An idyllic childhood – Memories – Living the good life

Its half term and most of the kids will spend their time in doors even if the sun is out does not sound much of a childhood to me. On the other hand I really had an idyllic childhood growing up in the Docks area of Cardiff in the mid-sixties early seventies. We lived in Pomeroy Street, I can remember my immediate neighbours, and if I close my eyes, I can still see them.

To the right of my house was Mrs Hutchings the other side Eddie Barrett. Mrs Hutchings was a curtain twitcher, nothing much slip passed her down our end of the street but would always greet me with a friendly smile. Eddie was a gent and a good neighbour and it was always fun when his nieces were around.

You could stand at the top of the street and you would see plenty of kids out playing and mums talking on the doorstep. Today all you will see are cars. We kids would be playing hopscotch, alleys, and ball games, riding our bikes, or just sitting on the church steps chatting away. As you grew older, other streets were open to us and we used every inch with the Hamadryad Park being the place to go if the weather was good.

A lot of my childhood was largely spent roaming the banks of the River Taff and on the river on rafts we would make or find and swimming … yes; we would swim in the dirty Taff. There was always something to find along the tide line a ball or maybe a dead sheep.

I loved school, St Cuthbert’s and later Mostyn RC. I didn’t even care that from time to time I was caned as I saw it as part of my school life and the same with teachers I may have liked some more than others but I learnt and that was what it was all about. Another lucky stroke my school was in my street (St Cuthbert’s) but I like to get in early because it was like a giant street party. Most of the kids from the streets around the school went there and a few foreigners from outside the area … like Grangetown and Butetown.

My all-time favourite teacher was Mr Walsh, headmaster of St Cuthbert’s, a legend and I have never heard a bad word said about him. He loved to teach and I was willing to listen and learn. Also, there was a likelihood that he had taught a member of your family who would still call him ‘sir’. He taught all my uncles and aunts. I can never remember him shouting even while giving me the cane maybe he left that to Mr Finn who did a lot of shouting.

Being a Catholic school and with the church next door it featured highly in my education. The priest was a daily part of life and I don’t think there was a day I didn’t see him back then. “Morning Father” or “Afternoon Father” and respect was due.

The street is now one big car park. The school has long gone and the church is now St Theodore of Tarsus Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church the Bethel Baptist Church has also gone. When I was a kid if you needed a stitch or two the Hamadryad hospital at the top of Pomeroy St was handy now it’s a mental health day care centre. Most of the hospital was knocked down for housing, and a Welsh-medium primary school.