Tyn Y By The Sea

A Memory of Tyn-y-Morfa.

First stayed there in 1951. My dad rented the chalet opposite the green corrugated Chapel aside of the sandy path which lead to the beach. Apart from the shop and chippy there was a Welcoast ice cream kiosk on the corner that closed a couple of years later.'(Often licked never beaten' was the slogan) The shop was run as I recall by two elderly ladies; it was then taken over by Mr. Bill and Mrs Mavis Jones. I remember the first evening we got there. I went for water from the standpipe but there was none. In the end my Dad had to get up at two in the morning before the pressure was sufficient to get a drop. In the end we Children used to walk down to the main road where there was a standpipe which actually worked. we queued up in line complete with buckets with everyone else. The tap was very hard to turn so my great uncle who always came with us on holiday with my great aunt made a template of the tap then back home in Leicester fashioned a metal key for the following year. WE WERE THE ENVY OF ALL IN THE QUEUE THE FOLLOWING YEAR.S My dad who lived in Rhyl as a youth made and showed me how to put nightlines at low tide for fish. we went down the following low tide and collected the reward. Flatties and eels mostly. He also showed how to dig for lugworms which he then pulled the head off and squeezed out the innards. these skins were then used as bait. the surplus being kept duly sanded for next time.The skins were full of iodine and it discoloured ones fingers. Dad said it helped to keep colds and germs away. Fish were plentiful and we often gave them to those in neighbouring chalets. Mid 1950's there was an almighty storm and it exposed a lot of cockle beds which were a tasty source of food especially to us lads and lasses. back at the chalet we put them in a bucket of clean water and added salt. The cockles would then 'clean' themselves by getting rid of the grit inside . We also went shrimping after my mum made a huge net and dad trawled along the water's edge almost up to his neck. On one occasion my uncle George who was staying at a nearby chalet with our cousins (at 'Swyn-y-Mor') whilst trawling stepped into a dip in the sand and nearly went completely under.! All the catch would end up in a pot on the open fire and once cooked the shrimps would be placed on newspaper on the floor. we would all sit round and help ourselves (having first topped and tailed the shrimps) Neighbours probably ended up with a free supply of shrimps too! As children we would climb the huge (to us) sandhills and making tracks/ tunnels in the sand would roll our tennis balls all the way down to the bottom. Naturally the tracks became more and more complicated as we got more skilled! About 1956 there was a very high tide /flood and a lot of sea water was trapped in a gully in the approach to the beach. about two or three foot deep in parts. It so happened I and a friend found what appeared to be an old petrol tank washed up on the beach at high tide. We 'commandered' it, dragged it to the newly created lagoon. manged to make a seat in it and with an adapted bit of wood for a paddle used it as a boat. We had it for a couple of years as I recall until someone 'nicked it' My dad eventually bought the chalet and we kept it right up to the end in 1970 when all the chalets were finally demolished for redevelopment. GREAT DAYS! GREAT TIMES SIMPLE PLEASURES BUT ALL THE MORE SO FOR BEING THAT. PETER LOWE.

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