment that has taken place in the valley.

Written Material : Newspaper Articles, Magazines, Books, Posters or Programmes

Videos or Audio Recordings: relative to the Garw Valley

We would also like to video or record older residents talking about their lives and memories of Life in the Garw Valley.

Please contact us via the contact form on our website or through any member of the society.

IN THE NEXT ISSUE....The Garw Valley before coal mines, a soldier's story from WW1, the journey of St Cein, and more.