History of Kenfig Hill in the 1970s
Kenfig Hill has changed a lot over the past 25 years.
I have asked my mother and other members of my family to
recall some important events that have taken place over the
years.
The main event my mother recalls is the Queens Silver Jubilee
in 1977. All of Kenfig hill was decorated and each street had
their own street party. My mother lived at home with my
grandparents then and she remembers that it was a very hot
summer and having to dress up in fancy dress costume along
with all the neighbours and having a huge street party. My
mother lived on Waunbant Road in Kenfig Hill and she said that
the streets were decorated with streamers, balloons and long
tables were set up along the road and everyone brought some
food and drink. The party went on until the early hours of the
morning!
She also recalls the Summer Carnivals when there would be
lots of floats coming up the main street of Kenfig Hill from Pyle
Cross up to the Top Cross in Kenfig hill. The jazz band would be
leading the procession and there would be an annual Beauty
Queen. All members of the local rugby teams would have their
own floats and would dress up in fancy dress costume while
parading through the streets.
My mother and father remembers the fire in Mynydd Cynffig
Junior School and recalls that the children had to be relocated
to Cynffig Comprehensive school for quite a long time before
the school was renovated and was safe for the children to
return. They remember someone saying that once the children
had been evacuated from the school they were singing
‘London’s Burning’ whilst the fire officers tried to put out the
flames.
My grandmother has lived in Kenfig hill for all her married life.
She recalls that during the war and particularly during the Blitz
when the ‘Ton’ was bombed by German airplanes and part of St
Theodores Church was destroyed.
So far as entertainment was concerned there wasn’t really that
much to do. The Pyle Life Centre (formally known as the
welfare) housed the local cinema which was great as every
Saturday morning the children from the local villages would all
congregate outside the Welfare for the morning performance
followed by some chips from “Matthews” chip shop.
The youngsters would attend youth club which is held in
Cynffig comprehensive as it is now and they would hold discos
every Friday night my mother was a regular attendee!!!!
There were loads more shops in Kenfig Hill than there are now
.There was at one time 6 shoe shops in the village-there are
none now. The Spar supermarket on the corner of Bridge
street/Waunbant road was once the Co-operative store. It was
a large department store selling furniture upstairs along with
clothing/shoes etc. and down stairs was the food hall. It was a
fabulous old building with a wooden staircase and solid wood
banisters-it was very impressive.
There were about 4 butchers in the village at one time and
several fruit and vegetable shops.
My mother’s favourite shop however was situated on the
corner of Pwllygarth Street. It was called ‘Jack the Moderns’.
Jack sold sweets in old fashioned jars and the counter was so
high that he would have to give the children a box to stand on
so they could pick the sweets they wanted. My mother used to
say that her Nan would give her a thru’ penny bit so she could
buy some sweets after school!!!
At the top cross (where the Chinese restaurant and the
antiques shop are now) was the Top Café. Here the teenagers
would gather after school or sometimes during their lunch
breaks and meet up to play snooker. They also had a juke box
that played the latest chart hits!
Everybody knew everybody else in Kenfig hill in the 1970s and
it was a very close knit community, Now though there are more
and more people living in the village who are not born and bred
here but I have relocated to Kenfig hill for work. In that sense I
suppose that things haven’t changed THAT much as my great
grandfather did exactly the same thing in the 1920s by moving
his family from Blaengarw down to Kenfig hill as he was
working in the coal mine in Aberbaiden.
By Molly