A Traveller’s View of St. Clears by J Rees

This is my review of the shops and

services in St. Clears. I am from a

small small village called Drefach,

situated 17 miles away from St.

Clears. I set off on a Friday

afternoon and caught the 129 bus

from Drefach to Carmarthen. The

journey coast cost me 4 pounds for

an all day ticket. I then caught the

224 bus from Carmarthen to St.

Clears

When the bus finally arrived in St. Clears it was dark and all I could see

were the light’s coming from Spar. I could only see two or three people in

the distance other than that, it was quiet. I could see that the pubs had some

people in as I walked passed. There were a few shoppers in Spar and I called

in there first.

The next morning I went for a walk down to Pentre Road, which is the main

street for shops in the town. As it was a Saturday I was informed that most

of the shops were closed. There were a few open including the Spar and the

Original Factory Shop. I went to the Spar to buy some food and a warm

drink as it was a brisk November morning.

My next stop was ‘The Original Factory Shop’, which is further on down the

road. This shop had much more variety on sale than I imagined. It sells

everything from cosmetics to homeware and clothing. The products that they

sell are quite reasonably priced and it’s open seven days a week.

The walk went on, passed the art and craft centre which is on the opposite

side to the Original Factory Shop. It only appears to be open on week days,

which to me seems a bit pointless as the community of this town must work

in the week. When they have the time to look around the shops on a

Saturday they are closed. I would like to see all the shops open on the

weekends, but I’m not a shop owner.

The Tollhouse Snack Bar was open and I had read that they had a Gavin and

Stacey star to open it. I like this shop, as it is bright, young and trendy. They

also serve good food and coffee. There’s a Vaughan’s technology shop and

Eynon’s butchers also on the main street. These are open on a Saturday

morning. I didn’t stop in these shops, as I didn’t want a new TV or meat.

There are three pubs in the town, but I did not get a chance to visit any of

them. There is also a Co-op in the town, but it is quite far from the main

high street.

There are a few fast food takeaways on Pentre Road and a Chinese take

away opposite the Spar, which I would recommend. I had some crispy beef,

soya gravy and noodles on Friday evening and it was really nice. They gave

a fast friendly service and it was also reasonably priced. There’s an Indian

restaurant further down the street called Eliachi. I went there for food on the

Saturday evening and there was a good selection of the menu. The food and

the service couldn’t be any better and I would highly recommend it.

The next morning I went for another walk down to the boating club, which is

situated on the other side of the town. The view of the river and the bridge is

quite pleasant, and the walk was lovely. I was a bit disappointed to see so

many signs everywhere telling you what you couldn’t do.

St Clears is a lovely town but could do with a wider range of businesses,

which cater for younger people. There wasn’t a place young people could

hang out and get together and I saw a lot of teenagers on the streets. There

were not the same choices and variety of shops as somewhere like Narberth

and apart from Curios, which was a very pretty shop with interesting items

outside on the pavement the streets were boring to look at. There wasn’t

really much information available and nothing I could interact with on my

mobile phone. I would visit again but would like to see the shops open and

more available for young people.

Editor’s Comment: Jamie is a young student at Coleg Sir Gar on a media

studies course. He volunteered to write an article on St. Clears as part of his

studies. We are grateful to Jamie for his observations based on the

perspective of a young man. Tourism is still a huge part of the economy in

West Wales and towns have to think differently about the way in which they

attract people of all ages. Many young people have the means to travel and

spend money but they must be able to find places which cater for and

welcome them. Mobile phones are also the source of most information for

young people and the new augmented reality technology is exploding onto

streets across Wales. St. Clears has to move into the 21st century in order to

survive. We are grateful to Jamie for taking time out to write the article.