My Early Life In Gobowen

A Memory of Gobowen.

Hi my name is Cliff Jones and I was born at Hengoed in 1946 I am one of five kids I was 5yrs old when we moved down to the village because our old house had been condemned .Our next port of call was Almond Avenue in Gobowen I began in Gobowen School 1950/51 the only two staff members that I can remember are Mr Ollerhead and a dinner lady called Miss Evans.Some of the other things I remember are a slate and chalk,a bottle of milk every day and a little bed for an after noon nap.The came the 11plus exam which I failed so I had to go to St Martin's Sec Mod where all the kids from our village came into contact with people from Weston Rhyn and St Martin's .My memories of growing up in Gobowen include playing down in West Place when it was a building site we must have put the completion date back months.We fought WW 2 down in the Meadows behind Perry garage along with the gun fight at the O.K.coral all fun no mobiles or iPhone or iPods and not many people had a T.V in those day .Some of the friends had at school included Gloria Tompkins ,Peter Jones ,the Gibson family ,the Callows a lad from the village called Borthwick, the Edwards boys from Hengoed and many many more with age my memory is not as good as once was .Another memory was the batter bits from the chippy we used to ask for a fish and six ,we also used to get empty beer bottles from the back of the Heart and Trumpet take them around the front 3 bottles equalled 5Woodbines.I remember the taxi driver waiting in the pub for the train to come in also the phone box where we used stuff paper the button B slot to stop the money being returned to the caller I also remember working for the the Post Office delivering telegrams until they had tell the school that I was under 13yrs which I was to young to work.The fields and woods around the village became our play ground .I now live in Manchester but two of my brothers still live in the village and my sister lives St Martin's ,I visit the village at the same time as I visit Hengoed Cemetery where I have so many of my family and friends buried there.So many good times with so many very good friends.

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