Brynterian House, Glais - is it still standing?

[Flipster]

My mum was evacuated during WW2 with her family from Birmingham.  Grandad worked for Henry Wiggins and they moved their operations to Swansea around 1940, taking alot of the workforce with them.
Mum and her parents were put up with Mr & Mrs Hopewell at Brynterian House, Glais, Nr Swansea.  I think it may have been a vicarage but not sure.
Can anyone tell me if it is still standing?  A photo would be great too!
Grandad was a member of the Home Guard there too. If anyone has any recollections or photos of the HG in Swansea, I would appreciate that too.

Im not sure it they were any better off in Swansea as the letters I have from my Gt Uncle, written at the time, mention alot of raids by the Germans. 

[Cell]

Hi flipster
If nobody knows the answer to this  , I can try and  have a check around for you if you want , and if you are no rush to get the info.

My father-in-law has lived around the Glais area since the 1960's, my husband used to play rugby for Glais village and knows the area quite well too. And I think my mum-in-law studied some sort of history on the area for some sort of qualification (  something to do with teaching)

I don't talk to the in-laws every week ( phone bills! I'm in Australia) , but if nobody can answer you, I'll ask them if they have heard of it next time I talk to them (which may be next week, or the week after etc) . Hubby may know too, or may have heard of it if it's still there, I'll ask him when he gets back. Whether they have ever heard of this building  is another matter - I can only but ask them.

My own opinion, it may not be there, but touch wood it is; there has been some development going on in that area,  some new houses popping up, and plus some of the old terraced/cottage homes have been knocked down and replaced with new in recent years ( it's cheaper to knock down an old house than renovate it attitude ) .
Glais is a small lovely old village, recently they have been building things there ( was in the area a few months back ) , spoiling the place if you ask me - such a shame. It still has plenty of old buildings. more old than new , and  still has an old village feel/look, but if they carry on, it will be just another faceless suburb.

Here are a  few  old photo's here of some of the buildings in Glais:
http://www.page-net.com/swansea.localhistory/llansamlet/gallery/buildings/start.html

For the Homeguard if you're taking about the Glais area homeguards, and not Swansea town/city  itself, it may be  well worth looking at Birchgrove Homeguard too ( which is right next to Glais and a bigger area than Glais village)  and also  the Llansamlet Home guard too. He may have been in one of those too . I don't know if Glais had it's very own Homeguard , and there is a good chance he may have been in the Birchgrove one if you can't find him in the Glais( Birchgrove and Glais are close neighbours) and LLansamlet  is the wider area, who are also their neighbours today ( once upon a time Llansamlet covered a huge area and covered places like Birchgrove etc). So it's worth bearing in mind these two neighbours as well in your research, Birchgrove and Llansamlet

From the same site , there are a few old photos of the various people in some of the homeguards of Birchgrove and Llansamlet
http://www.page-net.com/swansea.localhistory/llansamlet/gallery/people/start.html

Best wishes

P.S  Your G Uncle  would have seen the German raids and devastation in Swansea town itself, and may have seen the odd "stray" bombing there in Llansamlet/Birchgove/Glais/ - also the near by areas/towns of Ynystawe, clydach etc
 Funny place to be evacuated to- Swansea, but it seems your family moved there with work. Glais village where they were living , would have been a lot safer compared to the city/town of swansea.

You are right in your thinking  he would not have been safe in the main Swansea area/town ( Swansea  being one of the major ports in the UK was bombed like hell during WW2) - Swansea town and docks mostly got bombed- parts of swansea town were  really flattened, and many people lost their lives in the bombings there.

My father-in-law as a child ( who is   originally from Swansea town area, and lived near  the dock area  as a child ) got evacuated to a farm in Carmathenshire as a child in WW2 with his siblings and mum. It didn't really touch places like Glais  all that badly like it did the town of Swansea , although looking at that site - Frederick place got a  hit by the looks of things - that's in   the Llansamlet/Trallwn area and not Glais( the Germans were more interested in bombing the port and the city of swansea, and that is where they did the most damage) ,  the people there in Glais, Birchgrove, Llansamlet etc etc  would have been relatively "safe" ( well as safe as you can be when then is planes flying overhead dropping their bombs if you know what I mean  compared to the people in the main town area of Swansea and dock area.

