TREGARTH
Tregarth 1922 when Dad was 3 years old
My father really loved Tregarth. Whenever we visited North Wales he got great pleasure from telling me stories of the people and places from his youth. Here are some of his recollections of the village...
Our Village and Our Countryside
The village of Tregarth is situated off the A5 halfway between Bangor and Bethesda in the old County of Caernarvon, known nowadays as part of Gwynedd. In the old days it was a simple, homely friendly area where most of the families were on a par socially, as practically everyone lived on the Penrhyn Estate, lived in the Penrhyn houses and worked on the Penrhyn Quarry. The rent of the houses averaged three shillings and six pence per week inclusive of all repairs and the use of a large garden attached at the rear of each house. There was no sanitation, the lavatory was placed in an outside little shed in the back yard. The other shed was used for storage, washing, personal hygiene, clothes washing. etc etc. The houses were floored with cold slabs of slates, no running water or electricity. Light was provided either by candle or oil lamps. Everyone lived in their back kitchen, the front room was reserved for high days and holiday. The front bedroom was for the parents, the back bedroom for the girls, and the boys packed two in a bed in the loft, covered not with blankets but by old army greatcoats. The ceiling was so low that you could not possibly sit up in bed. But in spite of the hardships and poverty life was extremely happy and I look back to those days with a great deal of pride, gratitude and happiness.
Practically all my family hailed or lived in the vicinity.
My grandparents, when I was a boy, lived at No. 7 Tanrhiw Road, my auntie Alice at No 23, my father's brother and his wife lived at No. 34, and my parents moved from 4, Ffrwd Galed to No 41, in 1938. All of the children were born in the front room of No. 4 Ffrwd Galed.
4 Ffrwd Galed
Pen and Ink sketch Lesley Kennedy
All the children without exception attended the village school, which was only a few yards up the hill from our house. As a family we attended the Church at Gelli, as did many other families, but others attended one or other of the four chapels in the village.
They were called Shiloh, Gorphwysfa, Pen-y-groes, and Chwarel Goch. Actually Chwarel Goch was a little community removed a little from the village, and was situated on the way to Douglas Hill. My uncle Hugh and his family lived in the district and his house was also called Chwarel Goch. My sister Blossie also lived in the area when she was first married to Willie Jacques, but her house was called Fron Heulog. My cousin Idwal and his family lived at a farm called Pandy, where the first Sunday School in the village was started in the last century (19th). My auntie Jane and her husband Now lived at a little farm at Braich. There were no pubs in the village but the men some way or another managed to get their drinks. There were also in the village, four grocer shops, one post office, one butcher shop and a slaughter house. We had a village football team and a village institute where the women had their meetings and the men met for the odd game of snooker.
Parents and children seldom missed the Sunday services, and we were taught to observe the seasons of the church calendar. The season of Lent for example, was observed with the usual attempted discipline. Advent with the great expectation of Christmas, and Easter with the joy of the Resurrection. Shrove Tuesday brings back many memories of going round the village, after school, from door to door singing for pancakes. We would eat as many as we could, some with jam, some with treacle, some with syrup, some half cooked and some burnt beyond eating. The last bit of sweet or chocolate had to be devoured before Ash Wednesday as well. It was extremely difficult to sing or recite at the Sunday School concert on Shrove Tuesday evening in the Church Hall. We were all bloated with pancakes.
Milk and eggs were delivered daily from one of the farms with horse and cart. The smaller farms were also useful in emergencies. Auntie Jane could always be relied upon for milk or eggs in a crisis. We could always buy buttermilk in any of the farms where they churned their own butter. It was sold for one penny a gallon. Not only was it a refreshing drink in the heat of the summer, but was always good to eat poured over fresh potatoes from the garden. I would love to have some today.
Tregarth was always a very neighbourly community, where each family helped the other. During hay-making time, even after a hard day's work in the Quarry, the men would help each other in the small holdings, to gather in the hay and other crops for winter feeding. The picture of auntie Jane's farm is typical of the small farms in the village, where the men would supplement their small Quarry wages by keeping a couple of cows, pigs and some hens.
