From
our 2004 newsletter….. From
our 2004 newsletter…..
Early in the 20th Century, Mrs Hannah Hughes ran a cigarette and sweet shop from the front room of her house on The Green. With six children to bring up, she decided to expand. Family history has it that she borrowed enough money from the bank to buy a bag of flour and started up the bakery in her garden. As she grew older, her three daughters took over from her. Tilly ran the shop and Mary Hannah and May worked in the bakery. It was a village resource. The bread was sold from the shop and from the post office. Teenagers warmed their backs against the warm ovens on cold nights out, schoolboys delivered the bread in the early mornings, campers dried wet clothes in the heat of the bake house and everyone remembers the delicious smell of new bread wafting over The Green.
I like to think that Dylan Thomas, a frequent childhood visitor to Llansteffan – Fern Hill is close by - conjured up this bakery when he was writing Under Milk Wood and transformed the sisters into Mrs Dai Bread One: capped and shawled and no old corset, nice to be comfy, nice to be nice and Mrs Dai Bread Two: gypsied to kill in a silky scarlet petticoat… high heeled shoes with one heel missing, tortoiseshell comb in my bright black slinky hair, while Dai Bread is not unlike Dylan Thomas himself: a hairy little man with big pink lips.
The shop and the bakery closed after the war. Some time later, a house was built where the bakery once stood. Only the name and an old stone wall survive. But the shimmering waters of Carmarthen Bay and Llansteffan’s golden sands remain an inspiration to artists and writers, and to dreamers, young and old, while Dylan Thomas’s boathouse in Laugharne, open to visitors, is just twenty minutes away.
My thanks as always to Marina
Davies and friends and neighbours who make it easy and a pleasure to say Croeso
i’r Hen Bopty! Welcome to The Old Bakery!
Extracts from the visitors’ book 2004…..
"Our first visit and Ann’s gimlet eye for detail added unexpected comforts and welcoming touches".
"A lovely place to unwind and recharge our batteries. We look forward to becoming regular visitors."
"Pretty courtyard and wonderful position for beach and walks have been a bonus. The use of books, maps and information have been appreciated."
Please book us in for at least the next 10 years…"
"The children have really enjoyed climbing the rocks in Scott’s Bay and we even had Grandma playing rounders!"
"Beach fires and baking potatoes in the embers on the last night are always a highlight for our boys."
"Unfortunately the week has only seven days…"