THIS photograph from c. 1980, shows the view of part of Commercial Street in Pontypool before the Borough Council’s Civic Centre was built.
On the right of the picture is the rear of the old Town Hall with the Police Station (and Town gaol) next door on the left – both of which were subsumed into the Civic Centre when it was built.
The original Town Hall was commissioned as a gift to the town by Capel Hanbury Leigh on the birth of his first son and heir in 1853.
Mrs Hanbury Leigh laid the foundation stone on May 15, 1854 and Prossers of Abergavenny completed construction in late 1855 for the building’s grand opening on January 1, 1856.
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On the left of the photograph is the rear view of Glantorfaen House (with the monkey puzzle tree in the garden) now the property of Watkins & Gunn, solicitors.
This building was the home of three generations of solicitors and town clerks, Mr Greenway, his son Henry Bytheway and his son WHV Bythway.
In 1947, WHV Bythway passed away and his three spinster sisters donated the contents of dining room of Glantorfaen House to the new Welsh museum at St Fagans.
In 2006, the National Museum Wales loaned some of the items back to Pontypool to Torfaen Museum and they still have their own special display there.
Nostalgia is provided by Torfaen Museum.
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