Let's start this week's affair with some more feedback regarding recent TRM's topics.
A delighted Oliver Harries sent this email following the gen that turned up with regard to his initial Hakin shop/boxing query.
"Hi Jeff, I have seen the update on 'the gym,' Mike Witty sent me a copy of your article. Well done, Jeff, thank you. I'm not going mad after all! I was hopeful that one of the old Hakin boys would come up with the goods, and Jackie Jenkins certainly did. Even giving a mention to another of my very distant cousins, 'Dido' Jenkins, a character in his day as anyone who knew him would confirm.
"The body of water referred to as Priory Lake was known to us as Goosepill, or in Milford speak, 'Guspill,' and the long low building in front of it was the old Esso offices. To the left of that building was Havens Head lake.
"I used to play on a raft there many years ago with James Higgins (another cousin), John Rackley, Stewart Savage, Robert Fee and others. There was some wreckage in the lake that we were convinced was the remains of a crashed Sunderland. All very dangerous, but at our age in those days nothing was dangerous."
Cheers Oliver, and I'm delighted that your query was resolved so satisfactorily.
Ty Williams, current owner and one time proprietor of Celtic Motor Spares, was another who was delighted to see the old snaps and sent the message: "Thank you for your article."
And I also heard from Debbie Bannister: "Hi Jeff, I was very interested reading your That Reminds Me page in Western Telegraph on October 20. The photos were fab showing the lake at Havens Head. It's so lovely to see the lake as it was. Sadly, due to development, things change. Many thanks Jeff, keep writing the column. Always a fascinating read. Well done."
Thanks Debbie. One of the 'kicks' I get from doing this column is when I hear from old Grammar School friends, like Christine Hesslegrave (Keeley): "Hi Jeff, Tony's just been fiddling around on the computer and said to me, 'Did you say something about Murex the other day ?' Well, yes, I did, but only because I'd been telling him about the Flax Factory, and that I remember when it closed and was taken over by the Murex company.
"Might as well tell you what that was about now, and give your little grey cells a bit more exercise.
"My brain does regular little forays into the highways and byways of the past, and the other day it went back to my childhood. Having had my earliest days 'in rooms' with Mrs Coates at Glastonbury House, we moved into one of the newly-erected prefabs along the way in Marble Hall Road. Apparently our relatives living away thought we'd really gone up in the world with an address like that! Anyway, we were opposite the Flax factory and one of my memories is of sitting on the kitchen table one day watching the factory chimney being put up, it certainly kept me amused for a bit!
"I don't know when it became 'Murex,' but it always seemed to me that there was some sort of mystery associated with that name, which was made more mysterious by the man I watched each day walking along the road and in through the gate.
"He was a white-haired, distinguished-looking man, and he walked with a posh-looking cane. It wasn't so much the man that intrigued me, but the way he swung the cane at each step. And yes, I was soon up and down the garden path with a stick, and trying to do the same.
"All this, of course, was when horses still looked over the gate of the field next to Mr Bean's house, Richard John Road and Meyler Crescent didn't exist, and Vict... no, George V1, was still on the throne!"
Thanks Christine, I wonder if that cane swirling gent was any relation to Charlie Chaplin.
Here's a photo of the wartime Flax Factory.
Now for a query regarding the origin of a particular street name, Cynthia Edwards asked :"Hi Jeff, after looking at your photo of dock gates opening on Facebook, I idly wondered why Gwili Road is so called. Maybe one of your readers in the Western Telegraph might know."
If anyone can help with Cynthia's query, please get in touch. Here's the snap to which she referred.
Teaser time, and last week's, set by Les Haynes, stumped nearly everyone: "Which nine letter word contains all the vowels in alphabetical order?" The answer was FACETIOUS, and the only two correct answers received came from 'Pill Girl' Anne Llewellyn, and Phil Jones.
Have a bash at this one: "In 1990, a person is 15 years old. In 1995 that same person is 10 years old. How can this be?"
Time to make tracks, I leave you with this quote from Gabriel Garcia Marquez: "A man knows he is growing old because he begins to look like his father." In my case I've been growing old for a while!
Take care. Stay safe.
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