The 1940s Museum in Laugharne

We are back to summer today.  No kidding about, it is HOT.  And very, very humid.  High humidity does for me at the moment, and so this morning's planned cutting up of the Willow tree y menfolk dropped a week or two back, lasted approximately 3/4 hour before we both declared it was too darn hot . . .

Plan b then came into action - down to the beach after lunch.  With diesel the price it is, we couldn't go too far, so we decided to go down to Pendine again.  The route to Pendine takes us through Laugharne (pronounced LARN), where Dylan Thomas lived, and where there is now a 1940s Museum, which we had passed several times and said, we must go there . . .  Anyway, since they had bought a shelf from us at a Fleamarket back in May, we decided to go and have a look at it in situ.

Here is the "Tin Shed" which you go into first, and it is packed with original uniforms of various countries, and all sorts of artifacts which have largely been donated.  The proprietor gave us a guided tour and we could have talked until the cows came home, exchanging various bits of information from our particular families.  You can just see (above my husband who is in the white top far right) a re-enactment from Arnhem, when the soldiers were hiding out, having been given the wrong frequency crystals for their radio equipment and they were unable to make contact.  Apparently they were so short of food and water, that they were reduced to taking water from lavatories and flower vases. There was a lot more to show you but as I can't afford to buy new photograph space from Blogger, I am having to create more space on current posts by wiping out photos on much older ones . . .

Here is the Anderson Shelter, faithfully recreated - our guide told us it had taken him a week to dig the hole for it!  Over the top, was the soil which had been dug out, and this was beautifully planted up with wild flowers.

This was the little shack out the back.  I can remember little wooden "bungalows" with wriggly tin roofs, and a little bit of land (5 acres or so) to support the owners.  There were quite a few of them in the part of Hampshire where I grew up.

One view of the kitchen with its pots and pans, scales, zinc washing tub, and some advertising bottles and cans.  The wooden cupboard was called a tallboy in our house, where we had one like it (ours ended up painted battleship grey and turned into a castle by my husband for our children!)

Another view of the kitchen.  You can just see "our" shelf to the right with the coat hanging from it.  We have a few pieces at home which date from WWII so we have promised to donate them, and we look forward to another visit soon.

A corner of the sitting room, again authentic throughout.  It felt just like stepping back in time, especially as the music was Glen Miller, and my feet were tapping along with him!

If you are in our part of Wales, do visit this little Museum.  It is still evolving and being added to, and is absolutely fascinating.  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and are looking forward to going back soon.

One quick photo of the beach at Pendine, looking across to the Gower Peninsula in the distance.