Caravan Holidays

A Memory of Talacre.

I spent many summer holidays at Talacre in my Grandads 2 caravans in the late 40s and 50s. He had a large plot in the dunes, opposite was a very steep sand hill where we collected old bullet cases.
Also just by it there was a lovely wooden bungalow where a retired vicar lived the garden had roses
round the gate and fence

Just to the side of us was a neat bungalow where a family lived the father worked nearby. In front across the road were more bungalows and a converted coach and double deck bus. They were all well kept and tidy.

Every evening the men would go to the tap for water sometimes it took ages because there was only a trickle. We had gas lighting and cooking and a chemical toilet.

When we arrived Grandad always used to stop at the bakery for pies it was a real treat. We did not have a car so Grandad would take us and then go home. We would walk to the station and go on the train to Prestatyn. I have pictures of me and my sister on the paddle boats.

The beach was fantastic often we had it almost to ourselves. I used to love the little shop with its welsh lady novelties. There was a club where Gran and Grandad went and occasionally Mum and Dad.


Added 08 June 2017

#390808

Comments & Feedback

It is wonderful to read comments about Talacre where we spent so many happy holidays in the late 1940's and early 1950's. We started off in a small caravan on the Warren and graduated to a wooden bungalow in the grounds of the small social club where mum and dad would go when we had been put to bed!

'Our' 'Wakes' week was the second week in August which was also the Rochdale 'Wakes' week. We used to meet the same family every year and I remember they had three daughters called Irene, Doreen and Maureen. It was paradise to us in those days. The sun always seems to shine and we spent hours jumping off the sand hills into the soft sand, picking blackberries from the many bushes on the fringe of the beach and just paddling in the sea and exploring the area around the sand hills. I also remember two bungalows that had been engulfed by sand and were derelict.

There was a village PostOffice with a juke box and one year the most popular record was Doris Day singing The Black Hills of Dakota! That record reminds me so much of Talacre! There was also a little tuck shop run by a man called Percy Cash and another little cafe with two penny slot machines. I once put a penny in and won 1 shilling and 9 pence, a veritable fortune!

One year, whilst flying our kites, my little brother and I strayed onto the mudflats and I started sinking into the mud. He managed to pull me out and I spent ages trying to get the mud off my legs with water from a little tap on the site. Another year we visited Gwyrch Castle where Randolph Turpin the famous boxer used to train. My dad, a boxing fan, took lots of pictures of my brother in his boxing ring. All in all, they were very happy days indeed.

We always went to Talacre by train and whilst now, it only takes about an hour by car to get to Talacre from Cheshire where I live, in those days we caught the train from Droylsden Station to Chester. We then changed trains and went from Chester to Talacre Station. Each station taking us nearer to Talacre got us children more and more excited. I can still remember some of the stations now, though probably not in order! Queensferry, Connah's Quay, Greenfield, Bagillt.

Having arrived at Talacre station, some 5 hours after setting off, little boys who lived nearby would offer to carry our cases on little handcarts or bogeys but my dad, ever mindful of not over spending, would insist on us walking to the site (a long walk now, even longer when we were children!) with all of us carrying something!

Great days and great memories!
Hi, I may well have been one of those "little boys". In the early 1960s me and my friend, Howard (sadly died in his twenties) built our bogey out of pram wheels and bits of wood and waited for visitors, as we called them, on Station Road. I grew up in Shell House, a well-known cottage on Gwespyr Hill which many visitors used to use to get up to the Talacre Abbey. I never go back now as the whole area, a playground of fields, woods and water, has been built over.You got the order of the stations almost right - Bagillt comes before Greenfield. I remember going down to Talacre station to watch the last of the steam trains going through. I don't usually go in for nostalgia but these comments have brought back many memories of growing up on Gwespyr Hill and, later, Gronant.

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