Neighbourliness was also apparent in time of sickness. Some of the ladies, including my own mother, were always available to deliver babies, to nurse the many T.B. patients and to help in time of bereavement. There was no National Health Scheme in those days and practically every family in the village owed money to the doctors. Consequently, there was some reluctance to call the doctors in time of sickness. As a result all welfare and care for the sick was mostly done by neighbours. But this was not always to the advantage of the sick. I well remember many people suffering with TB, diphtheria, typhoid. So many children from the village died because there was no right diagnosis made, and there was no proper medicine administered. Antibiotics and proper medical care could have saved so many lives.
There was in the village what is seldom seen today, that is, a common oven. Some of the ladies baked their own bread. They also made bread and butter puddings and pickled herrings, and all these were taken to the common oven to be baked. My mother because we were a large family, used to prepare enough dough to make four large loaves three times a week. She would prepare the dough after breakfast, let it rise near the kitchen stove until dinner time and we would take it to the oven on our way to school in the afternoon. We would then collect the baked bread with an old truck made out of orange boxes on our way home from school in the afternoon. Of course it was not easy to ride down hill with four loaves on a truck without an occasional accident. when the loaves would roll in all directions and sometimes the crust peeling off. Slate was used not only for houses and paths. A small piece would be placed on top of the dough for identification as the tins were almost similar one with another. Slate was also used to pave the playground in the school, and even used in lieu of exercise books for our lessons. It was also soft enough to draw on and carve our names on the various gate posts in the houses. The posts in 4, Ffrwd Galled are still carved with our names and drawings to this day. A testimony to the artistic qualities of the Williams family!!
There were plenty of water pumps in the village, but we were fortunate to have our own well at the bottom of the garden which never ran dry, even in the heat of the summer. The village pumps were ideal places for a bit of gossip and friendly chat. They reminded me very much of the wells of Bethlehem where the early Christians ‘gossiped the Gospel’.
The hedges provided good fun for the children. they were full of wild life and beautiful flowers like wild roses and honey suckle. It was good to wander along the country lanes in the Spring and the Summer and smell the flowers and listen to the birds. Kestrels and hawks, weasels and stoats hunted among the bushes. There were plenty of foxes and badgers in the briars and thorns. There were otters on the river side. It was a duty taught to us from an early age to reverence every aspect of nature, to release lamb and sheep caught in the thicket and of course never to disturb the nests of birds or take their eggs.
There were two main events in the course of the year for the village, particularly for the young. The first was the annual Sunday School trip either to Rhyl or Llandudno. But always Rhyl seemed to be the most popular. All the churches combined to hire a special train from Tregarth Station to their destination. Many parents accompanied the children on their outing. It happened always during the school holidays in July. The train would leave Tregarth about 8 a.m. and return about 8 p.m. Of course, many of the children would get lost in the Marine Lake Pleasure Park or wander away from their parents. This would delay the return journey and the train would be very late arriving back in Tregarth. Nevertheless everyone enjoyed themselves, especially the children. It was also a rare day out for the parents, and perhaps the only day out for many of them in the course of the year.
The other village event was on October 19th. It was the local Fair, known in Welsh as ‘Ffair Llan’ because it was held at the next village about three miles away from Tregarth. Llanllechid was a lovely country village with only a few houses, farms and a country church. The walk there was through lovely country and the scenery was second to none. At the fair, it was the custom to hire farm labourers in the morning, and sell, cows, sheep and horses in the afternoon. The rest of the day was spent in selling all manner of things on the stalls, Welsh rock, pottery, china, and clothes. ‘Ladies teasers’ were very popular with the boys, and the girls were showered with water from these simple little pistols. These village fairs are still held in many Welsh villages. There is one annually at the end of October at Menai Bridge.
