Congratulations Swansea Market

I am very proud to be an Old Dyvorian and whilst I’m fairly sure that I could have done a lot better in my studies some of the things that I love most about my life has their in the five years I spent at Dynevor!

My earliest stage appearances in musicals came under the musical direction of Mr John Morris and the stage direction of the most amazing English teacher David Taylor.

My passion for supporting good causes starting when our Deperty Head Ossie Morris involved me in a charity project during my Lower Sixth year!

One of the joys of the Sixth Form was been able to go into the City Centre when even in the late 70’s there were plenty of places to buy lunch.

The City Centre was an incredible place and lunch would usually come from 1 of 4 options.

Those were days where there was no Costa Coffee, Starbucks, MacDonalds or Burger King but we had Dagwoods, The Windsor, The Milkmaid and Swansea Market!

Each offering the most delightful choices!

Swansea Market has always been part of our lives as even travelling to school meant a trip on the 77 bus from Plasmarl, stopping outside the Oxford St entrance of Swansea Market.

I have no idea how much the fair was as we all had bus passes from the council!

The Market was an amazing collection of food and non food stalls as it is today, full of characters who you got to know by name.

The Market was and still is the heart of our City Centre.

I made a very special visit to the Market between Panto shows on the day before Christmas Eve where the atmosphere was magnificent!

I have often been asked to judge the Market stall Christmas Decorations.  

Once again everyone had worked so hard, putting in a lot of effort and its very competitive.

In the end the cup this year went to Davies the Bakers and I made a run for it.

The cockle stalls came close having won the cup many times.

They always put in a lot of effort to make the stalls look festive and are a massive part of market life 52 weeks a year and are often everyone’s first stop in the market.

To go into the market now and not see Carol Watts behind her cockle and seafood stall is very strange!

Carol retired from her popular stall earlier this year. 

The Watts’ family have been serving fresh cockles from Swansea Market for five generations, and Carol herself has run a stall in the centre of the market for 26 years.

Carol knew her customers so well and would always ask how members of my family were and would always remember when my mother had last visited the stall. 

A friend of mine, a devoted Swans fan Derek Davies summed up how we all feel in the lyrics of a song he wrote called Swansea Boy some years ago.

‘To the cockle stalls of Swansea market, selling sea food daily,

and laver bread oh I really loved it,

those moments of my childhood made it,

I am a Swansea Boy’

Many congratulations are once again in order as this week Swansea Market was honoured as the country’s Best Large Indoor Market at the Great British Market Awards in Birmingham this past week and it’s the third time that Swansea Market has won this award!

I first heard the news via a facebook posting from Jan Evans (another devoted Swans fan) who runs Jan Evans Bakery at the market.

Jan has been at the market for 45 years and says that two days are never the same. In fact I have called her Jan Jam Splits for years.

Food writer and restaurant owner Colin Pressdee used to rave about Swansea Market in his articles and broadcasts.

Together we would host cookery demonstrations in the market with some of Wales’ top chefs and the challenge to them would be to source all of their ingredients at the market.

No one had a problem sourcing any of their required ingredients! 

We often moan about what we’ve lost from our town and city centres – I know I do!

However, Swansea Market remains as the heart of the City Centre and long may it continue to do so!