John Sennett, 77, was born in 1948 and though he has travelled he always came back home
JOHN Sennett can’t imagine living anywhere else.
The former steelworker, 77, was born and bred in Adamsdown and still lives in the house in which he was born in on Eclipse Street.
Using his rare perspective of being a genuinely life-long resident of the suburb, Mr Sennett has spent the past 20 years collecting knowledge and stories from the area where he grew up in the ’40s and ’50s.
Born in 1948, Mr Sennett attended Tredegarville School which he left in 1962. After a short period working in a record shop on Clifton Street (Gibbs Records) he followed his father into the then-GKN steelworks – where he stayed for more than 30 years.
“Throughout my 30-plus years working there, I only missed one day of work,” he said.
But at the age of 55 he was made redundant.
“I needed something to keep me going, so I went to Cardiff Central Library most days to research the area,” he said.
“I read one document, and I became interested in another. I delved into the history.
“I started to research different places, from Adamsdown Cemetery to the Royal Infirmary. Then I moved onto street names, and where residents used to live.”
Using old archives and the Cardiff Directory, Mr Sennett researched and created his own documents and then had them printed as booklets, detailing Adamsdown’s history as far back as 1880.
He proudly says his research helped to inform the much-loved Cardiff Yesterday books, a 36-volume series written by fellow local historian Stewart Williams.
Mr Sennett compiled booklets with documents he researched and printed of Adamsdown’s history, going as far back as 1880. Credit: The Cardiffian.
Mr Sennett may even know more about Adamsdown than anyone else alive, but using his knowledge to answer residents’ questions about the area which he enjoys most.
“I started to tell residents what I was doing, and one after the other, they started to come up to me,” Mr Sennett said.
Mr Sennett gives an example of the kind of local help he is able to give Adamsdown residents to help them connect with their past.
“I noticed this photo with the ‘Sun Street’ sign one day, and I found out it was a person called Joanna Goddard in it,” he said.
“I’ve found the guy who now owns it, and I’ve contacted him to see if he would be willing to give it to her.
“My knowledge has helped a lot of people. That’s why I do this to be honest.”
Mr Sennett’s research also comes with colourful tales about the area, which he enjoys sharing with others.
Adamsdown’s cattle market and stampedes
“In the 1960s, animals would escape from the cattle market on Constellation Street, and there used to be stampedes. A bull even escaped once,” Mr Sennett said.
“A cow once broke into a lady’s living room on System Street. It broke one of her banister rails. She had to get her door knocked down to get the cow out.”
Thelma Mackie
Back in the ’70s, some residents claimed to have seen crocodiles and even elephants in a resident’s garden. Mr Sennett says it isn’t just a tall tale.
“There was one person called Thelma Mackie who lived on Constellation Street,” Mr Sennett said.
“She used to have all sorts of animals in her house. They weren’t ordinary pets, I can tell you that.”
Credit: John Senett.
Keeping a record
Although he has amassed thousands of documents about Adamsdown’s history, Mr Sennett worries the history of the area will die out and is doing his best to preserve it for future generations.
“I want to retain all off it,” he said.
“I’ve got old maps upstairs, for example, which I’ll give to Tredegarville Primary School.”
In the days since his own schooling in Tredegarville, and across his lifetime, Mr Sennett has been to 33 countries, including Canada, America and China.
But he says he prefers Adamsdown to them all: “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
