your comments
Steve Boston
My father Don Boston used to work in John Blands. I remember as though it was yesterday, going to pick him up with my mum. We used to park the car in Adamstown square and walk over 'my' bridge (as I called it) to meet him. (We lived off Whitchurch Road). I also remember walking over it on many a Saturday when Dad used to take me 'over Splott' and I used to watch the trains by Sanquhar Street. Vivid happy memories.....
Arthur Brean, Perth, Western Australia
I was born 1926 in 26 Howard Street, moved to Carlisle Street about 1936. Remember Miss Upcott in Primary, AB Spinks, Mr Shurmer, and Mr Evans in Elementary School. Walked over the Black Bridge for years... got my head caught in railings by rail line. Two shunters came to my rescue. Worked for BOC and GKN (crane driver), married my Jeanie from Roath and came to Perth Australia in 1952. Thanks for the memories.
Dick Carlson from Newtown
When did Duffryn Street, Newtown become Duffryn Street, Adamsdown? Sometime in the 1940s I think. Pellett Street, Duffryn Street, Garth Street, Taff Street, Morgan Street were the original Newtown prior to the railway being built, according to the map in the Brunel exhibition.
Sue Davis, Chipping Norton
One of my earliest memories is walking to school from Adamsdown Square. We used to walk through the Infirmary grounds and always muck about. On looking through a window we saw some babies in bottles, which frightened me to death and gave me nightmares for months. But I couldn't say why because we were not supposed to go that way. Another time, I went climbing trees and fell out of one. I felt bad, but dare not say what we had been up to. Also climbing into coal trucks after climbing the coalie wall. I blame my brother John - he was always getting me and my sister Carol into scrapes.
Sandra Macgregor, Howick, New Zealand
I can remember Saturday mornings getting hot jam doughnuts from Mr Prickets shop in Comet Street. Mr Jones' fish and chips was a real treat, also his pies are still talked about. How about the bookie man who stood on the corner? My grandmother would wrap the bet in a piece of paper with the horse's name on it and get me to hand it to him as I passed on my way back to Tredegarville school after lunch. I still remember the Royal Infermary as being a well used facility to all the children in the area with all of us being recognised by the hospital staff.
Jackie Lambert
I and many more people are disappointed that Newtown (Little Ireland) doesn't get a mention. I know it has been demolished, apart from Tyndall Street, but it has a great history. I believe Charlotte Church's mother was from there and a memorial was put there recently. It had a large Irish community hence the name Little Ireland but there was a mixture of nationalities there.
Sue Kingston-Nicholls (nee Roche)
So many memories reading everyone elses stories. We lived next to the Costleys and "Nanna Steele" in Constellation St and a few doors down from the Kelly's Andrew Costley Neil Kelly and myself (I was a real Tom-Boy) spent hours in the Mucky park on the rope swing or racing around it on our bikes. I remember that we used to try and see who could climb the highest on the Black Bridge, starting at the bottom on the "outside" and working our way up toward the summit. Many a good pair of shoes ruined, lol. And I remember when a large concrete pipe appeared one day out of the blue on the bomb patch, good heavens - it became a spaceship, a den, a hideaway. Kids seemed to have so much imagination in those days. I remember Mr Hobbs at the Post Office, Mr Shepherd the butcher and Allans or the "New Shop" as it was known. My uncle Gerrard Roche had a shop too on the corner of South Luton Place and Moira Terrace and Many a bank holiday was spent by lots of us local children in the skittle alley of the Moira pub. ...crisps and pop... Oh, joy!
Andrew Done, Keighley, West Yorkshire
All the memories of my days living in Lady Margaret Terrace were great. I remember my mum sending me to the post office, Mr D we called him. Mum always sent me with a note, never went with money but always came home with a shopping bag of food. Them were the days - ha! Thanks, Mr Michael D.
Andrew Done, Keighley, West Yorkshire
I lived at Lady Margaret Terrace, not far from the black bridge. My dad worked at the steel works. We had to move away from Cardiff cos the steel works shut down - not good for all. The best and kind people in Splott - best years of my life.
David Hainsworth
When I was about 12 years old I used to help out with the cattle and sheep in the slaughter house as it was called. The entrance to the cattle market was at the junction of Cycle Street and Constellation Street. We used to have to go into the lorries and make our way to the front of the truck and shout and scream so as to get the sheep to come out of the truck. The man in charge of this was Arther Huntley - he had two sheep dogs. They used to get looked after like babies. Every day Arther used to boil up fresh meat for the dogs in a big bucket. I used to get jealous at times as in them days meat was a luxury.
