Jude Williams

I was born at Elwy House in Market Street.

My parents were -Elizabeth and William Robinson Alexander (Alec)-originally from Fife. My maternal Grandparents - Mr Pryddych, and paternal Ginny and Bob Williams.

A family group

Alec was in the First World War. ? Blackwatch, ?Cavalry in France. He suffered the effects of Mustard gas. At the time he was put in the mortuary tent, but someone noticed him blink and they got him out. He was sent for convalescence at Leeswood. Grandmother’s father came from Leeswood to work as a blacksmith at Vivod

Benjamen was in the First World War and died, ?This may have been due to a wound or the flu.

His name is to be found on the Llangollen War Memorial.

Next door there was Dunn’s shop (selling allsorts-paraffin, sticks, potatoes, loose flour/sugar-weighed into bags. I remember going through the door as a small child. A bell rang and you had to stand and wait. It was lit by gas lamps. You would hear them coming from the back and then they would turn the gas up a little higher. I used to be frightened.

Jude was sent for a bottle of pop one day. Miss Dunn would not serve Jude (at about 4-5 years old). Jude’s mum went to buy the pop and ask why. Miss Dunn said that she had stopped selling bottles of pop to children, as they took the bottles to Rhyl to throw at seagulls.

Often parents and children would go out together, taking "buttie jam" and pop. We often went to the park. There was the paddling pool then and a putting green. We often came home with cut hands and knees from the rough ground. Used to play in Glas Aber woods when older-these are no longer there. There was a tap to fill our bottles with water and we would be out all day. I was always told not to talk to any strange men "They might be gypsies".

I remember playing out all the summer holidays. I played with Winnie Smith, the Prices, Betty Jones, Brenda Hughes and Doug Coates.

Or or I would be told "The old Pole will come and get you" as a threat if naughty. The old Pole was actually a man, who would knock at the door at Elwy house and ask for food. Mum would give him toast and dripping.

Jude’s mother at work

I used to love the cattle marketand would run round to help with the hosing. There used to be a big weighing scale for cows. On a Saturday, we children would get 3d of chips and sit on top of the scales with the chips and a bottle of Tizer.

If sheep escaped we would help round them up.

I went to school on Princess Street. I had a number of operations on my legs and did not start school at four, but went a year later and started with my younger brother. Mum warned me in advance to put my hand up and say "Please Miss Charles" if I wanted anything. This was a dreadful idea.

I was playing with blocks and daren’t ask to go to the toilet.. Eventually a girl was allotted to take me to the toilets outside- I ran home.

I have early hospital memories. At 16 months old I had my first operation with a second when four. I was very distressed and wanting to go home , so they stopped family visiting completely. I was there for three months and did not even know who Mum and Dad were when came to take me home. I remember a tall man holding a teddy and being mesmerised by the teddy. I also remember Sister Ploughday who had to give me an injection morning and evening. She had a dolly mixture for you, if you didn’t cry. I rarely got one- the injections were very painful. I screamed when I saw them coming. I was hit by the sister, poohed my pants and was smacked. However I do remember Mrs Edwards, the orderly, as being really kind.

My leg problem is a rare condition, diagnosed as I kept crying. Apparently the muscle on my leg kept growing too rapidly-ops took part of muscle away. I could bend knee until about 22.

Generally I missed a lot of school.

I went from infant to junior schools and then to Dinas Bran.

My first job was working with horses at Llandyn. I think it was under the Edwards family.

An advert for a local event

I was groom for 8 horses for showing and dressage. Carol had a horse and carriage.

At one time I recall going to Blackpool and remember meeting Paul Daniels.

Locally, I recall going to the mill to watch them grind flour. My uncle, Herbert Davies, lived in the Mill Cottages.

I then met a girl, who was a performer in a circus, and I ran away to the circus. I worked as a nanny to the Barnum family in Germany and travelled with the circus.

Sadly as my leg started to play up I left the circus life to come home for an operation.

I returned to 5 Tan Rallt Terrace (bottom of Birch Hill) and worked locally in bars and at Ystrad hall (home for mal-adjusted girls) and they promised to send me on a Social Worker Course.

I was sacked after a spiteful phone call telling them that I was lesbian. This had a lot of repercussions for then as I took it to Nalgo, who came out on my side. There was publicity and it was on television. The home was black-listed from Care Concern, who would no longer send children there and closed down.

I did my social work course and qualified CQSW. I worked with the elderly mentally ill, as a locum at Clatterbridge, for Chester CC-social services, Liverpool, and finally at the Cheshire Hospital for 14 years.

Earlier this year, on Valentines Day, Di my partner and I, were married at Plas Newydd in the very first civil ceremony held there.

Di, who attends a psychic circle at St Martins, was very aware of a "presence" at the ceremony.

An early Llangollen school photo