Thomas Gwilym Williams, 1912 - 1996
Below is a collection of notes written by Tomi Gwilym to record the every day life within the local community. These are arranged in 3 separate categories.
Click on a button below to view the list of articles within that category
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A Brief Tribute to Tomi Gwilym
Thomas Gwilym Williams, 1912 - 1996 - by his daughter Margaret Roberts My Father was born in Blaenau Ffestiniog on the 29 February, 1912. He took great pleasure in the fact that he was born in a leap year and that he was the youngest pensioner in the community. The family moved to Trefor Place in the village when he was very young and he and his younger brother David attended the village school. He left…
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Caerffynnon
The old people used to talk a lot about Mrs Holland Thomas, Caerffynnon, she came to the school to give prizes to the children and presents at Christmas time and of course when she was in the village, the women used to curtsy to her.
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Childhood Memories
When we were children we used to play by the Smithy and the ditch went under part of the building but the farmer has put pipes in the field to by-pass the Smithy.
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Cultural Activities
The Gymanfa Ganu was very popular in the old times. I can remember when we were young my mother took us every year to where the Gymanfa was, as the Wesleyans had the Gymanfa in different places each year and still do on a very small scale.
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David Jones - Shoemaker
David Jones y Crydd (shoemaker) had the building at the back of the Post Office on Station Road and during the First World War, the old stagers used to meet and there were quite a lot of sailors amongst them.
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Friendly Society
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.
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Hawkers
We used to have men coming round the houses selling different things - one was the tin man from Penrhyn. He used to make food boxes that would fit in your pocket and that was the way the quarrymen carried their food - they never had a bag on their shoulder. He did other things for the kitchen as well.
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Interesting Bits
In 1693 they had a lot of fires in the Parish of Llanfihangel. Haystacks would catch fire and the animals would die and they could not find the cause although the farmers kept watch night and day.
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Kelt Edwards
I remember Kelt Edwards, the well known Artist who lived in Cei Newydd, coming there one evening and he challenged the men that were there that he could boil water in a paper kettle and he made a kettle with paper, filled it with water and put a candle under it, and I can support it myself that the water boiled, as I was there.
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Language Barriers
When I brought my wife to Talsarnau in 1946, she felt very strange at first, as she could not understand Welsh. My mother helped her a lot as she always spoke to her in Welsh as her English was not very good.
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Llandecwyn
`Pentre Bryn y Bwa Bach' - that is the old name for Llandecwyn and my Granmother would always say when she was going up to Llandecwyn, ''I am going to Pentre Bryn Bwbach''.
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Local Characters
One man that the village had a lot of respect for was Humphrey Owen, Draenogau Bach. He worked quite a lot with the horse and cart and before the Council had the lorry to take the rubbish away, Humphrey Owen did the job and as there were only dry lavatories then he also emptied them.
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Local Events
We bought the playing field in the thirties. At first they thought of having the field where the Garage is but there was no grant unless the field was big enough to have a football pitch and a place for the children to play, they also tried to buy the field where the school is but Mr. Haigh would not sell.
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More Childhood Memories
I remember when we were in school the School Board used to come round if you stayed at home from school and we were all afraid of him. He came from Penrhyn. We also had a nurse coming round and she had a good look through our hair to make sure it was clean and nothing was moving in it!
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Old Buildings and Inhabitants
It is interesting to look round these old buildings and the buildings behind the Ship - the one that faces the traeth. The stones in that building were not quarried, they are big round stones that have been dug up from the fields and they are there to this day.
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On Hard Times
Between the two wars people were very poor and it was difficult to make ends meet and because of that men would leave the farms and the quarries. Some went to South Wales to work in the coalmines as they could make more money, but it was a very difficut time for their wives and families.
