Charles Reynolds remembered a lot about his school life.

I can well remember my first day going to school, which was the Old Church School, or National School, as it was named at the time. The year was August 1915, and I was but 5 years old. The teacher was a Miss Lewis, who taught us to sing a song about the Cuckoo, and I can well remember the song to this day. Also she would take we tiny tots for walks up the lane next to the school, where we would gather wild flowers, and she would tell us their names. Miss Lewis lived at Lyas Road, Bryncoch.

At this early age we children were taught the alphabet by the method of singing ­and by the use of rhyme and song it was soon learned. The headmaster was Mr. Roger Howells, who on one occasion gave a magic lantern show for all the school children. One of the slides shown was of a boy on a raft alone on a stormy sea, and led by the headmaster, we all sang together "Alone on the raft in the twilight, alone on the mighty deep"

I had attended the old National School (the Church School) only for about 6 weeks, when we moved from Bryncoch to live at Taillwyd, and I was now transferred to the Infants' School at Tynyrheol in September or October 1915.

The Infants' School was a wooden structure, well tarred on the outside, and our teacher was Miss Jones. It was at this Infants’ class that we were first taught to read. Starting with Miss Jones writing on the blackboard simple words like CAT MAT HAT and so on, and what we children enjoyed mostly was story telling, read out to us by Miss Jones. She would tell us to look at our books and spell out the words, and then we would soon be able to read.

Having moved up from the Infants to standard 2/3, our teacher was Miss Taylor who was a great favourite with the children. However, at one time, I believe it was in 1919, an Australian soldier appeared in Bryncoch never seen without his uni­form together with his broad rimmed hat, pinched in the middle. He was a tall handsome man, with a flashing smile and well sun burned features. Miss Taylor got thoroughly enamoured with this man, and the result was they got married. But after a few months or so, this soldier vanished, leaving Miss Taylor with a young baby and as far as I know, he hasn't been seen or heard of since.

Miss Taylor was somewhat besotted with this Australian Romeo, and she would often be seen walking with him through Bryncoch, and he would be at the school gates every day after school hours to escort her home. Even when we were at les­sons, Miss Taylor would often refer to what her husband would say about things. "My husband would say this" or 'My husband would say that", or "My husband would do this" etc. Poor Miss Taylor, we all felt very sorry for her.

There were quite a number of boys and girls form the Cottage Homes at Bryncoch in our class. The girls were dressed in long black frocks, high necked and down well below the knee level, long sleeves, and of a coarse material. Long white pina­fores hanging over their shoulders draped to the back and front. Long black ribbed stocking and heavy studded boots, and their hair cropped very close, like a boy's. The girls seemed very timid and shy, always well behaved, but seemed to be cowed down. One little girl who I remember was Thelma Freckine (?) and although her hair was cropped close, what remained was a mass of black curls. Thelma was a lovely girl; with most classical beautiful features loved to recite poetry and was a bright pupil.

There were quite a number of boys from the Cottage Homes at Tynyrheol School, and their clothing consisted of grey coats, Eton collars around the necks, and knickerbocker trousers, ribbed long grey stockings, and heavy studded nailed boots. These children never seemed to be as happy and carefree as the rest of us. They were all subject to a very stern discipline at the Homes, and all seemed to be withdrawn. One of the boys, by the name of Tommy Allin, who, after a caning by the headmaster, lashed out with his fists at him and a struggle took place. Tommy was a well built, strong boy, and the headmaster took some time to grapple with him, after which he received a sound thrashing with the cane. Tommy went back to his seat glowering, but without even a whimper.

Led by Tommy Allin, the Cottage Homes boys would often stage a runaway after school hours. These were the older boys of class 6/7, about 4 in number. Their destination was Swansea Docks, in the hope that they would be taken on as cabin boys in the many ships docked at Swansea. Needless to say, that they would all be rounded up, and back in school after a few days, and they would tell us schoolboys that they were soundly thrashed at the Homes when they returned. At one time, our headmaster brought his son of about 12 or 13 years old as a pupil in our class 6/7. Dewi by name, and for some misdemeanour on his part, he was soundly thrashed in front of the class. Our headmaster wanted to show that he was entirely impartial when dealing out punishment.

Going to school was always a hurried journey. We were mostly running than walking. The school bell which could be heard over a wide area warned us that being late for school lines was punishable by one crack of the cane, and late for classes even 5 or 10 minutes, it would be 2 cracks. Sleeping late was no excuse. I can remember all the names of the children who attended Tynyrheol School during my nine years at the school. The girls were  Dylais Hoskins, Gladys Williams, Alice Branch, Freda Bowen, Gladys Samuel, Elsie Samuel, Elsie Jones, Muriel Powell, Dwynwen Meyrick, Beryl Meyrick, Annie Meyrick, Jessie Rosser, Phyllis Mandry, Alice Mandry, Celia Prout, and Vera Prout. Donald James from Glynfelin Farm, and Tom Esias, Violet Esias, Lucy Esias from "Fire Engine" hamlet.

Tynyrheol was a mixed school, with boys and girls in the same classes, and each class consisted of about 30 children boys on one side and girls on the other. A few of the children were from well off lower middle class families. Noel Perrott from Taillwyd and Miriam Lake from the Rhyddings, and one or two more were in this category. These few pupils would come to school immaculately dressed and well groomed. Miss Lake, in summer time would be wearing silk frocks; beautiful black buckled low shoes, white silk socks and always a pink or white ribbon in her hair. Noel Perrott would be dressed in a lovely dazzling white cricket shirt, a white tennis sweater, short grey flannel trousers to the knee, low shoes and grey socks. Long trousers were never worn by schoolboys in my time.

These few well dressed children contrasted greatly with the rest of the class, who were for the most part, the children of miners, and at Bryncoch and Taillwyd were large families of miners' children. Bryncoch was essentially a mining village, but miners' wages were pitiable, and their families in general lived a hand to mouth existence, but managed to maintain a quiet dignity in spite of extreme poverty. Miners' wages were totally inadequate to maintain a family of many children in sufficient food and clothing. There was no social security in those days, and people had to manage as best as they could. Most of the girls at school were dressed in such rags or cast offs that their mothers could patch or sew together to provide a reasonable looking dress or frock. Almost every household had a sewing machine, which was an absolute necessity, as well as darning needles. For footwear, nailed boots, usually well worn and down at heel. All boot and shoe repairs would be done at home the cobbler's last was another essential. Most of the boys wore jerseys ‑ high necked and long sleeves   we called them "ganseys". The jerseys would show many signs of darning, holes at the elbows, and the long sleeves used as handkerchiefs to wipe our noses. Short trousers down to knee level, of some coarse material well patched in some places, and perhaps a hole here and there, or a rip or two. Stud nailed boots and short socks, which, during the general course of the day, disappeared into their boots. Polishing boots was unknown the gen­eral practice was to rub them down with castor oil. Most of the boys were a scruffy lot, ill clad, of stunted growth and under‑nourished. But we were happy and carefree, and had a wide range of fields and woods to play in and explore. None of the girls were as scruffy as the boys. The girls all had long hair, and some of them had plaits with ribbon tied at the ends, but most of the girls' hair would be hanging in strings over their shoulders. On occasions, the district nurse visited the school, and all the children's hair would be examined for head lice and the livestock would be found in abundance with a small toothcomb actively en­gaged. Head lice would be found in both girls' and boys' hair.