CARDIFFREMEMBERED Festivities criticised in 1947 as castle is handed to the people

WHAT was happening in Cardiff 70 years ago?

Well, I can reveal that Norma Dupree, of Menelaus Street, and Nancy Watts, of Railway Street, were both recipients of the Bute Dowry, each receiving £30.

And elsewhere in the city, some 20,000 spectators turned up at Roath Park Lake to witness the Western Mail & Echo-sponsored Taff Swim, and Tom Holt, of Weston-super-Mare, won the men’s race and Croydon’s Elizabeth Hill the ladies’ event.

It was the first time the Taff Swim, which used to take place in the river Taff, had been held since 1939.

My literary friend, poet and author Peter Finch, was born in 1947, and so was BBC Wales’ broadcaster and folk singer Frank Hennessy.

Councillor RG Shute formally opened the first two Corporation houses in the docks area and the Earl of Plymouth presented the Welsh Folk Museum to the citizens of Cardiff.

The daily consumption of milk in Cardiff was some 20,146 gallons and fears of a water shortage after a rainless month were dispelled by city water engineer GW Gover.

I was a pupil of St Peter’s RC Secondary Modern School, which was destined to be knocked down and replaced by a block of flats, and on September 10 the Most Honourable John Crichton-Stuart, the Fifth Marquess of Bute, handed over Cardiff Castle and its grounds to the citizens of Cardiff.

Thousands crowded outside the castle to witness the occasion and a choir of 250 Cardiff schoolchildren sang when the marquess arrived.

All Cardiff schoolchildren were