From YMCA Brickwork to Racing Legends: Stories Linking Swansea and Kent
From YMCA Brickwork to Racing Legends: Stories Linking Swansea and Kent
Sidcup and Chislehurst, Kent, are closely
linked by both distance and shared history, which makes Chislehurst
a fitting point on which to conclude this story. Though separate on the map,
their proximity hints at shared paths, familiar landscapes, and the
movements of individuals whose lives left marks far beyond their own time. The
threads that connect them — from architecture and theatre to engineering
brilliance and record-breaking ambition — reveal how even
neighbouring places can hold stories that stretch across generations. And so,
as these connections unfold, Chislehurst becomes not just an ending, but
a place where the histories converge and settle, offering a final chapter
filled with echoes of all that came before.
So, let’s begin.
Swansea YMCA
The YMCA building, located on the corner of Page Street,
was constructed in 1912 to the designs of Swansea architect
Glendinning Moxham, in the Baroque style. The estimated cost was
around £15,000.Swansea YMCA
A contemporary article in 1913 described it as:
“One of the most modern and effectively equipped
institutions in the whole country, and an architectural ornament to the town.”
Its facilities included:
- Reception
hall
- Lounge
- Social
and dining halls
- Enquiry
offices
- Reference
library
- Secretaries’
offices
- Educational
rooms
- 18
bed-sitting rooms
- Gymnasium
- Public
hall and balcony (seating 550–600)
- Roof
garden
The opening ceremony was performed by Lord Kinnaird,
President of the YMCA and Principal of the Football Association.
A plaque reads:
“To the glory of God and for the good of man.”
Glendinning Moxham
Glendinning Moxham, born on 18th May
1865 in Swansea, Wales, trained under R. Charles Sutton in
Nottingham between 1883 and 1886, and also studied at the Swansea
School of Art and University College Nottingham. He worked as an
assistant to James Buckley Wilson from 1887 to 1889, before
beginning independent architectural practice in Swansea in 1889,
partnering with Wilson until 1901.
From 1913 to 1930, he served as Head of the
Architectural School at Swansea School of Art, and during the First World
War worked as architect to the Red Cross. He was architect to the Swansea
General and Eye Hospital, President of the South Wales Institute of
Architects in 1914–15, and elected Fellow of the Royal Institute
of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1905.
His known addresses included 39 Castle Street, Swansea
in 1905, and 18 Castle Street in 1914 and 1939. He died on 27th
March 1946, at 208 Gower Road, Sketty, Swansea.
His works listed in Who’s Who in Architecture (1923)
included Barclays Bank, Swansea (1913), the London City and Midland
Bank, Neath, additions to the Swansea General and Eye Hospital (1912),
the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery (1912), the Bristol Channel Yacht Club,
Mumbles, the Convalescent Home for the Blind, Caswell, the Christian
Scientist Church, Swansea, and numerous ecclesiastical and domestic
buildings throughout South Wales. Following the YMCA, he also designed the Llewellyn
Building in 1920.
Abbey Players
Leading figures included Frank Tucker, Val
Treharne, and Adrian Howells, and the first script reading took
place at a member’s home in Cwmdonkin House.
Between 1963 and 1978, the Abbey Players performed
annually at Llewellyn Hall before choosing to stage their productions at the Grand
Theatre, where they debuted with How to Succeed in Business Without
Really Trying.
In 2018, marking 50 years since the 1968 film,
the Abbey Players staged Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
 |
| Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car by Ian Fleming |
Though Dahl is most associated with Buckinghamshire, he was born
in Wales — at Villa Marie, Fairwater Road, Llandaff, Cardiff in 1916,
to Norwegian parents. Much of his youth unfolded in the Cardiff–Swansea region,
and many episodes later described in Boy: Tales of Childhood took place
in South Wales. Dahl attended Llandaff Cathedral School, within reach of
Swansea, before further education in Weston-super-Mare and at Repton.
 |
| Roald Dahl |
Though adapting Fleming’s story, Dahl’s touches are visible:
eccentric villains, heightened danger, fantastical mechanics, and a playful
undertone — elements familiar to readers of Dahl’s own books. Geographically
and imaginatively, the Welsh landscapes of his youth sit not far from Pendine
Sands, where the racing tales at the heart of this story later unfold.
Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming, better known as the creator of James
Bond, drew the inspiration for his children’s story from the remarkable
aero-engined “Chitty Bang Bang” cars engineered by Louis Zborowski in
the early 1920s. Fleming’s fascination with engineering, innovation, and
controlled danger echoed both in Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang and in the
espionage world of 007.Ian Fleming
Born in 1908, Fleming was educated in England and
went on to serve in British naval intelligence during the Second World War. His
exposure to espionage, secret communications, undercover operations, and the
personalities within military command all shaped the creation of Bond — the
elegant, skilled, and psychologically complex agent codenamed 007.
A Welsh wartime echo: James Charles Bond
A locally told story in Wales suggests that a Swansea man
named James Charles Bond, born in 1906 and later buried in Gorseinon,
worked as an SOE agent during the war — reportedly under Fleming’s direction.
In 2019, after family research confirmed his covert role, his gravestone was
updated to include “007” in tribute.
This coincidence of name, wartime service, and possible link
to Fleming has sparked speculation that James Charles Bond may have influenced
the creation of the fictional Bond. However, no documentary evidence confirms
this. Fleming himself stated the name came from James Bond, the American
ornithologist, because he wanted something plain, unobtrusive, and
unromantic.
