I grew up in Maindy in a little road off North Road, the area had 4 streets and that was Maindy. It was a poor area, most of the men would take the canal barges and take the small coal from all the pits and make blocks of fuel to sell. Once they were on the fire you couldn't poke them. I lived at 40 Flint Street and Maindy Hotel was on the corner. Our house faced the Railway, They would always be selling these fuel blocks, sometimes there would be work for the men and sometimes there wouldn't. My Dad would go down first thing in the morning and ask if there was any work, if there wasn't he would go back at Lunchtime. I remember a photo of me and my two little sisters it was taken of us standing in a doorway I didn't have any shoes and they were wearing those children's boots, you had to have a hook to do them up. At the top of the street there was the Maindy hotel, it was a pub. It is still going in the same place