Casgliadau Arlein

Digital copy of a photograph of Matilda Byrd, taken outdoors while attending a wedding. The original photograph is mounted on card, with the photographer's details at the bottom: 'G. V. Knowles, Port Talbot'.

Matilda Elizabeth Byrd (née Richards) was born in Green Pond, Manchester, Jamaica. She emigrated to Port Talbot during the 1960s, joining her husband who had already moved and settled in Wales. The couple raised five children in Maes-y-Cwrt Terrace, Taibach, Port Talbot; five older children remained in Jamaica. Mrs Byrd ran a boarding house from the family home, providing lodgings for newly arrived Jamaicans, and to workers/contractors from the nearby steelworks. She later worked nightshifts at the Mettoy toy factory in Fforestfach, Swansea.