Before reaching her teenage years, Rebekha would experience a major upheaval when The Esmond's moved to Nolton Haven, a small coal port fourteen miles to the North West of Burton. I wonder how the family made the move? Was it a long trek through dusty country lanes with a young girl trudging patiently behind an ancient packhorse, occasionally giving the historic equivalent of the popular phrase uttered by so many children down the years, “Are we nearly there?” Maybe her bonnet hung by a red ribbon from her neck despite her mother’s warnings that she’d get freckles. Maybe she carried a basket holding her mushroom collection but it would be a skinny breakfast in the morning as she was dropping as many as she picked. Maybe she whistled and sang as she skipped along:-


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Or was there just a bit more romance involved in the journey? Could they have gone by sea, perhaps asking a friendly fisherman to sail Rebekha and her family to the end of the haven, then around the headland turning Westwards towards her new home?

These days, Nolton Haven is a hamlet halfway along the coast of St Bride's Bay in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is included within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. It has just one pub and.....well, that's just about it. The main purpose for this hamlet had once been coal mining but a very primitive, dangerous form of mining featuring bell-pits. Colliery waste still lines the shore at Nolton now disguising itself as sand dunes but just a little surface scrape will uncover their true nature.