Leila Jones nee Cross, Australia
I now live in Australia but can remember the days very well. I lived in 6 Clyde Street, Adamsdown at the foot of the Black Bridge which was next door to the Gospel Hall. Josie and myself went to St Peters School and my late brother Peter Cross went to Adamsdown School. I remember as if it was yesterday - the Shire Horses, and my Uncle Willie won a big cup for his horse. My cousins were Patty Davis and Desmond Davis, lovely to hear that the Black Bridge is still there even though they have painted it silver, I remember my mother-in-law Edith Jones running over the Black Bridge and losing a shoe, maybe it was because of the haunting as someone mentioned here.
Sally Down (nee Tucker), Neath
Hi Tracey, I remember your father Graham well. He was one of twins and his sister Irene and I were best friends during the war. I remember him as the quiet one. My family shared a house with your Nan and I have wonderful memories of her playing the piano, she could play any tune, you gave gave her a few notes and she could play it all the way through. I recall that she too worked in the school and sometimes I would help her for a few pennies. She was also very funny and would recite little ditties that she invented. Times were hard yet I still have fond memories!
Gwyneth O'Connell nee Jones, Isle of Wight
I was born in Cardiff in 1969 at Glossop Terrace hospital and went to Adamsdown Primary School. I remember being told that the black bridge was haunted and if I had to cross it at night I would run. When I was little I fell off it and my mum went mad. She used to work in the Moira Pub, and for the Queen' silver jubilee as we had a great big street party down Meteor Street where I lived. Once I remember being snowed in and my mum made me walk all the way up City Road to the bakers to get bread but they were sold out. It was freezing!
Gary Davies From Newport
Anyone remember the off licence on the corner of System Street, also the bakers in Sun Street and the I think the bookies on the corner of Comet Street? Has anyone got pictures of the Eagle Pub in Adam Street and the club in South Luton Place?
Tracey Steele, Adamsdowne cardiff
I was born in Adamsdowne in 1961 my dad was Graham Steele who worked all his life for British Rail my Nan lived there for years and the Costleys' were my aunt and uncle. I attended the Gospel Hall and I remember Hortons' shop on the corner. I used to buy a bag of Smiths' plain crisps and they would have a small bag of salt tied on one end. Many a day spent in the mucky park on the tree swings - one rope snapped and I ended up breaking a leg. My aunt worked for years in Adamsdowne School many a happy memory of back yard parties and friendship.
Mary Hayes nee Sutton, Manitoba, Canada
I too went to Adamsdown Gospel Hall. I was baptized there around about 1959. Mr Abe Jones baptized me. He was a big jolly guy in my memory. I had my first Sunday school class there. My dad Ben Sutton used to preach there. He passed away on July 31st 2007. My memory of the hall there was that it was used back to front. There were some good old characters - Mr and Mrs Cokely, Mrs and Mrs Bert Skellon, Jones brothers. One of the Mr Jones had a lovely daughter who was killed when she fell over the cliffs. We lived in Mackintosh Place and most often walked to the meetings! there. Some times we had enough money to catch the trolly bus but still had a fair way to walk, down past the Infirmary. I remember getting my first wolf whistle walking down the street there, many moons ago.
Pete Clements from Cricklade
Does anyone remember the mucky park in Adamsdown Square - the scene of many victories against England - always in the dying seconds? We also used to get ropes and hang them from the branches to make a swing them use the spiked railings as a launch pad. I remember having to lift Tony Spinola off them once when he got impaled - he wasn't hurt but very shocked. We never learned from it, straight back the next day doing the same.
Logue originating from Little Ireland
Patrick brother of Johnny, Jimmy, Jerry, Joe Logue and Mother Bridget lived at 50 Hills Terrace with John and Nellie Tyner. Remembers opening front door in summer and jumping straight into the canal. One year all the women were so hot they jumped in with all their clothes on. Learnt to swim by being thrown in by older brothers.
sally down(nee tucker)neath
Hi vincent, I remember the bomb site, I lived opposite and can remember the night when the bombs dropped. And my father going to see if he could help the occupants. I was very young so cannot remember much. About four houses came down, a water tank was on the site for years, and we were forbidden to go there.
Vincent Howells, Northants
My mum tells me when Cardiff was being bombed she can remember hearing the incendiaries clattering off the roofs, and feeling the blast from a mine (air dropped) that landed in Upper Constellation Street and took out three or four houses. She felt the blast and the hot dusty wave and stuck her head out of her house and was roundly cursed by the local warden (called Little Willy?) for putting herself in danger. The gap in the houses was there when I was a kid and we used to play on it (it was known as the bomb site) but now it is built on although the houses are completely different. I have never seen any reference in any Cardiff history books that an enemy bomb fell on Constellation Street. Maybe others reading this site will know and can confirm or clarify?
