In 1968, when my eldest son Christopher was eight, David was four, and Peter only five months old, it was with mixed feelings that we travelled from Abbey Wood, southeast London, to Cwmbran, South Wales, to live. My wife Diane had made her feelings known from the outset. She resented the move, and for some time after had bouts of homesickness. Fortunately, none of us felt completely isolated (as is sometimes the case when families move to a place that has a different dialect and outlook) for Cwmbran has a wide cross-section of people from all over the British Isles due to population overspill from the cities. Another form of segregation did take place however, but more about that later.

Cwmbran is a new town located close to surrounding countryside. The main shopping precinct has been developed with the local community in mind, and the town is a pleasant contrast to the recurring housing designs one sees in many new towns (where unrestrained town planning and financial considerations have triumphed over public need). In Cwmbran, attention has been given to landscaping and trees     a vast improvement over the dismal new town at Abbey Wood. Cwmbran has been developed with housing estates of varied design, built around a few older villages. But as new industry attracted people from all over Britain, it has meant that Cwmbran is not a close-knit community. It lacks a definable character of its own. And as for the surrounding countryside, it would have benefited local residents far more if the ownership of it were shared with them, rather than kept in the control of a small group of self-interested landowners and farmers depriving everyone.

After a couple of years of my family and I living in Cwmbran, a man calling himself a Jehovah's Witness (apparently the local JW 'elder') visited to expound the Scriptures to me. During a second visit it was apparent to me that this man was an apostate. It was imperative that I tell him, so I said,

"You are an apostate, aren't you?"

It was a charge he was unable to refute. Further visits were terminated. Not long after that, my family and I moved to an adjacent street and a larger house. It was there that another JW called, a woman this time. She arranged for me to begin studying the Bible with her husband. I mentioned the visit of the apostate 'elder', and she replied,

"Oh, he's not with us any longer."

- 72 -