Ceinwen went into Llantysilio Church at its 150 year anniversary to talk to the children about the school between 1944 and 1955, and went on to give talks to Mothers Union, Church and also one at Rhos - no notes-just a hoard of memories- some of these are shared with us

Born in Wrexham in April 1944 and raised in Rhewl. Lived in a 2-up 2- down cottage, Bedw Isa

Parents Father- Maldwyn Griffiths

Paternal grandparents- David Griffiths (Quarryman) who was born in Llangedwyn and Elizabeth nee Jones who lived in Rhewl.They met when he came to Rhewl for the Lady Day March fair- a day when lads came to the area to look for employment. He served in the First World War, and was in the Home Guard during the Second World War. Elizabeth was a maid at Llantyslio Farm when they met.

Mother-Gladys Edwards. She came from Denbigh and had been born in the workhouse and brought up in Llandyrnog at Ruthin.

Matermal Grandparents-Her mother it was found out later was Katy Edwards and her Aunt throughout her whole life, was revealed, when a birth certificate was sought, to be her grandmother.

Ceinwen’s parents met when she, Gladys, came to work in the Land Army-the only other employment available to her at Denbigh was at the TB sanitorium and her brother, who turned out to be her uncle, wouldn’t let her go there to work.

The family does stretch back over a number of generations in the Rhewl area. When Ceinwen takes her grandchildren to the graveyard at Llantyslio church she can identify for them great, great great,

and great great, great, grandparents. It is an outing which quite obviously fascinates.

Ceinwen’s grandmother, who lived quite high on the hillside, on a small holding in Rhewl- Hafod y Rhysg- would take her outings as far as Glyndwfdwy using a donkey and trap- with a donkey who would only go if it chose to.

"Things were very different then our cottage had no electric until I was eleven years old- so we had oil and parafin lamps, a black-lead range, oven one side, water boiler on the other. We had a Valor Stove for cooking on- it had two sort of chimneys and you placed a pan on the top. We had to fill the bottom tank with paraffin and keep the wick trimmed-but it was quicker than lighting the fire to make a cup of tea. There was no gas. This was very much post war Britain.

The toilet was down the garden; with newspaper hung on a nail for toilet paper; and we carried all our water from a well about 100 yards from the house- near the little bridge over the stream. The well is still there but not used, as the current owners of the land use bottled water for their visits.

Washing was done in the outhouse- with a boiler, mangle, starch and blue bags.

FOOD

Rationing was still on-going when I was young. We were very self-sufficent with food. My dad grew our vegetables. I remember how my mum used to love sweet peas, and how my dad would always grow a row. One day as a child I picked a lovely row of white sweet pea flowers for my mum — we had no peas that year.

We ate rabbit- rabbit stew, rabbit hot-pot, rabbit pie. My dad had ferrets and nets. Without this diet staple many of the poorer families would have starved. We had hens for eggs, and when a hen stopped laying, the old hen would be boiled up with vegetables and eaten.

Grand-mother had a pig, so there was always salt bacon. They also had a cow, so we had fresh milk.-often drunk straight from the cow. She, the cow, had a lovely and tolerant nature, and would allow me to milk her when I was still a child. Any left over milk was churned into butter. And people would swap and share, plan ahead and preserve- without these, there would have been those with next to nothing to eat at all.

CHILDHOOD

We roamed wild-went where-ever our happy feet took us. The village had quite a lot of children then and we formed into natural geographic groups and tended to play with those who lived at our end of the village. My friends were my sister Glenys, April, Eirlys, Olwen, Arfon, John(Aprils brother) and Michael.

One of our favorite excurions was to Olwen’s farmhouse, Graig Ddu, on the hillside, where we used to play with her wonderful humming top. To get there was considered to be a "very dangerous" journey. Her home was up through fields and we had to pass through the field where Gilbert a very tempermental horse would appear to lie in wait for us, and then as we reached the farm there were the geese-we knew to watch out for the bad tempered old gander because, sure as eggs is eggs, the old bird would come running after us.

One of our main occupations was "playing house". Each of us had a house, often a branch hidden area under a tree in the garden.

The best place to play was at April’s home- the Sun, where we played "pubs"

Her grandmother, Jessie, would take the bottles out of the optics and replace then with bottles of water.

