Abergorlech memories
Here are memories of Abergorlech and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Abergorlech or a Abergorlech photo.
Abergorlech
I moved with my parents, Ron and Edith Burnett, to Abergorlech in 1952 when I was 10 years old. My father worked for the Forestry Commission, and we lived in the Forestry House about a mile west of the village. In those days it was called Dysgwylfa. I went to school at the two room primary school, Mr. Phillips was my teacher. We lived there for 5 wonderful years. Our house had no electricity and the village had only a small generator that ran only at night and only for lights. There was no TV, no central heat, no refridgerators. It was a very rustic life. Women were not allowed in the bar area of the Black Lion, at least it was.frowned on. My dad used to tell us about the beautiful singing that would happen on Friday or Saturday nights in front of the fire. He used to often come home with tears in his eyes because he was so moved by the singing. Boyo was the name of... Read more
Black Lion
My parents, Joan & Roger Graham, bought the Black Lion pub in 1963/4? and concentrated on building the business up and making it a large part of village life. With the full co-operation and hard work of my parents and the villagers, Abergorlech won the 'Best Kept Village in Wales' from 1964-1966. I have a photo of them outside the pub following their win in 1964. Dad introduced pub games and Mum her wonderful cooking (her chicken pie was second to none) and it soon became the hub of the village. I can remember a few wonderful Saturday nights when some of the men of the village sounded out their voices after a few bevvies, and what a beautiful sound that was. I returned to Abergorlech last June with my sisters-in-law. We were overwhelmed by the stunning beauty of the area (just as I remembered) and had a very good lunch in the Black Lion. It now has the addition of a restaurant where Dad's beer storage was, but I was... Read more
Ancestor
On tracing my family tree I found out that I was related to William Giffiths,born 1812 in Aergorlech. I recently went to view the village and surrounding countryside and it is a really pretty village located next to Bechfa forest, the bridge is a fasanating design and the river beautiful.
Memories of Dyfed
My Family Memories
My great grandparents, John and Margaret Williams, lived at Llansadwrn and they and my grandparents are buried in the Church Yard at Talley. My grandparents, Evan and Florence (Dolly) Williams lived at Dan y Graig. Many happy days spent there with them in the 60's. My grandmother worked very hard to make ends meet as unfortunately my grandfather, who had seen active service in the trenches during the first world war, had been badly scarred by his experiences and sadly drank to excess. I believe that my grandfather, an ex policeman, was the village postman at some stage. I have visited Talley recently and the old road around to the church is still as I remember it, but sadly as with many other lovely old villages, a horrible big road runs through the middle of it. My grandparents were very friendly with "Annie Cwmdu" who ran the pub and we used to visit her a lot. Oh such happy days.....
Blacksmiths of Talley
Although I have only recently been to Talley on researching my family history my roots go back to the village well into the 1700s. The family I speak about is the Griffiths family of Blaenag Isaf, they were the blacksmiths of the village right up until 40 years ago. Nearly all of William Griffith's sons also became blacksmiths in and around the villages. William was my G G G grandfather, we are connected to many families within the area and are also related to the Griffiths family of Cwmdu. On researching the family I have become very interested not just in the geneology of my family but of the area and the life they had. I am very proud of my roots, it can't have been an easy life that they led.
A Very Big Step
My wife and I went to Caio some 6 months after we married. I was recalled into the army 2 days after our wedding due to the Sues crisis although I was only away from home for 4 months it was long enough for me to loose my job and so soon after the Sues crisis there was a lot of unemployment and I was the end of the queue. After some weeks we were offered three jobs with the Forestry Commission. One at Newcastle Emeyn , one at Llanwrtyd Wells, and one at Caio. Not having any idea where any of these places were we struck for Caio probably because we could spell and pronounce Caio easier than the others. Came the day of the move, the little bit of furniture we had left in one of Pickfords vans the night before followed by us in father-in-law’s little A35 car early the next morning. A very heavy pregnant wife in the front and mother-in-law and... Read more
1956 Onwards
Jennifer and I started our married life in South Wales in a little village called Caio, at that time all Welsh speaking. You may have gathered from my writings I was recalled back into the army for the campaign that was called The Suez Crisis which meant losing my job so when I got out I had to find a job to help keep my new wife in a state she was accustomed. I realized very much earlier that she was having to come down in the world if she was to marry me but thought I might be able to meet her some where around half way provided I had a job. I was only capable of manual work and my in-laws found this very hard to except as manual work were rather dirty words to them, and as far as they were concerned their only daughter could do far better for herself. I had to agree with them but she seemed to think I was the one so... Read more
Pentalardd, Maesycrugiau - Our Own Smallholding Neay Llanybydder
We moved to Pentalardd in Carmarthenshire (near Llanybydder) when I was 15 years old. My parents had sold our home near Addlestone Surrey as we wanted to live on our own smallholding in the Welsh countryside.
I worked on a farm, called Glantwelly Faur near Pencader, as my first real job. The farmer's name was David Owen. I only earned £5.00 a week in those days but I really enjoyed that year working on the farm.
In September of 1968 I started a 1 year 'live in' agricultural course at Gelli Aur (Golden Grove) Farm Institute near Llandeilo. I couldn't wait to leave the place while I was there but looking back on it I made some good friends there and had some great fun. I left Gelli Aur in July 1969 and achieved a National Certificate in agriculture and an O Level pass in GCE agricultural science. Then I went back to work on David Owen's farm in Pencader. In 1972 we decided we'd like to move to Hampshire... Read more
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