Welcome to the Family Website for the Williams and Evans families(my parents)
Barnston Vicarage and Church
'Everyone of my memories occurred within a hundred steps of this spot. '
'Are they good memories? '
'No they are grand.'
Max Skinner, A Good Year
I have chosen Barnston as the website name as it was our home from 1953 to 1984.
My father was Vicar of Barnston on the Wirral, we had very many happy years here and it's the place we all regarded as home.
The site is divided historically starting with the history of my father's family Henry Leslie Williams and the history of my mother's family Elsie Marie Williams (nee Evans) and leading to our time at Barnston and beyond.
My family will follow
There are 9 sections, click on the links below to go directly to a section
(or the lines in the top left corner of the page if you are using a mobile device)
My parents, along with some fantastic memories, left boxes and boxes of photos, slides and some video. I have spent weeks scanning these and am now just starting to create the site. My mother and father also made some notes on Tregarth, the quarry at Penrhyn where many of dad's family worked as well as notes on their recollections of family members. To maintain the integrity of their thoughts these are included verbatim in blue in various sections of the site.
"Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man."
St. Ignatius Loyola
One of the many things I have learned/relearned during the initial work on the website is what a profound impact the context you are born into has on your values and beliefs in later life.
The pages on Tregarth
and especially the Penryhyn Quarry
really capture the world my father was born into I would suggest you start there before reading his and my mothers pages.Barnston
the obvious next stop
This is an ongoing project so it will develop, hopefully rapidly, over the next few years.
I imagined when I started this project that we would be very limited for information on our ancestors, as it turns out I couldn't have been more wrong..
If you have any photos, videos or stories that link with our time at Barnston, Chester or indeed prior to my parents arrival in England from North Wales I would be very grateful if you could contact me using the form below.
David Williams 17th November 2023
Please Contact Us
On some of the more recent pages (from the 60's onwards) I have included a song that reflected the decade for me.Dad wasn't available to be consulted for them. However I can say with absolute certainty that he would approve of this one. The Welsh National Anthem 'Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau' 'Land of My Fathers' at Cardiff just before Wales beat England 30 -3 at Rugby to win the Six Nations title. It was the last Wales England game he watched. He would have been delighted to see it here!
1. This land of my fathers is dear to me
Land of poets and singers, and people of stature
Her brave warriors, fine patriots
Shed their blood for freedom
Chorus:
Land! Land! I am true to my land!
As long as the sea serves as a wall
For this pure, dear land
May the language endure for ever.
2. Old land of the mountains, paradise of the poets,
Every valley, every cliff a beauty guards;
Through love of my country, enchanting voices will be
Her streams and rivers to me.
3. Though the enemy have trampled my country underfoot,
The old language of the Welsh knows no retreat,
The spirit is not hindered by the treacherous hand
Nor silenced the sweet harp of my land.
