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Oral history recording with Grace Baxter, born in Kingston, Jamaica. Recorded as part of Race Council Cymru’s Windrush Cymru Heritage Project.

“They worked in places like factories, sweeping the streets, hospitals, any jobs that they could get…”

Grace Baxter was born in Kingston, Jamaica. Her father came to Britain first in 1951, followed by her mother, later ending for Grace.

“They heard a rumour that I wasn’t eating properly… they were a bit worried so that’s when they sent for me to come to England… I came over when I was three.”

“I stayed with my grandmother, who was not happy for me to leave at all… I remember it myself. She said to me, ‘a man is coming to take you away and so you go under the bunkbed and don’t come out until he’s gone.’”

“I could hear these raised voices…I just couldn’t breathe anymore… the man who was from the British Embassy looked and he said ‘There she is!’ and pulled me out and that was the beginning of the journey to Britain. I haven’t forgotten it.”

“They [Grace’s parents] noticed the Welsh people are very lovely and the place was nice… they decided they’re going to continue doing their church work there and linked up with people in the Valleys who ran chapels up there.”

“As I got older, things got easier because times were changing… The younger generation, then coming up were a bit rebellious… if they wanted to talk to a Black person or get married to a Black person… no-one was going to stop them… That was a very big change in the 70s, I would say.”

“I went to work in the hospital… then I decided I would host people from abroad, start a nursery and get involved in the community and families which I trained to do nursery work.”

“It’s a good idea for future generations to know what it was like when we came here first and how we built up the country, which was what we came to do.”