Dain tain for 'alf a crain



Recalling the days of seemingly sustainable local economies, I wonder about the extent to which these are still possible, or whether that Giant Grabber, Global Growth, has gorged itself at their expense. I am no economist, but just describe what I have seen in a suburb of Portsmouth sixty years ago, and rural Northwest Cymru today.

Drayton is a suburb on the mainland part of the city of Portsmouth, whose greater part occupies Portsea Island. It was more like a village when I was brought up there between the 1950s and 1970s. Its street of local shops met almost all day-to-day needs despite the city centre being only five miles away: a 30 minute bus ride. There was a butcher, baker, bank, Post Office, greengrocer, wet fishmonger, fish and chip shop (cigarette machine and milk dispenser outside), shoe shop, optician, GP surgery, hairdresser, barber, Co-op, ironmonger, pub, cafe, fancy restaurant, stationer, sweet shop, car showroom, memorial institute hall, three schools, scout hut, two churches, and an electrical shop that also sold LP records. In this last one my father bought his first vinyl, an introductory collection of classics from Bach to Borodin and Haydn to Holst.

And even in the microcosm of the nearby residential road where we lived, only 350 yards long, there were four corner shops. At one end, the Taylors occupied opposite corners with a small grocer and an off-license. Half way along was a still smaller grocer in a side-road, and a larger shop in a bungalow which also sold recycled timber from the back yard. The Clarks' son had lost a thumb, whether from a timber saw or ham slicer I can't recall. An early EV, the milk-float, delivered to almost every door. Every summer, residents were visited by a man from Llydaw/Bretagne/Brittany selling strings of onions from his bicycle. I now know that he was often seen in Cymru too, thanks in part to the similarity of the Cymraeg and Llydaweg languages. Here he was called 'Sioni Winwns' or 'Sioni Nionod' (Johnny Onions).

There was a symbiosis between customer and proprietor, suatainable at least until the explosion of supermarkets. When I first heard the word 'archfarchnad' (supermarket in Cymraeg, the 'ch' as in Scottish 'loch'), it sounded to me like the name of some grotesque monster from Dr Who. My first instinct wasn't far off the mark. The word really means an over-arching market place, so a knowing deeper significance maybe. 'Arch' indeed.

Sometimes there were trips to the 'big city', "dain tain for 'alf a crain". Down town for half a crown [the price of the bus fare] in the Pompey accent that I never spoke, but would be proud to today. My memory tells me these trips were always in early winter, as it was always dark when we caught the bus home, so maybe Christmas shopping was involved. Shop illuminations reflected in the road by the bus stop, as it always seemed to be raining. I remember a large three storey Co-op department store, M&S for tinned Chunky Chicken and a large Art Deco FW Woolworth which sold small Daleks for a shilling, and, later, plastic memorial busts of Churchill for half-a-crown if that was your thing. At whatever young age I was, I honestly thought Petula Clark was singing about 'dain-tain' Portsmouth when she sang "Downtown" on the radio. I was small, and so was my world evidently. From the song I can of course date the memories to around 1964.

Other trips down to town had an almost 'Dickensian' flavour. My brother and I were taken by a grandmother to see the Mudlarks. These were young children who had for generations retrieved coins thrown from the pier of Portsmouth Harbour Station, diving, often disappearing, into the dark treacly harbour mud, to help their impoverished families. Passengers and sightseers were exhorted by the rhyme "Ere guv put a penny in the mud. A penny or two won't break yer. We'll take all your rusty silver, and I'll cover my face for a tanner".

From 1960s Hampshire to 2020s Gwynedd.

Rural parts of Cymru seem to me to have been less seduced by national and global chains than elsewhere. The Llyn peninsula has a population of around 20 thousand, although more in the summer. Yet there at least 30 cafés and many proudly local shops that support and are supported by, the local community. The area has more community owned pubs than demographics would suggest. Small shops abound, in old barns, farm huts and similar. Plas Carmel, Cwt Wyau, Cwt Tatws, seem to meet local need for provisions and more, particularly after a global pandemic. Further south, cafés in the so-called "empty quarter of Powys also provide hubs for community involvement in social networking, internet and charitable work. Some dairy farms across the nation have introduced milk and coffee dispensers; a welcome and for me, nostalgic addition. All seem to be sufficient for the local community, and without global chains, just as I remember Drayton was in the 1960s. There is an exquisite joy in feeling connected with of all of these places. How many in their self-contained recreational vehicles would in any case have brought their own provisions with them? Sadly it's difficult to think about local shops ["for local people"] without seeing those grotesques of Royston Vasey in TV show The League of Gentlemen. I wonder now if they were a distraction to deflect us from a welcoming and inclusive rustic idyll that is more urgently needed today. Sadly I see and overhear more than a few visitors wryly amused and bemused by the "quaint" local businesses that continue to thrive ("Where are Starbucks or Subway?" they ask). There are some who dare not cross the threshold for fear of hearing an alien, yet the originally British, tongue.

Drayton was never a tourist destination, just a residential self sustaining suburb. Finding resonances with today in rural Cymru may just be wishful thinking. But if you're not seduced by, colluding with and then becoming addicted to the rampant consumerism of recent years, the antidote to untrammelled global capitalism may lie in these examples. The powers that be won't like it. Degrowth is a thing.

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I look forward to your comments. Also it would be nice to know where you are in the world. Thanks for reading.

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