Erddig, Clwyd

Bersham School

I attended Bersham School until 1950 and well remember the daily walk (or run) from 30 Wynnstay Crescent up West Grove to the school. I believe 1947 was the year that the winter flood happened and Gwylim Williams drowned near the footbridge. I remember all the teachers at Bersham - Mr Hughes, Mr King, Mr Gilla and Ms Mitchel. She had a great influence on me and was instrumental in getting me to Grove Park. I saw Mr Hughes on Bersham Road in the late eighties and he actually said my name when my sister Kathleen asked him if he knew who I was!

How many of my school friends remember me I wonder? Names I remember are: Glyn Jones, Derek Rowlands, Tony Pemberton, Cynthia Rogers, Beryl Davies, Pam Kyffin, Phillip Pierce, John Povah, Colin Humphries, Emily Rogers (Blacky Row, and she had a younger sister whose name I have forgotten). I was a train spotter and remember trying to catch the ZULU express passing Rhostyllen at 1:00pm. Our gang spent hours at the railway line by the church and climbed along the sewage pipe there! When I was old enough I spent all my time at the billiard room at the parish hall.

Everybody remembers the 'Argie' in Bersham as the gathering place for folk on a Sunday afternoon. Bluebell Woods alongside the Argie was our source for these flowers. I wonder if they still grow there? The old ironworks was a place of interest. Hazel Thomas's family worked the farm and I remember Hazel in the uniform of the Catholic school in Wrexham. Some of us Rhostyllen lads were privileged to play in the octagonal building there with Hazel's permission.  Hazel had a friend who lived in a farm about a mile up the step waterfall road. I think her name was Heather Huxley.

We Bersham pupils used to walk from the school to the old church building by the parish hall for lunch every day and I still remember the rows of tables there, and where the food was cooked in the back rooms.

Now to the village shops: Harry Morgan, Trevors, "'op chippy' and 'bottom chippy' were Thomas's and Lloyd's fish and chip shops. We loved the fish cooked by Mr Thomas and the chips cooked by Lloyds! The post office in Bersham was the creepiest shop I can remember.

Mention must be made of Owens' village buses. Bill Owens must have retired and the service then provided by Williams, the company in Ponciau. We used to ride Owens' buses to Wrexham to go to Grove Park School. On this subject I do remember one of the conductors - Dolly Bowen. However she may well have worked for Williams. When Bill Owens ran the buses, I remember my mother (Mrs Gwen Hughes) telling me in later years that Bill would stop the bus to pick me up if he saw me walking home from Wrexham. What a guy!

Bonfire nights! We used to have a huge fire down by the old Rhos railway Line in some disused backyard and I remember spending a lot of time gathering the wood for this event.  Many trees in Bersham woods suffered at our hands!

On a sorry note, I remember how we used to taunt an old lady who lived in a decrepit house just before the slight hill down to the Rhos railway bridge. We thought she was a dangerous witch! Her backyard faced the foundry. What was the street name?

Another landmark in my village was 'Albert the Barber's'. There was a man who never seemed to stop working. My dad would take me there for a haircut in the 'back' room, and every time a customer would come in the shop, Albert would leave the haircut customer to attend to the shop! A haircut (with those hand operated clippers) could take an hour! In addition to selling groceries, old Albert used to sell home made cough 'remedies' and dubious 'tonics. I'm sure us village folk thought he had a medical degree and could out-diagnose a doctor. What a character he was. He used to sponsor the village races once a year up at the 'Rec'. I remember winning a shilling or a sixpence in these games. Albert was a true resident of Rhostyllen indeed.

I will confess to a criminal act up at the 'Rec' in my youth. In the field where the wooden club house was situated there existed several very old and large oak trees.  ne of these trees near the railway line had a rotted-out space about 10 feet off the ground. I think it was Phillip Pierce who was with me, and we started a fire in this dead wood. It grew out of control and in a panic Phillip and I ran away to Bersham (down the old lane lined with the beech trees). We expected the police to be knocking on our door for several weeks! I see that the tree has since been cut down. In the 'Rec' were the two sets of swings, the roundabout and the 'jars. Those swings must have made by real craftsmen bacuse they were still in use many years after we used them. Are they still there?

If anybody reads this and remembers me, please do drop an email to me in Dublin, Ohio, USA. I notice I am the first memory writer for Rhostyllen and I hope to see others.

hughes@chemohio.com

The good times at Middle Sontley

My first visit to Middle Sontley was in the late 1970s and I was made welcome by the kind owner, Mr Neville Roberts. Part of the farm was being transformed. Mr Roberts had bought land from the closed down Hafod Colliery that consisted of a derelict house, marshy fields and a black muddy brook. He amazingly transformed this bleak area into a place of beauty that attracted an abundance of wildlife and fish in the three lakes he created out of the horrible black marshy area. Today you would not recognise what was previously a settling area for coal-dust-laden water from the colliery. His house is historic and, with Mr Roberts' permission, worth viewing, especially the well in the kitchen!

Joan & Fritz

I have many happy memories of visiting my cousin Joan at the Bridge House when I was young. I would go to play with Susanne & Erica when I was at my Aunty May's house (The Machine House) up the hill in Bersham. We would have some fun paddling in the river and play hide & seek in the garden. There were some little hidey holes in the rooms upstairs where we would play house. My grandmother lived for many years in the row of houses called Bunkers Hill which was just above the old school which was still in use then. My Aunty Nance & Uncle Tom also lived there and my uncle used to keep pigs on the land at the end of the row which used to be the old school gardens. Uncle Alb used to live down by the school where my cousin Den later lived. I have many happy memories of my visits to Bersham and am still very fond of it. Oh by the way Uncle Lloyd lived at Mill Terrace with Jack and at one time Uncle Harry lived in the Dole.

My Sunday school teacher

Mrs Ingman, my Sunday school teacher, lived in the first house at Mill Terrace. The houses were so small inside, maybe two rooms downstairs and two upstairs but they had so much character.  Mrs Ingman seemed so old when I was a child but she was probably only about middle sixties. I considered myself to be a favourite of hers but looking back , she was kind to everyone. I remember a huge, round dining room table in her sitting room ....I think she was very proud of it because I`ve never seen such a shine on a table.
 Mr Fitzhugh owned the church in the village and we attended services 3 times on a Sunday and choir practice on a Wednesday. Mr Fitzhugh never failed to turn up even when he was ill. I remember him  often sneezing into a huge handkerchief in Sunday school. My father, Fritz Franke of the Bridge House,  had  a lot of time for him and respected him greatly.
We had wonderful Sunday school parties at Mr Fitzhughs` house and every child was given a book.  Those books meant a great deal to me and I`ve still got them 40 years later.
A Sunday was a family day ....we went to church, watched old films on the telly and ate a huge roast if we were lucky.