Newbridge
The roadway by the Cors and Newbridge was rarely passable and in winter never as the river flooded the area which was mainly marshland.
The bridge was built in 1825 and created access from King St to the Laques. However it seems there was an old foot bridge, possibly called Earth Lake Bridge.
The Corporation Minutes of 1738 talked about a bridge on Corran Lake adjoining Arthur Bevan's Malthouse, where the old school is now,
and may have had outbuildings and stables going down to the river.
And in 1743, the minutes include this Dickensian line, '...the Bridge by the Lower Gate, and that all the Filth and Nusances in the
Streetes Shall be immediately Carryed away...'.
A view of the bridge today
Corporal W. Fuller (1884-1974) was brought up in this house (below) in Newbridge Road.
Fuller's mother's maiden name was Fleming and she was a sister to Esther Fleming, who married Owen Williams,
the patriarch of the Williams clan - Browns, Pioneer Buses, Landlords, Monumental masons etc.
Fuller was the first Welshman to be awarded a Victoria Cross in World War One.
He achieved this honour after a gallant attempt under heavy fire to rescue Captain Mark Haggard, (nephew of Rider Haggard who wrote King Solomon's Mines),
of the Welsh regiment who had fallen wounded at a place near Chivy-sur-Aisne in France.
Fuller carried Haggard 100 yards and dressed his wounds. Haggard asked Fuller to fetch his rifle from where he had fallen, as he did not want the enemy to get it.
Fuller managed to do so, though sadly he couldn't save Haggard's life.
After the war Fuller settled in Swansea and became a recruiting officer for the army.
He is buried in Oystermouth Cemetery on the Mumbles and a memorial stone was erected there in 2005.
The Cors Field is now a children's play area.
It used to be a marsh and the river drove a water wheel on the mill on the Grist (Select Convenience).
The park is run by the Festival Committee on behalf of the Laugharne Corporation.
They hold events every year to raise funds, and the 2019 summer ball in the park had jazz music, robotic dinosaurs and old-fashioned fairground sideshows.
In the 2014 NTW play, Raw Material: Llareggub Revisited, Marc and I parked NoGood Boyo's souped up car on the field pumping out rap music interspersed
with the Laugharne school kids chanting a rhyme from Under Milk Wood.
The old Methodist Chapel
on Newbridge Rd, now a private house
The new bridge today
copyright © 2021 Laugharne Lines
all rights reserved