Saturday evening was always popular with the Quarrymen. They would gather in Bethesda or Bangor for a chat with their colleagues or to enjoy a pint in the local pubs. It was also an opportunity for some to chase the girls, and for the girls to entice them. And who could blame them, as it was the only leisure time available after a long hard week either in the sheds or on the side of the rockface. Bethesda would be full of people walking up and down the street, and the many shops would remain open until very late. Today the streets are empty and many of the shops closed for good. The number of men working in the quarry has been reduced from over three thousand before the Second World War to a few hundred, and this has had a devastating effect on the economy of the district.
There were a number of 'characters’ in the neighbourhood. Jane Evans pictured above used to live in 4 Ffrwd Galed. She had a cat called Bell. Jane was nearly blind and cleaned the school for many years. She was very friendly but desperately poor. The other lady was from Manchester and used to visit Jane every summer.
Another who stands out vividly in my memory was Enoch Elias Williams born in 1889 and died in 1970. Enoch was a man who was lame in one leg and drove a horse and cart from house to house selling vegetables, fruit and fish. It was hard for him to walk with a club foot and he welcomed the lads from the village to help him on his rounds. He always used to tell us that his herrings were thin because they had to swim fast in front of submarines. But he was one of the most honest , delightful and kind men that I have ever come across.
Life in a Village Long Ago
They say that some children are very destructive of their toys. Other children are very caring, preserving their toys, and in due time, passing them on to their own children. When we were young in the village of Tregarth, we had no option. We had very few toys to play with, and consequently, we had to make our own fun. Tregarth with its many hills, river and trees provided ample opportunity to enjoy ourselves.
HLW
The Railway
In addition, there were two railway lines dividing the village, with three wide bridges on which we could linger and play. The LMS Railway ran from Bangor to Bethesda, carrying people and goods. The Penrhyn Quarry railway ran from the Quarry to the quay at Bangor, carrying slates to be exported by ship to various parts of the world. It also carried the men to and from the Quarry each day. My father travelled on this little train daily for over forty years. The railway bridges were wider than the rest of the roads, and provided ideal pitches to play football and learn the art of ball control. It was an unwritten rule that whoever kicked the ball on to the railway, he had to fetch it. This invariably meant a chase either by the porter on duty or the station master himself. Sometimes we would be short of a ball, but the local butcher often came to our rescue and provided us with a pig's bladder. Tregarth was the second of two stops from Bangor to Bethesda, the other was at Felinhen near the village of Glasinfryn.
The Quarry railway line provided a place of great interest to the children. We would sometimes jump on the last waggon on the way towards the Quarry and hitch a lift for a few hundred yards. We would place a pin or a nail or a halfpenny on the track to be flattened the weight of the trucks. Two of the old engines are still in existence today. They are Blanche and Linda, which were sold to the Ffestiniog Railway in the early sixties, and now carry passengers from Portmadoc to Ffestiniog daily.
HLW
There were plenty of trees in and around the village, notably Parc Dob and Parc Braich. There were also plenty of trees on the of the river and on the railway sides. Trees were for us a source not only of great beauty but also of great fun. Birds made their nests in the branches, and sheltered there from the heat of the summer and, also, from the cold winds of winter. There they found sanctuary from poachers and predators. We were familiar with the eggs that we saw, but as we were taught, we never disturbed the nests. The trees, also, provided fuel during the winter months. Coal was available at a price, so wood from the trees were a welcome addition. It was strictly forbidden by the Estate to cut down any trees, but fallen trees could be bought for six pence. So the men used to cut through the roots with a saw to make sure that there was an adequate supply after the winter gales.
Most of the houses in the village were owned by Lord Penrhyn, who, in those days, lived in Penrhyn Castle. After his death the Castle was given to the National Trust. I had the privilege of knowing Lord Penrhyn and his successor Lady Janet Harper. Both of them were very generous to both my brother Wheldon and to myself, affording us the privilege of fishing in Penrhyn Park. Lord Penrhyn and all the Penrhyn family were very supportive of the Church at Llandegai and Tregarth. When we lived at 4, Ffrwd Galed the weekly rent was three shillings and six pence, and the Estate undertook all the necessary repairs.
