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My name is Rhys, a first time dad blogging about my adventures and experiences of being a parent. [email protected]

Could these be the most longstanding neighbours in Wales?

To celebrate their 50th anniversary housing, support and care provider Hafod are looking back over the years to find out the difference they’ve made to people’s lives.

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This includes the story of the Morris and Thomas family who both moved into Hafod’s first ever development in Marlborough Close, Barry on the same day in 1976 with their young families.

As a newly married couple, Elizabeth and Gwyn Thomas lived in a flat locally but their plans to have children meant that they needed somewhere bigger to call their family home. Similarly, Jennifer and Bill Morris needed to find a larger home when their daughter was just five months old and they were expecting their second child. Both applied to live in a Hafod home and were successful.

Since moving in, as well as being neighbours they’ve become friends and work colleagues! They watched their children grow up playing outside together, going over each other’s homes for food and sleepovers. They’ve also held street parties, firework displays, barbecues, Halloween get-togethers and much more.

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In addition to this both husbands spent a number of years working at Cardiff Bus at the same time and even toured in an all-male group called ‘The Killer Girls’ dressing up as women to raise funds for Kidney Research UK.

Elizabeth said: “I’ve loved living in this community, all my children have grown up here, they’ve made lifelong friends and they even called our neighbours aunties and uncles. ”

Bill told us: “I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else, this has been my home for over 40 years and I’m proud to be a Hafod tenant.”

Today Hafod is one of the largest providers of housing, support and care in South Wales with over 6,000 homes, over 800 of which are in the Vale of Glamorgan. A further 154 are in the pipeline in the county during 2019 including homes available for rent at affordable levels and those available as part of our Low Cost Home Ownership scheme.