| The
Price Family of the Velindre and Glasbury Area An article by Liz Summerson looking at their long association with the Thee Horse Shoes pub in Velindre |
|
Introduction My great-grandfather George PRICE was born on 24 October 1861
to Mary, née PROBERT, and formerly PRICE, and her soon-to-be
second husband George PRICE, 1936 - 1911, a master tailor like
his own father, grandfather and great-grandfather before him.
Mary and George married a little tardily at Glasbury St Peter’s
on 24 January 1863, Mary making her mark (X) and George signing
the register. Mary had been left a widow with 6 children when
her first husband, John PRICE, died in 1858. He, too, was a master
tailor. George, a bachelor aged 25 at the birth of his son, was
twelve years younger than Mary when he took on her family. George
junior was their only child together. |
| Childhood But back to our younger George, born in 1861: his
childhood did not last long. In the census of 1871, aged 9, he was
already a ‘taylor’s (sic) apprentice’ to his father,
as was his half-brother Rees, aged 15. George’s mother Mary
and his half-sisters were shirt makers, so it sounds like a busy
enterprise. Marriage and Children Three and a half years later, in November 1884,
George PRICE and Elizabeth JONES eloped to Cheltenham to get married
at the Register Office, with the connivance of George’s half-brother
John, also a tailor, who lived there. It took me many years to find
the marriage of George and Elizabeth, as I had been searching in
the Hay area. But the reason for their elopement became clear, though
it was not an unusual one: Elizabeth, aged 18 and thus needing parental
consent to marry, was heavily pregnant with her first child, a daughter
Marianne Jane, who was born in Velindre early on 20 January 1885.
On the birth certificate, her father’s occupation is given
as journeyman tailor. Less than a year later, on 22 December 1885,
their second daughter, Georgina, was born. Then followed a third
daughter, Elizabeth Emily, on 25 August 1887. Publican and Tailor George was not only the publican of The Three Horseshoes
but also continued working as a tailor. One of his granddaughters
told me that he would sit cross-legged on the bar sewing uniforms
for the Breconshire Regiment. But apparently he also liked to read
and would have loved to have been a teacher. This was an ambition
fulfilled by one of his daughters, Georgina, who taught at Velindre
School and is mentioned in this capacity in ‘Under the Black
Mountains’, Logaston Press and in the 1911 census, where she
was living in the home of her grandfather George PRICE senior. Commemorated in verse I have found two sets of verses that were written during their time at the pub. Below is a section from ‘Lines on Velindre’ by W Wallis of Hay, published in the Brecon County Times in 1923. The merit of the poetry is questionable, but the verses do give a graphic picture of the pub. ‘The village inn, Three Horseshoes sign, The shepherd here takes midday meal The labouring man at close of day The book ‘Under the Black Mountains,’ edited by Colin A Lewis, Logaston Press, 2017, contains as its Appendix 2, ‘Velindre Jubilee – 6 May 1935’ by Mrs Z A H Price (no relation) which describes all the villagers and includes the following: ‘The pub will be full, the beer will flow, As George was 73 in 1935, I hope his legs were not aching from going too oft to the cellar. The family and the pub George’s mother Mary died in 1899 at the age of 75. One of
her great-granddaughters (Nancy Louvain PRICE, 1914 – 2012)
told me she left money to the Maesyronnen Chapel but she was buried
at St Peter’s, Glasbury. Elizabeth’s mother, Eliza KEELTY
née JONES, died in February 1911 in Eardisley. George’s
father, George PRICE senior, died in October 1911 at Velindre. |
|
Elizabeth PRICE, the matriarch and convivial
landlady of The Three Horseshoes was known as Granny Velindre to
my mother, who described her as ‘very jolly’. The sadness
of losing two sons took its toll, however, and although her death
in May 1933 was unexpected, she had not been well for a considerable
time, according to the obituary printed in the Brecon County Times.
She had, however, been thought to be improving so it was a shock
when, on the evening of Sunday 20 May, she had gone upstairs and
suddenly collapsed and died. The obituary said her death cast a
gloom over the village and that her funeral was one of the largest
every known in Velindre. There was a very large family presence,
with all her children and grandchildren, as well as many villagers. George was to live a further fifteen years as a widower. I don’t know when he relinquished the licence of the pub, but he was still landlord in September 1939 when the National Registration was taken, At that point, his 23-year-old granddaughter Josie MAPP (daughter of Georgina) was living with him, acting as housekeeper. I think he probably carried on until 1941 when he was 80, as his newspaper obituary says he was licensee for 54 years. He was followed in the role of publican by his eldest daughter Annie (Marianne Jane) and then by her daughter, Nancy Louvain. Nancy L was well over 90 when we went to The Three Horseshoes for a nostalgic drink, with her cousin Ray, too (paying a visit home from the USA). She was a tiny lady, under five feet tall, but nimbly hopped on to a bar stool and announced herself to the then landlord as one of his predecessors! Tom was the only one of George’s sons to follow him into the pub trade, keeping the Red Lion Inn at Llangydir near Crickhowell for some years. My grandfather Rhys had no liking for alcohol and almost never visited a pub, which was probably also a legacy of growing up at the inn. George died in his 86th year on 18 July 1948, by which time he had 19 great-grandchildren amongst his descendants and, like his wife Elizabeth, having lived all his life in Velindre, apart from their brief elopement to Cheltenham. One of my PRICE cousins proudly has the three copper horseshoes that used to hang inside the pub, which is very fondly remembered as an ancestral home.
|
| The PRICE family of the Glasbury / Velindre area John PRICE b 1786, Glasbury; d ? m Ann POWELL,
b 1788, d 1814, Longtown Hfds George PRICE, b 1812, Longtown Hfds; d 1880,
Ross Hfds m Sarah EVANS, b 1808, Glasbury, d c 1859, Bedwellty,
Mon) George PRICE, b 1836, Llanelly, Brec; d 1911,
Velindre m Mary PROBERT, b 1824, Aberllynfi, Brec; d 1899, Velindre
George PRICE, b 1861, Velindre; d 1948, Velindre
m Elizabeth JONES, b 1866, Velindre; d 1833, Velindre Marianne Jane 'Annie' PRICE, 1885 - 1966; m Roger
George PRICE of Llanelieu, 1888 - 1979 Georgina 'Ena' PRICE, 1885 - 1952; m Thomas Joseph
MAPP, 1888 - 1940 Elizabeth 'Emily' PRICE, 1887 - 1968; m Luke LOCK,
1885 - 1963 Rhys PRICE, 1889 - 1972; m Cornelia GRIFFITHS,
1886 - 1959 Thomas Jones PRICE, 1991 - 1972; m Rosina May 'Rose' ANNETTS Children: two boys died as infants, plus Irene Maud PRICE, b 1923; Joyce Annette NASH / PRICE, b 1926 (adopted into the family) George 'Cecil' PRICE, 1893 - 1927; m Olive Margaret
HARRISON Ivor PRICE, 1894 - 1961; m Doris Mary JOHNSTON
John Reginald Redvers 'Reggie' PRICE, 1901 - 1918 Blanche Vera PRICE, 1904 - 1993; m Walter Allen
'Wally' TUDOR, 1898 - 1941 © Liz Summerson 07 05 2021 ==================================================== |