September 2011 Archives

Following my visit to the WW2 Exhibition in Capel Curig in August I've had time to study the accompanying booklet properly and it is indeed an excellent reference source on the effects of WW2 in Snowdonia. However, there is one aspect of life during WW2 that has not been included - the Black Market! This is probably a difficult topic to discuss in such an exhibition as people would not wish to be identified as taking part. But it was a very real element of rural life in those days.

In Blog No 63 I told of how I was, at the age of one, evacuated from Liverpool to Diddlebury in Shropshire. Some 18 months later my father was called up for military service and my mother took me to live with her parents in Penmachno and this is where I have my earliest memories. My grandfather was a postman and had a small 13 acre farm with 4 cows named Gwiga. My grandmother made butter and, before the war, took the butter and eggs to sell at the Llanrwst Market on Tuesdays. During the war, however, all farm produce had to be sold to the Government and was taken to the "Packing Station" based in the now demolished Town Hall on Ancaster Square in Llanrwst. (Photo shown)

However, I remember one man who came round the farms buying eggs, butter and other farm produce. I was told that he would sell these to the hotels in Llandudno. This was the Black Market. My grandparents couldn't sell him too much as this would affect how much they could sell to the Packing Station and it would be suspicious if there was a significant drop in the amount!

I can't remember his name but one of his legs was shorter than the other and he had a big built-up shoe. As a child I was fascinated by this shoe and I couldn't keep my eyes off it - a child's face is nearer to an adult's shoe than to an adult's face. He was clearly not physically fit for military service. He had a green van and I would sit in a tree waiting to see him arrive and park his van outside Tan y Dderwen. He would then walk up to Erw'r Clochydd and then to us at Gwiga and then on to other farms. Thinking back, I can't understand why he wasn't caught. There weren't many cars and vans in those days and, because of petrol rationing, very few actually travelling on the roads.

I remember that on one occasion he gave me half a crown for a basket full of mushrooms freshly collected in the fields. On one Market Day in Llanrwst I remember my grandmother giving me a basket containing eggs, which were well covered, and asking me to take them to the Black Market man in Watling Street. Presumably a child of about 6 carrying a basket was less likely to arouse suspicion than an adult. This was the first time in my life that I broke the law!

There were many stories about the movement of pigs in the middle of the night but I had no experience of that activity. This all came back to me when I saw the show "Betty Blue Eyes" when in London recently. This is set in 1947 during the post-war rationing period and "Betty Blue Eyes" is an unregistered pig. It was hilarious.

My grandparents were honest chapel going people who wouldn't have dreamt of doing anyone a bad turn. If they had seen a £1 note on the roadway they would have gone looking for a policeman to hand it in. Yet they, and many people like them, were prepared to participate in the Black Market.

Petition regarding the cost of BMD Certificates

For some time there has been a process for people to set up e-petitions on the government website and if sufficient people sign them they will be considered by the relevant department. There is currently one such petition that will be of interest to family history researchers which attempts to make it cheaper to get a birth, marriage or death certificate for research purposes. The objective is to allow the GRO to supply cheaper uncertified certificates. These would have no legal value but would be of value to family research. Click on the following link to get the Petition and add your name:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1792
The wording is as follows:

"Research Copies for Birth, Marriage & Death Certificates for Genealogical Research Purposes

Under current legislation, the GRO can only "release this information by means of the issue of a paper certified copy Cert of the relevant entry, and payment of the relevant statutory fee for a certified copy." We request that this House enacts legislation to allow the General Register Office of England and Wales the ability to issue "uncertified" research copies of birth, marriage and death certs - with a notice on the copies that they are uncertified, and have no legal authority - and that these may be obtained at a much lower cost than the current £9.25 per cert (eg £2) when ordered on-line and the GRO Index Ref is Provided, and that these may be issued in a electronic (email) format or a plain paper in the same way as The Rep of Ireland; this would enable family historians to buy many certs for their research at a lower cost" In the Republic of Ireland you can ask for an uncertified copy from Roscommon (their version of GRO) for €4."

Anglesey Archives
The Anglesey Archive Service will re-open to the public in the new building at Bryn Cefni Industrial Estate on 3 October after being closed since the beginning of May.
For details visit www.anglesey.gov.uk.

Gwynedd Archives - Caernarfon
Caernarfon Archives will be closed for one week from 10 October and will reopen on 18 October

Gwynedd Family History Society, www.gwynedd.fhs.org.uk
Meetings for the next four weeks are:

Caernarfon, 29 September (In Welsh, last Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at the Library, Lôn Pafiliwn: Wil Aaron: "Y Llyfrgell fwyaf yn y byd"

Bangor, 4 October (In English, first Tuesday of each month) 7.00pm at the Quakers Meeting Hall, Dean Street: David Ellender "Plas Newydd: a home shaped by love and loss"

Conwy, 10 October (In English, second Monday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Ebenezer, Abergele Road, Old Colwyn: Parry Vivian Williams "Dolwyddelen and the Navvies 1874-79"

Pwllheli, 21 October (In Welsh, third Friday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Seion, Lon Dywod: Noson Aelodau

Dolgellau, 13 Hydref (In Welsh, second Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at the Royal Ship Hotel: W Lloyd Davies: "Bachgen bach o Felin y Wig"

Llangefni, 20 October (In English, third Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Smyrna, Ffordd Glanhwfa: Gareth Robinson: "Billets to ballots: vestries to votes - the poll books and family history"

Clwyd Family History Society, www.clwydfhs.org.uk

The meetings are held on the second Saturday of each month (except August) at 2.00 pm at locations that rotate within the former county of Clwyd.

