CHAPTER 11
The Hitch-hiker
Mid 1970`s
( Photo 1 ) . The junction I stopped at is on the left of the photo and where my unfortunately dressed hitch-hiker was waiting for a lift.
photo circa mid 70`s.
This happened in the late 70`s maybe around 1978 before the Glamorgan Council changed all the road system to suit the motorway and the shopping centre that was built the following decades, at this time in the story the road ran along side the mental asylum hospital called Cefn Hengoed.
The roads basically followed the high stone walls that separated the hospital from the general public, I’m not sure if the walls were there for privacy or just to keep the hospital patients inside and out of harms way and to stop them wandering around Sarn Common.
in my own personnel opinion it was the latter reason that the wall was erected for, if you read on you will know why I have come to this conclusion.
The hospital was very active at the time of the story, the hospital housed many residents, not that anyone seen them outside the walls, this hospital was one of three very similar institutions that were built at the same time in the mid 1800`s and situated very close to each other, the hospitals housed different categories of patient’s and this story tells of a chance encounter with one of the residents of the hospital.
The hospital has now completely gone not a stone of it remains of where once stood a large rambling complex of wards and other medical related buildings, plus some maintenance departments to keep the hospitals running, it has all been replaced by a very large supermarket called Salisbury`s and an even bigger retail shopping complex called MacArthur Glen, they have even removed the original welsh name from the map for some bizarre reason, the answer is most likely an English company laid down the money and the plans for the building of the shopping complex, the English find it impossible to pronounce any welsh names, not that they make a lot of effort to do so, when they do try they murder and distort the welsh word so badly it sounds like they have a speech impediment.
When the hospital was built, all the roads were simply laid out and just run adjacent to the hospital, there were no roundabouts just a straight road as you can see in " photo 1 ", the main A road made it’s way from Bridgend town over Coity Common and carried on its way to the village of Bryncethin.
in the 70`s you could still use the B road on the left of " photo 1 " to head down to the pub called the Tyrish inn.
this pub back in the day was a quiet isolated country pub basically on the edge of an open common, now it is a themed restaurant pretending it is still a country pub, it’s original purpose was a farm house before the village of Sarn was expanded, if you turned off to the pub there was a tight hairpin bend that then lead straight on to the hamlet of Sarn, nowa days the road is closed off and the M4 motorway blocks the way, there is a bridge walkway that crosses over the motorway for pedestrians, but it is no good for riding a large bike over, I know this because I have tried it.
On the day of the story I rode up this B road from Sarn after I had just visited a couple of friends in the vicinity, I left them and was on my way to PANS bike shop in Bridgend.
I pulled up at the junction that lead on to the main Bryncethin to Bridgend road, I was changing down in the gears ready to stop at the junction, this was the normal thing to do and because I could see there was some traffic running along the main road just up ahead, so knew I needed to stop at the junction.
As I slowed down and was getting closer to the junction, I noticed a man standing on the pavement just up ahead of me on my left side, he was standing right on the edge of the pavement with his toes hanging over the edge pointing down to the rain gutter.
This drew my attention to him straight away.
I already started to have warning bells going off inside my head, it looked very odd, it’s not what normal adults do, as I drew closer to him everything started to getting even more strange.
He was wearing a long gabardine fawn coloured coat, a type of coat you would wear in wet weather, this coat went down past his knees and he was also wearing a black wide brimmed black hat that would not have looked out of place in the 1940`s.
he stood around 6' tall, if not taller and he was of slight of build, to be honest he looked if he could do with a large roast beef dinner, he did not look if he had eaten anything for a while, he looked quite gaunt in his facial features.
Age wise I would hazard a guess that he was in his late 40`s, the other notable thing was that he was wearing blue stripped trousers that you expect to see banker in London wearing on his way to his office, the trouser’s didn’t quite reach his ankles and this was finished of with a pair of dirty white trainers that had seen better days.
The socks he was wearing are worth a mention, one sock looks like a argyle type of sock just like golfers wear, greenish in colour with a crisscross tartan type pattern, the sock was pulled up as far as it could go and stretched tight to his leg, the other sock was white with two red bands at the top, a bit like you would wear if you were playing tennis, this sock was crumpled up around his ankle.
The main thing that drew my attention about him was not what he was wearing, his appearances was a bit on the odd side to say the lest, but the most notable thing about him was his eyes, they were wild, they looked as if they were going to pop out of his head.
they also darted around madly not staying in one place for any length of time, this guy looked and acted like a right real nutter, as I passed by him, I thought I heard him say something like " I’m going to Bridgend " which I totally ignored, well he couldn’t have been talking to me, could he.
