Welsh Journals

The killing and dressing of bacon pigs and beef for home consumption was done on the premises where they were fed. Mr. Francis, who lived at Sebastopol, in addition to butchering, was consulted as a local vet.' He was a competent slaughterman, and was succeeded at a later date by Albert Price. Both could dress a beef and cut it up in suitable pieces for salting and drying. There were many others who could dress bacon pigs. The Joumeyoman Hatter. About this period an aged man occasionally visited this district. He dealt in second hand hats, and specialized in converting old top-hats that had become unshapely, into a kind of bowler' or half box-hat.' He was in the habit of travelling from New Radnor over the forest to Llanfihangel. My eldest brother when looking after sheep on the forest, found the old man dead, near the Frowen quarry. The body was carried down to the Old Hall Inn, where an inquest was held. It was not far from this spot that the three brothers, named Chandler, were found, to whose memory a memorial stone was erected in the parish churchyard. Doctors and Nurses. The nearest doctors were Dr. Lomax who lived at Hernog Cottage and Dr. Evans, Llandegley. Dr. Brown, Dr. Ayres, Dr. Covendon in Knighton, and Dr. Richardson in Rhayader, were other medical practitioners consulted during my earliest recollections of this parish. There was no resident doctor at Llandrindod. Nurses were self-trained in the school of experience, some of them relying on, what may be termed, old-fashioned remedies. Doctors were seldom consulted for comntun or simple ailments. Dandelion, mugwood, wormwood and other herbs grown in gardens or found wild in the hedges were commonly in use. Public Houses-1860. The Old Hall Inn, built in 1836, was a fully licensed house, and probably had been built for that purpose. The license may have been transferred at that date from a house called The Lane," a quarter of a mile distant on the old main road. This house was occupied by Mr. Thomas Griffiths until he retired about 1890. He brewed his own beer, but was by trade a stonemason. The license was taken off voluntarily, without any compensation, about 20 years ago. It is now a private house known as Frowen." About 1860, when the railway was being constructed, a house in Kingshead was licensed for the sale of beer and cider, and in 1867 a new house was built near Dolau Station, which was a fully licensed house and remained so until the owner came to reside there about 1885. The Parish is now without a licensed house. To be continued.