No 66: More Litherland nostalgia

When we moved to live with my grandparents in Penmachno in 1941 I was no longer an evacuee as I was living with my family and I went to the village school which was Welsh speaking. There were many genuine evacuees from Liverpool in Penmachno, amongst them was Ken Dodd who later became President of Machno United FC (amongst other claims to fame!). These evacuees were taught separately in the old school with their own teachers as my father had been with his pupils in Diddlebury. Also amongst these evacuees was Peter Warren living with his mother at Tan Lan, not too far from Gwiga.

Peter came from Litherland, living in Enstone Avenue which was very close to our home in Stanley Park. We became friends in Penmachno so when we returned to Litherland in September 1945 I was very lucky that I already had a friend living nearby. We were in the same class and we could walk together to school, St Phillips C of E Primary School. By this time my English was somewhat limited and it was therefore an enormous change going from a Welsh speaking school to a totally English environment. This experience has given me an understanding of how incomers to Wales feel. I was really fortunate that I had one friend from the start; it would have been very difficult had I not known anyone in the new school.

My memories are of the two of us, and also some other friends, walking to school, although my mother no doubt would have taken me initially. When I went there during August I realised that it was quite a long walk and there are two busy roads to cross, in fact there is now an underpass for the road immediately outside the school. No parent today would allow children of aged 7 to undertake such a walk unsupervised but the traffic was not a problem back in 1945.

I could see in August that the school has been rebuilt since my day but what was depressing was the tall iron railings round it, the heavy locks on the gates and the big metal shutters on all the windows. This is a sad reflection on today's society. Occasionally we used to go to services at St Phillips Church next door. Across the road there was the English Martyrs Catholic Primary School. We used to have snowball fights when it snowed which was quite natural but there were no problems between the schools although there were parts of Liverpool where there were considerable Protestant/Catholic antagonism in those days.

One incident as we walked home from school is still very clear in my memory. As we walked home down Sefton Road we saw a boy on a bike being hit from behind by a car. He was thrown in the air, landed on the bonnet and then fell onto the road. The driver and some adults walking nearby rushed to him and I saw one person rushing off to the telephone box at the corner of the street. As we were only eight we could only look on horrified. I don't know what happened to him but that image is still in my mind.

At the bottom of our garden there was a small fenced off vegetable plot and when we returned in 1945 there was an Anderson Shelter there. It was the standard model; half buried with the corrugated roof covered with soil sods. I don't know if my father had built it before the war or whether the people who were staying in the house during the war built it. It must have remained for a while as I remember playing in it but by the Spring of 1946 my father had got rid of it so that he could plant much needed vegetables.

I can't remember any bomb damaged housing in our area but there were cracks in the walls. My father would write the date on a stamp edge and put it across a crack. If the stamp edge broke then that was proof that the crack was still expanding. If the stamp edge remained unbroken for a period of time then this was the sign that the building had settled down. I believe that it was then possible to make a claim for war damage.

Gwynedd Archives - Dolgellau
Dolgellau Archives will be closed for a period of 3 weeks from 24 October and will reopen on 14 November.

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

Caernarfon, 27 October (In Welsh, last Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at the Library, Lôn Pafiliwn: Dafydd Whiteside Thomas: "Peking, Paris a Betws Garmon"

Bangor, 1 November (In English, first Tuesday of each month) 7.00pm at the Quakers Meeting Hall, Dean Street: Sandy Balfour "Going for Gold - The Story of the Steam Clipper Royal Charter"

Conwy, 14 November (In English, second Monday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Ebenezer, Abergele Road, Old Colwyn: Rev. Eirlys Gruffudd: "Harriet Elias"

Pwllheli, 18 November (In Welsh, third Friday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Seion, Lon Dywod: Gareth Haulfryn Williams: "Edmund Glynne"

Dolgellau, 10 November (In Welsh, second Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at the Royal Ship Hotel: Deri Thomas: "DNA - cadwch e yn y teulu"

Llangefni, 17 November (In English, third Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Smyrna, Ffordd Glanhwfa: Julie Stone: "Britannia Bridge - Stone masons and brickmakers"

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 12 November: 2.00 pm at The Church Hall, Church Lane, EWLOE, Ch5 3BF
Rev. Dr. D Ben Rees: "The roots and contribution of Dr Kate Roberts to Welsh Literature"