Dot Cotton added to Pontyates mural after June Brown link discovered

Dot Cotton was added to a Pontyates mural after the community discovered that June Brown had been evacuated to the Carmarthenshire village as a 12-year-old in 1939. Brown, who later became famous for playing Dot Cotton in EastEnders, described Pontyates as a “safe haven” and went on to join the Wrens.

The mural in Pontyates had been in development for about four years and was painted by Steve Jenkins, known as JenksArt, for Pontyates Community Improvement, also called Gwella Cymuned Pontiets. The finished wall brought together the Kidwelly and Llanelly Canal, daffodils, the Ddraig Goch, the Pontyates RFC logo, the Arthurian Twrch Trwyth, the village’s mining past and a reference to the area’s former name, Sarn.

Community fundraising paid for the large wall, with events including an annual party on the pitch helping to cover costs. The design was also shaped by brainstorming sessions with children from two local schools, giving the project a wider village footprint before a single celebrity connection altered the final image.

Dot Cotton was not part of the original plan. A member of Pontyates Community Improvement persuaded Jenkins to add the character once Brown’s connection to Pontyates had been confirmed, turning a local heritage mural into a wartime story about evacuation, memory and the unexpected paths that linked London and rural Wales.

Jenkins said Dot Cotton would likely be the most talked-about part of the wall, and the reaction quickly proved him right. The community group later said the mural had exceeded expectations and become a talking point in the village as viewers realised the EastEnders character had a real-life bond with Pontyates.

Brown’s evacuation placed her among the children sent away from towns and cities during the Second World War, part of a nationwide movement that reshaped family life and left lasting ties between host communities and evacuees. In Pontyates, that history now sits beside canal scenes, mining references and Welsh symbols on a wall designed to celebrate local identity while also recalling how war reached even a small village in the Gwendraeth Valley.