David Powell - Pill Beer House

My song is inspired by the lives of Jane and Thomas Powell, who were my great, great grandparents. From 1852 they kept a pub at No.14 Church Street, Pillgwenlly, Newport. Church Street ran alongside "The Pill" - an inlet from the Usk where early jetties were made, in the mud, from wood. Church street was one of the first streets in this booming, shipping and congested industrial area whose population quickly competed with that of established Newport. Jane and Thomas were the second of six generations of my family in Pill. Family research was by Roland Ward and my Powell family relative Bob Gilston. Dai Sinclair accompanies me, delightfully, on instruments and the last verse of the song is stolen from a song of the wonderful Welsh artist known as Novo Amor. That song is "Anchor" and is at    • Novo Amor - Anchor (official video)  

The images are a very important part of my portrayal and for those I am mainly indebted to the Facebook pages of Pill Past and Present, Newport Past and Newport Memories Past. I've another song about Pill on YouTube, called "Down Pill 2". It's about my own early days, living down Pill in Price Street, and is at    • Down Pill 2  


David Powell