I rember a Fairwater of long ago, before the second world war, when I was a very small boy.

In those distant times there were no shops on Fairwater Green and no Green. Where the pub now stands there was a house with a thatched roof and behind the house was an orchard with rows of apple and pear trees.

Next to Cartwright Lane the brook flowed free and unconfined and fresh green watercress grew in its pools. Cartwright Lane really was a lane, narrow and unpaved with a gravel and dirt surface.

On the west side of the Lane was a hay field where in June wild flowers dotted the long grass and skylarks sang overhead. On the north side of this field was a large house in extensive grounds.

I believe the property was owned by the Howells family of department store fame, though I cannot be sure of this. Before long the house was demolished and its driveway entrance became "The Drive" as new houses crept ever westward from Cartwright Lane.

Across St Fagans road from where the Green now stands was a house with a blacksmith's wheel set in the ground in front. Wheels such as this were used to form the steel rims on the wooden wheels of horse drawn carts.

It was not used in my time and may have been purely ornamental, but I wonder if it had a connection with the name of Cartwright Lane.

North of this house was Thorne's Farm of which I also have many memories, but that's another story.

I remember these things because I was born in a house on Llangynidr Road a long time ago.

Clive Bennett, Sarnia, Ontario, Canada - 2007