Most  of  the men in Talsarnau before the war were members of a Friendly  Society.  As some of the men worked in the quarries  and were only home over the weekend they had their meetings on Saturday. 

 

That was before the bus started running.  All the new members  had  to go in front of the committee before they  could  be accepted and when a member was sick he had to be in the house  by seven, those were the rules. He was not to do any work and  if he  broke the rules there would be less benefit for  him.   Things got  better  when we had the National Insurance and  life  became easier  and that meant the Friendly Societies gradually  finished. It certainly helped quite a lot of sick men and poor families as  well.  Talsarnau men were members of the Odd Fellows .   R  J Williams, the Garage, or Robin John as he was known, started selling motor bikes in the thirties and they would come to him  from all  parts  of North Wales. I can remember him late at night doing  repairs and he had to get the bike right before he would leave it.  Robin worked in the Quarry as a rockman and it was  a credit to him that he built the business up as it is today.

The Quarry that is behind Tom Ieu's house in Glanywern was called Chwarel  Morris  William.  He was my Great  Grandfather from  my Mother's side and it could have been that they used the stones to build the houses as they were all stone built.

When  they  built the Power House at Maentwrog, they  brought  the heavy  machinery by rail to Talsarnau and they had to  strengthen the bridge near the station. When they were taking the  transformers  by big lorries, one lorry sank in the middle of the  road near Barcdy and they had to get big cranes to move it from  there. They are still spending money on this part of the road today, more than sixty years later.

Ty cerrig

Everything  was noted in the Ty Cerrig diaries and in  1830  they have written down what they had spent every day,  how many  men were working there and the hours they had worked. This was during harvest  time of when the hay was cut with scythes.  I have tried to  work out the fields that the men had been working in,   Fridd Trwynog,  Bryn Draenog, Acra, Tanygaer, Bryn Pren Onnen,  Ffridd Pentre Gaer, Gwastad Cae Coch, Ffridd Ty Newydd, Plantation,  Cae Garreg  Lwyd, Bryn Mawr, Pentrwyn, Bryn Bach, Morfa Glas,  Ffridd Morfa,  Morfa  Gloyw, Penrhyn Ithel Uchaf,  Penrhyn  Ithel  Isaf, Buarth y Moch, Buarth Newydd, Ffridd Gwastad, Buarth Pant Gwyn  a Weirlglodd wyllt.