The second team then jumped onto the boy’s backs. The first team won if they could hold the weight of as many boys that could sit on their backs. The second team won if the first team collapsed under the weight.

The enjoyment of these games was increased if the fog was down. Then we had pencil beam torches which produced a shaft of light into the fog like searchlights.

Yet another game, and a dangerous one at that, was called ‘jinting’. The bus stop by the station was on a moderate gradient so when the bus was stationary we used to hold on to the hinges of the back door and ride as far as possible, usually to the church which was about 200 yards away. Because of the gradient, the bus was slow in accelerating and by the time it reached the church its speed was too fast to jump safely off.

My father insisted that I return home when the ‘9 o’clock blocking up’ train arrived at the station, so called since the train terminated at Fochriw thus causing its carriages to block the up line. The engine was then uncoupled from the front of the carriages, went around the loop in the station and then was re-coupled to the back of the carriages in readiness for its return journey to Cardiff.

We used to try to get rides on the engine when it went around the station loop but were only occasionally successful.

The railway station had a single track siding which was mainly used for the transport of sheep to the sheep fair which was held periodically next to the cemetery at Pentwyn. The sheep used to be unloaded and driven through the village up the steep half mile road to Pentwyn.

Other wagons used to be kept in the siding and I recall removing their transport destination dockets as a dare thus causing great confusion I should imagine.

The power of the sun

On one occasion I was lighting the fire in the TV room, the curtains were open and it was a sunny day with the sun shining into the room and onto the grate. In the middle of my efforts to get a good blaze, my Auntie Annie came into the room and remarked that if I wanted the fire to light I should draw the curtains since the sun would ‘deaden’ the fire. To prove her point she closed the curtains and the fire immediately got brighter!!!!

Playing miners

Another favourite, but dangerous, activity was that of creating underground dens in the old colliery waste tips.

This was achieved by selecting a suitable sloping area which was well turfed and digging into the tip supporting the roof with anything that we could lay our hands on.

We must have been filthy since the roof consisted of a thin layer of turf and the grass and nettle roots dangled from it covering us in lots of dirt.