For the love of Groggs

IT looks like any other Valleys street . . . until you come to the curious red building halfway along.

Here, nestled between houses and businesses in Treforest, you’ll find a little business that evokes the heart of Wales and is brimming with sporting nostalgia.

In a village that houses hundreds of students from the nearby university in the town of Pontypridd, you’ll find a humble artist at work in the studio of what the rugby world knows as the World of Groggs.

Following in the footsteps of his father, John Hughes, Richard Hughes spends hours sculpting and perfecting some of Welsh rugby’s most notable figures.

Richard, 59, has lived in the area since 1971 and has spent the best part of 50 years with his hands in clay, modelling some of the best rugby players Wales would ever produce.

When you walk into the shop you’ll quickly realise this places breathes rugby. On one side, shelves are covered in Groggs – most of them miniature versions of popular rugby players. The other side is stacked with memorabilia.

Rugby jerseys from across the years hang from the ceiling and the odd dirty rugby sock can be found hanging from the walls. Each has been worn by a different Welsh player.

There’s even a cabinet of muddy boots that players have donated over the years to go on show.

All those years ago, when Richard’s father John started experimenting with clay, he didn’t exactly have rugby in mind. In fact, it was a stroke of luck that the famous Grogg took off in the first place.

Richard explained how his father started making things in the early 1960s in a shed in the garden in Llantwit Road. But it wasn’t rugby players – it was mythical creatures.

“But people didn’t understand the references,” he recalled. “It was really a struggle.” He tried hs luck, sending his creations to London. “He gave up a living but my mother, Pamela, said ‘If it’s what you want to do – do it.’ She supported him and what he did.”

After a rocky start John finally did something that struck a chord in people’s minds. He started making models of giants in rugby shirts. Suddenly, people started taking an interest.

He made his first model of a player in 1969. It was Gareth Edwards.

Little did he know this would be the first of hundreds more to come, and 53 years later the business is still going strong.

John sadly died in 2013 at the age of 78. Now Richard and his sister, Cathy, are working to keep his legacy alive.

Cathy can be found running the shop while Richard is based in his workshop at the back.

He sits there day-in-day-out with a towel on his lap, and a modelling tool in hand, facing a piece of clay and a picture of his next model.

The sculptor does his job surrounded by pictures of his family, his favourite Groggs and signatures on the wall from every player who visits the shop to sign.

“I left school when I was about 17,” he said. “I was half-way through my A-levels but I was working for pocket money at the shop when I was about 12 so I was always making things.

“I felt I didn’t want to go to college so I left school and came here to work.

“I loved making faces – it was the bit my dad struggled with so I did it from that point on.

“It’s been like a 50-year apprenticeship, really, and I find it fascinating.

“I think anyone would. Some people would get bored, but I found it absorbing.”

Each original design is made of clay by Richard himself.

Up until the 1990s all models were made out of clay in what’s known as a slipcast process. Now it’s only the original model that’s made out of clay.

The Groggs later get made out of resin after a mold is made.

Richard owns a small unit in Maesteg where the casting process takes place. He has a team of just five painters who work tirelessly to handpaint each model to perfection.

Richard said: “They have to paint everything which can cause problems for us when we can’t find painters. “It’s a very fiddly process.”

But the process from start to finish is never easy.

On average, Richard says it takes between eight to 10 weeks to make a Grogg and some can even take up to six months if they’re particularly complicated.

He said making Muhammad Ali proved to be a lengthy process, but the time and effort is always worth it if he knows the design will go down well with the punters.

Richard said: “Rugby models are the things that people love.

“We do a bit of football, but it’s the rugby that we are known for. We think and breathe rugby here – it’s all we think about.”

And as you look around the shop, it’s pretty clear that this is the case.

Richard has made his very own Grogg museum where designs from the very beginning, and some of his most notable figures, are displayed.

You’ll find one of the original designs of JPR Williams and more modern designs of players such as Gavin Henson.

In the little room you’ll also come across the biggest Grogg ever produced on display that shows Graham Price, Bobby Windsor and Charlie Faulkner huddled together – the leg-