This is Likely Used with Adam and Karen. Welcome
to Likely Used, episode 32. Very different to
what we had planned. It was going to be a daytime
ghost hunt, but I woke up this morning feeling
like shit, so we're doing a much more cobbled
-together episode instead. Sorry. No, I don't
think we should apologise. We're going to have
a guest and everything. Semi -professional paranormal
investigator was going to be on this show. Which
I am looking forward to still. We'll do this
at a later episode, I promise. I'll reschedule
that episode for a daytime ghost hunt. Yeah.
Today's Cobble Together episode is for local
folklore, something I wanted to do for a little
while. Today, we're at St Mary's Church in Swansea.
Renovations to St Mary's Church began in the
1890s. The local unnamed architect's designs
were rejected. And so Arthur Blomfield's designs
were used instead. And he's a bit of a la -di
-da type fella. It's always about the money.
Still always about the money. Also, his father
was connected to the church. I think he was a
bishop of the Anglican church. Oh, so he was
a nepo baby. And his father was part of rebuilding
the church. And in this case, literally, his
son rebuilt the church. With his own hands. Well,
he was the architect of it, so they chose the
big la -di -da architect to go with instead.
But years later, the local architect, still a
bit missed and slight, the local guy, choose
me. Across from where we're standing is the Quadrant.
A couple of years after the church was built,
there was a row of cottages there that went up
for sale. Right. The local architect bought them
and demolished them. Okay. And instead built
a building of his design. a red brick building
which became the offices for a local brewery.
I did find out what that was once, and then I
lost that bit of information. I can't find that
page on the internet anymore. It's not one of
those random facts that's stuck in your brain.
Likewise, the architect. Not credited anywhere.
This local guy, the main guy behind all this
story, not named. Not at all. He bought the row
cottages, demolished them, in its place. built
a red brick building which became the offices
for the local brewery and perched between the
two upstairs windows facing the church a rather
distinctive sculpture it was a wooden devil a
devil you say a devil and it's reported or legend
possibly more likely that the architect said
when your church is destroyed and burnt to the
ground my devil will remain laughing Took a few
decades, but the prophecy came true. There was
a three -day blitz in 1941. Much of Swanview
was destroyed, including St Mary's Church. The
whole church? Most of it. Right, okay. It was
really badly damaged. The roof completely went.
Some of the walls were bits of remaining, but
it wasn't usable. Don't look like Henry VIII's
have had a go at it. Across the road, though,
absolutely untouched. The devil stayed perched
on the building, smiling, smirking, overlooking
the smouldering remains of St Mary's Church.
Was the unknown architect actually the devil?
Mr. B. L. Z. Bub. Yeah, that's the one. The devil
stayed perched there, and that was until 1962,
and the offices were destroyed to make way for
the Quadrant Shopping Centre. Oh, goddamn the
60s. In 1964, Lynn Lewis, who is a local telephone
electrical engineer, He found the statue in a
Hereford junk shop. He recognised it from passing
by the brewery offices when he was a lot younger.
He bought it and stored it in his garage. And
in 1982, the South Wales Evening Post then put
out an appeal to find the statue. And local historian
Chris Rowley brought the statue back and placed
it inside the shopping centre where I remember
seeing it as a kid. Shall we go over there now?
Yes, let's walk and talk. Literally across the
road. We should have recorded over there a bit
closer. No, there's God Bother Us singing about
how Jesus is going to save everybody. Yeah, there
is a PA system blaring out. Yeah. We tried walking
away around the other side and there's some generator
buzzing away. I mean, for anyone that regularly
records outside, well done you. Congratulations,
because it is so difficult, number one, to walk
around talking to yourself and not feel like
a complete lunatic. But number two, try and find
somewhere that you can actually talk where the
ambient background noise doesn't take over the
words that you're trying to portray. We tried
starting three times. Every time there was a
person coming, there was a child starting crying
as we walked past. Ooh, Anne Somers has got a
sale, 70 % off. Limited I'm only. The sale might
be over by the time you hear this. So we've just
walked down the steps out of the churchyard and
now we're on the main thoroughfare. by Prime
Arnie outside the Quadrant Shopping Centre. Heading
towards the White Hall's entrance. Ah, well done
for knowing the name. Pigeon attack. Well done
for knowing the name. I saw recently, actually,
on Swansea Scoop, shout out to Swansea Scoop
of Instagram, that the entrances to the Quadrant
and the market around the outside of the Quadrant
are being done up. And I think the winning design
is all made of copper. which makes sense because
Swansea was pretty much the Copperopolis. There
is a copperworks not too far away from here that
they've done up recently and they've put a gin
distillery in there I think, or whiskey. We'll
have to go down there for us to pull at some
point. We'll sit back in the industrial revolution.