Vincent Howells, Northampton
I remember that there used to be a slaughterhouse in Constellation Street but it was knocked down when I was a child in the 60's. All the houses round there were due to go for the hook road which never came, but Constellation Street, Moon Street etc went anyway. I remember that opposite our house in Tin Street there was a corner shop called, I think, Worths and on the other corner there was a tv/electrical shop? I remember Cotters, and also a popular shop in Clifton Street opposite the Tred pub was Chilcotts. 1970 World Cup coins worked a treat in their chewing gum machine!
Sally Down (nee Tucker) Neath
I grew up in Constellation Street during the war years and attended Tredegarville School. I remember them now as very happy times. Does any one else remember the brass bands that used to play in Adamsdown School? All the neighbours would gather there to dance, adults and children alike. In fact that is where I learned to dance. Like Lindsay Mcnally, I too remember the shire horses but these belonged to a family company called Wadsworth who had their yard in Galston Street. They delivered beer for Brains and I think they delivered other goods too. We children were allowed to go and watch them being groomed. They were beautiful horses and quite a sight when they out pulling those heavy drays. Then sometime during the war they were taken away - does anyone know where?
Graham Williams of Canton.
I worked for British Railways at Windsor Road in Adamsdown/Newtown from September 1962. We booked on duty there. But were actually based in East Dock Sheds, which was re-opened for steam engines after they had shut Canton Loco Sheds in that month... I left the Railways in 1982 after 19 years service. Since 1981, I have been tracing my Family History, and have found roots in Adamsdown as well as many other places in Cardiff & worldwide.Amongst my Adamsdown connections were the Driscoll family of Duffryn Street ... they seem to have stayed in that street for over 50 years.
Julie Coughlan from Newport
Hi - does any one remember my dad Billy Coughlan and his brother Ted? They grew up in Cardiff and both moved to Newport in 1970-1971. My dad was born in 1936 and he and Ted went to St Germans in Metal Street. I would love to read any tales about them or just a few names of people that new them, so I can pass it on to him. Sadly Ted passed away in August.
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Lindsay McNally (nee MacGregor)
When I was very young, my father used to work for the GWR (Great Western Railway) at the Adamsdown depot, in the post and parcel office. I could remember going down with him one evening, and my father took me to a building where horses were stabled, and there I was fascinated by watching the big horses, going up a straw-covered ramp to the stalls. My father always used to tell me that the horses were going to bed for the night. Can anyone remember the horses, I believe they were Shire Horses, used to pulling heavy carts, some for the railway, and some for other companies.
Terry Lee from Bristol
I will never forget the steelworks in Splott. What memories, when I first went there upon leaving school. I finished school on the friday afternoon and was on the sunday night shift with the steelworkers. Quick as that! A great bunch of men they were.
Derek Rowlands from Caerphilly
Yes I am a Cardiff exile I was born in the CRI in 1950 and lived in Silver Street with my sisters Dorothy and Glenys with my father Billy and mother Joan, I remember with very fond memories St Germans School and Church. Watching dray horses delivering to the Great Eastern on my way to School then passing Cotters sweet shop, never able to pass it without buying a penny bag of something or another. On a Wednesday morning we would walk to Splott Park for our football / sports lesson depending on the time of year, and then sneaking into the baths when the parky had gone home. I could go on forever, such great memories, how these years have passed!
Mark Ullah
The Black Bridge in Adamsdown was built for the men who worked at Cardiff steel works and also the slaughter house in Splott. It was painted black for decades, but around two years ago the bridge had a makeover. Now it is silver but still remains the Black Bridge to many. It is also known to be haunted.
Mike Crocker
Sunday 20 March 2005 saw the opening of the Newtown Memorial Garden by Charlotte Church. Newtown, known as Little Ireland, was demolished in 1966. The five streets off Tyndall Street (by the Hanover Hotel) were built in the mid 19th century to house Irish immigrants fleeing because of the potato famine. The opportunities afforded by the growth of Cardiff at that time had mass attraction for immigrants. The Bute east and west docks were built to transport coal and became the busiest port in the world. As a kid growing up it was a glorious place to live with all the attractions, and dangers, of the docks.
The memorial garden has a walkway laid with paving, each housing the names - some 200 - of the occupants of Little Ireland, the most famous being Peerless Jim Driscoll, the boxer immortalised with a statue opposite the ice rink. I believe the garden will prove a major tourist attraction.
