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 C.E.Tucker & The Mumbles Press
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Living above the ShopThe Dunns 1916-1950
by
Sylvia Bagley
For over thirty years, the Mumbles Press was a key institution of Mumbles life. My father, Christopher ‘C.E.’ Tucker, was its founder and driving spirit. In 1956, when he retired, he was described as ‘the man who put Mumbles on the map’ and he worked tirelessly to promote the Mumbles that he loved.
He first set up a printing business in the Dunns, where Solo now stands. Then in 1903 he bought No 8 The Dunns. And for over thirty years, until 1936, he promoted Mumbles through the Mumbles Press. At the same time, with my mother, Florence, he ran a local shop for both residents and visitors, with all sorts of seaside materials, smokes – and his very own lending library.
He and my mother were married in 1912, and the Mumbles Press chronicles in detail the clothes and jewellery of the bride and the bridesmaids – and all the presents received, and from whom. It was a grand wedding, at Clyne Chapel, Blackpill. And the reception was at the Ship & Castle Hotel, the site of the present-day Conservative Club.
Among the family records is one of continuing interest to present-day Mumbles. In 1916, a young apprentice printer was indentured to my father, to receive 5 shillings for the first year, increasing by one shilling per year for seven years. It was one Richard Cottle, son of Charles Cottle – none other than the grandfather of Tony Cottle known in this generation as the ‘eyes and ears of Mumbles’, and still providing a printing service. Charles Cottle (Tony Cottle’s grandfather) was the last lighthouseman of Mumbles – a real character, who had a cat which could swim and catch fish… Richard did not complete his full seven-year training, and the Indenture was eventually cancelled.
The Mumbles Press was published every Thursday, and sold for one penny. It provided local news, natural history, religious notes and romantic serials. The boys who sold the paper were paid 1d per dozen sold.
My father was also a Councillor, a Member of Mumbles Urban District Council and was instrumental, following its closure, in getting a Branch Library established on the site. When the Urban District Council was abolished in 1923, and Mumbles came to be run by Swansea Corporation, he used to complain that there was much less local news to report.
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‘The Corporation has not done a lot for the district’, he observed in 1956, ‘not as much as they should have. It was different in the old days when we had our own urban council. Things were a lot livelier…’
He was also for many years a member of the Swansea Improvement Association, publicising the Mumbles area – though his view remained that ‘Mumbles does not properly cater for visitors…’
The present City Council should think about that – while the Community Council does now try to address my father’s concerns about local interests, local colour and community identity.
My daughter Susan, who lives in Malvern, is carrying on the family tradition: she and her husband run a printing company there. My father would have been very proud to know that the family tradition is being maintained.
Living above the Shop The Dunns 1916-1950
My memories of growing up in Mumbles are such happy ones. I was born and brought up at Number 8 The Dunns, in a large four-storey house, just opposite the garage, on the seaward side of the road.
In our basement was a huge printing press; the shop, C.E. Tuckers, was at ground level and behind it there was a second print-room. Above, were our living quarters, with four large bedrooms. This was the home of the Tucker family and of The Mumbles Press, of which my father was the Editor.
The land at the back our house belonged to South Wales Transport, and my father had to pay them rent for the use of the two steps that gave us rear access. We had no garden: the beach was our ‘garden’, and we had wonderful times there. There was always so much going on! On Bank Holidays, donkeys met the trains, to carry passengers to Langland and to other beaches. We Tucker children, and our friends, played in the railway trucks at the back of our house.
Our shop sold cigarettes, tobacco, stationery, postcards, as well as seaside equipment like buckets and spades. We also offered a library facility: those borrowing books had their names and addresses noted down, but I cannot now remember how much they paid. As we grew older, we helped our Mother more and more, in the shop.
We earned our pocket money by going to all the B&Bs and hotels in the area collecting the names of visitors. Their details were then published in The Mumbles Press. This was a good advertising technique because the visitors, always anxious to see their names in print, bought their own copies of the newspaper.
Smells evoke memories of that time, for me – especially of fish, and of Christmas puddings. In the sea behind the Station there were long fishing nets staked out with pockets at the end of them, to catch the fish. The fishermen would come, with horses and carts, to collect the fish, keeping the prime fish and throwing away the smallest. Those were the ones we collected, and Mother cooked them – a wonderful smell and taste.
Mother used to make six or seven Christmas puddings. We had, however, no facilities to cook them all at home, so we would take them on the Mumbles Train to Blackpill, where there were some huge black cooking-ranges. We would come back to The Dunns surrounded by the wonderful smells of those cooked puddings.
The Dunns was a very lively and active place in which to grow up. Pleasures were simple, and cheap – the beach, carnivals in Castle Square, ice-skating at the Pier, and of course the Regent and Tivoli cinemas. What a good time that was.
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