It's Swansea, it's copper, and it's tin. Oh,
so that's why it's Tinopolis and Swansea is Copperopolis.
Copperopolis is a much nicer sounding mouthfeel
word. So apologies for plenty of background noise,
we are now inside the shopping centre which is
full of people. Years ago, I think the shop used
to be slightly different but there was a bend
here and around about this high there used to
be... where the signs are, there's little trellis
going across with flowers and plant pots in it.
And around here on the corner, this is where
Old Mick was perched. I'm going to take a photo
of you pointing. Your crotch is out of shot.
I'm tucking my gut away underneath my hoodie.
But yeah, that used to be roughly there, it was
where. Nick was perched overlooking the church.
There was a lot of controversy getting the Saint...
Old Nick, Saint Nick. Saint Nick, that's Christmas,
right? There was a lot of pushback from the church.
But I think South Wales Evening Post had a big
campaign to get this reinstated. From being perched
a bit, he was eventually moved. I don't know
how much of it was part of the refit. of the
shopping center or people complaining that eventually
he was put in a staff only area which is on the
gantry overlooking the shopping center but again
facing the church so when people were walking
in old Nick was still overlooking he's still
going haha i'm still here motherfuckers just
casually see how much this coat is oh it stayed
there until 2019. Oh right, you nearly hit that
man in the face there. He was walking close to
me. He was. Sorry, from the mid -80s to 2019,
Old Nick remains in the Quadrant Shopping Centre,
where they're always on display or stored away
at some point. Yeah. But he was over here, but
he's eventually rehomed in Swansea Museum, where
we'll be going next. Which is only down the road.
And he has been painted and repainted quite a
few times looking at photos. Yeah. But... Originally,
I think it was a completely wooden statue. Just
plain carved wood. When I saw him in the 80s,
when he was up here, he was painted red. He had
a kind of pinky belly. Right. Flesh -coloured
face, black hair, and some of them put glass
eyes. So it was glass, beady glass eyes of the
devil when he was up there watching people. That
really freaked me out. This sounds horrifying.
As a grown -up, it was about the height that
you could reach and touch him. Oh, really? As
a kid. He was just there. He was just out of
reach of a child. That's funny. Again, that's
probably another reason why he's not there anymore.
Yeah, probably. Someone would have been bound
to have nicked him anyway if he just nicked Nick.
I like what you did there. Right. To Swansea
Museum? Okay, let's do it. We will be back on
the microphones shortly. Tattie bye, Tattie bye.
Okay, so we're now just inside Swansea Museum.
We've just gone greeted by the host. I was going
to say, guess who I've seen straight away. I
just saw your reaction. I literally just spotted
it from the corner of your ear. That's why I
stood there to talk with you. Clever. So we're
in Swansea Museum. We're in the World War II
and Swansea history section. We're the only people
in here, which is quite nice. and uh oh no there's
another lady who's walked in so nick is sat on
top of a display cabinet in the corner stroking
his chin like a cheeky old chubby i'm just going
to um get my camera up so you can have some super
duper high resolution photos oh he's still got
his weird glass eyes three feet high Oh, I can't
zoom in on high res. Hang on, I'll put it on
portrait mode. Give me to hold the camera closer
if you can't zoom in. No, actually, that's a
pretty decent picture. I'm proud of that. Oh,
yes. The Sponsor Devil History. But again, the
local architect. Unnamed. Isn't named. Arthur
Bloomfield, who didn't design the building or
the statue, yet he's mentioned. Oh, I should
get my K2 out. Bought a K2 meter just in case.
Let's switch this on. Okay, we're on green, which
is normal, 0 to 1 .5 millivolt. Let's see if
we can get any closer to Nick. Sorry, I probably
put my hand on your photo then. No, it doesn't
look like Nick has got any active spirits. K2
refuses to shift off green. Maybe we have to
say something to him. He's quite impressive.
I'm kind of sad that his horn has been made into
his hair, though, with the paint job. I think
he might have always, but I don't remember his
horns being a different colour. Got a little
quote here from Derek Thomas of Town Hill. The
Home Guard would go and parade every Sunday.
It was like watching something out of Dad's army.
That's funny. Oh God, you know, I'm surprised
we don't have Make Do and Mend campaigns now.
Touch. I wasn't rubbing. Just a touch of patina.
Just a gentle poke with the tip. There was no
friction. Just the pads of my fingers. I was
touching my nails. Oh my God, is that a gas mask
for a baby? An entire baby in there. Holy shit.
It is an entire baby suit. With a lappy sort
of bit. It's like a leather sack with a mask.
And a baby tied into it. So, let's see if I can
get a shot of that. I'll just put my phone on
top of the display cabinet so I don't upskirt
the baby. Oh, there's a little blurb. It says...
