Mixed Feelings

A Memory of Llanegryn.

I first arrived in Llanegryn at the latter end of 1939 along with my younger sister and a lot of other kids from my school (St Johns)in Birkenhead. I was eight years old at the time and my sister was six. We were all put into the village hall where people of the neighbourhood came and took us to different addresses. A lady from the next street to me in my home town was with us as she had two girls about 5 and 6 and a little boy under 2 years old. They were chosen along with my sister by Mrs Evans of Gessail Farm, but I wasn`t included. My father told me before I left home "don't let them split you up from your sister (Linda). I stood in the centre of the hall and wouldn`t allow my sister to go without me. Mrs Evans said 'ok, you can come too' and away we went to the farm by Bird Rock. I had a wonderful time there and it was the first time that I had tasted butter and home-made bread, mmm and fresh milk. There were two ladies there called Mrs Evans, John and Evan Evans and a young man called Egrin. It was marvellous collecting the eggs of a morning and watching the cows being milked, some times we were squirted by whoever was doing the milking. At the bottom of the orchard there was a toilet built over a stream with 3 holes in line, (so we could sit together I guess) running water, no less. One day a lot of children from my school (St John's) came around with the teachers and were astonished to find us there, they thought we had gone back home as we hadn`t attended school. We were at the farm for about 5 weeks but had to leave and go into Llanegryn so we could attend school.
We were placed with Mrs Davies who ran the post office down by the bridge. After that my sister often sat on the wall of the bridge crying, she was so home sick. We went to the school up the lane and a great place it was, a field to play in for a playground and a spinney where we used to set snares to catch rabbits(never caught any). However our teacher, Mrs Garner from St John's School used to take me out of the class into the cloakroom to comb my head into the sink with a fine tooth comb, I was absolutely crawling,  my sister went through the same routine.
I can't remember if I had ever had a bath. My Mother came out to visit us and when she saw the state we were both in, she bundled us up and took us back home and was very angry at what had happened to us. Overall we were evacuated for about 10 weeks and we were back home before Xmas 1939, Mum wouldn`t let us go again. We went back to Llanegryn about 10 years ago, we found it a very moving experience.  We picked up some slate from out of the river to take back home and a piece of flint each from the gate posts of Gessail Farm, pure nostalgia huh.  I have them in my garden now. We met a lady who remembered the "vaccies", she is the cleaning lady for the community hall and lived about the middle house on the side where the telephone box is. We also visited the school after going into the "new" post office, the lady there arranged it for us and we spoke to some of the youngsters there. Overall, I must say that I enjoyed my time in Llanegryn, especially Gessail Farm. Nosta, Bob Boyd.

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