I was just riding past, my first thought was he looked odd enough to talk to himself in public, after all who stands balancing their toes on the edge of a pavement on the side of the road, unless your five years old.
if he was capable of do things like that at his age, then he is capable of talking and answering himself.
he was no threat to me even if he was dressed a little on the peculiar side, I just ignored him and I didn’t give him a second thought as I rode passed him.
a little further on I stopped at the junction and waited for the traffic to clear on the main road.
I pulled the clutch lever in tight to the handle bars.
The bike was still in first gear, there was no point putting her in neutral, the traffic would soon thin out and leave a gap for me to get on to the main road, the Honda 550 quietly ticked over to it’s self while I waited for a convenient gap in the traffic.
( Photo 2 ). My CB HONDA 550 outside my house in Pontycymmer.
The next thing I knew, the guy that I had seen standing on the pavement was standing right next to me with his face very near to mine.
Thank god I was wearing a full face helmet, he was so close he could have kissed me, I remember him smelling off carbolic soap.
it is an odd thing to remember but if I smell that distinctive soap odour nowa days it always reminds of this event, it is very strange how your mind works.
This startled me a little not expecting to have someone sticking their face into mine at a road junction.
I pulled my head away to one side, away from his, he was really invading my personnel space.
I had no idea what or knowing what the fuck was going on, he kept looking at me straight in the eye and gave me a very strange smile and said " I’m going to Bridgend " and before I could say anything he climbed on to my pillion seat, he threw his leg over the seat in one motion, he was sitting on the passenger part of my seat in a second.
I turned in my seat and looked at him, he just smiled at me.
I shouted " WHAT THE FUCK, GET OFF.
he stay on the seat and said calmly " I’m going to Bridgend " with the same stupid smile on his face.
I said again " GET OFF MY BIKE ".
I’m " going to Bridgend " he said, still smiling.
I said " GET OF MY FUCKING BIKE ", he just sat there with a strange grin on his face, not moving an inch.
his replied to me while I shouted and swore at him was " I’m going to Bridgend ", my words were not sinking in, I could see this guy was away with the fairy’s and swearing or shouting at him was not going to make any difference, he was in a different world to everyone else.
But he was in my world now and I had to deal with the guy and I still did not have any idea what was going.
I said out loud " for fuck sake, why me".
the guy didn’t move.
So I clicked the bike into neutral and took the keys out of the ignition and flicked the side stand out and let the bike fall onto it, I slid off the bike and turned to the guy still sitting on my bike and said " get the fuck of my fucking bike you dick head, before I pull you off it ".
And then he said with the same stupid smile on his face, you guessed it " I’m going to Bridgend ".
By this time, which was only a couple of minutes, two cars had pulled up behind me at the junction, my unwanted passenger just sat there leaning to one side, because the bike was leaning over on the side stand, he was leaning in the same direction just kept looking forward and smiling.
I was staring to lose it with this guy now, I shouted at him again and said " get off my fucking bike you prick, I’m not taking you to Bridgend ".
This time he didn’t answer with any reply, he just sat there waiting to go to Bridgend.
I looked at the driver in the first car that had pulled up behind me, I put both my hands up in the air, expressing my frustration and indicating to the car driver that I did not know why the guy was sitting on my bike.
The driver just stared at me, looking disinterested, he must have thought there was some kind of domestic going on.
I turned to the idiot on my passenger seat and said " GET OFF MY FUCKING BIKE, I`M NOT TELLING YOU AGAIN.
he replied with the same sentence that he had said over and over.
By this time, I had enough of this bullshit, so I grabbed hold of his long coat by the collar and dragged him off the bike.
I manhandled him towards the curb and pushed him onto the pavement on his arse.
I said " NOW, FUCK OFF " really loud and aggressively.
the driver of the car that was waiting behind me and watching this strange drama unfolding sounded his horn at me, he rolled his driver window down and stuck his head out of the window and shouted at me saying " hey, what are you doing, leave him alone, you can see he’s not right in the head ".
I turned towards the driver and said " he’s not in your fucking car is he, he just sat on my bike for no reason as I stropped at the junction, you give him a fucking lift then, because I’m not going too ".
by this time I was tamping ( angry ) with this strange guy and I was getting angry with everyone near me.
I did check myself and I thought “ why the fuck am I explaining myself to anyone”.
After hearing me shout at him and seeing my behaviour was becoming a little aggressive, it was obvious to the car driver I was getting pissed off, the car driver promptly rolled his window back up and reached over to his door lock buttons and pushed them down locking himself inside.
