Burry Port is a kind but thorny fishing town in West Wales, with a wild, beautiful coast as its glistening apron and green, feathered hills for a background. Blink and you drive through it but should you choose to stay a while, there is a whole host of things to see and learn about from looters to whirlpools. Welcome to Burry!
Sunday 11 August 2013
Fishing the Heron Ponds
Burry Port: Tranquil haven
See that concrete 'platform' below the train? That is the exact spot where my friends and I would go fishing for flatfish and mullet (only ever caught a flattie) in Burry Port. Looking at it again, after all these years of relying on smoky memories, is like opening a door to another realm and getting fired back into the ages. Ah, such sudden, blissful jolts of remembrance! What a soothing picture that sends the memories cartwheeling back through my mind like foxgloves falling on a freshly mowed lawn.
The spot itself is long gone now of course, having been replaced by the new Millennium Coastal park, but as you can see by the hilly background, it was a very peaceful place to go and set up rod and reel. Or with a good book on a summers day. Just beyond the railway line, was what we used to call the "Heron Ponds", and it was a haven for wildlife; herons, coots, moorhens, swans, rabbits, weasels, cormorants, wild geese, the list was almost endless as to what one could see there. And with the wild estuary looking out toward the beautiful Gower, it truly was one the best spots to visit in Burry Port (that ever so softly 'touched' the blink-and-miss-it Pwll.)
There was a sandy cove nearby too, and I used to think of it as my own private beach. Save the odd dog walker, it rarely saw much humans, for young boys growing up it was paradise. Swimming, fishing, camping, hunting; no prizes for guessing where a lot of the summer holidays were spent. We used to set up tents and pick limpets from the rocky shore to boil on a camp fire while the sun sank behind the distant hills. Oh how the city boys missed such magic moments! I keep saying it, and I always will but I am truly blessed to have grown up in this thorny, barnacled town in west Wales.
Friday 21 June 2013
Jack Mariti
Local hero Jack Mariti
Visitors to Burry Port won't know the face behind the name Jack Mariti on the plaque dedicated to him near Burry Port's lifeboat station but perchance they stumble onto this site (having found it while looking for info on the town before a visit perhaps) I will share with you a photograph of the man here (courtesy of the Memories of Burry Port Facebook page.)
Jack Mariti was a lifeguard around Burry Port harbour who also taught local youngsters how to swim and his tribute 'down the harbour' is well deserved. Well I remember my grandmother telling stories of Jack, how he came to the aid of many in distress and saved many from a watery doom. A gentle giant, a real character (and legend) of the town.
Monday 18 February 2013
Tuesday 27 March 2012
Classic Harbour View
The harbour has changed a lot these last few years with the arrival of the Millenium Coastal Park but here are a few snaps of how it looked when swimming was allowed (as well as crane jumping). You can see the Carmarthe Bay Powers Station in the photo below. In fact not far from where that was taken was another hang out spot, used to love popping a few cold ones down here in the summer. (Mind you it didn't need to be summer). The water is always in now because of the new locks but before those arrived, the harbour stank of mud, stale fish and seaweed when the tide was out. Not necessarily a bad smell, just very different compared to when it was in.
Location:
Carmarthen, Wales
Thursday 15 March 2012
Elikington Road 1905
Life in 1905
My family moved to a house on Elkington road in Burry Port way back in 1980. (My father still lives there). This road almost goes straight through the middle of the town and stretches from the top half (Achddu) to the bottom onto Station road. And thanks to this fact, it was a great road for skateboards and bikes.
No skateboards in this 1905 photograph of course. And that is most definately not Pembrey like it suggests.
Location:
Carmarthen, Wales
Monday 12 March 2012
The Garages
These garages were another favourite hang out in Burry Port. Just behind you can see the back of the Memorial Hall. These face other garages just out of shot and I have actually fallen through the roof of those because at the time (1980s) they had asbestos roofing as opposed to the concrete type you can see in this picture. Used to skateboard on here too, and occasionaly thought about making a skate jump from them.
Location:
Carmarthen, Wales
Saturday 25 February 2012
'Co~op' Wall
Anothe old drinking spot
This charming little view is looking from the Coop bridge down towards the harbour. The train you see was a coal train that used to take coal up to Carway, and the small, red brick wall was another favourite hang out/drinking spot of my friends and I in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Used to be a handy toilet across the road too.
Of course the years have drastically changed all this and these days where that wall is in the photo, there is now a busy roundabout and the coal trains have long since departed to a lost station somewhere in time.
Location:
Carmarthen, Wales
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