Saturday, March 13, 2010

History of Llanwerth: The Birth of a Community

Summer, 1945. America's sons have seen victory in the European campaign, many a time has Hitler suffered the amazing fist of Captain America, and the war effort is beginning to wind down in the Pacific Theatre. Europe has seen better days and the Soviet threat is so close upon the doorstep, but so far unto history has there never been a better time to be an American. Thanks to some good old fashioned warfare and elbow grease, America has pulled herself from the throes of an economic depression and things are looking up.

© Time Inc.

In that old slice of ground now known as Llanwerth, the towns have all begun to be be renamed to forms more recognizable by modern standards and the farming business is beginning to boom again. The boys home from Europe have begun to look for places of their own, giving rise to an explosion of suburbia. Though many settle for places a bit nearer to the city for an easy commute, some are willing to take the extra time for that little slice of heaven. It is these families who come out and see the transformation of towns like Wadefeld from happy vacation hole to an American benchmark.

© Time Inc.

The 1940s roll on and so does America's fortune. In 1947 the Levittown model springs up and is fast copied by developers around the nation. The construction of highways and turnpikes continues to march on. The already thriving towns of Wadefeld, Abernathy, and Allerton explode thanks to these efforts. In no time at all, the once abundant farmland has been shrunk to covering only about thirty percent of the area. More and yet more, the towns grow.

© Time Inc.

Soon construction begins on new, smaller towns along the plots of land surrounding the few surviving farms. Many farmers give up and head west, hoping to find better chances of a largely undisturbed life out in Nebraska, Kansas, and the like. Developers buy up the farms and bring them down to put up more homes. It soon becomes apparent that many of these locations are too small to ever constitute town status, and due to their closeness they agree to band together into townships. Life is great for the residents of the area, but as the 1940s draw to a close, a select few begin to see the ugly truth on the horizon.

© Time Inc.

No comments:

Post a Comment