Grovesend
The history of the village
goes back to the time when hewing coal was at its infancy. Around the village,
between Grovesend and Gorseinon small pits or slants were driven to the nearest
seam to the surface. Very often they sank a pit by the hedges under the shadow
of a big tree and the strongest branch to which a pulley or winch could be
fixed to draw up the coal.
Well over 60 years ago this
village started to develop when Thomas Williams & Sons, Llangennech took
over the old pit on the square and also opened a new one by the railway. People
from different areas of
The road through Grovesend
was very narrow with only a few dwellings here and there before the opening of
the pits. With the speed of the developments and the multiplication of the
families, new chapels were also built,
Small ponies were used in
the old pit on the square and were stabled at the farm Plas – under the
management of John John. It was a tremendous site to see the ponies galloping
through the street to the stables after a hard days work with some of the
youngsters of the village on their backs.
The village was presented
with a park, known as “
The village was not without
its accidents, in 1910 two brothers were severely
burnt at the old pit and another man died, Charly Knox who lived next door but
one to Bethania. On the ground where
There was never a pub in the
village – and there still isn’t one to this day. Evan Williams, the hated coal
owner who led the employers through the 1926 strike, owned all the land and
made sure that no drinking would be going on. His inspectors were even
empowered to walk into the miners’ homes to check for home brew. Eventually,
the miners scraped and saved enough to build a community hall. Evan Williams
donated the land and also said that they could have the bricks from a chimney
stack he was demolishing. Villagers were paid £1 per thousand to scrape off the
old mortar from the bricks. Evan Williams also ordered that no political or
union meetings should take place there. Later the villagers found the loophole
that allowed them to enjoy a pint there.
During the Second World War
3,000 American troops were camped on the common. By mistake they camped on some
of the public footpaths and some of the villagers were adamant that their right
to walk the footpaths was upheld, therefore they were
given passes to enable them to walk through this top security camp.
There are many stories of
the people of Grovesend benefiting from the Americans camping there. One story
tells of a piano being smuggled out of the camp and into the village. There is
also another story of one villager passing the Amercian G.I. who was on sentry
duty one evening – “Nos Dda” said Dai, the guard looked up and said “ No buddy,
not many stars tonight.”
Several local girls
eventually married G.I’s and went to live in the States and the War Memorial at
the village includes the name of one G.I. who married a local, but was
unfortunately killed on D. Day.
The next invasion came when
200 Germans who worked for the Thyssen Company came to sink Brynlliw Colliery.
Then came the miners from
