The changing face of Welsh towns and villages

Mike Hedges - MS for Swansea East 

As someone who visits local history websites regularly it is interesting but depressing to see how the towns and villages of Wales have changed.

In Morriston, a town where I live, on the outskirts of Swansea there have been substantial changes.

There has been large scale closure of pubs in the last thirty years including the Lamb and Flag, the Cross inn, the Bevans, the Champion brewer, the Plough, the Wychtree, the Crown, the Old Prince, and the Bird in Hand. Clubs that have closed include the Woodfield club and the Dyffryn club.

In central Morriston the current pubs and clubs left are the Red Lion (Wetherspoons), Midland, Fountain, Morriston Workingmen’s, and the Grove club with the Swan expected to reopen soon.

Outside central Morriston there are the Deer’s Leap, Millers, Morriston football club, Ynystawe cricket and football club, and Morriston rugby club.

Also, during the last thirty years we have seen the closure of St John’s church (church in the middle of the road), Bethania chapel, Wesleyan methodist chapel on Soar Terrace, Grove mission, Tabernacle Morriston on Cwmrhydyceirw Road, Ebenezer chapel and Moriah chapel in Ynystawe.

This followed the post war closure of many chapels including Philadelphia, Soar, Calfaria and Carmel.

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Changes

Currently St David’s church, Libanus, Sacred heart catholic church, Seion Newydd, Tabernacle Morriston, Salvation army, Einon, Lifewell, cornerstone and the Kingdom Hall are all still open.

What the changes show are the changes in society where attending chapels, churches, pubs, or clubs has become much less popular. Whilst I have concentrated on Morriston similar changes have taken place in most other small towns and villages.

Amongst the other major changes that have taken place is the large-scale closures of banks and building societies. Over 1,000 banks have closed in the UK in the last two years. Data from Which? shows almost six thousand branches have shut since January 2015 –over fifty per month.

In Morriston, Lloyds, Barclays, Nat West, HSBC, and the Halifax have closed with Nat West the only bank to still provide a cashpoint.

The only building society left is the Principality and there is a Post office which has been downgraded from a crown post office.

Alongside the loss of banking facilities in Morriston we have seen the closure of many retailers including household names such as Woolworth, Boots and Wilko. Shoe, clothes, and other retailers that are in competition with online shopping have closed.

Charity shops 

The vacant buildings have been taken over by both male and female hairdressers, other personal services such as nail bars and beauty treatments such as tanning as well as a large number of both eating in and take away food establishments.

Morriston also has a large number of personal service providers such as dentists, opticians, solicitors, taxi offices and electrical repairs.

There is a bookmaker, pharmacist, vape shops, carpet shop, travel agent, estate agents and food and household goods shops including Iceland. Morriston still has a range of shops from jewellers, shoe repairs, florists and gift shops to beauty salons and hairdressers.

Despite the widely held belief that it is full of charity shops, the only charity shops on Woodfield Street are PDSA, Age and Barnardos.

What most of the businesses still in Morriston have in common is either there is no online competition - you have to be present to receive the service or you have to pay for online delivery.

Future

The other survivors are retailers selling items that people do not like buying online because they want to see the item first such as carpets and jewellery.

Travelling around it is difficult to miss the online delivery companies travelling and delivering across the area.

Far too many services are becoming online only, and payment must be with a credit or debit card. What we have seen is the growth in online retailers with either home delivery or click and collect to the detriment of local shops.

The advantage of using cash is that you can budget and control your expenditure. How many times have people only realised how much they have spent when they look at their bank or credit card statement.

There are people who want to use debit and credit cards to pay, to order online but there are others that do not, and they also need to be catered for.

Whilst this is mainly about Morriston the same changes are taking in most if not all small towns and villages. I am sure people reading this can see that the same changes are taking place in their communities, the only difference is that some areas will have specialist local shops.

The future is up to us collectively. We can continue the movement to online retailers and the use of electronic payment, or we can visit local shops, use cash, and help them to survive.