February 5th – Goytrey Party
Goytrey Memorial Hall Committee entertained 250 children to a New Year’s party. A children’s fancy dress competition, judged by members of Pontypool Vaudeville Society (who also entertained) was a highlight of the evening.
Prize winners: – Sheila Beddis, Graham and Margaret Kennedy, B. Allchurch, Guy and Clive Swinnerton, John and Margaret Griffiths, Brian Williams, Richard James, John Allchurch, Ann Christian, Christine Woodhouse, Doreen Messenger, June Kennedy and Christine Conway.
Guests were provided with an excellent tea, followed by games, organised by Mr Bishop and Mrs Morris. Other helpers included Mmes Hatchely, Williams, E. James, A. Morris, W. Owen, R. Owen, Lambert, Cook, Hobbs and Howard.
February 26th
Three Freehold Stone and Slate Cottages, known as 1-3 The Old Stores
No. 1. with vacant possession. Just completely re-decorated and repaired and with back kitchen (with tap and sink) and bathroom (no bath installed) added: Living room and sitting room with concrete and tiled floors and modern open grate; 2 good bedrooms.
No. 2. Let to Mr E H Jones at weekly rent of 9/9d inclusive. Large scullery with sink, living room and 2 bedrooms, recently refloored.
No. 3. Let to Mr J M Shepherd at weekly rent of 8/3d inclusive. Good living room with tiled floor and open grate; large kitchen with sink; 2 bedrooms, (one just re-floored) Bucket closets.
Main electricity and water laid on. Rateable value each house £5. Current half year general rate £1/17/11. Water rate £1.
Each house has a good garden and is in sound repair. Pigstyes with lot. 1 and 3.
N.B. – The 3 cottages will be offered in one lot, and then if unsold, No. 1 will be offered by itself.
Lot 2.
A Valuable parcel of pasture land
Vacant, adjoining the area of .500 acre or thereabouts and frontage of 44 yards to road with Rennie, Taylor and Till will offer by auction at the Clarence Hotel Pontypool on March 1st 1954 at 6.30pm.
March 26th – Goytre Villagers ask for better bus service
Goytre has had no improvement in it’s bus service for 30 years, although the number of people using the service has greatly increased.
This was urged in a petition signed by a large number of Goytre people which was presented to the Eastern Valley Traveling Facilities Joint Committee at Pontypool.
The petitioners asked for support of their request for a half-hourly service instead of the present hourly one, inaugurated in 1924.
The committee instructed their clerk (Mr H Cook) to collect evidence in support of the petition with a view to making representation to the bus operators concerned and failing a satisfactory result, to report the position to the licensing authority.
July 9th – Inconsiderate Driving: Goytre farmer fined
A collision at the junction of Chapel Ed Lane and Newtown Road Goytre, between a Humber sixteen car driven by Godfrey Charles Vaughan (30) farmer, Ty Hir Farm, Goytre and a van driven by Elsie May Price, milk vendor of Ochren Mill, Goytre, was described to Pontypool magistrates.
A charge of driving without due car and attention against Vaughan was dismissed but he was ordered to pay a fine of 40/- for driving without reasonable consideration for other road users.
Mr D.P. Tomlin (Everett & Tomlin), defending, said the parties obviously saw each other when Vaughan emerged slowly from the lane into the road. Because of the high hedge, anyone coming from the lane had to go partly into the other road to get a view of the traffic.
PC Clewer, called to the scene, said the Humber car was on the wrong side of the road, but Vaughan contended that by coming diagonally out of the lane, it was possible to get a better view. By this means his car would not be so far out in the road.
Announcing their decision, the Bench added they thought the hedge should be lowered.
July 30th
Mr & Mrs Thomas Langley of Sunnybank, Chapel Ed, Goytrey, celebrated their Golden Wedding on Saturday.
October 22nd – “Driver killed my chickens,” says Goytre farmer
A Goytre farmer claimed at Pontypool Magistrates Court on Saturday that he saw a lorry driver take one of his chickens from the main road, kill it and throw it in the cab of his vehicle.
The driver, John Whitehead, of 43 Mollington Avenue, Liverpool 11, was given a conditional discharge on payment of £2 – the value of the chicken – to the farmer and 15/- costs.
Reg Jones, of Cefn Mynog farm, Goytre, said that he was driving some of his cattle near the main road when he saw a lorry pull up and Whitehead get out. Then, Mr Jones claimed, Whitehead ran down the road and came back with a chicken fluttering in his arms. He killed it, he thought by wringing his neck and then threw it in his lorry.
As Whitehead was driving off, he saw Mr Jones taking his vehicle’s number, came back and wanted to fight, went on the witness.
PC Keagan, who came to the scene whilst on a motor-cycle patrol, said Whitehead told him he had run over the chicken, had “only picked it up to avoid getting it in a mess” and intended handing it in at the next police station.
Superintendant John Haines told the magistrates that the bird had been examined by a veterinary surgeon who proved that it had been hit by a vehicle.
In the witness box, Whitehead said that he picked the chicken up after hitting it, looked around and saw nobody, so threw it into his lorry intending to hand it in to the police.
The farmer refused to talk to him and kept repeating, “Go one, I have got all I want.”
October 22nd – Charge against Goytre man dismissed
A lorry and car when negotiating a bend near the Steps Farm on the main Chepstow-Usk road scraped each other.
This was stated at Usk when Christopher John Goulding of Llwyncelyn, Goytre, the lorry driver, pleaded not guilty to not having stopped after the accident. The charge was dismissed.
George Hunt of Ryecroft House, Llangwm, the car driver, alleged that the lorry negotiated the bend on it’s wrong side. He stopped but the lorry did not.
When Goulding reported the accident the next day, he told PC E. Shillabeer that the car negotiated the bend at a ridiculous speed. He stopped, but as the car did not pull up then he continued his journey.
Goulding, in evidence, said he had pulled on to a grass verge when the car struck the lorry.
December 24th – Goytre child injured at play
A child’s knee was cut on galvanised sheeting lying on a playing field at Goytre. Pontypool Rural District Council were told last week. The cut required 5 stitches.
Mr D F Evans asked if the playing fields in the council’s area were under any supervision. “If not, they should be, rather than let children suffer accidents through our neglect,” he said. If the council had provided the playing field it was their responsibility to see that it was safe.
Mr H H Hatchley said that if there was sheeting on the field it was probably taken there by the children themselves.
Mr Evans proposal that council officials should inspect the field and make it safe was adopted.