Welsh Journals

AT COWBRIDGE GRAMMAR SCHOOL 1949-1966, by Peter Cobb. Cowbridge Record Society, 2001. 101pp. illustrated. £ 4.95. This short work is an admirable and fascinating complement to lolo Davies's history of the school. Not intended to be a factual and historical account, it comprises the illuminating reminiscences of Peter Cobb, geography master at the school from 1949 to 1966. Written with shrewdness and affectionate humour, though always with complete honesty and occasionally a tinge of acerbity, it has much to interest the general reader as well as former pupils, parents of pupils and those from the locality of Cowbridge. A nostalgic and whimsical read of life in a rural grammar school, but also of social life and attitudes generally before the ubiquitous motorcar and television changed life out of all recognition. The book has the added advantage of being written by an Englishman who writes with sympathy and warmth about his new strange surroundings. It begins with the author's arrival by train from Talbot Green to the railway station (subsequently closed in 1952) near the traffic lights at the Cardiff end of town and his walk down to the Grammar School. His leisurely train journey from Cardiff to Cowbridge astonished him with what he saw, in its sharp contrast to what he had been expecting to see slag heaps and coal mines. His description of his impressions on that warm summer's day is evocative of a rural Britain of the 1940s and 1950s now lost in the mists of our memories, one fondly recalled by John Major in the memorable phrase 'warm beer and ladies cycling to church'. His encouraging first impressions were quickly dispelled when he saw the school a bit of a comedown after Cambridge! He confesses that he had never even heard of Cowbridge, and only accepted the post after being impressed in an interview with Idwal Rees, the headmaster, in the Central Hotel at Cardiff. Had he seen the state of the school premises he might have thought twice: 'intending to stay for only two years, Idwal Rees was probably the chief reason why I stayed for seventeen'. The author's sharp observations range widely over the state of the school buildings, the staff, pupils, the curriculum, school life and relationships with the town. On the headmaster and staff there are amusing and shrewd vignettes; Cobb pulls no punches! Of course, in those days of no parents' evenings and parent-teacher associations, and