Mobo Horses

A Memory of Prestatyn.

We moved to Prestatyn in 1948. I loved the Mobo horses that the little ones could ride at the Bastion Road beach. My little school was Pendre, up the hill Fforddlas I think. Also going to St Chad's School annual fair and sale. Always bargains for mum to buy. Robert's butchers (and Welsh lamb!) and Tony's cycle shop. I thought he was Italian, not Dutch! Bear Brand stockings for Mum at the lady's outfitter (the cardboard bear who walked kept me amused while she shopped). The Pearl shop, open all hours it seemed (known as the Jew shop, but I have no idea why). Carnival, and being the fourth lady in waiting (they couldn't really leave me out!). Trains to Chester and Liverpool (the 6.00 a.m. workman's for a cheap fare). Steam trains, so exciting - I hated the diesels when they arrived. I remember one Sunday walking alone, aged 12, from a friend's house looking up the high street and seeing no one at all! I fancied World War 3 had started and nobody had told me. It was quiet to the point of anaesthesia. Then the new Lido! Wow! Being a teenager and able to swim and dance there (on the same night). It was warmer in the pool than outside! Seeing The Beatles in the coffee bar before they were anybody. Forte's coffee shop with a trompe l'oeil mural of swans through a window. And this in 1950s Britain. No wonder I love Italy. Mr Forte introduced me to it at an early age. After shopping, meeting Mum's friends there as a child and having those amazing ice creams. Later, working there in school holidays and desperate to learn how to use the huge Gaggia coffee machine, but not old enough. Leaving at 18 for studies in Manchester and returning in 1967 to marry at the parish church. 'Dr Zhivago' was the film du jour - it's on all the buses in my wedding photos. Can you imagine Pen ys a Dre being knocked down nowadays. They would have Time Team there for weeks, I'm told it was 11th Century. I hate the shopping mall they built instead but I do remember the smell of the farm in summer. Piggies!
I come back about once a year to see friends and family locally, but not actually in the town. It seems less polished and a little ragged about the edges here and there, but the sea and the sands are still stunning and I love the offshore wind farm. A vision of the future.