This is a copy of a letter received from Mr Tecwyn Jones, 8 Heol Dewi, Bangor Ucha, Bangor, reminiscing about the Llanw Mawr, the tidal wave, when he was a 9-year-old boy at the time. We will be forever grateful to him for contacting us with his story.
Seeing on television, and reading in the Press about the disaster in Towyn, Abergele, memories came to me of a night in Talsarnau in the year 1927.
A stormy, tempestuous night. My father worked in Blaenau Ffestiniog, and had to stay in accommodation all week, so my mother was at home with the five of us. I was nine years old, and the other four were twelve, eleven, eight and six years old. Bread baking day, and the five of us have been busy making our own little bread as was usual, then. Mum would give us some of the dough so we could help. Happy memories.
We lived in the cellar at 7 High Street, no electricity of course and like every other night in the winter before we went to bed my mother went to the bedrooms to light the candles. Suddenly the outside door opened, and water crashed in, the furniture was moved and we shouted for mum. A large settee crashed across the bottom of the stairs, so I had to climb over it drenched to the skin to reach my mother's hand and safety on the first floor and everything seemed to be swaying, as the water in the cellar was eight feet high, but I was safe. We could see the bread, our clothes and food swimming on the surface of the water.
We were able to go to the home of the late Mrs Humphrey Williams to warm up and change from our wet clothes. She herself was very worried about her husband, her son Bobi, and her son in law, the late Tom Jones, as they had gone down to the Morfa to move the animals before the sea came over the tidal bank. In the morning she got the news that they were safe, on top of a haystack surrounded by the water. The school caretaker was also caught at the school, Mr J Jones, Cambrian. The bell ringing was the sign that he was safe. Good news for us children of course that the school was under water!
It was nice to go to bed that night, get up in the morning and see water covering the Morfa, like living by the sea, but we had no possessions, no food or clothes, they wree all submerged in the water in the cellar. Mrs Maggie Gwyneth Jones, over the road shared her children's food and clothes with us. So such kindness in very poor times.
I have to admit that I am un-nerved when I remember the experience, and realize how close we were to drowning. This was the night Mary Mordon was born in Yr Ynys.
I can remember seeing a hay-stack floating in the water almost into the village, from the direction of the station. Neighbours organised a boat from Caerffynnon to take food to Draenogau Mawr and Draenogau Bach, and to the station. Mr Hugh Owen, Bryn Street (an old sailor) was the captain of the boat, us children were delighted to be able to go in the boat with him.
But it was all such a mess - the cattle of the Ship Aground drowned, and sheep and cattle being burned by the trees of Cae Bran. The railway had moved from the track along three miles, trees down in the Gelli and on the road by the school, and I have a faint memory of a large crane that came to move large items at the station such as large transformers for the Power House at Maentwrog. I wonder if anyone can remember the name of the machine? The Normandy Box.
We had to help at home of course in order to get things back to normal after the water had receeded. We were sent to collect fire-wood in the Gelli to heat and dry the house, and I can remember my mother washing and the clothes having to dry on the railings in the village.
R. Tecwyn Jones, Bangor.