The Keelings 1940 Evacuees

A Memory of Llanharan.

My sister, Joy, elder brother, Richard and myself, John Keeling, were evacuated to Llanharan in June 1940. After a short time Richard and myself were placed with a lovely old lady at 12 Seymour Avenue, Mrs Surridge. I do believe that Joy was billeted with the local Fish and Chip shop.

Since then I have visited twice, the first time with my family, wife and two sons, but for some reason or other I just looked around and didn't talk to anybody. The second time was in the early 1990s. My wife attended a TWG meeting in Cardiff and I came to Llanharan. I drove up to Seymour Ave and saw a man coming out of No 4 or 5, he looked at me and just said "Richard", well, after some 50 odd years that was amazing. Names are my downfall but he is a mobile greengrocer I think. I saw a Lollipop lady on the main road near the school and asked after Francis Bailey, Mrs Surridge's grandson, in no time I was talking to him and his wife.

My memories of Llanharan include: climbing up to Kerr Rocks, Blueberry picking up there and fooling around in general in the ferns. The very deep water shaft where we dropped stones into it and counted how many seconds it took to hit the bottom. Building a dam in the stream in the woods opposite the 12 houses and learning how to doggy paddle. A teacher was killed near the bridge in Seymour Avenue. The little sweet shop on the corner of Seymour Avenue with the big hotel on the other side. I remember waking up one morning and the snow had drifted and totally blocked up the back door. Going to the cinema to see 'The Mark of Zorro', a sad day as later on it had a large effect on my life. Walking to Llantrisant one Sunday morning to see a German aircraft that was on display in the village. The school where I have only good memories about it. There were several Welsh children that I used to meet with after school and they lived on the main road which my up-to-date maps call Hillside Avenue. I was tauhgt a bit of Welsh and can still count up to 20 and have a very poor rendering of the Lord's Prayer. Regretfully I am probably the only person who would understand what I was talking about. One of our teachers, Miss Sutton, came with us from Twydall Lane School in Gillingham in Kent but regretfully I have lost all trace of her and keep hitting a brick wall when I try to find out.

There are now two schools in Llanharan, so I have a problem as I cannot remember the name of the school I attended, but feel sure there was only one when I was there. Seymour Avenue as I remember started down by the hotel, but now it is called Talyfan and continues up at the back of the house where we lived. There are now houses further up the track towards the old coal mine and the road is called Oakmead Road I think.

If anybody does read this, and remembers any of the Keeling family, or can let me have the name of the school, the date we arrived, or anything about Miss Sutton, I would be very grateful. I have written a short note in The Local Action Forum and have had several replies from people who were evacuated to Wales and some to Llanharan. Two of them I have known for years but never knew they were evacuted at the same time as me. It really is a small world. It would be nice if I was given a name or email address of someone at the school that I could contact.
Thanks
John Keeling