There were no automatic windows or self-locking cars back in those days, everything had to be done manually.
I turned my attention from the car driver and intended getting back on my bike and ride off and leave all this nonsense behind me and put it down to just another strange day in my life and as I moved towards my Honda, would you believe it, while I was shouting at the car driver the Fucker had climbed back onto my bike.
he was back sitting on my pillion seat has if nothing had just happened.
This time I didn’t wait to talk to him, I already knew what he would say, so I dragged him from the bike very roughly and pushed him with both my hands square in the chest, he went sprawling backwards and ended up on his butt once more with his legs in the air.
I pointed at him with my right arm out stretched and said " don’t come near my bike, now FUCK OFF ".
I didn’t turn my back on him this time, I watched him get back on his feet and head for the car waiting behind me.
I think he finally got the message.
I climbed on the bike, still not taking my eyes off the oddly dressed guy, I started the bike up and flicked the stand up and put it into gear almost in one motion while I did this I kept watching the guy, I was not going to repeat the same situation again, I did not take my eyes off the strange guy behind me.
I pulled off immediately as the main road was almost clear of traffic, I pulled very quickly in front of an oncoming car, I wasn't hanging around any longer.
I could see him in my mirror, trying to get into the car that pulled up behind me, he was trying all the handles on the car doors.
The guy in the car was leaning over and shouting at him, I couldn’t hear what the driver was saying, but I did hear the other guy say that " he was going to Bridgend ".
I don’t know if he ever got a lift to Bridgend, he was better off behind his high stone walls, after all Bridgend is more like an open prison, he would not have been happy there and it is safer behind the walls.
The strange guy was as far as I could see completely harmless, he just didn’t seem to understand that there were certain ways that you have to act by in the world outside the walls.
he was a bit of a nuisance, but like I say he was not dangerous, somewhat irritating, he just did not understand.
I didn’t hurt him when I pushed him over, it didn’t seem to faze him at all, it looked like he was enjoying the attention.
I would guess once the hospital orderly’s had discovered that he was missing, they would have collected him and the nice men in the white coats would give him a higher does of happy pills.
you have to give him credit even if he didn’t get very far, at lest he made a dash for freedom from his humdrum world that he lived in, that’s more then a lots of us do.
( Photo 3 ) . This what the same junction looks like in 2018, very different from the 70`s, the junction was on the left where the 30 mph speed sign is now located.
It was not a uncommon event for one of the patients from the metal asylum to wander off from the walled hospital grounds.
Wobble told this story to me of his own experience with a patient from the hospital.
During the early 1970`s, Wobble his sister Cherry and a friend of theirs called William were walking a dog over the common near Glan-Ryhd Mental Hospital.
The dog was running free and darted away into the undergrowth of the tall ferns hat grew all over the common.
The dog came out of the ferns with a large bone held tightly in its mouth, all three of them examined the bone and they were puzzled by how large it was, they first thought it was a sheep bone, it was not uncommon to find dead sheep on the mountainsides and open commons of Wales, after all during the lambing season there are nine million sheep in Wales and only three million people, there are so many sheep nobody notices a few that go missing.
After examining the bone, they investigated further and walked to the spot where the dog came out of the ferns,
after brushing some ferns away, Wobble spotted what looked like a human skull and then for some reason he found a stick and poked it into the eye socket.
He lifted the skull off the ground and as he did so a large amount of evil smelly goo poured out of the skull, this spooked the trio and they ran back to his friends house, only were only kids at the time, and the instruction all kids had was if there was an issue was to straight home.
Wobble`s friend William lived at Pen-y-Cai which is near to where the remains were found not far from Glan-Rhyd Hospital, the remains were very near to the railway line fencing.
Once they were in their friends house, they told the story of what they had found to William’s mother who understandably phoned the police.
The police investigated and interviewed all the three of them, they told the police that they did not touch any of the bones of the skeleton and only the dog distributed them, as they were all still young they all thought they would be in trouble tampering with the remains.
There was an article written about the finding of the remains in the local paper called The Glamorgan Gazette with the heading title, ( CHILDREN FIND BODY OF PATIENT ).
After the police finished their investigation, it turned out that the skeleton were the remains of a male patient that was from one of the wards in Glan-Rhyd Hospital that had wandered off from the grounds and was never found until Wobble and his friends went for a walk.
( Photo 4 ) . The newspaper report from the Glamorgan Gazette dated 11/5/1973 of Wobble finding the body on the common, clipping supplied by Steve ( Wobble ) Jones.
just for the record, the paper reported the wrong name for the railway-line, it was Aberkenfig railway-line not Kenfig Hill railway line.