Even so, the Swansea connection persists as a compelling
piece of local lore — a reminder that history often lives in suggestion,
coincidence, and the overlaps of real lives with legends.
Fleming died in August 1964, just two months before Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang
was published.
The Four Chitty Cars
Chitty 2 followed, powered by an 18.8-litre
Benz Bz.IV aero engine. Although less successful as a racing machine, it
undertook an extraordinary journey during the 1922 Sahara Desert expedition,
demonstrating stamina far beyond the racetrack. Years later, its story
continued in the United States, where it became part of the Crawford
Auto-Aviation Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.
Chitty 3, built upon a modified Mercedes
chassis, continued Zborowski’s drive to blend aeronautical engineering with
motor racing. Refined and tuned, it recorded a Brooklands lap speed of
112.68 mph, a testament to the incremental improvement and pursuit of ever
more daring speed.
Chitty 4, best known as Babs and also
called the Higham Special, was the most ambitious of the series. Powered
by a colossal 27-litre Liberty V12 aircraft engine producing around 450
horsepower, it represented the height of experimental interwar motoring.
Following Zborowski’s death in 1924, J. G. Parry-Thomas acquired the car
— and with it, the opportunity to re-engineer and rewrite its destiny.Chitty 4
J. G. Parry-Thomas and Babs
John Godfrey Parry-Thomas was born on 6th
April 1884 in Wrexham, Wales, and became one of the most inventive
and daring engineers and racing drivers of his era. After success at the
racetrack — achieving 38 victories in five seasons — he turned his
attention to the world land-speed record. In 1924, from the
estate of Louis Zborowski, he acquired the huge aero-engined machine
originally known as the Higham Special, the fourth of Zborowski’s “Chitty
Bang Bang” cars. Powered by a 27-litre Liberty V12 aircraft engine,
it was one of the largest-capacity engines ever fitted to a car.John Godfrey Parry-Thomas
Parry-Thomas renamed the machine Babs and rebuilt it
extensively. He fitted four Zenith carburettors, designed new pistons,
and modified the chassis and bodywork to improve stability and airflow. In April
1926, on the sands at Pendine, he set a new land-speed record of
171.02 mph (273.6 km/h), the fastest car yet run at Brooklands, and
a leap forward in the era’s speed engineering.
But the relentless pursuit of higher speeds continued,
especially from rivals like Malcolm Campbell and Henry Segrave.
On 3rd March 1927, attempting to reclaim the record at
Pendine Sands, Parry-Thomas crashed at high speed and was killed. Though widely
believed at the time to have been caused by a snapped drive-chain, later
inspection of the recovered car suggested mechanical failure elsewhere —
possibly a lost wheel — rather than the dramatic chain-break legend.
After the tragedy, Babs was buried in the dunes at
Pendine. There it remained until 1969, when Welsh engineer Owen Wyn
Owen located and excavated it. The restoration that followed was
meticulous: the Liberty V12 was rebuilt, carburettors reinstated, and original
components used wherever possible. Against all expectation, Babs ran again — a
reborn monument to extreme engineering.
 |
| John Godfrey Parry-Thomas grave St Mary’s Church, Byfleet |
Sir Malcolm Campbell
 |
| Sir Malcolm Campbell |
Sir Malcolm Campbell was born on 11th March 1885 in Chislehurst, Kent, and rose to become one of the most recognisable figures in early British motoring. Educated at Uppingham School, he developed an enduring fascination with machinery, speed and competition. During the First World War, he served as a motorcycle dispatch rider, later receiving an officer’s commission in the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment, and eventually flying with the Royal Flying Corps.
After the war, Campbell focused intensely on motor racing
and land-speed challenges. The name “Blue Bird” — taken
from the stage play L’Oiseau bleu — became the signature title he used
for all his record vehicles. In 1924, he achieved 146.16 mph at Pendine
Sands, and on 21 July 1925, at the same site, driving a Sunbeam
350hp Blue Bird, he broke the 150 mph barrier with an official speed
of 150.766 mph.
He went on to set nine world land-speed records
between 1924 and 1935. His most important record came on 3rd
September 1935 at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, where the Campbell-Railton
Blue Bird reached 301.129 mph, making Campbell the first person to
officially exceed 300 mph on land.
Campbell also pursued aquatic speed records, driving his Blue
Bird water-craft to ever greater velocities between 1937 and 1939,
culminating in 141.74 mph on Coniston Water. His influence
extended beyond individual record attempts: Campbell competed successfully at
circuits such as Brooklands, and later became involved in its
development and organisation, helping adapt parts of the site for modern,
high-performance cars.
 |
| Sir Malcolm Campbell grave St Nicholas Church, Chislehurst |
Conclusion
From the YMCA in Swansea to the racing heritage of Pendine
Sands and Chislehurst, these stories reveal how closely people,
places, and remarkable achievements can become woven together. Though separated
on maps and by time, they are linked by shared ambition and a willingness to
push past the limits of the ordinary.
Buildings, theatres, workshops, and long swathes of sand
once hosted those ambitions. Their walls, stages and racing tracks still hold
traces of what happened there. Behind bricks, engines and performances lie
histories of vision, daring, and persistence — and of
individuals determined to test the edge of what was possible.
Names may fade, dates may grow hazy, but the stories remain.
Their echoes continue to shape how we understand the landscapes around us and
the people who once lived, worked, competed, and created within them.
In the end, history is rarely isolated. It is found in
unexpected links, shared geographies, and the legacy of those who dared to
build, to perform, to engineer, and to race into the future.
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