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Photo Album
Laugharne
| Laugharne is my favourite place in South (west) Wales where
for an hour or two, the clock is turned back a few decades. It is
charming, pretty and atmospheric as well as being quaint and quintessentially
the home of one Dylan Thomas, poet and writer of that Parish. |
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Hi Mike
I have just discovered from the 1881
census that my great grandfather William Thomas farmed Longridge
Farm in Laugharne. According to the census it was 180 acres and
employed three labourers. I wondered if the farm was still in
existance or if any of the family still lived in the area.? I know
they had 8 children in 1881. My grandfather John Henry Thomas left
South Wales and settled in Northamptonshire . I have been told that
the family bred pit ponies because some of them were exported to
Australia to work in the mines there.
Regards
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Sue Hullock
Wondai, Queensland Australia
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| Hi Mike, Congratulations on an excellent site. I
have to agree with you about Laugharne, it's a delightful place and I'm
envious of my ancestors, quite a few of whom were born and lived there.
One in particular, David Bowen and his wife Amelia (and 9 children) ran
a pub in Gosport Street, I think in the 1880's and 1890's (I think it
may have been the Corporation Arms Hotel, now renamed the Boat House
Inn, well at least I think that was the pub since I've not found any
others in Gosport Street.)
One of their sons Robert Bowen was a butcher in Laugharne and after
his young wife and very young child died (they're buried at St Martins
Church), he became a cattle dealer but lived in Wogan Street with his
mother in law at a pub there, whose name I don't have. I suspect he was
mainly running the place and working as a cattle dealer from time to
time. Sad to think that most of my clan, apart from Robert, later left
for Llanelli (tinplate works mainly) but that's a very familiar story I
guess.
There is one query I'd like to put to you, at the moment I'm
deciphering a document from the 1890's and a name has cropped up
associated with Laugharne and I just wonder if you've got any ideas on
it. The word is Solan, well at least I think that's what the handwriting
states. The person living there was a farmer so I'm assuming it's a farm
but I've so far failed to find any reference to it in Laugharne either
on new or old maps. Perhaps it's long since disappeared.
Continued good luck with the site. |
Keith Bowen |
| Hello
Mike I was interested in your site ......I have never been to Laugharne
but are interested in a visit soon. I have married into the Thomas
family (Helen Marnier ,grandmother was Caitlin's sister) She has regaled
me with boathouse stories from when she was a child and used to spend
the summers there scaring the tourists, so she says? |
Alan
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Hi Mike, I just wanted to say how great
your site is. I am the son of a Welsh mother who's mother was born
in Laugharne. I will be visiting Laugharne again myself in either
August or September as I want to locate my Grandmothers house in
Station Cottages. I will also be going to Newcastle Emlyn as that is
where my own mother was born and the owners are going to let me look
at her birthplace in the gatehouse to a mansion. I am looking
forward to that although the place is very run down now. Anyway I
always wanted to end my days amongst the greatest people in the
world but a ex wife & a new wife put an end to that. If any of your
viewers are related to my grandmother Mary Jane Thomas or would like
to get in touch with me I have no objection to receiving emails.
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Colin Parker |
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