Childhood in Dolgarrog

MY EARLY DAYS
By JEAN DAVIES (neé ROBERTS)

I was born in Blaenau Ffestiniog, the third daughter of Owen John and Sarah Michell Roberts (neé Jenkins). My father came from Penmon, Anglesey, and mother from Blaena.

I was about 4 years old when we left Blaenau Ffestiniog to live in Dolgarrog around 1932. My father came to work at the Aluminium Works. I remember my first visit to our home, 26 Gwydr Road. It seemed huge and empty. Obviously the furniture van had not arrived, but we children were very thrilled with the house. It had three bedrooms and bathroom upstairs, a kitchen, pantry, spacious hall, living room and parlour. My father turned our back garden into a productive kitchen garden with fruit and vegetables, with a lawn and flower garden at the front.

26 Gwydr Road, Dolgarrog.

The photo shows the house and wooden fence, before the road was altered. It is at the far end of the Gwydr Road colour postcard picture (below, after next story).
I can remember the current road running through Dolgarrog being built, with lorries and steam rollers working hard all day. There existed only a rough track outside our home then, muddy at times with several large stones or boulders visible. The main road was below that, and ran past Tan Y Ffordd farm.

Old postcard from Mrs Davies' collection showing E B Jones shop.

The first infant school I attended was called The Aviary, situated opposite the Royal British Legion Club and up a narrow hill. Turning right, it was on the left. It consisted of only one room. It eventually became our Methodist Sunday School and prayer meeting place. The Band of Hope was also held there.
The older children went to a school called ‘Sillens’, opposite E. B. Jones stores on the main road. I recall using a thin slate to write on with a slate stick when I later attended there. The school property and land no doubt belonged to the Aluminium Corporation Limited, and years later it became a medical clinic for mothers and their babies.


I remember the new Central School being built - it was in the shape of an ‘E’. As a pupil there I recall the teaching was superb. We had an infants section, cookery room, and held assemblies, short services, in the main hall, which had a kitchen at the back and tables for school dinners. Music lessons were also held in the hall where we learned about Handel, Mendelssohn, Schubert and others. We had a laboratory and woodwork room where I made a wooden mouse. We also had shorthand and typing lessons. The headmaster Mr Darfyl Humphreys, later retired to Blaenau Ffestiniog.

On St David’s Day, we held the School Eisteddfod. The school ‘houses’ were named after local lakes; Cenin (yellow), Crafnant (red), Cowlyd (blue) and my ‘house’ Dulyn (green). In our Girl Guide uniforms we attended the Armistice Day service in November at The Royal British Legion’s Cenotaph.
Mr Bert Williams led and conducted the children’s concerts and choirs, accompanied by Madam Olwen Hughes, a pianist and singer. These were held at the original cinema which was also a dance hall. We saw many black and white films there, and the serial Flash Gordon’s trip to Mars.
 I loved listening to Saturday Night Theatre on the radio. One play was called Ladies in Retirement which was later made into a film, and I was all excited when I heard that the film was coming to Dolgarrog. Unfortunately, the cinema burnt down a few days before it was due to be shown.
We left school at 15 in those days, unless you passed the scholarship when 11 years old and carried on your education at Llanrwst Grammar School.

When walking to school I’d cross a bridge and looking down, I could see and hear the ‘bogeys’, which were trucks carrying workmen to the Hydro Electric Scheme up the mountain. The bogeys were attached to a thick black cable and came down the incline. There were also steps alongside giving people the opportunity of walking up and down.

Near E.B. Jones was another bridge which went over huge black pipes coming down the mountain, on a very steep inclination. I recall once climbing over the bridge and on to one of the large pipes – it took me a long time to come down from it!

We used to walk from our home 26 Gwydr Road across the valley and along the straight road called The Track with bushes either side and cross a wooden bridge to the small station. The Aluminium Corporation’s railway track ran alongside it on the left. From the Track, we could see the village houses with their red tiled roofs. In winter the streets were lit up, as was The Track. Trees have now grown to block the view of Dolgarrog.
At the station we caught the train to Blaenau to visit my grandparents, Richard Jenkins, or ‘Jenks’, a caretaker at Blaenau school, born in Trisant near Aberystwyth, and Elizabeth Jenkins neé Michell, who hailed from Cwm Ystwyth. It was so wonderful, stopping at various stations, all clean and tidy with little flower gardens decorating the platforms. Then off again to Blaenau through the long tunnel. Sometimes the light would go out in our carriage and we were in complete darkness. My dear father would light a cigarette so that we could see ‘light’ in the pitch black darkness, which went on for quite a few minutes – but I felt no fear, because Dad, Mam, two sisters Betty and Myfanwy and dear brother Eric were there. Then we came out of the pitch darkness into the light, and were a few minutes from my dear Taid and Nain’s home – absolute magic for me.

When it rained heavily, the Conwy River flooded. From our small landing window, the valley appeared to be a sea of water all the way to Trefriw and beyond. Water would also come down in torrents from the vicinity of the broken dam.

I remember one occasion, relatives of mine journeying up the Conwy River from Penmaenmawr to Trefriw in a pleasure boat, and we threw them a bunch of our garden flowers which they picked up and we all waved at each other.

My mother could play the piano and when we moved to Dolgarrog to live, as she played the piano, I would march around the table pretending to be a soldier marching. Little did I think that in years to come, I would watch real soldiers marching through Dolgarrog during the 1939 – 1945 War!
The piano sessions took place in the front room or parlour. We were not allowed to play there – it was kept for special occasions such as Christmas, when it had a lovely coal fire. The large oval mirror which hung on the parlour wall is now here in my home, and I remember on my Wedding Day, looking at myself in the lovely mirror and saying “Today you are going to get married to Bill”

Roberts Family.c 1947 at 26 Gwydr Road.
Back L-R Jean, Myfanwy Front L-R Betty, parents Owen John Roberts, Sarah Michell Roberts and Eric.

I married William Owen Davies of Llanrwst. Our eldest son Ken was born when we lived in Dolgarrog, and we then moved to live in Llanrwst where Bill worked at the Post Office. I worked for David Thomas, a Solicitor in the town. Bill got promoted to Postmaster at Dolgellau in 1960, where our second son Paul was born. We moved to Llandeilo in 1970. My parents came to live with us shortly before they died. Sadly, Bill died in November 2002 and I live not far from Paul and his family, with my very happy memories of my life in the beautiful village of Dolgarrog.

Jo Williams (Gorsedd Grucyn) with Jean Roberts in 1949 on a visit to Gorsedd.
Photo taken by her fiance William Owen Davies