The Ball
The Ball was one of the earliest pubs in Laugharne and was known as The Blue Ball.
It was built in 1736 and used to have a thatched roof.
Laugharne has always had a great pub culture, indeed there were 23 pubs in 1880 in a town with a population of around 1900.
Worth remembering that some of these were just front rooms where women used to serve home-made beer from jugs - hence 'public houses',
and The Ball was one of these.
There are many reasons the smaller pubs died out, and many had gone by the first World War. Temperance, the rise of non-Conformist religion,
and the rise of major brewers like Felinfoel and Buckleys in Llanelli, meant that generally only the larger pubs survived.
There were 7 pubs when Dylan lived here, and he noted that many locals '...seemed to have retired before they'd reached working age'.
Four pubs remain, for Laugharne still loves to celebrate pretty much everything.
A gallows once stood in this area, at the top of Victoria St, which was authorised by the Portreeve in the Corporation records of 1650.
Up until 1865 Victoria St was named Hangman St, and Market Lane, running alongside Seaview to the Town Hall was Hangman's Lane.
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