My Short Stories

A collection of short stories that are all based on real events

I grew up in a mining valley in south Wales during the 1960’s and 1970’s. My father was the landlord of a large public house who later opened his own private members’ club which sounds rather grand but in reality, it was his hobby rather than a focused business. My earliest memories are centred on the pub and later club. Every day there seemed to be a new story for the regulars to tell the other drinkers. And many of these stories had their origins in The Kidney Flush. Now, the Kidney Flush was a mountain spring that was situated in a field call Cae Galed (literally ‘Hard Field’). Cae Galed was so named because the soil is exceptionally thin meaning the ground was hard and solid. The spring was called the Kidney Flush because the water was supposedly so pure and full of minerals that it would help flush any impurities from the drinker’s kidneys.

There were two main types of visitors to the Kidney Flush; there were those who had perhaps imbibed too much beer the previous night and who sought the restorative qualities of the water. Then there were those who, being unable to afford to drink in any of the village’s pubs and who sought the company of others at this al fresco temperance bar. This second group were mainly to be found during the depression years when unemployment throughout the south Wales valleys was high.

And there was another group of visitors – those who didn’t drink alcohol for whatever reason, and who sought the company of others away from licensed premises though these numbers were small.
Getting to the Kidney Flush was no easy matter. It was situated near the top of the mountain that separated the valley from its neighbour and required considerable effort to climb the often-slippery path that led to it. From the valley floor it would take around forty minutes of excursion which only meant that the prized cup of cold water would taste all the more wholesome.

These are the stories of some of the characters who met at the spring. Their tales stories are all true, but I have changed the names of those involved to protect their true identities.