( See Eleanor’s reminiscences ; April is her daughter, and Jessie, her mother, is the lady who brought Judy Dench’s husband to tears as she sat and played the piano in the parlour bar)

People were always very friendly to us children then. We were "the village children"

There used to be wonderful bonfire at the Sun Inn, lots of home-made food and a wonderful firework display. I think these came from someone Eleanor knew. Large "home" fireworks gave a good display then- real bangs, more than a few seconds display- Catherine Wheels pinned on a piece of wood which you had to struggle to get to spin and jumping jacks under your feet and the screams as you jumped out of their way.

We would wander off up the mountains to collect windberries and blackberries-often staying out all day.

The farming people all used to help each other in those days, and would join together for annual events like the hay harvest. Us children always "helped,"playing hide and seek or making dens round the hay cocks. We knew what to do, how to keep safely out of the way, but were allowed to toil along side the workers as well. At the end, when all the hay was loaded onto the cart, we children piled on top and were carried to the farm.

The farmer’s wives used to bring food to the fields and there was a real community feel.

MISCHIEF

Oh yes- we did sometimes get into mischief.

I remember one farmer who didn’t have an children and therefore did not understand that, if you shouted, it became a game, a challenge and even fun- Each time we were told off we "would go back and bite him again" He had a walnut tree in his field and it became the thing to do to try to get these walnuts fron his tree-and of course he would chase us off.

Another farmer, Mr Jones from Graig Ddu used to wash his sheep by using a big wooden plug to block the stream under the bridge and creating a pool behind. When he had finished he would pull away the board and let the water run again. One day he left his plugging device behind, and John from the Sun and others said "let us make a pool". We children had a wonderful time, paddling, scooping, building dams, but when it came time to go home, we weren’t strong enough to pull out the plug. I will never know why we didn’t ask for help from an adult, but we didn’t tell anyone, so by the next morning the whole road was flooded.

I remember that my father said that when he was a child, there were two farmers who didn’t get on and, as will inevitably happen, children were well aware of this animosity. One had a new gate on his field and the other a very old gate. Having swapped one for the other, my father and friends would watch as the two farmers argued.

BOB

My husband ,Robert (Bob), Morris and I must have known each other all our lives,( both living locally and going to the local school, but it was not until my 21st birthday party in 1965 that we actually got to know each other. We were married in 1967. Bob grew up higher up the hillside above the Conq (once the Conquering hero pub). He was one of 14 children, though two of his siblings had died in childhood. There were about 20 years between the eldest and the youngest and he remembers that as a child he was always up to mischief.

Bob tells of wonderful parents and a happy but exceedingly hard-up childhood. The main meals were based on the rabbits caught locally. A memory of childhood with still makes his eyes light up is that of the christmas party at school and the feast of food set out for the children-cakes and jellies. When asked what was a real treat by way of food as he grew up the answer was "Jelly"

While I recieved gifts at Christmas from family members as my dad was one of 4 children and my Taid would arrive with a sack of presents. Bobs Christmas "stocking" consisted of 1d.

One of Bob’s cousins was a lecturer at Bangor and went on to become well known for her "Sali Mali" stories for children

THE WAR

The war was over by the time I was really aware, but rationing was still in place until I was about 9. I do have a memory of seeing men on the far hill brow, clearing snow- probably in 1947, with coloured circles on their garments and other men standing watching them- I think that they were Italian Prisoners of war.

I would go to the shop-by the Conq, with my mother and Mr Howard would say "What would you like today Gladys. I’m afraid i’ve nothing in the place." I realised later he was saying that he had nothing under the counter. He did go to Liverpool at times and return with goods on the black market. The shop sold everything-from paraffin to bread, from clothes pegs to needles.

GOING TO TOWN

If we wanted to go to Llangollen we caught the Bryn Melin (Why Walk) bus and we carried the accumulators used to run the wet battery radios, on the floor at the front of the bus,every week to take them to Walthos where we would swap for one already charged,

I remember a lady, Nurse Griffiths, who wore a fox fur round her neck when shw dressed up to go into town. I used to like to sit behind her and play with the foxes head. There was also a lady in the village, who always wore black- hat, clothes and boots. She looked like a story –book witch. I was terrified of her as a child.

