Dolgarrog memories

Jane Owens of Caenant (from www.penmon.org)

Jane lived at Caenant One day, Jane was poorly and having a nap, when her daughter Sally heard an awful rumbling. The Eigiau dam wall had burst, and water was crashing down the valley. Sally ran upstairs to wake her mother and they both went outside.
They ran down the hill to where a woman was shouting out of the window for them to catch her child. They were desperately trying to help her when a boulder threatened to land on them. A man shoved Sally and Jane out of the way and saved them. Some of Sally's extended family were saved only because they had gone to the cinema that evening and their home was empty. Caenant is on the hill very near the path where the water burst through.


A memorial plaque stands at the bottom of the hill just yards away from the narrow road leading up to the cottage.

Sally and her brothers Jack and Owen (Jack, Owen and Sarah Jane Owens)

Mrs Ellen Roberts and her daughter, Mrs Jane Owens.

Y CRWYDRYN
Bu rhiniog carreg-las addoldy’r llan
Yn aelwyd ddigymydog, yntau’n brudd
A ymgartrefai’n wanllyd yn y fan
Bob nos, a’r corwynt milain ar ei rudd;
Er nad oedd ganddo gadair, grât na bwrdd,
Na chlustog ond ei bac i orffwys pen,
Hengôt-droi-heibio gadwai’r ias i ffwrdd
A drws addoldy ei barwydydd pren;
Ar noswaith wyllt, ymrwygudd dyfroedd blin
Trwy’r argae gwan a’r hafn, i foddi trum
O bentref hunai trwy gereiniau’r hin,
A’r creigiau’n crensio’r aelwyd fach ddi-rym;
Ond ‘wyllys Duw arbedodd grwydryn llwm
Y noson hon, nad oedd o fewn y cwm.
(Gan William Owen Davies)

Jean Davies (neé Roberts) explains that the poem is based on a tramp, believed to be a Mr Barber, who regularly slept inside the church porch in Dolgarrog on his travels. This particular night, he chose to move on towards Conwy. That decision saved his life as the church was washed away by the water as it thundered towards the village.

The poem was written by Mrs Davies' late husband.

Read memories of a childhood in Dolgarrog from Jean Davies here.