Memories Index

Although the school was so small, its pupils came from an enormous catchment area - the widest, I reckon, of all the schools of Wales. In the west they came from Trecastell and Senny Bridge on the borders of Carmarthenshire; from Cray, in the south west, almost in Glamorgan; from Crucywel in the east on the borders of Monmouthshire; and from Hay in the north east near Herefordshire. Llew Williams would come from Troste Farm, near the village of Cartref nestling in the arms of the Beacons in the south, to school on his pony, stabling it in a tavern in Llanfaes throughout the day and riding it home after school. With such a wide catchment the boys' accents were very varied, stretching from the Herefordshire-English burr to the Welsh rhythms of west Breconshire.  Those who spoke Welsh were rare and in a period of seven years I remember only three others who spoke Welsh - and they came from the districts of Trecastell and Cray. Crowds of boys and girls would emerge from buses in the middle of town, on the Wellington Square, while the Talgarth contingent arrived by train and the Talgarth boys were considered to be the most troublesome of us all.

But there was at least one group of boys and girls who came in by lorry, covered by a tarpaulin sheet, and forms along the sides of the lorry to sit on. They had no proper bus because they came from the sparsely populated Honddu, Ysgair Fach and Ysgair Fawr valleys and the villages of Battle, Merthyr Cynnog, Upper and Lower Chapel. The lorry would bring them into Brecon on Monday morning, drop them at their lodgings in the town throughout the week and carry them home on Friday evenings - market day in Brecon - when many of their parents travelled home with them. I had a number of friends lodging in Free Street.

Jacob Morgan
In my time there were only eleven staff of teachers. Jacob Morgan was the Headmaster and he taught Mathematics to forms five and six. My grasp of the secrets of Mathematics was most flimsy and I suffered many a rebuke from Jake and was frequently called a "rabbit" - his favourite term for one who was a duffer at sums. I'm sure that this was his opinion of me throughout my school career and what was worse, he was an officer and a deacon in the Plough where my father was minister. Some years later on a Sunday School outing to Llandrindod Wells we were both sitting on a bench by the lake and Jacob was wallowing feebly halfway through the "Telegraph" crossword and when I completed it for him he was literally rendered speechless!

Lewis Lewis

Lewis Lewis - or 'Lousy' to the pupils - was his Deputy and Geography was his subject; a caring, thorough teacher. I remember him walking one day through the hall where we were having a Welsh lesson from Prosser Roberts, and Bill Lewis from the Watton was translating lamely, "What do you think of that Walton Welsh, Mr Lewis?" asked Prosser, "Not Watton Welsh but Rotten Welsh, Mr Roberts" was Mr Lewis' reply.

Prosser Roberts

Prosser Roberts was a young Welshman from Ceredigion (from the Borth district I believe) and he taught Welsh and English to the lower forms. He took some P.E. lessons too, though I never saw him strip into gym kit and join the exertions. My main memory of P.E. remains marching in twos around the gymnasium singing songs such as "Pack up your troubles" and "Tipperary". On Wednesday afternoons we would change into football gear and trot up to the School Field or one of Pwll-y-Calch Farm's fields to play house games - Gam in green; Vaughan in blue; Siddons in maroon and Theophilus (Theo) in red. Prosser would referee one of the games from the touch-line while holding an entertaining conversation with the Pwll-y Calch girls!

He was the solver of wrong-doing at the school - the Headmaster's "trouble shooter". When there was trouble afoot Mr Morgan would call on Prosser to delve into the depths of the affair until he would shortly emerge successfully. When Prosser suspected some boy of mischief his face would take on a ruddy hue and his voice would rise until it resounded through the building. No wonder that his nickname among the lads was "Dragon". I enjoyed his company several times after leaving school and found him a most charming person; to the end of his life he put the welfare of the school first.

John Sutherland

The Chemistry teacher, John Sutherland, was an excellent teacher. He would explain a topic with care and understanding over and over, and guide us stage by stage through experiments in the laboratory. He would ensure that we set out the whole, neatly and comprehensively in our books and if the exercise was lacking or the diagrams untidy, then the whole lot had to be repeated.

Dr Griff Price

Latin was compulsory in my day and one chose between welsh and French. Dr Griff Price taught us Latin - "Caesar" to the boys - the nickname pronounced in the Latin form. A pen-name totally unsuitable for Dr Price because no-one could imagine a less authoritative dictator than Griff. He was

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