My Life In The 50s Early 60s

A Memory of Esgairgeiliog.

I was the last of our family ( the Panto's ) to be born at Ceinws Villa, now Ceinws Bach I believe, on the 6th Nov 1947. my taid. mother and I moved to Tai Isa' just after nain died.I went to school in Corris and then Mach. I remember the great exitment when Ael y Bryn were built & we had # 20. We used to play knock off ginger there and jump over the fence, down the field, over afon Glesyrch and up to the camp.We were fit !! By then my mother had married and soon I had 2 sisters and later on a little brother. My taid was the postman there for many years.There is an excellent book written about the village by Julia & her husband with some fantastic pictures as well.I'm sure most of the village would have starved in the 50's without the help & support of the small shop ran by Nora. We were all poor and all would go to the woods around on the Sat morning. Some wood for our houses and some we would sell for money to go to Mach to the pictures, chips & bus back!! I went to the methodist chapel every Sun X 3 with taid. I remember one preacher from Abergynolwyn who came once an year and he would have us say a proverb instead of a reading from the bible. I said " Rhy hwyr codi pais ar ol piso ". You could hear the indrawn breaths but the preacher said it was not swearing as it was a word in the bible.Even in the 50's I remember thinking how only the young and the old were in the chapel. Not many parents.Of course now both chapels are shut, the camp is empty and the language is English. So different to my childhood. Is there still poaching in the Ffrwd ? Do the children still go round on New Years day for Calennig ? Do the teenagers still go to the barn at he bottom of the Ddol ? I hear the snooker table has gone and the hall is shut. Do the kids still go to Cwm Cadian , Llyn y Mynydd, Ffynon Oer, Stabal James ? We had the best bonfire for miles at the back of the Pwmp. Does it still go on ? Just past Yr Efail there were 2 crab apple trees. We would split in 2 groups and climb and have a fight with apples. They were very hard !! All gone , along with all the the rest of the hedges down towards Llwyngwern. Who has the right to desecrate our land like that ? Of course now the bus comes into the village. When I was growing up , the bus stopped on the main road and when the river Dulas was over the bridge, which it did quite often, the conductor & the driver would come down & carry the ladies over!! H & S would not allow that now. I remember going over to Bryn Mawr each harvest to collect the hay. They were also family on my nain's side so all hands on deck.Going back to Julia's book, there is a great poem written in the 30's about the people of Esgairgeiliog ( Not Ceinws, Please ) Esgairgeiliog is a very old place, dating back to the 11/12 th century. Esgair ,in English , means side of. Ceiliog comes from Cyfeiliog who was a prince of Powys. None of your rubbish of breeding cockerels!!I joined the R.N in 1963 at the age of 15 & my family moved to Aberllefenni. I still visited my relatives there though. Now I only have a 2nd cousin who lives there and hardly know a soul but it still brings a smile to my face when I think of it and I have made certain that my daughters & my grandchildren know its history & where I was born