I was born in 1930 at the Cottage Hospital in Llangollen. My wife,Patricia Ann nee Mold was born in Wrexham in1934. We married in 1955.

I grew up in a greengrocers shop in Bridge Street and lived there until I was eleven years old. It was a busy street, having two butchers, a cake shop, and an antique shop. The Wynnstay at this time was the only pub.

I remember how the posh visitors from the Hand Hotel used to throw pennies down for local children and, when we were small, Clive Pumford and I used to run to pick up the coins. At this time the Hand was a first class hotel.

I remember, on occasion, as a small child being dressed in a smock and apron and pushed out into the shop. (Looking cute, I suppose)

As a child one of my jobs was on a Saturday morning, when I was expected to go to queue for bread at Smith Edwards Bakery at the top of Church Street.

Any small amount of pocket money I received would be spent on a comic, and if there were any sweets available, and if I had enough money left, I might have bought a few sweets as well. This was a rare treat.

Generally, I believe that we lived quite well in the war. There were lots of swaps- which made all the difference to being able to manage. I know that should my dad get a box of bananas during the war, they went under the counter for his best customers.

There were not many cars in town then. We had an Austin 7- EP 5743, but mostly deliveries were made by carrier bike. We had little help in the shop- but my mother’s brother- Uncle Charlie did live with us and help in the shop, until he had to go to war.

Deliveries to the shop were made by wagon. My dad bought from a man called Cliff Taylor from Oswestry.

When the war was on, we used to go to shelter in the huge cellar at Pumford’s house. Most of the nearby residents congregated in this cellar, sleeping on blankets and in chairs. The planes came over late at night-often there would be 20-30 people in this cellar.

My dad was a fireman- he would be all over the place-always on call. When he was absent, my mum would run the shop.

While we lived in Bridge Street, we had two dogs and a pet monkey- Chakeeta.

The monkey had its own room upstairs- when it got the chance it could be a little devil- it loved to pinch hats and used to dash up the blinds. We used to have to keep it away from the fruit. I was the envy of all my school friends.

During the war after Percy Clark had left for Castle Street, his empty building was filled with refugees.

There was a crash one night and the whole of the back of the antique shop had fallen into the river-it was rebuilt.

When we left Bridge Street, Dad’s shop moved to Castle Street to the Canterbury Lamb Shop and as the family moved at the same time, we moved to Abbey Road. There was the railway at the back and, close by on Abbey Road, there was the field used for the May Day functions. Bryn "Fairview" kept his horses by there.

We used to shop at the local shops, using those shops whose keepers bought their greengrocery from Gabriels. Our main grocers shop was at the top of Church Street- Idris Davies- a brother and sister ran it. Food, such as sugar and flour, were served out of large containers into paper bags for sale. There was P Jones-a grocer as well -a very old local family. (Father of Glyn Parry-Jones)

On being married my wife was taken out and bought our first frying pan and shown which shops were our customers and therefore which shops she should use.

Our childhood holidays were Sunday school outings and a holiday to Rhyl. Also I used to go to stay at my grandmother’s in Liverpool.

I remember the Air crash on Dinas Brân. We stood and watched the plane circling. He was waving to some scouts-there was loads of smoke.

The Nuclear shelter was manned by the Royal Observer Corp.

I was in the Royal Observer Corp, but the Corwen branch-we manned a shelter up the mountain there. There was a geiger counter.

In the war there was aircraft spotting day and night from the shelter at the top of Dinas Bran and contact was made with the aerodromes. I was at an age where I was too young to fight in the war, but was called up for National Service as soon as I was old enough. I was in the Air Force in the 1950’s and after this, when I came home, I joined the Royal Observer Corp.

My own career on leaving Dinas Bran School was to start as an apprentice joiner (there wasn’t much work in those days, but I was not very keen on the joinery). Then came the years in the Air Force. I met my wife 12 months before joining up when she was 14/15 and lived in Acrefair and met up again just before I was called up. We started courting then-mainly by letter and the occasional leave. I was at RAF Honnington. Leave home was rare due to the time it took to travel.

When I came home I went into the shop for a while and then to work at Monsanto. They had a major redundancy purge - a very worrying time - but I left there one day and got taken on in a Staff job at Air-Products the very next day. When my dad wanted to retire, I took over Gabriels greengrocers and ran it from 1971 to 1996. I sold it to Malcolm? - who didn’t cope and he to a lady. Last year Chris Smith took it over and it is now a successful ice cream parlour.

I rememberthe old Conservative Club, by where the Museum is now, and nearby Noel Richards-shoe maker/cobbler

I remember several local characters

Noel who used to always say "How are you today lad"- as he used to walk to work- he was already getting on in years then.

Moses- worked on a farm. He appeared to be cross-eyed and his cap was always on one side.

Cleators was a big shop then and a beautiful building-before it was knocked down for bridge widening.

I remember the first Eisteddfod. One of our tasks at school was to fill bags from bales of straw for people to sleep on. All the school helped to cope with the influx of people coming into an already busy town. It used to be really busy in summer and the exact opposite-really quiet in winter.

Doctoring is very different today. I remember a fall from my bike and being carried down to Dr Benjamin to be stitched-Saturday night. They would always be there for you.

There used to be a school dentist. We used to go to Welfare house from the National School, have a tooth out using gas as anaesthetic- then back to school-no fuss.

Teachers I remember are- Infants(5-7’s) --Miss Barlow

I passed for Grammar School, so never went to the Board School.

I remember an unexploded bomb, by Tan y Bwlch. We stood on the bridge in town debating whether we were safe to stand there, or should we find cover-there was not much of a bang-more a puff of smoke when it was disarmed.

Mrs Gabriel

I remember that as children we were always playing house. We made a little den and were actually given a paraffin stove for our play kitchen. I remember one day, when we were cooking blackberries, we thought that the stove was off and blew at it to make sure- it all blew out and I ended up with no hair. Even from an early age one of my jobs was to chop sticks.-using an axe. (This was not unusual for youngish children as, at that time, they were considered quite capable of jobs like this,and this is the way learning took place)

When I was 10 years old, I remember having to keep house and look after my brother of 5, while my mum was ill. I remember that I took my brother to school and cleaned at home until my hands all dried out. I remember ruining one of my mum's blouses which had about 100 buttons on it, when I put it through the mangle.

The truant officer came to the house and I was frightened to death.

We played lots of games as children using hoops, bean bags, balls, whip and top, yoyo, marbles and even a stone as we chalked out a patch for hopscotch.

We hah songs to skip to- I remember salt and pepper (pepper was when the rope was turned faster) and two little dicky birds.

When I lived at Acrefair my grand-parents, who came originally from Cheshire, kept the Bluebell pub. It was a true "singing "pub with a piano.

Our pub toilet was outside.