Gus mask for children under two years old. This
mask would have totally enclosed the baby so
that the head was inside the steel helmet and
the inner straps were fastened with its legs
dangling free below. Christ. I must have weighed
a ton. It's like 90 % metal. I've been checking
out some of the propaganda. What have you found?
Oh, it's a swastika. The German liars in the
newspaper. Tum -tum, going under first. For laughter
serves to win for us the war of nerves. Editors,
The Fury, Dr. Goebbels, General Boring. Nice.
I like it. That's all they had to draw for Hitler
was the cracked hair and the shitty tash. And
the tash. That's all they have drawn. Yeah, it's
like one of those iconic, unfortunately, iconic
images that you just put two black blobs together
in the right... place and you know exactly who
it's referring to when i was doing much of some
random thought from the past when i was doing
my a -level art in its old school in shift when
i first started it the project i was working
on was how few marks can you make in order for
the same image to translate and it was really
really interesting um and i was loving it and
i was making this massive piece it was like home
on the wall it was like i don't know maybe 18
a2 paper all taped together with a projector
and all this and it was just fascinating and
then we moved and then i didn't do that i carried
on doing our a level but my teacher was a cunt
she failed me nearly she didn't like that i liked
architecture and art Whereas everyone else was
like, oh, I'm going to do dead stuff. We're into
vampires and grim and guts. And I'm like, I'm
too placid for this shit. So yeah, I got marked
down for not being creative enough. There we
are. Not bitter. Gosh, these photos are insane.
The German plane was flying low enough for me
to see his face. I could see his head in the
cockpit. Mary Duffy of Town Hill. Town Hill was
one of the areas that got hit quite badly, wasn't
it? I think where I lived, I think where I lived
on Gomer Gardens, the sort of like quarry kind
of green area to the side, I think that was like
a landslide from a bombing. Not actually a quarry.
Moulded green glass beer bottle with the name
Bradford Swansea said to have been found. In
this melted state following the three -night
blitz of 1941, Bradford's was a wine and spirit
merchant at 11 Oxford Street. I'd read it to
you in Welsh, but we won't go very far. Shall
we try? Bradford Swansea. There we are. I'm giving
up. Very disrespectful. I'm not very good at
Welsh. I'm English. What can I say? But yeah,
Nick is definitely an imposing character. I'll
take a slightly wider shot. I thought there was
a way out here. It's not. It's a dead end. Or
there's a lift. I thought there was a way out.
That probably was in the fog. That lady who must
have come out of the lift earlier. Or she was
a ghost. So that is Swansea History and the Second
World War in a very brief rundurund. Do you want
to go downstairs? We'll go to Natural History.
Thank you. We'll toss some fool's gold. Oh, fossil
shark teeth. I always feel like it's an obligation
of some kind to buy something from a shop in
a museum. And it has to be like the daftest thing
you can find. And then you have to gift it to
somebody who you know really won't appreciate
it. But we'll say thank you anyway. Oh my God,
there's a dead giraffe. Well, the neck and head
of a dead giraffe. Okay, we are in. Oxfam t -shirt's
pretty cool. A little section. Oh yeah, it is,
isn't it? Oxfam Walk 69. That's very cool. Model
trains and Swansea had the first passenger railway
in the world. Did they? Swansea to Oystermouth,
you know, on the... The track. Yeah, that's all
been redone for the seafront walk and everything
and the bike track. Yeah. I didn't know that.
My one bit of trained knowledge. Nice. Right,
let's have a look down this section. We're adjacent
to the natural history, so I think this is the
archaeology. Did she say? This is the big stones.
The knoll stone. The stone's part of a Celtic
wheel cross carved during the 11th century. The
figure is a Celtic priest wearing a short pleated
kilt. He has his hands raised in prayer. Above
the priest is the bottom section of the wheel
cross. As I've read that out, I should take a
photo with him. He does look like he's muscling,
doesn't he? Thank you. It's alright. Oh wow,
look at this. The light in here is brilliant.
Look at that. That's impressive texture. It's
good that I occasionally remember my phone can
do clever things. Oh, there's some stairs. That
was the lady. I thought it was the girl. Yeah,
but the lift is there. Have they just come out
the back? It makes no sense. This place is...
There's the quote from Dead Time. What? I'm so
confused. Okay, so you could get out of Nick's
room. We stood right by him and didn't see the
exit. Oh, we did go back over there to look at
the other bits in the exhibit, mind you. That's
very true. We got lost in the first room. That
didn't take much to get lost, to be honest. Not
for me, anyway. Ooh, this is a nice room. They
have green and two -tone green. Could almost
be insipid. Not quite. Sorry, I thought there'd
be some... I didn't know it was going to fall
that far. You noisy sod. I thought I'd put some
money in donations in, but it doesn't sound like
anybody else has. Or it's regularly changed.