All the houses were made of solid stone, with the roofs covered with Penrhyn slate. In fact stone and slate were used for everything, pigstyes, cowsheds, floors, paths, pillars and, even, gravestones. The playground in the local school was covered with bits of slate. There was no sanitation in any of the houses, no electricity, no bathroom , no running water. The toilet was outside in the backyard. We all had to wash in the shed outside, where my mother also, did the weekly washing. Water had to be carried from the well at the bottom of the garden. The weekly washing was done on a Monday, all by hand. My mother would first light a fire under a boiler, and she would take all day to wash the family clothes., with no washing machine or tumble dryer!! All the gardens in the village were well cultivated and provided enough fruit and vegetables throughout the year. There were plenty of rats and mice in the sheds as well, and every family kept cats to keep them at bay. The front room in every house was almost sacrosanct, and reserved for Sunday dinner, for Christmas and for special guests. Otherwise, we lived in what was called the "cefn", i.e. the back kitchen. In the front room of our house, there was a big, round table, at which eight could comfortably sit. There were only two bedrooms and a loft. My parents always slept in the front room, the girls in the back bedroom, and the boys packed into two double beds in the loft. We were like sardines in a tin!!!!!!
HLW
St Mary's Gelli
Religion
Religion played a vital part in the life of the village. Those were days when few people owned motor cars and television had not yet appeared. We seldom saw an aeroplane, and radio was the prerogative of the rich. There was little to do on Sundays except attend Sunday worship, or perhaps, going for a stroll with parents. Apart from St. Mary's at Gel there were other places of worship in the village, mentioned already on previous pages. The Sunday sermon was a favourite topic of discussion and debate during the dinner hour in the Quarry cabins. There was no church at Gelli prior to the middle of the 19th century. The first Sunday School started in an empty house at Pandy, the home eventually of my cousin Idwal. It soon expanded to three other houses in the same part of Tregarth named the Graig. The children were taught the Ten Commandments and their duty towards God and towards their neighbours. There were no Sunday services at this time. But the arrival of a curate called The Reverend D. Morgan things began to move at a rapid pace. He acquired some land from the then Lord Penrhyn and was able to build a Church Hall at Gelli, and a Sunday school started there in 1852. More land was acquired in 1858, and a churchyard was consecrated in the same year. The parishioners had to walk to Llandegai for Sunday worship so the curate started services in the Church Hall until a new Church was built in 1869. The villagers collected a little over $100 towards the project and Lord Penrhyn generously contributed the rest. The total cost was £1500 and the church was consecrated on Whitsunday 1869. I was privileged to preach at the 125th anniversary in 1994, and both Wheldon and myself preached during the 100 years anniversary in 1969.
Incidentally, St Michael's Church in Pensby cost £35000 when it was built in 1962. How the value of money has changed in the intervening years!!
The Church at Gelli was not licensed for weddings until 1952 and my sister Blossie and Hugh her husband were only the second couple to be married in the present Church. Of course, my parents and most of the family are buried in the churchyard. Actually, I recognise the names on most of the gravestones behind the Church and in the new section as former colleagues and friends that I knew in the village long ago.
HLW
The River Ogwen ran its course down the valley from Ogwen Lake to the Menai Straits. It was a river with plenty of small trout, sea-trout and salmon in its deep pools and rushing torrents. We loved to spend hours on its banks trying to catch the biggest fish!!! It was also a great thrill to accompany my brother BRW and my father to the Lakes of Ogwen, Idwal and Ffynnon Lloer. Fish was an important part of the family budget, as was also, much of the game, rabbits and pheasants etc., that we found roaming freely on the fields surrounding the village. All these things were very much a part of village life. HLW