Saturday 9 October: 2.00 pm at The Community Centre, Park Street, RUABON, LL14 6LE Chris and Judy Walsh: "Wyvern Midland Railway"

The week before I visited the WW2 Exhibition in Capel Curig I had visited the Liverpool Records Office. I was born in Liverpool in 1938. My mother, from Penmachno, was a nurse at the Royal Southern Hospital. I showed some photos of my mother at the Royal Southern in Blog No. 32 in September 2009. My father, from Llithfaen, was a teacher at the Gwladys Street School and football fans will know that this school is next to Goodison Park, the Everton Football ground. I show a photo of my father (on the right as you look at the photo) with the school football team after they had won a rather magnificent looking shield in 1937.

On the outbreak of war my father and his class were evacuated to the village of Diddlebury near Craven Arms in Shropshire. My parents and I stayed at the Vicarage and I have a number of photos of our stay there but I was too young to have any real memories. I had assumed that the evacuation had taken place sometime following the declaration of war on 3rd September 1939 but last Christmas I received a book, "Children of the War Years" by Janice Anderson, published by Futura. Here I learnt that planning for the evacuation had started in 1938 and that implementation had started early in 1939.

I established that the Log Book for Gwladys Street School was held at the Liverpool Record Office and I made arrangements to go to examine it together with some other records in which I was interested. You must book ahead and order the records you wish to see. In the Log Book I saw the name of my father, Emyr Roberts, appearing from time to time and then in 1939 I started to come across references to the evacuation. On 8 March 1939 the Head attended a "meeting of Head Teachers to discuss the Evacuation Scheme in detail".

On 13 March the entry reads: "Meeting of parents to explain the scheme and issue forms and letters Meeting enthusiastic and Infants Hall filled to capacity. Many intelligent questions. The scholars took home forms for the evacuation to their parents and to those cases where pre-school ages were reported to live. Acceptances 83%"

At the exhibition at Capel Curig I learnt that "As early as March 1939 censuses were conducted to survey the available accommodation". It is clear that the planning in the cities was going on at the same time as the planning in the rural areas which were to receive the evacuees.

On 4 April the Log Book entry reads: "Evacuation forms signed by approx. 85% of the department. The whole of the staff volunteered to assist in the evacuation duties. Survey of kit bags etc required for conveyance of personal effects on examination reveals about 2/3rds without suitable receptacles. Resolved with the Headmistress to order Kit Bags for those agreeable - order placed for over 300." On 25 April there was a "successful parents evening with film display".

The next reference to the Evacuation is on 16 August when the Evacuation Instructions were received. On 25 August Evacuation Rehearsals were carried out - 10 groups of 50 formed.

28 August: "Official Evacuation Rehearsal. Authority for kin registration on this day. Evacuation Party to proceed to Ludlow @ 12.35 pm from Kirkdale Station on the 1st day consisting of approx. 450 children with 55 (Infants Department)."

31 August: "Second and Final Evacuation Warnings received to evacuate on Friday 1 September."

1 September: "The school was evacuated and left Kirkdale Station at 12.25 in charge of Mr H Watson and staff. The party travelled to Ludlow, where children were billeted in various villages. (Bromfield, Craven Arms, Wistanstow, Diddlebury, Munslow, Richard's Castle, Burford and Cleobury Mortimer)"

I read elsewhere that 226 trains left Liverpool that day carrying 57,000 children and 31,000 mothers with young children heading for destinations in Wales, Cheshire, Shropshire Hereford and Lancashire. The organisation that went into this was truly amazing and it must be remembered that this was also happening in all the major cities on the same day.

I assume that my mother and I also left Liverpool with my father on that train to live with the Rev. and Mrs Jones and their daughter Myra in the Vicarage in Diddlebury. Or did we travel to join him at a later date?

Gwynedd Family History Society, www.gwynedd.fhs.org.uk
Meetings for the next four weeks are:

Caernarfon, 29 September (In Welsh, last Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at the Library, Lôn Pafiliwn: Wil Aaron: "Y Llyfrgell fwyaf yn y byd"

Bangor, 4 October (In English, first Tuesday of each month) 7.00pm at the Quakers Meeting Hall, Dean Street: David Ellender "Plas Newydd: a home shaped by love and loss"

Conwy, 10 October (In English, second Monday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Ebenezer, Abergele Road, Old Colwyn: Vivian Parry Williams "Dolwyddelen and the Navvies 1874-79"

Pwllheli, 16 September (In Welsh, third Friday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Seion, Lon Dywod: Parch Olwen Williams: "Hel Achau"

Dolgellau, 13 Hydref (In Welsh, second Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at the Royal Ship Hotel: W Lloyd Davies: "Bachgen bach o Felin y Wig"

Llangefni, 15 September (In English, third Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Smyrna, Ffordd Glanhwfa: Angharad Holmes: "Môn to Mesapotamia. The story of a nurse"

Clwyd Family History Society, www.clwydfhs.org.uk

The meetings are held on the second Saturday of each month (except August) at 2.00 pm at locations that rotate within the former county of Clwyd.

Saturday 9 October: 2.00 pm at The Community Centre, Park Street, RUABON, LL14 6LE
Chris and Judy Walsh: "Wyvern Midland Railway"