The photograph oposite depicts the condition of the housing and unmetalled road in Martin Street during July 1946.

Not long after the birth of my brother, we moved into 5 Martin Street, which again had one large ground floor living room, with a bosh located to the right hand side of the front door, and a much smaller ‘utility’ room located at the rear which housed the coal cwtch. Upstairs had 2 bedrooms and access to the second was through the first.

There was no rear entrance since the garden, which was elevated by about 8 feet and accessed via stone steps, backed onto that of the garden of the house in Dynevor Street, and all coal had to be taken through the downstairs room to the coal cwtch at the rear.

In those days the coal was delivered by NCB lorry, which was loaded at the coaling sidings at Groesfaen Colliery which was located about a mile or so south of Deri, and tipped on the road outside the house. The lorry’s tipper was divided into 3 compartments, each of approximate capacity of 1 ton.

My mother relates that on one Sunday afternoon, the chimney caught fire, however, this traumatic experience did not prevent us all going to chapel at 6pm that evening.

Not long after the move to number 5, we moved across the road to number 25, since this house was owned by my paternal grandfather, who lived in Penybanc.

Number 25 was a larger house since this part of Martin Street, which was called Martin’s Row before, was built for colliery officials. The house at the top of the street, Number 14 was originally the colliery manager’s house which later became the vicarage.

Initially number 25 was built with 2 ground floor rooms and a larder and 2 upstairs bedrooms with the same type of access as number 5. However, the house had been extended at the rear by a back kitchen and slope, which was a type of utility room, and the large downstairs room had been partitioned to make a passageway directly from the front door to the back kitchen, thus providing two separate ground floor rooms. The larder had been combined with one of the rooms.

Originally, the floor level was about 5 feet above ground level at the rear, which comprised an outdoor coal cwtch and toilet, both of which were accessed via stone steps, the garden being bounded by a low quarry stone wall in which was a gate which gave access directly onto the mountain, there being no rear lane.

However, the arrangement at the rear had been modified in that the garden area had been raised up to ground floor level by the addition of tons of ashes, thus causing a gully between the raised garden and the coal cwtch and toilet which caused problems during the winter when it used to get blocked by snow, thus causing access difficulties.

There was no central heating and during the winter months the bedclothes were so heavy that I had difficulty in moving. Often a substantial layer of ice was formed on the interior surface of the bedroom window glass.