Newcastle Emlyn History Society
Old Library
Market Hall
Market Square
Newcastle Emlyn
SA38 9AQ
Hanes Emlyn
Town Bridge 1790
Market Hall
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Will was really an eccentric and as such was the butt of many pranks. His attic ladder was removed one night after he had gone to bed and it was only the arrival of one of the postmen, from the nearby Post Office who had gone to look for Will next morning, that his ladder was restored and he was able to get to work.
There is no doubt that Will was nosey too as the following incident shows: The carpenters of Thomas Phillips & Son who had workshops at the back of Derby Lane were making a “posh” coffin one day when Will appeared, “Looks very comfortable,” said Will. “Would you like to try it?” said one of the workers. “Yes please,” said Will. So they let him climb in and put the lid on and left him for a while. He never bothered them again!
Will was fascinated with newly dug graves and could be seen standing over the open grave, with a white sheet over his shoulders carrying out a mock burial ceremony.
He also fell foul of the local Baptist Minister who took him to task for preaching his sermons on street corners. There was a piece about Will in the Western Mail in the late thirties which referred to him as the oldest telegram boy in Wales, but what happened to him in later life is not known. I was told that he had spent his last days in a nursing home in Lampeter.
Next to the Rural Postman, Tom Parry Jenkins, or Twm Parry Post.
Tom Parry was born in 1872 and started working for the Post Office in 1893. He and his wife Frances lived in Aberarad to begin with, the Quarry Ffinant and finally two cottages in Water Street next to the Grammar School. They had eleven children and one died at 3 months, one at 5 years and one at 6 years and one at 28 years. Frances died in 1948 aged 73 and Tom died in 1950 aged 78. Three sons and a daughter have died since and one daughter still survives, together with grandchildren and great grandchildren. One of his sons, Enoch, followed him into Post Office employment.
After he had finished being a postman he sold the Evening Post. He had a little terrier called Billy who went everywhere with him. If you wanted an Evening Post and were looking for Tom, it was easier to find Billy, sitting outside the pub Tom was frequenting. He even sat outside the Public Convenience in the mart ground and outside Bethel