A woman who sold cockles every Saturday in the middle of Shirehampton for decades became such a beloved member of the community that a mural of her is being unveiled this weekend - in the spot where she used to sit.
The story of Lillian Rees and how she became such a part of the fabric of the community - without ever living there - is quite a remarkable one. As is the mission that a group of men - who remembered her from their childhoods - embarked on to create a permanent tribute to the 'Cockle Lady of Shire', without even knowing who she was.
The Cockle Lady, as she was known, was a fixture of the community for decades after the Second World War, and became something of a local legend, but 70-odd years after she first arrived, she was fading in the collective memory of the community in Shirehampton. But with a bit of determination and detective work, the group of men - who went from Portway School to work at the docks - pieced together everything they could find out about her, and have brought together two communities 85 miles apart.
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The remarkable story begins back in the first half of the 20th century in the village of Penclawdd, on the Gower peninsula near Swansea. For generations, one family had made a living harvesting seafood and seaweed in their home village on The Gower, near Swansea.
In 1945, a teenager in that family, Selwyn Jones, and his mum, were badly injured by a US Army vehicle, and received compensation. He used the money to buy a van to transport the cockles and laver seaweed to bigger markets around west and south Wales, setting up a proper business at the age of 19 in 1948.
Always looking to expand the range of their sales, all the family were roped in to help, including Selwyn's aunt Lillian, who - as a young woman - was dispatched on a train with all the cockles she could carry to Bristol each weekend. She'd stay with relatives and tour the area, setting up a little stall in places like Temple Meads, Shirehampton and Pill. After a few years, she settled down in Bristol, and instead of travelling up by train with the cockles, Selwyn's growing firm would send them on the train, and later when the M4 and Severn Bridge was built, by van instead, and Lillian would pick them up, before heading off around the city. She married and had children, and for decades would be given a lift to the now familiar pitch in Shirehampton.
One of Wayne Harvey's earliest memories was a visit to The Cockle Lady. "She was a fixture, she was there week-in-week-out, whatever the weather. She would sit on the end of the street facing the wind and sometimes get absolutely soaked, but she was always there," he said.
"I remember even from when I was very young, she was an old woman to me, but she was there right through the 50s and 60s, 70s and into the 80s I think. Everyone knew her and everyone loved her. She'd have her half pint glass and her vinegar and be there selling her cockles. A lot of people don't much fancy cockles, but every kid in Shirehampton grew up on them from the cockle lady. She formed such a strong bond with everyone, she was part of the community even though she was only here once a week. She was part of our childhood.
"She was just so kind. She'd be sitting there knitting, and she would knit bonnets and gloves for all the new babies in Shirehampton - everyone would have worn something the cockle lady knitted when they were a baby," he added.
The Cockle Lady of Shire was also much loved across the water in Pill. When local author Mark Jones, writing under the pseudonym Philippa Perry, wrote a collection of fiction books about Tabitha Miggins, the ship's cat on the Pill Ferry, the cockle lady featured, and artists came to paint her portrait back in the day.
So when Wayne and his friends from school were reminiscing over a post-lockdown pint, the subject of the cockle lady came up, and they agreed she was such a fixture and important part of the community in the post-war decades, that they should do something to honour her. They decided the thing to do would be to create a large mural of the Cockle Lady to be placed on the side of what is now a beauticians, on the wall behind where she would sit every Saturday for all that time.
The group raised the money, got permission from the owners of the beauticians and commissioned local artist Joe Westlake, from Joe's Murals, to turn the photos and portrait into a big mural.
There was one problem, however, they didn't actually know her name. "My mum couldn't remember either," said Wayne. "Everyone just knew her as the Cockle Lady. My nan had a portrait of her on the wall and other people had photographs, but we had to find out more about her," he added.
Then the lads had a brainwave. They knew she was Welsh, and came from somewhere near Swansea, so they gave a mission to their old PE teacher from Portway School, Steve Lewis, who was also from that part of the world. Armed with a picture of the painting, on a visit back home, Steve made some inquiries and soon tracked down Selwyn's in Llanmorlais and in Penclawdd, the heart of the Gower estuary's cockle industry. The firm is now one of the leading seafood suppliers in south Wales, but is still run by the same family. Selwyn passed on the firm to his son Brian in 1990, and in 2014, grandson Ashley took over with his wife Kate.
"My dad was approached and we confirmed it was his great aunt Lillian," said Ashley. "She was my great-great-aunt. She settled in Bristol years ago but still worked selling the cockles there. I remember staying with her daughter Rita up in Bristol when I was a child, and it was lovely to get approached about her. I think it's really good for people to be remembered like this - she ventured out into the world to try new things, went off on her own into a new city as a young woman, and it's great that she's still remembered over there," he added.
Back in Shirehampton, they were amazed to discover who the Cockle Lady was. "I remember I was on holiday in Cornwall at the time. I got this phone call from Steve and he said 'I've found out who she was, do you want to speak to her great nephew?' It was amazing, I got quite emotional, I thought we'd never be able to find out," said Wayne.
They lads were able to find out more about her life story. She sold her cockles in Bristol for years - not just in Shirehampton, but also around Temple Meads. She fell in love with a man she met at her stall in Temple Meads, and settled in Kingswood, but remained determined to serve the people of Shirehampton their weekly Saturday treat.
Now, on Saturday morning - at roughly the time Lillian would have set up her stall in that spot for decades - the mural of the Cockle Lady is unveiled. For Steve Lewis, who played a vital part in making the memories of the Shirehampton lads into a real person, the story is heartwarming. "I was just so grateful that they asked me to help, my former school pupils. They went out of their way to make sure that someone who was so important and loved in their community is kept a living memory. It just goes to show how, if you're kind to somebody, as Lillian was to Shirehampton for years, you sow the seeds and it spreads and comes back," he added.
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