Some fascinating flashbacks of Hook of yesteryear emerged from the successful coffee morning the village History Society organised recently. The theme was meet old friends; make new friends and chat about times gone bye.
The aim was that the Society could encourage people to talk about years long gone and allow the Society to record facts and tales that would help generations to come to learn a little about how the residents of Hook once lived.
The link with the county town of Haverfordwest featured significantly…………….at one time there were three buses before 9am and the last bus from “town” to Hook at 10pm. The conductor, it was said, would call “All aboard the last bus to the Holy city”!!
More often than not the bus would be a 50 plus seater double decker…………………….in the late 40’s early 50’s there were only three or four car owners in the village.
Many recalled the days when homes were heated by a solitary coal fire…………..which was also the main means of cooking. Many relied on the roaring paraffin fuelled Primus as an extra means of cooking. Waking up in the morning to ice/frost forming on the INSIDE of bedroom windows was the norm. There was no electricity Tilley lamps and candles were essential means of light.
DAUNTING
Toilets with the house were few and far between in Hook and almost invariably the “loo” was a construction of dubious quality at the bottom of the garden…………..a daunting experience on a winter’s evening!!
Many tales emerged about the school……………………stern disciplinarian headmasters who dispensed corporal punishment in a manner that would be completely unacceptable today; a teacher driven out of the village by a mob of angry mothers; a disciplinarian headmaster dropping dead as he wound up the school clock and the much sought after role of coal monitor……………….the pupil whose role it was to see that the coal bucket was charged so that the solitary fire that heated the school could be kept alive. Playground games such as hopscotch; skipping and tag were recalled as were nature walks with an extremely popular Miss Phillips. After school there were games in the woods; birds egg collecting; picking flowers and damming streams……..all frowned upon today. (2025). At a time when physical education was not high on the curriculum there were annual sports between Hook and Llangwm schools………full programme from high jump to the relay; sprinting to hop, step and jump.
Several recalled that Hook was supplied by one small shop………………..but several retailers visited in vans. Everyone recalled the Home and Colonial grocery van; the Corona lemonade lorry; the two-village based mobile butchers……………..the Llangwm baker who delivered in a van aided by his sister who insisted on sitting in the back of the van; both doors open and her feet only inches off the road! There were also memories of an ironmonger’s van, paraffin and even a clothes outfitter. The struggle to cope during the war years was recalled by many recalled rationing as was the ubiquitous identity card which provided proof as to who you were and where you lived!!
HOOK HUMOUR!!!!
CYNICAL MINERS
There was even recall of Hook before piped water was readily available. There were in the region of five communal water sources in the village where locals went to fill up cans for use at home. Often during the day, one would see women pushing wheelbarrows with several water filled cans on board. Near the road leading to Lower Quay Road corner are the remains of one of the last communal taps. It has been recalled that there was a tap at the top of the lane leading to the colliery…………….. cynical miners claimed the owners put it there so that injured miners could be washed by their colleagues before being taken home.
Bathrooms were non-existent, and bath night meant a large tin bath being filled with warm water………..a particular hardship for mining families was when the man of the house finished a ten-hour shift and had to rid himself of layer upon layer of coal dust. Pit head showers never arrived in Hook.
Women folk supplemented meagre wages with seasonal work………...feathering poultry at Christmas; planting and picking potatoes and planting trees at what was then Little Milford Nursery.
There was obviously great affection for the Miners Welfare Hall the venue for concerts; plays; educational talks……………….this once centre of village life was demolished in the late 1900’s and is now the site of the Miners Memorial Garden.
POP IDOL
The old Anchor Inn was at the riverside and closed some years after moving to the edge of the village boundary on the New Road. One lady told of a wedding in the village when, among the guests were Shakin’ Stevens. (a nationwide pop idol of the day) and Roger Taylor the drummer with the famous band The Queen. Stevens’ aunt and uncle lived in Lower Quay Road.
TOP BAKERY IN U.K.
Present at the coffee morning was one of the villages senior citizens, Evan Martin, (2025 and current President of the successful Hook Cricket Club) whose family have associated with Hook for generations.
Evan left school to train as a mechanic at West Wales Bakery in Johnston, the fact that the Bakery employed mechanics indicates the scale of the business having 30 to 40 vans and trucks delivering bread throughout West Wales and beyond.
In the mid 20th Century, the West Wales Bakery was one of the most automated bakeries in the UK; groups of people such as the WI or Rotarians would visit the bakery to marvel at the technology.
A well-known resident of Hook known to everyone by his nickname. Coogan, was one of the dough-makers in charge of a mechanised enormous mixing bowl which would take numerous hundredweights of flour.
The other dough-maker was Sidney Sutton of Freystrop. When he finished working there in 1957 his wages were £10 per week, the average weekly wage in the UK in 1957 was £7.50. Evan’s father John Martin came to Hook from Ebbw Vale as an infant and brought up by an aunt, Mary Jane Thomas, the mother of village war hero, Martin Thomas who rests in an officially registered war grave in Hook Gospel Mission. His grandfather died in a mining tragedy in Colorado, USA. Always renowned for their sporting prowess, Evan Martin is today (2025) President of the village cricket club one relative, Lillian Martin was seven times Welsh Singles Bowling Green Champion and the inaugural winner of the UK Bowls Championship.
The wireless, as it was then called, was an important factor in home entertainment and several of the older residents remembered such programmes as Two Way Family Favourites and Dick Barton Special Agent! When television arrived in the 1950’s the cost was such that most sets were rented. There was a recall of 14 people crowding into a neighbour’s sitting room to watch an FA cup final.!
A good way to end this nostalgic report maybe to remember an extremely popular radio comedian of the day, Tommy Handley, who had a catch phrase that every schoolboy and girl called out……TTFN………………..ta ta for now.
WHAT’S IN A NAME.
Havard’s Close…………………….Edgar Havard was a charismatic somewhat outrageous farmer on whose smallholding the Close (named after him) has been constructed.
Meurig’s Croft………………………….Meurig Hughes was an outstanding rugby player and tactician. From the Bridgend area he married a local girl and on joining Llangwm Rugby Club raised the standard so high the Wasps were virtually invincible for a decade or more. The estate was built by his grandson. Nicholas Hughes.