Hi Arronroots
Our recent communication piqued my interest again and I borrowed a number of the Blackwood Yesterday books. In book 5 (published 2004) there is a copy of a letter written in 1920 by a Stanley Lanagan which starts:
"I was born June 14th 1878 in a cottage near the old foundary in the part of Blackwood, then known as 'Charlestown'.
The letter goes on to describe the area, life and work.
It describes the Blackwood of his early days as:
"Blackwood was a beautiful little village in those days, as it is a prosperous little business town today. In those days there was fine trout in the Sirhowy river and many brooks of clear water in the vicinity of the village. Birds of every description in the woods, even the nightingale visited the locality"
Regards
Ray
