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Maentwrog
Maentwrog maps
Historic maps of Maentwrog and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Maentwrog maps
Maentwrog area books
Displaying 1 of 1 books about Maentwrog and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Maentwrog
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Gwynedd memories
An English Boy Going to School in A Welsh Village
My mother brought me aged four and my brother aged one to a farm on the outskirts of Gellilydan in 1940 to escape the bombing in Coventry. I can remember my mother taking me to the village school to see if they would let me attend lessons. I was allowed to go even though I was only four years old. I did not speak any Welsh and the children there all spoke Welsh (and as far as I could tell no English). However, the lady teacher was very kind and did her best to settle me into the class, though I can remember being rather lonely at playtime, when I was left to play on my own. Because the farm I stayed at was a little way out of the village, my mother found it difficult to take me to school, especially as she had to leave my one year old brother at the farm. Eventually it was arranged that I went to school in the van which visited... Read more
1927 my Grandmother Was Born
On July 31st 1927, my grandmother Mary Alice McGroarty was born at Brynderw Bungalow, Gellilydan. xx
A Wonderful Memory From A Carnival Queen
We moved to Gellilydan so that my dad could work on the power station. We lived in a caravan, Mum, Dad, my 2 brothers, Roy, Daniel and me, Angela Maalma. We had a wonderful time living there, playing in the woods and attending the local primary school. Mr Jones was the head master and was lovely. I remember the outside toilets and when it was very cold they would freeze over, and we would have to take buckets of water to flush. I remember one day one of the girls was playing and swinging the bucket of water when it slipped out of her hand and soaked me, fun times! We learned to speak Welsh, but I've forgotten it now. I was voted Carnival Queen and it was probably the most exciting time of my life. I loved living there. Angela Gibbs (nee Maalma)
In my Heart This is Where my Roots Are.
I was born in Meantwrog on 1 July 1942 at 2 Fron Goch. My father was Cadwalader Jones Owens and my mother was Mary Bridget. Dad was born, I believe, at Tyn Fedw (it has now changed its name but I cannot remember what to) which was just up from Cae Glas farm in Gellilydan. My gran was Kate Owens, I never met Granddad, he died when Dad was quite young. My father worked in the gardens at Plas Maentwrog until a chance encounter with a visiting family on a fishing trip from Derby, who offered him a job as gardener in the little village of Quarndon complete with tied cottage. (Something not to be overlooked in those days.) We moved on 5 May 1946, when my brother David was only a baby. Every year without fail we all went on holiday to stay with my gran at Tyn Fedw. Almost every we day we would go fishing, either in local streams or, if we could afford it, we would spend... Read more
WW11 in Llan Ffestiniog
Towards the end of WW11 my mother took me to visit family in Llan Ffestiniog. I was vey young. I recall clearly looking out of the parlour window and seeing a communal water pump in the street and with dozens if not hundreds of soldiers passing through - apparently en route to their camp at Trawsfynydd.
Where was the pump ? Can anyone help? I think it may have been near the wide Y junction in Ffestiniog but I just don't know. Help!
Spiritual Home
My first memory of Tanygrisiau goes back to my being aged five and being taken there by my parents, Lloyd George and Catherine Owen. Dad's family had lived and worked at Tanygrisiau since almost the beginning of the slate mining industry. Dad was very proud of his slate mining ancestors, his great-great-great-grandfather James Williams being the Welsh partner in Ffestiniogs first quarry the Diphwys. My dad's family, "Tudor Roberts", had moved from Trawsffynyd in 1824 to live and work at Tanygrisiau. Dad told me that they lived in the first years at Dolrhedyn Terrace. I can remember each year returning to Tanygrisiau and going to visit Ty Gwyn, the cottage on the lower mountain where five genarations of my family had lived, my grandfather Morris John Owen having been born there.
My family left Tanygrisiau in 1903 but Dad and his brother James Tudor Owen returned to live there at Bryn Mair during the years 1914-1920 approx. They lived at Bryn Mair with their grandparents William and Ann Owen.... Read more
Growing up in Blaenau Ffestiniog. 1961
I was brought up in Blaenau Ffestiniog and lived there until 1971. The High Street photograph brings it all back. The shop on the extreme left of the photo was my mum's hairdressing shop and we lived in the flat above. My dad was the Superintendant Registrar and he used to marry people, usually on Saturday mornings. I well remember the lobby to his office always had bits of confetti. His office was called Caerblaidd Offices and they were a bit further left again to this photo. Every morning at about 7am the miners would congregate in the middle of the High Street to the left of this photo and the buses would take them to their various quarries around the town. In June every year the fun fair would come into town, and it was always when you had to revise for the summer school examinations. They would set up camp just behind the square to the extreme left of this photo. It was a busy town in its heyday and... Read more