I think they in the town and docks  even evacuated some people/children into Mumbles ( which I find  is really odd if you see how close Mumbles is to Swansea) from the town city of Swansea. I  also find odd Mumbles wasn't bombed/flattened , as that is on the water too just little a hop  and a skip away from the main town of swansea ( where my mum-in-law is from). No bombs fell on Mumbles at all to my knowledge - Hubby's grandfather was in the Mumbles homeguard as he was working for the electricity company at the time ,and I don't think he ever mentioned any bombs falling there and doing major  damage , and  I know mum-in-law and all her siblings as a children were not evacuated from Mumbles to a "safer" place.

 I can't answer you on service records for the homeguards, maybe the Army will have them, . There maybe  also be some  sort of history for the homeguards in the Swansea archives. (?)

Anyway, If nobody  has heard or knows of this " Brynterian House" ,I can ask the inlaws next time I talk to them, perhaps they have heard of it,or know of it, and will know if it is still there today.

[Flipster]

Cell,
Sorry for the belated reply. Thank you so much for all the information you have sent already.  I'm not in a hurry but maybe someone living in or around the area will look into the thread too.  My grandad spoke little of his life and as things like this surface (about 40 letters to my Nan from her brother in 1941 for this snippet), I cant help myself but get interested! Ive got to take a trip over that way to track down my father's paternal grandfather (Grandad in this thread is on my mother's side) so think we (yes, Hubby, you too!) might make a weekend of it and explore.  That might not go down well with Hubby, his family are from North Wales...should be interesting!!
You've given me lots of ideas on where to try first.  Thanks again!

Flipster

[Cinders59]

Hi.
My grandfather lived in a house called Bryntirion on Station Road in Glais,
in fact I still live there, My family lived in that house up until about the 1940-50's
I don't know if it si the same house that you are looking for, but the name is not one I recognise. I will be going to the records office in the next few weeks to look at more electoral registers if you give me the dates I can look them up for you.
I was searching to see how long my family lived in Station Road before moving to Cefn Road, but only got as far as 1932 before time ran out.

As I said Hopewell is not a name I am familiar with, my family were Davies and Gregory and they lived in those two housese, Bryntirion and Station house since they were built, in fact my family have been living in Glais since 1841, and I have a copy of the school registers since it opened in 1882, as my family were one of the first to attend.
Just let me know and I will check for you next time I go.

Julie

[Flipster]

Wow Julie, seems too much of a coincidence for there to be two houses of the same name.  Ive checked the envelopes again but there is no other part to the address apart from c/o Mr & Mrs Hopewell, Brynterian House, Glais.  The letters are from 1941 (gt uncle was killed shortly after the last letter he sent in November 1941) and I think my mother was there until the end of the war.
I do hope it is the same house, my mum would love to see what it looks like now.  She was only 9 when they went there but has some happy memories!
If you need anything else, let me know.  My mother's maiden name was Shakespeare if that helps at all (yes, like William but sadly no relation!)

Flipster

[Cinders59]

I will let you know what I can find out.

Julie

[Flipster]

Thank you!

Ive got everything crossed..

[Cinders59]

I have had a look at the school records and found:
entry No. 2332 on 25/10/1939 Cynthia Shakesphear? living at Bryntirion House Glais born 4/2/32 left school 22/6/1945.
Last school attended New? Malden London.
Father G C or G E Shakesphear.

I also found an entry for Fredrick and Clerice Hopewell who moved from Worcester, the entered school in 1923 but their address was Neath Road which today is Birchgrove Road.
This does not mean anything as my family moved houses in Glais, infact my mother re-entered the school on No 2312 on 11/3/46 fom Birchgrove and before that I found her in Morriston. but originally she first attended the school in 1838, her address is Station Road both times even though I have the family as living at Bryntirion Station Road on the 1932 electoral registers.

As my family moved in December 1938 for Morriston it is quite possible the Hopewells moved in. 
I will check to see where they are living in 1939 when your family was living there.

It should be sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Julie

[Cinders59]

I forgot to say that they had numbered the street by then and that my mother lived at No 8, maybe that is why the house name wasn't there.
BTW I remember my mother saying that the Germans would not bomb Clydach/Glais was because the INCO works, which used to be owned by a German man Ludwig Mond is about half a mile away form Glais as the crow flies.