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Description
A continuation of our exploration of Alltwen.
Image 1:
The parish church of St John the Baptist, seen from lower Alltwen. It is the daughter church of St John's at Cilybebyll. It seats about 250 and was built in 1886 in the Victorian style
Image 2:
St John's Church, Alltwen, seen from the track leading to the church from Dyffryn Street.
Image 3:
The foundation stone at St John's Church. The inscription reads: The chief corner stone of this church, dedicated to St John the baptist, was laid on June 24th 1886 by Howel Gwyn of Dyffryn.
Image 4:
The old post office building, Alltwen. The building is no longer used for this purpose.
Image 5:
The new Alltwen post office. This building was once a grocer's store known in the village as "Mary's Shanty".
Image 6:
A row of cottages in Lower Alltwen.
Image 7:
The building above, in 1998 a branch of the SPAR chain of grocery stores, was once the premises of the Alltwen branch of the Alltwen and Pontardawe Cooperative Society Ltd. The Alltwen branch first opened in 1875 in Gwyn Street, but later moved to the above premises on lower Alltwen Hill.
The wonderful old photograph below, probably taken in the 1920s, shows the Coronation Stores when it was kept by Lewis and Mary Jones. Coronation Stores was situated on the opposite side of Alltwen Hill from the SPAR stores shown above. It is now [2016] a private residence.
Image 8:
Lewis and Mary Jones's family, with daughters Ceridwen and Marion, lived at Llysgwyn, 12 Brondeg Lane and were highly prominent in Alltwen chapel life. Lewis was an assistant grocer to his mother Anne in the 1891 census for Alltwen, on Alltwen Hill, so presumably the shop was in operation then. He was a grocer's assistant there in the 1901 census, and the grocer and draper there in the 1911 census. He retired from the business about 1933, and died in 1949. Lewis Jones's parents were Thomas and Ann, who were living at Alltwen Hill in the 1881 census; and Mary Jones's parents, John Thomas and wife Jane (neé Nathaniel) were also Alltwen people. They had married there in 1868. They lived at 29 Graig Rd and John was known as Y Dwr for some reason.
[Many thanks to Betty Alden who supplied the old photograph and background information. Betty is the widow of Jeff Alden, son of Lewis and Mary's daughter Marion.]
Image 9:
A final look at Alltwen under the outcrop of Craig Alltwen. The picture shows a new housing development in the foreground, and older traditional cottages perched on the hillside above.
I would like to thank:
local residents Pamela and Elfed Harris, who gave me much information about the history of Alltwen. Elfed is [in 1998] proprietor of Alltwen Post Office.
Betty Alden, who allowed me to use her fine old photograph of Coronation Stores.
Lyndon Pritchard, who provided additional information about the location of Coronation Stores.
The old photographs of Alltwen Chapel and Howel Gwyn, and some of the historical information, are from a publication in the Archive Photographs series entitled Around Pontardawe, compiled by the Pontardawe Historians, published in 1996 by the Chalford Publishing Company - ISBN 0 7524 0691 4.
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