You know what this room is missing? Strangely?
No, the particular colour scheme is making me
think of a film that you made me watch. And there's
a certain woman who lives in a very green room
slash flat wearing a very purple, very tight
bodysuit. And she has a white cat and the detective
has gone to see her. Oh my God, this is the one
that Cheap Show did that you made me watch. Oh,
Dangerous Davies? Yeah. Who's the woman in it?
I can't remember her name. Eli's got a thing
for her. Maureen Lippman. That's it. Maureen
Lippman is the only thing missing from this room.
Yeah, you know, you mentioned the green spandex.
No, she was in purple spandex. The room was green.
I don't remember that. I do. I could be wrong.
We'll have to re -watch it. Which one of us is
remembering the inverse of the colour of what
she was wearing? God only knows. Oh, Torbjork.
Puzzle jokes. The characteristic feature of this
period was the manufacture of puzzle jugs. Puzzle
jugs were always considered amusing. All the
Swansea puzzle jugs work on a suction principle.
Before you can succeed, you must cover with three
fingers a small hole concealed in the handle
and two of the three spouts. Only then can you
drink or pour the jug. That's cool. I'll be honest,
I wouldn't want any of these in my display cabinet.
Not that I've got a display cabinet. You'd have
to get the entire set. It's too much, eh? It's
too busy. Oh, I like the piggies. Where are we?
You wear me pig, early 20th century. Earthenware
pig, charmingly modelled as a seated pig. of
generous proportions in dark red clay covered
with a cream slip beneath a honey -coloured glaze
inscribed in sgraffito mochin to or gunry fat
pig of wales and they are quite cute though let's
get a little snappy schnapper these little sausages
oh you can get out side to the big metal works
oh toilet push there's one of them all right
so now we are outside the back of the museum
massive water pump where there's a couple of
prefabs oh there's a red telephone box And we've
got a Periant Pumpio Tunnel Havren, which is
a seven tunnel pumping engine. I'm guessing these
are connected. Yeah, presumably. Gosh, that's
a big old pump as well, isn't it? Right, let's
take some photos. Because, you know, content.
OK, so to update you, we've been in the museum
far longer than we thought we had. It closes
at four o 'clock. It's ten past four. So we've
escorted ourselves out of the side gate. Thank
you for listening. We were trying out some Bluetooth
microphones. Turns out... I wore mine way too
close to my mouth. Sorry about that. I know it's
a bit of a shorter ep than planned, and there
was no real structure beyond us talking about,
then going to see an old wooden statue. In my
defence, I thought we had 20 more minutes in
the museum. We might have somehow managed to
do a proper ending from whatever we may have
recorded. Possibly, I'd like to think. An addendum,
though, to the tale of the statue. Shoulda, woulda,
coulda. We checked on a map, and Old Nick is
still positioned, looking at St Mary's Church.
Photos of the church, the Helios Science slash
Art installation that they were hosting, the
statue of Old Nick, and a few more pieces from
the Swansea Museum can be found on our blog.
Links to all our socials can be found on our
website, lightlyused .co .uk. And I'll ask Karen
to put all the photos that we each took on our
Instagram feed for you to check out as well.
And since recording the out and about bit at
the museum, we've come back from watching Cheap
Show Live, the Cheerful Earful podcast. Absolutely
fantastic show. We laughed loads and we tried
some truly terrible crisps, I think. Leighton
J was to blame for those. Also hello to A Pint
of a Cthulhu Podcast. Your pin badge is absolutely
amazing. Your shiny stickers pride of place on
my tat in the box. Box of tat. Yven from Cheap
Show Magazine. The brains and the brawn behind
it. Hello to you as well. You were absolutely
swarmed but Karen did manage to get a chance
to say hello as well. Now I'm on the spot. I'm
pretty sure I'm forgetting to mention others
from our parasocial pod squad. becoming a lot
less para now that we've met each other in person
a couple of times. Anyway, we are part of the
Studio Channel 84 network of independent podcasts.
There's the Variety Show with TJ and Rob, the
Untitled Sci -Fi Show with Rob and TJ, Who Takes
the Socks Off? and the spin -off minisode series
Socks On or Off? with Ross and Simon, and Super
A to Z with James. Also, the Land Before Prime
five -minute micro -movie review podcast. All
can be found at channel84 .co .uk. We'll be back
next month. Thanks again for listening. Renovation
to St. Mary's Church began in the 1890s. This
is over the years. Bits have fallen down due
to bad weather. Did it get hit in the war? There
we are. I've been interested. The punctum of
the entire story is that's a bit... Sorry. Over
the years, the church has been... Oh, fuck, there's
people coming now. Well, we are outside. It's
going to happen. This was a studio channel 84
network show to find more head over to channel
84 .co .uk now.