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Poachers
In October and November when the salmon go up to spawn you would see the river under Soar like Piccadily with all the lights, they had cycle lamps or some had bigger ones from motor bikes working with carbide. I was talking with Morris Jones about the men that worked on the farms and he reckoned that there were over 50 servants on the farms in Talsarnau before the last war and a maid as…
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Quarry Humour
You heard very good stories in the Quarry and I can remember one very good one. There was a man in Blaenau who was always in the pubs and the minister had a word with him and old `Nowtyn' as he was called, promised the minister that he would keep off the drink.
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Quarry Workers
These are names of men from Talsarnau who worked in the Quarries:- I'm sure that today there are only a few that can remember the men who worked in the Quarries. I will try and name those who worked there between 1926 and the Second World War. I will start in the village:-
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Ruins in the Parish
It is a pity to see Llandecwyn today as there is hardly anyone living there, it has changed so much in the last fifty years. Capel Llennyrch was built in 1867 and Dr. Tecwyn Evans mentions in his book that there were about eighty people in the service and fifty in the Sunday School. It would be nice to see it today as it was in the old time. Here is a list…
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Shoeing Cattle for Market
There was a smithy at the Ynys at one time it was called Efail yr Ynys and I think it was where Minafon is now. There was another one at Llandecwyn and that was called yr Efail Fach and that was where they built the Wesleyan Chapel, Brontecwyn.
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The Barricks - Rats and Fleas
I have heard quite a lot about the men who stayed in the `Barics' all the week and would not come home until Saturday afternoon. They came down on the Ffestiniog Railway to Penrhyn or Minffordd and if there was no train on the Cambrian they would walk home, and they had to do the same early Monday morning.
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The Mill, Smithy and the Pandy
There was a smithy at the Ynys at one time it was called Efail yr Ynys and I think it was where Minafon is now. There was another one at Llandecwyn and that was called yr Efail Fach and that was where they built the Wesleyan Chapel, Brontecwyn.
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The Quarry Bus
William Griffiths was telling me that there was 45 on the bus and they had to put a plank in the passage between the seats as there was no room for us all to sit and as Charles Jones came on in Cilfor he had to sit on it.
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The Traeth
Every time I walk on the sands towards the cockle traeth I come across a lump of coal and it makes me wonder where it has come from. Many a time I heard my grandmother naming some of the ships that had been wrecked when crossing the Bar, some I am sure with coal.
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This and That
There is a well known well under Soar, it is called ffynnon Sion Morgan. I'm sure they carried water from it across the Wern to the old Dolorcan.
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Tidal Wave
The tide came over in 1927 and it took all the Railway Ballast with it and the track was hanging with big holes where the track was. There was about eight foot or more of water in our cellar and it took with it everything that was loose in the fields.
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Tree Felling and Growing Potatoes
During the first World War there was a lot of trees cut down and I can remember `Gwinllan' Penbryn'. There was a lot of Scotch Fir there and also oak and ash.
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Utilities
We used to have our fresh water from Gwndwn - the well is still there, fenced in. The water came down from the well to a reservoir that you can see today - it is under the road opposite Cefntrefor Bach and a little higher up, under the wall, there is a well, and that is where the houses around there had their water. There was only Fron Yw then and Cefntrefor Bach. In summer …
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Various Bits and Bobs
After the first war they had a `Cantata' at Soar Chapel, it was the `Birds Cantata' and I can remember May, Tynbryn took the part of the cuckoo. It was lovely and it was Tommy Williams (Kit's father) who taught them.
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Village Shops
When they started building the village of Talsarnau it was called Sun Street and over the road to the Post Office was Lloyd Street, further down was Jones Street and Mrs Grace Owens' father built four or five houses that were called Trefor Place.
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Visits with Mother
I very often think of the Ynys, and I try to picture it in my mind, it must have been very busy around Ty Gwyn and Garreg Ro and of course Clogwyn Melyn, the Ferry Arms, as it was called then, and with all the ships built there it must have been an interesting place to be.
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Ynys Gifftan
I was talking to Hugh Williams, who lived in Ynys Gifftan, a few years before he died, about the change in the course of the river this side of the Island, and Hugh told me that tha last time the river came this side was 1940.
