My Canadian holiday

This will be the last post for a while as I'm off on holiday with my Mum and sister Cathie to Canada to see our friends who my Mum hasn't seen for 20 years. This was a surprise present for her 80th birthday from my husband Keith, who's staying at home to take care of the garden, and Cathie's husband Dave is taking care of their Guest House. Don't you feel sorry for them!!
We're staying in Kelowna for a couple of days, then travelling to Christina Lake B.C. where we’ll be spending most of the time. We'll be staying in a 3 bedroomed log trailer overlooking the lake that is owned by our friends and they are also giving us the loan of a car, so we should see some wonderful sights. Cathie and myself will take it in turns to drive as we intend to visit the Rockies for a couple of days. If I manage to get to a computer somewhere then I'll let you know how our holiday is going as we're away for 17 days if not I'll be back blogging about the 19th May. Bye for now.

St Bridget's Church

Here I'll tell you about our village church, St Bridget’s Church, which lies in the lane directly behind the Church House Inn. One of our very dear residents of Lighthouse Park has just been buried in the church graveyared who will be very sadly missed. It's a very picturesque church and if you go to the top of the church you can overlook all of the villages around.
Then there’s also St Mary the Virgin Church in Marshfield and the Baptist Church along side of the Masons Arms and there's also a church at the top of Marshfield Road, Castleton. St Bridget and St Mary’s are both Anglo-Catholic churches. Everybody will be made most welcome in any of the churches. Below is a photo of St Bridget's Church inside and outside given by kind permission from Phil and by clicking on this link will take you too his website, http://www.wishful-thinking.org.uk/genuki/MON/StBrideWentllooge/StBridget1.html

The Lighthouse Inn menu

Sara has a varied menu with a Speciality of the Day

meals served from Wednesday through to Saturday

12midday until 8pm

Sunday Lunch
Served every Sunday from midday until 5pm
£5.95

Don’t forget the “bucket quiz”

Thursday 8.00pm start
With a bowl of curry at only £1.50
(every 2 weeks please ask a member of
staff for information)

Our Local Pub (The Lighthouse Inn)

As I've said before in one of my recent postings, I was waiting for the landlord to be able to write about himself and the pub but as of yet I'm still unable to get him to do this. I'll write what I can and then maybe at a later date I can add some more. As you may be aware as from April 2nd 2007 this is now a non smoking pub.

I'll give you some of the History of The Lighthouse Inn, St Brides Wentlooge, Newport. There's been a hostelry of one form or another on the site since the late 18th century. A former name was “Ty yn y Pwll” which translated means “ The House in the Pool”. There are unsubstantiated rumours that the pub was used as a Mortuary during the WW1. Also that it was once a “Needle Factory”. It's suspected by older locals that the pub (which was a lot closer to the sea than it is now) was once used as a smugglers hideaway, back in the grim days when smugglers were punished by hanging.

Having a pub so close does save on taxi fares as it's actually at the beginning of the site. We have a weekly bingo night on a Wednesday, a quiz once a fortnight on a Thursday evening which is called a Bucket Quiz and on certain occasions we have artists i.e. singers, comedians etc. The pub's a good place to eat as it has a very varied menu and boasts good home cooking. You can enjoy a Sunday roast while enjoying the view over the estuary if eaten upstairs. Meals can also be eaten downstairs and of course in the summer months outside. Sara's going to give me a menu which I'll put on this site for you all to see what's available. There's an open log fire in the winter months, which is really inviting and some of the locals meet at the pub on various nights even for our community discussions.

Future world champion wrestling superstar!!!

I haven't been around for a few days as I've been in hospital, nothing too serious (I just wanted a rest) poor hubby had to do his own cooking. Now I'm back at home I'll have to get on track and get blogging again about St Brides Wentlooge and the surrounding areas.

My nephew's just written his first blog with the help of my sister Cathie, his Nanna. If you're interested in wrestling, please have a look at Ashleys Website Blog as he's only 11 and really excited at setting it up.

Local Celebrities/Sports Personalities at St Brides Wentlooge (Past and Present)

While I'm waiting for our snail of a landlord from The Lighthouse Inn to write up some info on the pub, I've decided to carry on with my research and have started to find information about the Celebrities/Sports Personalities who were either born here, have lived here or still live here at St Brides Wentlooge and the surrounding area. As you can see, I haven't been able to find anything at this moment about some of the Celebrities/Sportspeople so I will try and find info out for you at a later date and publish this again. I will keep you informed as and when.

Click on any of the links below to find information about the following Celebrities/Sports People.

LYN HARDING (Actor)
JAMIE BAULCH (Olympic Silver Medallist)
LYNN DAVIES MBE (Olympic Gold Medallist)
GRAHAM HENRY (Welsh National Coach)
JACK PETERSEN OBE; TD (Professional Boxer)
STEVE ROBINSON (World Boxing Champion)
LES PEARD (International Referee)
JAYNE HOPKINS (International Netball Player)
MIKE DOYLE (Entertainer)
so watch this space....

About Me and St Brides Wentlooge Village

Well here I am once again and as I’ve already said I’ll tell you a bit about my family and myself.

I live in this lovely village called Lighthouse Park Estate in St Brides Wentlooge, Newport. The Lighthouse Park (as I'll write in future) is about a mile from the main St Brides Village. I live in a lovely mobile unit with my husband and we love it here – have I said that before !!

We’ve got four grown up children and ten grandchildren with ages ranging from 3 to 19 yrs. I actually become a pensioner or should I say Senior Citizen at the end of June, what a thought!!

My sister Cathie who owns Chapel Guest House with her husband Dave has just reminded me that I get a free ‘bus pass’ from the local council. I’ll get her back when I write about her Guest House which is in the main part of St Brides so not too far. Why not visit Chapel Guest House Blog.

Lighthouse Park itself is a community of about 150 mobile homes and to live on this site you must be over 50 yrs. We like the fact that there are no children running wild and making a noise and when children visit their families here, they do respect the lifestyle that we all have and so keep the noise down. It’s very peaceful here and the only sound are the birds whistling and a few cars and the bell from Rons’ daily call.

Ron has an Ice Cream van and calls daily with his son Phillip (Woody as he likes to be called) and it’s very useful if you’ve forgotten any items from the weekly shopping. You’ve never seen a van have so many items in stock; we often wonder where they keep everything. I can remember one day asking Ron if he had a tube of tomato puree and to my amazement he pulled one out from under the counter, what a surprise for me!! We should call him Dr. Who as it’s a bit like a Tardis. You can even order your Sunday joint from him and he will deliver this on a Friday.

To keep up young and active, one of the residents here organises day trips for us, which are great fun, and it’s another way we spend our time and get to know one another. We do enjoy our trips as it gets us out and about. Sometimes it’s a bus trip just for the day and sometimes they’re weekend trips. The Christmas one is called, Tinsel and Turkey and a great time is had by all.

So you’ve heard a little bit about me and the Lighthouse Park. For a small village, there’s quite a lot to do here and in the nearby areas, so there’ll be lots more to write about in the St Brides Village blog.

Next post will be about the local pubs so come back soon ……