A traveller's view of St. Clears West Wales.

1. A Traveller’s View of St. Clears by J Rees
This is my review of the shops and
services in St. Clears. I am from a
small small village called Drefach,
situated 17 miles away from St.
Clears. I set off on a Friday
afternoon and caught the 129 bus
from Drefach to Carmarthen. The
journey coast cost me 4 pounds for
an all day ticket. I then caught the
224 bus from Carmarthen to St.
Clears
When the bus finally arrived in St. Clears it was dark and all I could see
were the light’s coming from Spar. I could only see two or three people in
the distance other than that, it was quiet. I could see that the pubs had some
people in as I walked passed. There were a few shoppers in Spar and I called
in there first.
The next morning I went for a walk down to Pentre Road, which is the main
street for shops in the town. As it was a Saturday I was informed that most
of the shops were closed. There were a few open including the Spar and the
Original Factory Shop. I went to the Spar to buy some food and a warm
drink as it was a brisk November morning.
My next stop was ‘The Original Factory Shop’, which is further on down the

2. road. This shop had much more variety on sale than I imagined. It sells
everything from cosmetics to homeware and clothing. The products that they
sell are quite reasonably priced and it’s open seven days a week.
The walk went on, passed the art and craft centre which is on the opposite
side to the Original Factory Shop. It only appears to be open on week days,
which to me seems a bit pointless as the community of this town must work
in the week. When they have the time to look around the shops on a
Saturday they are closed. I would like to see all the shops open on the
weekends, but I’m not a shop owner.
The Tollhouse Snack Bar was open and I had read that they had a Gavin and
Stacey star to open it. I like this shop, as it is bright, young and trendy. They
also serve good food and coffee. There’s a Vaughan’s technology shop and
Eynon’s butchers also on the main street. These are open on a Saturday
morning. I didn’t stop in these shops, as I didn’t want a new TV or meat.
There are three pubs in the town, but I did not get a chance to visit any of
them. There is also a Co-op in the town, but it is quite far from the main
high street.
There are a few fast food takeaways on Pentre Road and a Chinese take
away opposite the Spar, which I would recommend. I had some crispy beef,
soya gravy and noodles on Friday evening and it was really nice. They gave
a fast friendly service and it was also reasonably priced. There’s an Indian
restaurant further down the street called Eliachi. I went there for food on the
Saturday evening and there was a good selection of the menu. The food and
the service couldn’t be any better and I would highly recommend it.

3. The next morning I went for another walk down to the boating club, which is
situated on the other side of the town. The view of the river and the bridge is
quite pleasant, and the walk was lovely. I was a bit disappointed to see so
many signs everywhere telling you what you couldn’t do.
St Clears is a lovely town but could do with a wider range of businesses,
which cater for younger people. There wasn’t a place young people could
hang out and get together and I saw a lot of teenagers on the streets. There
were not the same choices and variety of shops as somewhere like Narberth
and apart from Curios, which was a very pretty shop with interesting items
outside on the pavement the streets were boring to look at. There wasn’t
really much information available and nothing I could interact with on my
mobile phone. I would visit again but would like to see the shops open and
more available for young people.
Editor’s Comment: Jamie is a young student at Coleg Sir Gar on a media
studies course. He volunteered to write an article on St. Clears as part of his
studies. We are grateful to Jamie for his observations based on the
perspective of a young man. Tourism is still a huge part of the economy in
West Wales and towns have to think differently about the way in which they
attract people of all ages. Many young people have the means to travel and
spend money but they must be able to find places which cater for and
welcome them. Mobile phones are also the source of most information for
young people and the new augmented reality technology is exploding onto
streets across Wales. St. Clears has to move into the 21st century in order to
survive. We are grateful to Jamie for taking time out to write the article.