The Cross Keys - Church Street

[londonwelsh]

Hi - I've just been chatting to my Dad and when he was a boy he spent a couple of years living with relatives in Merthyr/Dowlais.

His relatives lived opposite the Cross Keys Public House in Church Street and also he had relatives that lived next door to the Pub at 9 Church Street.

He remembered the Cross Keys was closed on Sunday's but on a couple occasions he was sent by the adults to the Pub with a jug. A hand would appear from a window, the jug was taken, you never saw the person taking the jug. The jug was returned to him full with Ale, no money exchanged hands at that point.

Was this a 'cheeky' way of getting around the Sunday drinking rules?

[jeffjones]

Hello Londonwelsh,
I have just found this site and was browsing the forum when I came across your thread.
My father, Idris Jones, ran the Cross Keys on Church Street from approx 1950 to 1953. I was 5 when we moved there, but I remember the pub well. I don't recall the "handing out" of beer on a Sunday, but it would be the type of thing my father would have done!
I remember playing with a girl across the street and down a few houses. I'm sure her name was Mary.
Rgds, Jeff

[londonwelsh]

Hi Jeff

Humble apologies for not replying sooner. I read your reply with interest.

The Price family lived at number 9 (my grandmother Rachel Price) and at number 22 lived the Prytherch's which were her maternal grandmother and aunties and uncles lived), not sure if that helps?

King regards

Paul