August Stories

Sent in by Myra Williams

I visited your site and enjoyed the photos and articles. Congratulations.

I read with interest your article on Siop Cae and the Twthill area. I am a Cofi born in Hampton Road. My parents, brother and sister moved to a police house at no. 22 in 1940 when my father Llewelyn Roberts was promoted to the post of Sergeant at Caernarfon Police Station. Our next door neighbours were Mr and Mrs T. R. Owen and their two sons Elwyn and Dewi. Mr Owen was manager of Briggs Stores (now Ethel Austin). He was an Alderman of the Borough and was Mayor of the Town in the early fifties. I'm told that he was the Air Warden during the Second World War. They were faithful members of St. Mary's Church and a garden was dedicated to their memory in 1980. On the other side lived Mr and Mrs Westbury Lloyd Jones and their daughter Nita. Mr Lloyd Jones was the County Architect. Next door but one lived Bleddyn Williams teacher at Boys School. In our street lived two other Aldermen Richard Davies and Alderman Edwards (known as Edwards Smith as he was the manager of W.H. Smith). Anne the daughter of Edwards Smith could be heard practicing her music scales as one passed the house. It paid off, as she became a professional singer.

I was the youngest of three children. My mother Mrs Eda Roberts taught for a short time at Llandwrog Primary School and taught remedial children at Caernarfon Girls School- where Miss Lewis headmistress used to keep the children and her staff in order!. The teachers at the school were Mrs Parry, Miss Parry, Mrs N. Pritchard, Miss McNeil when I attended from 1948-1953.

My brother Glyn known to most as Glyn (Saig)- because of my father's title. He was head boy of C.G.S. in 1955. He counted Brian Orritt, Noel Thomas, Ronnie Tyler, Arthur Renshaw, Richie Haines Huw Coch, Gareth Edwards among his mates. Glyn moved away to Leicester to work as a Maths teacher after graduating. He was due to come back to work to C.G.S but died suddenly before taking up the post. His wife and daughter live in Cardiff. He would have been the proud grandfather of two boys and a girl.

My sister Eiluned became Holiday Queen of Caernarfon in 1949. She was crowned on my 7th birthday amidst the pageant and glory of the occasion. The castle was full of children dancing in their pretty dresses and the visiting queens came from all around. The preparation for this day took months. We would meet at the castle (or drill hall) weekly to practice our routines and when it wasn't our turn, we would be running along the castle walls and up the Towers! This pageant was in the capable hands of Mrs Elin Thomas. There must have been numerous dressmakers preparing all the long dresses for the children. My sister's dress was made by Mrs Cottam. She must have spent hours on the hand-sewn beads that decorated the dress and train. Eiluned was crowned queen by Miss Jane Hylton- well known film star of her time.

I grew up in the Twthill area and remember fondly buying chips at Siop Cae, owned by Mr and Mrs Jones. I also remember Flossie's shop, but we used to sing rather unkindly "Flossie, Flossie cadw dy bloody chips" My memory of Twthill and its shops is as follows;

At the lower end of Hampton Road was "Hove Edge Stores", run by Mr and Mrs Ellis. You could always depend on Joyce (their assistant) to give you a smile. It was a grocer shop and later became a Driving Centre, before reverting into a house. Moving towards Twthill Square, opposite the entrance to Edward Street there was a Bakery, producing wonderful bread. When my mother would send me to buy a loaf, I would return with a big chunk missing from the corner of the loaf as I couldn't resist the fresh bread taste. Opposite the bakery shop was a Coop branch. I remember seeing biscuits displayed in tins here. They were bought by their weight.

A few yards down the road there was a drapers, and a sweet shop owned by a Mr Nicholson. We used to spend our pennies there. I remember a chewing gum machine outside this shop. It used to spit out a free packet on every fourth turn of the dial. On the corner of Twthill Square was a chemist shop, where Mr W.J. Owen was dispenser. In the square itself there was a small shop selling sweets (Mrs Hughes?) and at the top of Clark Street was the Newsagent run by Dafydd Morton Jones. Next to this was a Barbers shop. This shop also offered the services of repairing umbrellas. Post Bach is still there but has ceased to trade as a P.O.

Towering above Twthill square was Twthill. We spent many a happy hour climbing to its top but not really appreciating the beautiful views until our later years.

I left Caernarfon in 1960 to go to University and lived in Bala and Llanfairpwll after graduating. I still kept in touch though, by teaching Maths at C.G.S from 1966 to 1968.I was back teaching at the school I had been so happy to attend as a pupil. My favourite teachers were Des Treen and Eric Jones (Jos Phys) and I was working with them and many others before I left to leave to have my first daughter.

After being away from Caernarfon for many years, my husband Eifion and I moved back to the area, buying a house with land. My husband's hobby is breeding Arab Horses. We bought Maesincla Isaf in 1978. Our two girls, Bethan and Sioned attended Maesincla School, where they both obtained good grounding from good old fashioned teaching Methods. They both attended Ysgol Syr Huw Owen before moving to University. Bethan is a qualified optician and works at Barnett Pepper Opticians, Pool St, and Sioned is a chemistry graduate working as a Senior Development Technologist for Akzo Nobel in South Korea.

Now go and have a look at the photographs sent in by Myra --- One -- Two –Three – Four -- Five

You can get in touch with Myra in "Say Hello to an Old Friend"

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Sent in by Veronica Jones ( My Sister.)

Hi Dave,

I read your 'Memory Lane' page, and it brought back many, many memories of my school years, namely with Myra Williams' input.

Mind you, I was not the athletic type, as Myra was. My interest was mostly artistic, but I have fond memories of some of the students. most memorable are Valerie Roberts of 'Penrallt', Margaret Glenys (what a character), Nattie, Myra herself and Evelyn 'Fachell'. Also 'Mary Wyn' who, as memory goes was a ferocious hockey player, in other words, fearless.

My interest was more on the artistic side, having my painting accepted into 'The Royal Cambrian Academy of Art' when I was thirteen. Mind you this was not achieved without the influence of 'T.O.T Art' who believed I had the talent in that area.

I have many happy memories, and not so happy memories of my school days.(What do you expect of a teenager?)

Let's pick up on the 'Memory Lane' and have many more inputs. Come on, have some fun, and think back on what we all thought that made us so miserable at the time, but hey, time passes and life is fun. -

Get in touch with Veronica in "Say Hello to an Old Friend"

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Memory Lane