The Secret Valley.

A Memory of Ffynnongroyw.

I used to go along to Ffynnongroyw to play with my mate Mark Mellor at his parents which was the chip-shop. I remember playing on the beach and the old dock/railway buildings for hours on end. One day we found lots of 'jelly tubes', which was marked with 'explosive' that had washed up on the shore. Naturally me and a guy called Paul, (incidentally, whose house was demolished to make way for the widening of the junction when the by-pass was put in) gathered up almost every single one into the end of the culvert drain next to the footbridge and proceeded to throw stones at it! Luckily for us, it didn't go bang! It wasn't until later that we 'discovered' the little lane to the mill and were astonished at all that could be played with. I think it had been the tyre processing place, which was deserted. There were Heath-Robinson water channels everywhere and the old buildings to play in and of course the pretty woodland behind. This was, for a fleeting moment in my life, the best find ever.