We carried hens on the bus, took eggs for delivery en route, while the bus would stand and wait while errands were completed. Once in Llangolen the bus would park in Parade Street while shopping was done and you could return to the bus and leave your shopping and go off again to other shops. You could buy everything in Llangollen in those days. There were three greengrocers – Gabriels, Horspools. Wyn Jones, Ellis’s in Oak Street for hardware, Avery’s for furniture, Jonathan Davies for chothing and haberdashery, Merion house and Dicks for shoes the Coop, Lodwicks, EB Jones and Tom Owens- grocers.

SUNDAYS

As a child I really did not like Sundays.

We were not allowed to do anything. Sunday morning there was Sunday school, which we did enjoy, taken by the wonderful Tom Jenkins.

2pm brought Chapel with lots of hell fire and banging of the pulpit-also quite interesting to a child, but we dreaded Chapel at 6pm.

We had to go forward in the chapel to say our learned verse from the testaments or Psalms (which had to be a new one and of a suitable length). We used to hope that they would forget as the service dragged on but, just as we thought nthat we had escaped, there would be the Deacon standing up and saying "will the children come forward"

We were Welsh speakers.

Once a year we had a competition between four Sunday Schools- Pontfadoc, Llangollen, Glyndfdrwdy and Rhewl. This was Gymanfa Ysgolfon. It consisted of songs to be sung, poems and questioning by the minister. There was set work which we had to do on the day.. Points were awarded and the winning chapel were awarded the shield which they proudly held for the next year. We did win quite a number of times.

THE TRIP

The Sunday school trip, was usually to Rhyl, but occasinally to New Brighton and once to Southport. We used to set off at about 9am, with our packet of sandwiches ready for lunch. We used to get as far as Oernant on the Horseshoe, and have to get off the bus because the engine would be boiling, and walk up to the top. Men would be wearing their suits and Ladies in their finary. We would arrive there about lunchtime, then sit on the beach (men with knotted hanfkerchiefs on their heads) There would be donkey rides, bike rides and roller skating. Before we left for home we would ride on the train around the marine lake. There was a ride around farms on a pony and trap and the big wheel. All the way home we would sing.

This was our only trip of the summer-our summer holiday.

I started school after Easter in 1949. Naturally it was taken for granted that I, like all the others, would walk to school-rain or shine.

At that time, the boys all still wore short trousers and us girls wore skirts and dresses. Underneath there would be, for us girls, a vest and the dreaded liberty boddice. Our servicable pants would have a little pocket for our handkerchief. The coats we walked to school in were woollen, and if they got soaking wet on the way to school, soaking wet they would be for out return home. The journeys home from school were full of interest as we would clamber over the verges looking for birds nests etc. We could recognise the different wild flowers and trees, and knew which colour and size of egg belonged to which bird. We used to go on nature walks from school and learned first hand about local wild-life. We could take wild flowers back to school or home to press and save.

There were two classrooms in the school, no electric, and a coke burning stove in each classoom for a modicum of warmth. The toilets were outside and the yard in those days had no tarmac-just flattened and stony.

Writing was learned using a piece of slate set in a wooden frame and chalk, as we sat in rows at our desks. Our teacher was Miss Williams, and we were taught bi-lingually-so both Welsh and English came naturally. As our writing improved we progressed to using a pencil and paper. It was not until I was 7 and moved up to the juniors that I was allowed to progress to pen and ink, a ruler and a sheet of blotting paper. We were expected to use our "best writing". This was always a trial as you had to dip your pen in the inkwell on the desk, and try to write without producing blots. The nibs would cross or break, or simply pick up too much or too little ink, with an inevitable result of ink on our fingers and clothes.

Mr Jones, the junior class teacher would rap the back of our hands with the edge pf a ruler and say "start again" if our work was not up to standard. The inkwell and blotting paper naturally had the alternative use in the making of ink pellets if the teacher was out of the room. Mr Jones would return, and to our surprise always noticed these blue pellets on the floor and desk tops. He would ask who had done it, only to receive the expected reply of "Nobody Sir" "Own up or you will all stay in" No-body ever split.

