Valerie Williams ( nee Llewellyn) 1938 -1940

Whatever happened to Bridie O’Sullivan, the Irish child abandoned by her parents in Craig-y-nos?

Valerie, age 72, would love to find out.
Her parents had thought at one stage of adopting four year old Bridie as company for Valerie because they were the same age until the “monkey incident”.

“I had an uncle who had once worked as a sailor and he brought me back this big wooden toy monkey. But we were not allowed to play with toys because of the fear of infection. So they put it at the end of the ward so that everybody could enjoy it and nobody would be jealous.

“Well, Bridie got out of bed in the night and broke my monkey. I was so angry with her. I remember that.

Bridie had been left there by her parents when she was about 12 months old.
I often wonder what happened to her.”

Valerie says she has only snippets of memories of those early days in Craig-y-nos in the Glass Conservatory.

“I remember the big iron cot and looking out through the bars. I have no memory of walking about during my two years there.


“And I remember it being bitterly cold. They would wheel our cots outside. If it started to rain they was a rush to bring them back in again. Once my uncle, who was a bus driver and he used to sneak in to visit me when he was passing once a week, helped to pull the beds back into the Glass Conservatory.
We were not allowed to get damp.”

Another memory she had is of a family celebration after she left the hospital:
“We had a party for my grandmother and after it was over I put on my hat and coat to go back home to Craig-y-nos. and my mother had to say to me: “You are home.” She was quite upset .”


After she grew up Valerie worked as a telephonist with major companies in Swansea.
Now aged 72 she leads an active life swimming three times a week, ballroom dancing with her husband and going to jazz festivals.




If anyone reading this can recall any information regarding the abandoned Irish child girl, Bridie O’Sullivan, I will pass it on to Vallerie Williams.
e-mail me at: annshaw@mac.com or ring: (01786.832287)