Bristol and Swansea

Evening Star, Issue 22146, 28 September 1935, Page 7

Bristol and Swansea

[Written by “ F.J.0.,” for the Evening Star.’]

After their brief trip north the All Blacks retrace their steps towards the west this week, playing at Abertillcry and Swansea in Wales, against Gloucestershire and Somerset at Bristol. Radio announcers and others should be grateful that the names of the Welsh towns chosen for their matches lend them- - selves to pronounciation by the mere Saxon from across the Marches. Englishmen can do no more than gaze in wonder at some of Wales’s more recondite nomenclature, and the more one learns of it the worse it becomes. Those batteries of double “I’s” look bad enough in themselves, but when one learns that double “ 1_” is pronounced “ thl ” one bas to give the job up in despair. Who would attempt to cope with Pwllheli or Llnnrbaiadr under such .conditions? Even the name of Abertillcry, where the All Blacks played on Wednesday, has its pitfalls, I know

it does not rhyme with distillery, though, I do not profess to know what to do with the double ! in this case. I have usually heard it called Aber-till-airy. Swansea probably has the greatest proportion of non-Welshmen of any town in tho (principality. A cosmopolitan sea port, it rerhinds one more of Liverpool. In Liverpool tho , Irish brogue makes tho background to the many voices one hears. Irishmen predominate so much in one part of that city that one whole constituency within its bounds returned an Irish Nationalist —the genial “ Tay Pay ” O’Connor—to Parliament consistently for over 30 years. In Swansea, however, the background of speech comes, of course, with another Celtic accent—the intriguing rather clipped speech of the Welshman with its rising and falling cadences, its recurring phrases such ns “ look you,” and so on. Swansea has not a great deal to show the sightseer. There arc large tin plate works and all the paraphernalia of the clocks for handling the South Wales coal. Personally 1 would rather get away from the town to the residential and seaside suburb of The Mumbles. In travelling from Swansea to Bristol by rail the All Blacks will pass through the Severn tunnel, a magnificent piece of engineering some ,two miles long, under the wide estuary of the Severn as it begins to widen out into the Bristol Channel. This tunnel was put through by the Great Western Railway Company, partly for the coal trade and partly for the trade with Ireland. It saves a long detour for the non-stop Irish boat-train, the Fishguard express. The Fisliguard-Dubliu sea route, instituted at tho beginning of the century, made a tremendous saving in time from London over the old route via Holyhead in North Wales. After clearing the tunnel the lino turns south for a run of about 15

Where the All Blacks are Playing

miles into Bristol. Almost at once that great landmark on the Downs looms up—the Clifton suspension bridge. There cannot be many bridges set so high above a river. In approaching Bristol from the south-west, also, this great bridge across the Avon dominates the landscape. Its curves and slender lines make it a thing or beauty. Bristol’s chief railway station is Temple Meads. Why is it that railway stations are always found in the drabbest, least interesting parts of English cities? I suppose it is largely because the smoke and grime lower the amenity value of the surroundings. At any rate, one has to walk at least two miles from Temple Meads to see anything of Bristol at its best. Though now so predominantly t a< manufacturing town and seaport (with Avonmouth for larger vessels), Bris-

tol has still much to show of its ancient and colourful history. Its merchant princes of tho Middle Ages utilised a large part of their enormous wealth in public works—though public works in those days were chiefly confined to great buildings devoted to charitable and religious objects. There is the beautiful old sixteenth century hospital of St. Peter, with its gables, projecting windows, and half-timbered front. There is the Cathedral, unique in English architecture in that the aisles are as high as the central portion, giving within a wonderful sense of spaciousness. St. _ Mary Redcliffe, with its tapering spire, is another beautiful church. The largesse of the merchant ventures of Elizabethan times is also borne witness to by the_ blocks of picturesque almhouses in different parts of tho city. We have amongst ns in Dunedin descendants .of the best known of these families, that of .John and Sebastian Cabot, the intrepid discoverers of America. The merchant venturers have been followed in modern times by such captains of industry as the Wills family. I suppose in New Zealand we arc chiefly conversant with the name of Bristol through seeing it on our tins of tobacco. _ Lord Wintcrstoke. bead of the family of Wills, who died in 1912, was a great benefactor to Bristol University and other educational institutions in the city, and in the County of Somerset. One must not speak of educational institutions without mentioning Clifton College, in- the front rank of English schools. •There also comes to mind in 1 this connection a small theological college which is very proud of its collection of rare manuscripts. It boasts also as one of its treasures the skull of Oliver Cromwell, but ns there is at least one other skull of that gentleman (1 think at Cambridge), its authenticity can

at best be only said to be “ not proven.” It is to be hoped that the All Blacks enjoy their stay in the capital of the West, and show up to bettor advantage than in their other matches to date.