Railway Memories

I went into Brecon on the bus the other day, and happened to sit next to Jean Mar, so we got talking.
As we came up to the turning to Talgarth, Jean pointed down the slope to where the little industrial units are, and Black Mountains Activities - and the old station house. "That was all Three Cocks Station," Jean said. "There were all sidings there, and a branch line going off to Llandod (Llandrindod Wells). I remember just after the Coronation, the Royal Train came through here, and all the school children got taken down to stand on the platforms. The train slowed right down as it came through, and we all waved our little Union Jacks."

Jean would have been about 13 or 14 then, and she went to Brecon High School for Girls on the train every day from Hay. The school building burned down a few years ago, and there are new houses there now, opposite the hospital. They had an old girls' reunion before the school was pulled down, and they did have a chance to go in and look around, but no-one wanted to do it. They all preferred to remember it as it had been.