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Bryn Celyn
Bryn Celyn maps
Historic maps of Bryn Celyn and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Bryn Celyn maps
Bryn Celyn photos
We have no photos of Bryn Celyn, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Basingwerk| Holywell| Llanerch-Y-Mor| Brynford| Pantasaph| Whitford| Pentre Halkyn| Lloc| Halkyn| Flint| Ffynnongroyw| Nannerch| Flint Mountain| Gayton| Rhosesmor| Caldy| Parkgate| Thurstaston| Llanasa| Heswall| Talacre| West Kirby| Irby| Tyn-Y-Morfa| Bodfari| Gronant
Bryn Celyn area books
Displaying 1 of 0 books about Bryn Celyn and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Bryn Celyn
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Clwyd memories
Notes From Our Files.
The police office is PC69 Kenneth Edwards of the old Flintshire Force who is talking to Mr Cummins, a local landowner and the year is 1959.
Dancing Days
I lived in Ysceifiog and used to travel by bike to the dances at the village hall in Brynford. I used to meet my friend Betty Davies and her sister Sheila, who lived in Brynford. They had two brothers Gerald and Leonard. At these dances we had a band and an MC. It was where I learnt the Gay Gordons and Quickstep and Waltz. In those days my name was Wyn Parrington. I met my first husband Frank Hansom from Holywell at the dances. We married in 1955 and went to live in Rhodesia (now Zambia) in 1957. I had a wonderful life out there with servants and a nanny. I learnt to swim and drive. I had three children and when I was expecting my fourth child Frank died in a car crash and I had to return to Wales and lived with my parents. Later I met Meirion Wynne and we married. I had to change my name to Margaret as I could not be "Wyn Wynne" It's... Read more
Joan Thomas's (nee Vaughan) Memories
My first memory was going to school from Pen-y-Ball and being tought by Mrs Daisy Jones, Eluned Jones, Mr Bellis (the headmaster) and Mr Yeomans who we all loved, and also attending Sunday School every Sunday was a must. Mrs Price had the shop in Calcoed, she was our landlady and we would go every Saturday morning to pay the rent and she would always give us a sweet. Mr and Mrs Hughes used to deliver the milk, they had two daughters, Daureen and Glenys, and a son, Neville. Then moving from Pen-y-Ball to Brynford at the age of 13 years (1950/51). Mr Tommy Edwards, coal merchant moved us on his coal wagon, we must have looked like the Clampets!!. We thought it was great moving to a brand new council house, having running water and electricity, we thought we were "posh". We were a family of 7, the Vaughan family. Mam (Marian), Dad (Hugh), David, Maureen, Beverly, Ken and myself, Joan...the eldest!! Dad worked in Courtaulds as an electrician, he used to M.C. the... Read more
Father Holcroft
I was born and brought up in Widnes but we used to go for holidays in Bagillt where we stayed with an old friend of my parents, Father Holcroft. He was the local Catholic priest and we stayed in his house which had a farm adjoining with chickens and a goat which sometimes strayed into the house. The Catholic chapel was very simple as I recall, basically a big hut with a corrugated iron roof and I served mass there every day. Holcroft was a Yorkshireman and a late vocation renowned for his fiery temper and outspoken nature. He swore a lot which made us laugh as we had never met a priest quite like him. He had a heart of gold and seemed to be well liked by the parishoners. My brother, Bill and sister, Oonagh and I had a wonderful time exploring the village and the nearby coastline. We fed (and chased) the chickens and teased the goat. It was a magical place, especially for kids like us... Read more
Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Mercy
The above order of psychological sadists ran St Clare's orphanage where small children suffered dreadfully (see BBC Wales website 2009). The order also owned a private boarding and day school on West Hill in Dartford where I was sent at the age of four; Our Lady's High School was run like a young offenders' institution. One teenage boarder (Josephine), and a four-year-old day girl (Ann Smith) ran away. And, like many institutions where there is repression by those in authority, bullying by the inmates was rife. But the big boarders and day students only picked on the little kids, of course.
When Sister Immaculate bought me an ice cream after a doctor's visit, I wasn't allowed to eat it until I returned to the school. So I didn't enjoy this unimaginable treat because I was forced to eat it in front of a five-year-old boarder (Frances Tucker) to make her feel jealous. Poor Frances had no father, and constantly had nose bleeds. But Immaculate ignored children who were... Read more
Genealogical Research
Michelle, try Hawarden (Flintshire Archive), and good luck! You could also go to the BBC Wales website for the names of people who would be around your uncle's age; then check if they are on the social networking sites.
Note to Elaine
Goodaye Elaine, and greetings from the old country. There's a book about the order called "We agreed to be different" which has been posted on the web, and mentions your old school on P36. This story about the nuns has been written in a positive vein, of course, as the truth would be TOO shameful to reveal! But the former orphans at St Clare's and St Joseph's have spoken out. And I believe them.
I think you were lucky, and that the orphans in Pantasaph were not. And I think it was the uneducated nuns who acted as housemothers who were the main problem within the order, rather than the teachers. Like you, I attended a private boarding school, and I never had a problem with a teacher within the order. Indeed, the nun who taught me at the infants' school in Dartford was the sweetest teacher I would ever know. But the two nuns who were in charge of the boarders - Sisters Immaculate and Teresa - were... Read more
