HISTORY

THE OLD PORTHCAWL POLICE STATION Part 2

Between the wars the building had been extended creating a new charge room (sea end). In 1939 Inspector Ewart Evans, newly appointed, realised one of his first challenges was the lack of parking in Porthcawl. He left for Cardiff within the year. A bigger challenge was to come for Inspector David Jones from Aberkenfig, aided by Inspector Charles Brice and his Special Constables, with the onset of WW2. Yet, it was Inspector Lancelot Bailey, Port Talbot, who was brought in to supervise the case of a murder in 1945. Howard Grossley, a Canadian deserter, had been convicted of murdering his common-law wife, Lily Griffiths in March. He spent a couple of nights in Porthcawl Police Station before later being hanged at Cardiff Goal in September. Interestingly during the war, the station was a base for covert meetings and recruitment of local units of the British Resistance Organisation. These secret units, which were formed in preparation for the possible threat of Nazi occupation, were spread across the UK. The unit that met locally was under the control of a Major Johnson of Porthcawl. Life after the war returned to normal until the 24th April when police officers had the unenviable task of locating the capsized Mumbles lifeboat and informing relatives.

Ceri Joseph

BRIDGEND’S POST OFFICE

Bridgend’s first Head Post Office occupied the recently refurbished Davies Building in Caroline Street, opened in 1892. In 1924 this was replaced by the imposing building at the top of Court Road, opposite the station. It is the work of architect Archibald Bulloch (1882–1971) who designed a number of buildings for the Ministry of Works. It connected to the sorting office, one level down, accessed from Station Hill. A garage was later added in Derwen Road, accessed from the Post Office via the sorting office. It is one of the very few public buildings to bear the cypher of Edward Vlll, the Monarch at the point of its opening in 1936. In the 1970s student Christmas postmen, like me, came back from delivering post to sort outgoing letters down there in the cold when there was no room in the nice warm sorting office upstairs. Alas, this splendid building now stands empty with the Head Post Office in the nondescript Dunraven Place building and the front face of Royal Mail a portakabin in Waterton. Interestingly, the garage and the two telephone boxes outside the Court Road building are protected with a grade 2 listing but not the building itself.

Ian Price Bridgend & District Local History Society

MEET MY ANCESTORS

My 6 x great grandfather William Axe was born in 1733 in Cornhill, Middlesex to William Axe (1697–1768) and Mary Dry (1704–1737). He married his wife, Ann, c1765. No records of Ann survive. William lived in Birchin Lane, Cornhill where his son, Samuel was a property developer. Land tax records reveal that William was a Waterman to the Preventative Officers. Watermen were an essential part of early London. They would ferry passengers along and across the Thames. With bad rural roads and narrow congested city streets, the Thames was the most convenient highway in the region. Indeed, until the mid-eighteenth century London Bridge was the only Thames bridge below Kingston upon Thames. As a Waterman to the Preventive Officers, overseeing the trade and potential smuggling that occurred on the river, William was well remunerated. Inspecting Commanders received financial rewards on par with a Rear-Admiral. During the Industrial Revolution, captains and boat owners made fortunes as watermen. William died on 21 October 1809. He left his money and possessions to his wife, Ann, but she died on 7 December 1809 so in effect William’s estate passed to his son, Samuel, and daughter, Mary.

Hannah Howe, international bestselling author https://hannah-howe.com

Picture: Vessels moored at London’s Customs House, 1755