FLICKING through the pages of the Pontypool Free Press brought memories flooding back for one Talywain pensioner recently, when he saw a photograph of the Home Guard in Pontypool Park - with him in attendance as a late teenager.

Every week, The Free Press publishes two photographs supplied by Pontypool Museum of scenes around Torfaen, and Wilf Davies, 90, said he couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the picture.

The home guard paraded through the Park in 1943 to celebrate their third year of formation, and Mr Davies, who was 19 at the time, was part of the parade.

He said: “I couldn’t spot myself in the photograph but I remember being there.”

He explained that he enrolled to the Home Guard like most boys in the area did.

Mr Davies, originally from Pontnewynydd, said: “It was hard work as you would work all day down in the pit and then do a shift with the Home Guard.”

He said that they would guard important buildings in Torfaen, such as The Drill Hall in Pontypool, and would ask those wanting to enter if they were friend or foe?

He recalled standing outside while a group inside were receiving instructions, and holding his bayonet to a man’s chest and demanding an answer when he wouldn’t give one.

“It was nice to see the photograph,” he added.