Welsh Journals

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The only water supply in the village in those days was from a pump situated at Banc Bach which was about half a mile from my home. I had to keep the home fully supplied with water, as I was the eldest of a family containing five children. I could carry a four gallon can of water easily on my shoulder. Once you knew the trick of lifting it on your shoulder, the rest was easy. Joe Austin lived next door and his children were not yet big enough to carry water, so I was employed to supply his needs. My remuneration was one halfpenny per can, and as I fetched nine cans weekly for Joe, I was rewarded with fourpence halfpenny every Saturday morning. I was now really rich Willie Roberts the Railway was my best pal at that time. We sat together in the same dual desk in school. Strangely enough, our teacher had the nickname of DAI PHOTO Willie was called Willie Roberts the Railway because he lived in a pub of that name. It is still a pub in Penclawdd. Willie was really impressed with my newly acquired magic pictures, and was soon as enthusiastic as I was. Look, Evan he said, "let's save up and buy a camera between us Since I was now very rich, I readily fell in with the suggestion. A Box Brownie cost so much that it would take too long to save up for, so we bought a LITTLE NIPPER camera from Mr. Robinson, who was the manager of Photo Supplies in old Temple Street, Swansea, in those days. This cost two shillings and eleven pence, and it took vest pocket sized plates which cost sixpence a dozen. The fastest plates available in those days were comparable in speed to the slowest colour films of today. You took the Little Nipper and the box of plates into your darkroom for loading. You could only insert one plate at a time at the back of the camera, then you proceeded outside to make your exposure, whereupon you returned to your darkroom to develop the plate. Our darkroom was the Railway Inn stable. It is true the light streaked in at one or two places, but our enthusiasm made us blind to this. To make the dark room appear much darker was quite simple you just closed both eyes This was just what a pair of nine year old boys would do I well remember our very first subject, which was so photogenic that it simply had to be photographed. An old fisherman lived in the village then. He was known as Tom Eliza. He was called this simply because his mother's name was Eliza, and the name really meant Eliza's Tom Old Tom had a fishing boat with sails, on the cockle and mussel- shelled beach. She had the very romantic name of The Roman Child, and she simply called out to be photographed. I well remember her as she lay on her side with her tall mast pointing to the north east. Willie and I decided that our first masterpiece