A teacher who taught in two of Cwmbran’s oldest – but now closed – schools is celebrating her 85th birthday.
Angela Saunders taught at both Henllys Village School and St Dials School before getting a phone call from the headteacher of Fairwater Primary School (now Blenheim Road Community Primary School).
I’m an ex-pupil of Fairwater, though I was never in her class – she taught my sisters. A funny sidenote to this interview: as I was writing it up this morning, I realised I didn’t know her first name. Mrs Saunders has always been, well, Mrs Saunders to me, so I had to message a mate from Henllys to ask.
We met yesterday at Henllys Ladies Coffee Club in the village hall – a group she set up in 2011 with her friend Elaine when the new hall first opened. The social meet-up now has a waiting list to join. They pack out the small meeting room for chat, jokes, friendship, quizzes, puzzles, guest speakers, poetry – and go out for the occasional pub lunch.
During my visit, one member shared a copy of the Cwmbran Futures survey – a council initiative to gather residents’ views on the town’s regeneration plan, backed by a £20m UK Government grant. The women were encouraged to pick up a copy from the library or fill in the online form.
Anyway, back to Mrs Saunders.
She said: “I started teaching in Fairwater in 1972. Miss Bowden was the head and she phoned me up and said, ‘Can you come and do some supply?’ because I had done supply in Coed Eva and in the old St Dials School, where there are now houses and the doctor’s [surgery].
“That was the end of September. I had an interview in December and started permanent then in the January, so that was 72/73, and I retired in 1993 with ill health.”
She said she loved the “enjoyment of helping children to learn things.”
Free haircut perk
She also shared a funny story about being tempted by the free haircut perk offered to staff at Marks & Spencer: “I handed in my notice once because the headteacher was insisting that I take a reception class the next year and I said, ‘No, I’m not doing that.’
“And in those days, if you worked in Marks & Spencer, you could have free hairdos done before you started work and things like that in the shop. So I said, ‘I’ll hand my resignation in and go and work in Marks & Spencer.’
“At least then, when I leave the shop at the end of the day, I can go home and do nothing.
“So I never did teach reception.”
Henllys Ladies Coffee Club
Her friends at Henllys Ladies Coffee Club gave her an iced cake, covered in white chocolate buttons and topped with a tiny bottle of champagne. As it was sliced up for us to enjoy with our tea, she quipped: “I want two buttons on my slice.”
As I tucked into my tasty slice, she shared another story – this time about her school days and cooking: “When my children were little, I could never make a jelly because it would never ever set.
“[A colleague] Mrs Irfan was determined that she would show me how to set a jelly.
“So I took to school a Rowntrees jelly, an Asda jelly, and a Chivers jelly, my jug, my dish, took my own spoon – everything you’d normally use at home.
“I took a tin of fruit as well because sometimes I used to mix the jelly with the fruit juice.
“And we made about three or four jellies with me being told exactly what to do, every process.
“We put them in the coldest room in the school, and a month later they were still liquid – they never set! And I still can’t make a jelly.”
After moving to Henllys in 1967, she became secretary of the Women’s Institute and helped set up a PTA for the village school.