One Sketch 177) Singleton Hotel Swansea

A building down the side street,
There's the rub
Who can resist the allure of such a pub?

Just a nice building in Swansea which caught my eye for today.

One Sketch #176) Port Talbot's Finest Actors

From one town
To the appreciative eyes and ears
Of the world.




O is for . . . Oscar Nominations. Yes, there cannot be that many towns in the UK that can boast as many Oscar nominations for acting as Port Talbot, my home for the last 32 years. The great Richard Burton, born in the Port Talbot village of Pontrhydyfen, was nominated no fewer than 7 times, although he never actually won, which must be a source of shame to the Academy. Sir Anthony Hopkins, born about a mile away from where I’m typing this now, in Margam, has thus far been nominated 4 times, winning for his unforgettable performance as Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs”. Now, okay, Michael Sheen, may not have been born in Port Talbot – he was born in Monmouth, South Wales, and he may not have been nominated for an Oscar – yet – but he’s a great actor who is proud to give his home town as Baglan, Port Talbot, where he grew up. If that’s not enough or you, then maybe I should mention Reginald Truscott Jones – not from Port Talbot itself, but just a few miles away in Neath, which is part of the same county borough of Neath and Port Talbot. Never heard of him? Well, maybe you know him better as Ray Milland, who won his Oscar for The Lost Weekend.

One Sketch #175) Newport Transporter Bridge

Each crossing
Feels like time travel
My car becomes
A Tardis.

Newport Transporter Bridge. Newport is South Wales' newest city, having been granted city status in 2002 for the Queen's Golden Jubilee. It is actually the third largest city in Wales after nearby Cardiff, and Swansea. The transporter bridge is it's most instantly recognisable structure, and is one of only two working transporter bridges in Britain. Cars drive and passengers walk onto a gondola which is suspended by cables from the main gantry crossing the river. the gondola then crosses the river, and passengers and cars disembark from the other time. It's a wonderful piece of Edwardiana, dating back to 1906. Bridges are one of many things that I love, and this is one of my favourites.

One Sketch #174) Manchester Metrolink Tram

I'm sorry, but it's just the guy I am
Gimme the choice, I'll choose
To sketch a tram.

This week I've been formulating a plan. I've read a rather lovely little book called "Pier Review", about two  guys, Danny Smith and Jon Bounds, and how they carried out a sudden plan to visit every seaside pier listed by the Pier Society in England and Wales. They didn't even like piers that much. So what I was thinking was - how about making a trip, the purpose of which would be to ride on every town/city tram system in Great Britain? I reckoned that there's only six of them, so even though they are spread as far apart as London and Edinburgh, you should do it quite comfortably in five days. In fact, so easy would it be, I thought, that you could even up the ante a little bit by including rides on each of Great Britain's 3 underground railways, and 2 light railways as well as the 6 tram systems. So why have I plumped to include a picture of a Manchester tram? Well, I may be wrong, but I believe that Manchester was the first city to bring  trams back - although Blackpool, to be fair, had the great good sense never to get rid of them in the first place. As for the trip - well, probably it will never happen, but you never know. Watch this space.

One Sketch #173) Moise Kisling

He's been reading this book

Since 1910

He must be wondering

Where will it end.

Prompt from Sketching Every Day today - something inspired by artist Moise Kisling. So I copied this from his 1910 work, Young Boy Reading. Not brilliant, is it? Sorry Moise. 

One Sketch #172) Briton Ferry Library.

A treasure house
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.

One Sketch #171) Swansea Grand Hotel

I wonder if it does that well
To call itself such a grand hotel?

This is right next to the railway station in Swansea, and it's art deco appearance suggests it was probably built at around the same time as well. I did use another sketch today for sketching every day, but it's nice to keep my eye and hand in with the urban sketching every now and again.