There was a cane, but this was not used very often.

At playtime we had a bottle of milk, often warm and not very nice in summer, but we had to drink it. The bottles had cardboard tops which we would save and use to make pompoms-by winding wool round them.

What did we play at school? - We would skip, by ourselves using a skipping rope, or we would use a longer rope and play and chant skipping rhymes. We would play chasing games and catch, piggy in the middle and other ball games,What time is it Mr Wolf?, hopscotch, farmers in his den, oranges and lemons and dipping rhymes to find out who would be "it" or "on"

Often someone would fall down and have to go into school to have a graze gently cleaned, prior to the application of the, not so gentle and dreaded, iodine.

We were unsupervised so all the games were organised amongst ourselves.

In PE we would play rounders sometimes, but we were not allowed to send the ball out of the school grounds. Needless to say half of every PE lesson was spent searching for the ball in the nearby hedgerows. High jump was two upright sticks with the cane cross piece held on with clothes pegs. We had coconut matting to land on and we do our acrobatics out on these in the school yard. PE was timed by the weather, so that it was usually outdoors summer or winter.

There was a tap at the top of the yard, erected to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Silver Jubillee. We soon learned that if you turned on the tap ever so slightly at night in winter, so that no teacher would notice, that by the morning there would be a lovely slide down the yard.

I remember chapped legs.

I remember when the vicar Mr Derbyshire–Roberts, the doctor, the nurse, known as (Nitty Nora, the bugs explorer) and dentist used to come to school.

The dentist would bring his big chair and his gas and air machine and they would occupy one classroom, while in the other we would wait our turn, having listened to the earlier victims’ screams and seen the blood. Later he held his surgery in the chapel vestry- out of earshot.

If we missed school the attendance officer would come; Policeman Plant

When it came to dinner time, we older children, who were not used to being pinned down in a yard, would make sure that the smaller ones were safe (they would have been noisy and unable to keep up) and we would be off and away, up into the mountains. I remember a walnut tree up there which we would pelt with sticks. As long as we were back by 1pm for the school bell, a blind eye was turned, after 1pm we would get the cane. This rarely happened as we seemed to instinctively know when our free time was over.

Dinners came from Llangollen in big metal containers. We gave names to the Trojan Taxis that brought them- The blue one was named the Black Maria and the red one, the Red Devil.

The food used to be meat and veg, corned beef and beetroot or, stews and puddings included prunes and custard and semolina with a blob of jam in the middle.

We rarely used the train ourselves, but we would hear the Barmouth Train as it chuffed and whistled its way down the valley, billowing its smoke up behind the trees.

My grand-dad worked at the quarry up the horseshoe- he would walk there each day. Somedays there would be no work and the walk would have been for nothing.

Bob’s dad used to work for the highways and was very badly paid.

Bob says he never had any pockey money as a child, and only rarely tasted sweets. (One of his elder brothers was good to him and teated him to a few sweets on occasion)

His first job in 1952 was in farming and he was paid £1 a week.

You have to remember however that also in 1952 he joined a trip to the Isle of Man.

This consisted of "bus to Liverpool, breakfast on arrival and the return trip"-cost £1.

Bob says, he has never been out of work, but always prepared to do a job if it was available. In the early days of £8 a week take home pay they felt very poor.

Even now he keeps busy in the valley gardening and helping the farmers.

My Grandfather fought in the First World War, and by the Second, was in the Homeguard-patroling and protecting the valley and operating the search lights. There were evacuees in the houses and farms.

At Eisteddfod time Bryn Melin used to run a service to London to pick people up from there. The Eisteddfod was very different then.

Back to my life: I attended Llantysilio school from 5 -11 then went to the Secondary Modern school in Llangollen. Later I passed to go to the Tech at Wrexham and did pre-nursing for two years. I started nurse training in April 1962 at the War Memorial Hospital and qualified as a nurse in June 1965.

I worked in Wrexham, as the two hospitals amalgamated and became the Wrexham Maelor (in 1963) until 1968. After the children were born, I returned to work at the orthopaedic hospital and went to the spinal injuries unit in June 1974 -1990. I later worked at Abbey Dingle Nursing Home where I stayed until retirement in 2007

When asked about songs we used to sing in school at first all I could think of was the welsh hymns and that lovely poem which we used to recite, but then suddenly memory kicked in. Here are some of the rhymes and songs.

