Beyond all value
Tresor dyn y ddawn
L is for. . . Llansawel. This is a rather
personal one. Llansawel is the Welsh name for Briton Ferry, which is a part of
the town of Neath, in the County Borough of Neath and Port Talbot in South
Wales. And it’s a place which is a bit special to me, since I worked in Briton
Ferry for 29 years, as a teacher in the local school for 11 – 16 year olds. It
was my first ever teaching post, and for the most part a very happy time in my
life. I’d come to the stage where I was teaching children, whose parents I had
taught many years before, and it wouldn’t have been long before I was teaching
grandchildren as well. The school was amalgamated with two others , and I teach
in the amalgamated school a couple of miles away now. This building, probably
the finest left in Briton Ferry, is the library. I don’t know for certain if it
is one of the libraries built by Scottish American philanthropist Andrew
Carnegie – my own local library is - but I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s run by
dedicated local volunteers, which tells you all you need to know about the
Briton Ferry community.
