CLYDACH VALENTINES COUPLE
Wendy and Barry Llewelyn are Clydach people through and through. In fact Barry is Sybil Street through and through, having been born and brought up at number 14 he subsequently moved to number 3 where he has lived with Wendy for the last 47 years!
Wendy, Lewis as she was in those days, was born and brought up in Penywern Road Clydach. Her father, like so many, worked in the Mond, whilst her mother worked in Woolworths in Swansea. She is the middle of three girls, who, you guessed it, all live in Clydach. She went to Clydach school, and although her parents spoke Welsh was taught in the English medium.
After school she started working for Premier Cheques in an office in Swansea. After the office closed she moved to the DVLA where she worked until they started their family.Barry attended the same school as Wendy and after school started working for Brynamman Bakery before starting work as a driver/salesman for Howard Palmers a greengrocer wholesalers.
As businesses closed Barry continued to find employment before working for Beamis for eleven years.Although they lived close by and had attended the same school it was some time before the couple met. There’s 7 years difference in age so it isn’t that surprising. Barry used to frequent The Carpenters Arms and one Friday night a friend asked him if he could pick up Wendy and a friend from Porthcawl, so that was the first time they met. But it was still sometime before they got together.
A friend of Wendy’s, Angila asked her to make up a foursome and that was how their relationship started.They married in Carmel Chapel, Clydach in April 1975 and lived with Barry’s parents at number 14 for two years before their final move to number 3!
They have two children Ian, 37 who’s with the RAF in York and their daughter Emma, 38 who lives locally with their two grandchildren Sophie who’s 11 and Oliver who’s 6.
Their family holidays consisted mainly of camping, initially in tents but later with a caravan. Barry used to enjoy shooting and fishing and as a result they would travel around the country visiting ‘game fairs’, sleeping in the back of the car.
They remember when Emma was only a few months old arriving late in the evening in deepest rural Oxfordshire.They suddenly realised that they had forgotten to bring any milk. Although they returned to the nearest village, everywhere was shut. Baby Sophie, fed on Ribena and Farley’s rusk that night and seemed to enjoy!
Once the children were of an age Wendy returned to work at her old school as secretary, where she stayed until her retirement for 29 years. And Barry, well he had to end up there too and spent the last 7 years of his working life as the school caretaker affectionately known by the children as ‘Bob the Builder’
They both started and finished at school!Apart from enjoying, shooting, fishing and pigeons, Barry is a keen DIY man and I can certainly add a very capable one at that. Their house is a palace. Wendy used to enjoy Horse riding but is now gently adapting to retirement. They still love their village and the community they’re a part of, although they might move if there’s a bungalow in Sybil Street!