Nant Y Mynydd (The Mountain Stream)
John Ceiriog Hughes (Ceiriog) 1832-1887
Nant y Mynydd groyw loyw,
Yn ymdroelli tua'r pant,
Rhwng y brwyn yn sisial ganu;
O na bawn i fel y nant!

Grug y Mynydd yn eu blodau,
Edrych arnynt hiraeth ddug
Am gael aros ar y bryniau
Yn yr awel efo'r grug.

Adar man y Mynydd uchel
Godant yn yr awel iach,
O'r naill drum i'r llall yn 'hedeg;
O na bawn fel deryn bach!

Mab y Mynydd ydwyf innau
Oddi cartref yn gwneud ca+n,
Ond mae 'nghalon yn y mynydd
Efo'r grug a'r adar man.

The Mountain Stream

Mountain stream, clear and bright
Meandering toward the valley
Among the rushes softly singing
O that I were like the stream!

Mountain heather in flower
Looking at it creates a longing
For staying in the mountain
In the breeze with the heather.

Little birds of the high mountain
Rise in the clear air
From peak to peak they fly
O that I were like a bird!

I too am a son of the mountain
Away from home making a song
But my heart lies in the mountain
With the heather and the little birds.

Nonsense Rhyme

Chic yr i chic
Chela: chela:
Chacyri omi in a binonica
Walica walica can’t you see
Chic yr i chic
Its me

Cymraeg

Mi welais Jac y do
Yn eistedd ar ben to,
Het wen ar ei ben
A dwy goes bren,
ho ho ho ho ho ho!

English

I saw a jackdaw 
Sitting on a roof top
A white hat on his head
And two wooden legs
Ho ho ho ho ho ho!

Gee, geffyl bach
(Welsh)

Gee, geffyl bach, yn cario ni'n dau
Dros y mynydd i hela cnau;
Dŵr yn yr afon a'r cerrig yn slic,
Cwympo ni'n dau. Wel dyna i chi dric!

Cwyd Robin bach a saf ar dy draed,
Sych dy lygad, anghofio'r gwaed;
Neidiwn ein dau ar ein ceffyl bach gwyn,
Dros y mynydd, ac i lawr y glyn.

Gee, geffyl bach dros frigau y coed,
Fel y Tylwyth Teg mor ysgafn dy droed,
Carlam ar garlam ar y cwmwl gwyn;
Naid dros y lleuad, ac i lawr at y llyn.

Gee Up Little Horse
Lullaby
(English)

Gee up little horse, carrying us two
Over the mountain to gather nuts,
Water in the river, the stones are slippery,
We both fall down, well what a trick!

Get up little Robin and stand on your feet,
Dry your tears, forget the blood,
We'll both jump on the big white horse,
Up the mountain and down the valley.

Gee up little horse over the branches of the
tree
Like the fairies so light footed,
Galloping away over the big white cloud,
Jump over the moon and down to the lake.

Dau gi bach
(Welsh)

Dau gi bach yn mynd i'r coed,
Esgid newydd am bob troed;
Dau gi bach yn dwad adre
Wedi colli un o'u sgidie
Dau gi bach.

Dau gi bach yn mynd i'r coed,
Dan droi fferau, dan droi troed;
Dau gi bach yn rhedeg adre
Blawd ac eisin hyd eu coese - 
Dau gi bach.

Dau gi bach a'u bron yn wyn
Dau gi bach a'u llygaid syn
Dau gi bach yn dal i sbio
Dau gi bach sut r'ych chi heno
Dau gi bach.


Two Small Dogs
Lullaby
(English)

Two small dogs went to the wood
New shoes on their feet
Two small dogs going back home
Having lost one of their shoes
Two small dogs.

Two small dogs went to the wood
Spraining their ankles, turning their feet
Two small dogs running home
Flour and husks up to their legs
Two small dogs.

Two small dogs, their breasts are white
Two small dogs with astonished eyes
Two small dogs still staring out
Two small dogs "How are you tonight?" 
Two small dogs..