11 High Street, Llandaff

11 High Street, also known as 'Mrs Pratchett's' sweet shop, is a two-storey residential building in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales. The owner, Mrs Han Lau, had turned it into a Chinese restaurant around 2009, calling it The Great Wall. Mrs Lau later converted it into the present day holiday let. The building is not a listed building, unlike others in High Street, such as St Andrew, St Cross, 6 High Street and 19 High Street.

The building is best known for where the ''The Great Mouse Plot of 1923'' occurred, where Roald Dahl and four other school-boys played a prank on the sweet shop owner, by putting a dead mouse in a gobstopper jar. At the time of the prank the shop was owned by Catherine Morgan, although in his book '' Boy: Tales of Childhood'' her pseudonym is Mrs Pratchett, and the shop was 'Mrs Pratchett's sweet shop'. The sweet shop inspired Dahl's stories such as ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', ''The Twits'' and ''Matilda''. In September 2009 a blue plaque was unveiled by his widow, Felicity, and his son Theo, on one of his favourite sweet shops.

History

100 years ago High Street was a dirt road, with dilapidated thatched cottages on one side of the street and hoardings on the other. 11 High Street is thought by Airbnb to have been built in the 19th century. At around 1900 Catherine Morgan established a sweet shop on the ground floor, known as Catherine Morgan Confectioner and Tobacconist,
she ran the shop for 37 years along with her two elderly spinster daughters Kate and Sarah. In 1939 she died, aged 84, in the flat above the sweet shop, where she had lived for 64 years. The old sweet shop is now better known as Mrs Pratchett's sweet shop.

The sweet shop is where the young Roald Dahl would buy sweets on his way to and from Llandaff Cathedral School where he attended from 1923 to 1925. It provided Dahl with inspiration for some of his books including ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', ''The Twits'' and ''Matilda''.

The owner of the building is now Mrs Han Lau, had turned it into a Chinese restaurant around 2009, calling it The Great Wall. Mrs Lau then converted it into a holiday let in 2017 and is cuurrently available to rent for overnight stays.

The Great Mouse Plot of 1923

Dahl would often visit the sweet shop at 11 High Street, where he would spend his pocket money on gobstoppers, toffees and other sweets. In his 1984 autobiography titled ''Boy: Tales of Childhood'' and his book ''The Great Mouse Plot'', Dahl describes the shop as “the very centre of our lives. To us, it was what a bar is to a drunk, or a church to a Bishop”.

The owner of the sweet shop was "a mean and loathsome old woman named Mrs Pratchett", as Dahl wrote in his book ''Boy: Tales of Childhood''. At the time of the prank, the shop was owned by Catherine Morgan, although in his book '' Boy: Tales of Childhood'' her pseudonym is Mrs Pratchett, and the shop was 'Mrs Pratchett's sweet shop'. Dahl wrote "By far the most loathsome thing about Mrs Pratchett was the filth that clung around her. Her apron was grey and greasy. Her blouse had bits of breakfast all over it, toast-crumbs and tea stains and splotches of dried egg-yolk." As a seven year old, along with four other boys, decided to put a stinky dead mouse in a gobstopper jar to terrify "Mrs Pratchett". The next morning the boys walked past the sweet shop only to find it closed, with the gobstopper jar smashed over the floor. The prank worked, but she got her revenge when she told their school’s headmaster of what they had done and swiftly got them caned. The incident is cited as an inspiration for Dahl's stories such as ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', ''The Twits'' and ''Matilda''.

The Roald Dahl blue plaque

It had not been clear where 'Mrs Pratchett's sweet shop was located. The Llandaff Society had thought it could have been 11 High Street or any of the following locations where Dahl spent his pocket money on sweets. The other locations were 38 Bridge Street, 2 High Street, a site on Cardiff Road, 48 High Street, or the HSBC bank on Cardiff Road. It needed a visit from Lissy, Dahl's second wife, to determine the exact location of the sweet shop. The blue plaque was the first commemorative plaque to recognise Dahl's life in Llandaff, that was able to be viewed by the public.

The plaque was unveiled by Dahl's son Theo, on the afternoon of Monday 9 September 2009. Children from local schools were also invited to the ceremony. The sweet shop was located just a short distance from Llandaff Cathedral School, where Dahl attended between 1923 and 1925.

References

External links

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Roald Dahl
High Street, Llandaff
Blue plaques