Trip to Wales - July 2013

Saturday 13^th July 2013
 

Finished getting the caravan ready and Sally took Jasper to the cattery for 9.30am, then off to the Mill to pick up Mum.  We left the mill at about midday.  It was a glorious sunny day -the temperature on the car registered 32 degrees!  Luckily we were able to turn the air conditioning on to keep a cool temperature.We stopped at Beaconsfield Services(on M40 just off M25) for our lunch in the caravan.  Ian bought some coffees and after a quick stop at the loos, we set out again for Bath.  

Almshouses at Marsshfield

Before reached Bath however we decided to stop at the little village of Marshfield, just outside Bath.  It was here that Ian’s ancestor, Ellis Crispe lived in 1600’s. In 1619 he and his son Sir Nicholas Crispe built the almshouses in Marshfield for the elderly people of the village and these still stand today. 

Here are some photos we took of the almshouses







 
 Ellis Crispe was an Alderman of the City of London and a member of the company of Salters (salt trade) and his son Sir Nicholas Crispe, also an Alderman of the City of London and a member of the Skinners’ Company (fur trade). Ian went to The Skinners' School a boy's Grammar School in Tunbridge Wells.  On the left are the arms of the Skinners' (left) and Salters' (right) City of London livery companies on the gable above the entrance to the former chapel of the almshouses.

Marshfield Almshouses

 




The trust still provides accommodation for elderly people of the village with reduced means.

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Ian pointing out to mum in the gateway, the arms of the Skinners' Company, below the spire of the former chapel of the almshouses.

On to Bath, arriving at Sutton Street at about 4pm, we perched (with caravan) outside the Pultney Arms Pub where Christopher met us.  Mum jumped out of the car, grabbed her belongings and Ian and I carried on to the campsite at a farm near Hinton Charterhouse. 








After setting up the caravan and getting ourselves changed and spruced up a bit, we returned to Lindy and Chris’s house (without caravan). 

Sitting in the garden at Bath

View of the garden

We had a delightful supper of Tortilla, a Spanish dish made with eggs and vegetable, kebabs of chicken with lemon or beef and onion with French beans in butter followed by a platter of summer fruits.  

 

By 9.30pm it was beginning to get dark and Christopher lit the lanterns on the table.  The garden looked and smelt delightful in the warm summer evening.  What a wonderful time we had.

Sunday 14^th July. 

We slept with our window opened and woke at about 6.30am with the sun streaming in.  We took our time having breakfast, a quick shower and packing up the caravan as we had arranged to meet Mum at 10.00am outside the Pultney Arms Pub. With a feeling of high expectation, we set off again for our final destination – Tresaith in Wales - land of our forebears!

By 2pm we had crossed the Second Severn Crossing (tarrif £6.20) and we had entered Wales. 

After another couple of hours we were close to our camp site.  Frustratingly though we could not find it, so near yet so far away.  Eventually we phoned the owners and were directed to it.  The name of the house was not well signed and we had gone past it. After unhitching the caravan from the car,  Sally then drove Mum to her hotel at the Ship Inn at Tresaith.  Again we were given directions from the owners of the campsite and told that it was very simple to get there only to find this was not the case at all.  We travelled along single track roads with high banks and overhanging trees, up hills and over dale, on and on.  After asking three people the way, we eventually found the Ship Inn and as it was such  a lovely sunny Sunday the place was teaming with people on the beach and sitting drinking beers.  We only just managed to find a place to park the car and check Mum in.  

Later we join Mum for supper at the Ship Inn.  We went up to Mum’s room first so that we can plan our campaign for the next three days. 

 The view from Mum’s room is stunning overlooking the wide expanse of Tresaith Bay.

We had a short walk around and then went to the restaurant for something to eat.  

Photo taken in 1911 with the ship Ruth on the beach

After supper we noticed a photograph in the bar of the Ship Inn with a flat-bottomed boat called the Ruth date 1911.  The man behind the bar, Bob, said he had done some research on the boat and said he believed it was specially built with the flat bottom so that it could be beached on the sand in Tresaith Bay. 

Similar scene today

We knew that Evan Parry was captain of a ship called the Ruth but had assumed that he had been a sea captain somewhere else.  We now realise that he was probably part of his father’s business.   His father, John Parry, is recorded in the censuses as being a coa, culml and lime merchant as well as later alsorunning the Ship Inn.  The Ruth must have carried the culm (low grade coal) found in North Devon and Cornwall to Tresaith.  We also saw a lime kiln in the photo (right hand side) and assume that this is where John Parry reduced the limestone to lime, which would have been used on the fields of the surrounding farms and he would have used the coal and culm to fire the lime kilns.

For the sake of clarity, the people we are investigating here are John Parry (1798-1882) and his wife Margaret (1800-1880). They had four daughters and one son :

Anne Parry (1828-1900) who married Rees Rees (1825-1895)

Catherine Parry (1830-1918) who married William Morris (1830-1859)

Mary Parry (1831-?) who married David Davies (1825-?)

Elizabeth Parry (1833-1915) who did not marry

Evan Parry (1839-1910) who did not marry.

Some more information that Bob, the man behind the bar, told us

The Ship Inn today

Whilst Bob told us that the Ship Inn was originally the house on the end (right hand side) which is now empty and in need of renovation we later found out that this was incorrect. He also told us that it is owned by an old lady who lives in the Midlands and that there is still a bar in it.  We went up the steps to get to the back of the house and it did look very run down.To the left of the house (looking with your back to the sea) is a cottage with a later extension on the left which together now make up the current Ship Inn.

After we left the Ship Inn, Ian and I drove around some of the little lanes trying to find Penbryn but to no avail.  Perhaps we will find it tomorrow and in particular the church where John Rees and Rees Rees and many other relatives are buried.

Monday 15^th July (St Swithins Day) - no rain!

Penbryn Church graveyard

We picked up Mum from the Ship Inn and went to Penbryn Church.  

Unfortunately the graveyard is very overgrown and we had to fight our way around looking at gravestones.  Mum felt unsafe and did not want to fall over.

  

Interior of St Michael's Church, Penbryn

It was delightful and there is a service every Sunday at 11am and judging from the visitors book there are lots of visitors.

Headstone of John Rees and wife Eleanor

Sally found the grave of John Rees (died 1857) (her three times great grandfather) and his wife Eleanor (died 1872).  

Elizabeth Williams nee Rees

Ian found Elizabeth Williams (nee Rees) of the Ship Inn at Tresaith died 1933.  She was the neice of Evan Parry and Elizabeth Parry and daughter of Rees Rees.  Also Elizabeth's husband David Williams who died 1948.  Surprisingly there is also mention of a daughter Ann who died when she was 10 years old but no date of death.  Wonder what happened there? 

Rees Rees and wife Anne nee Parry

Just to the right of Elizabeth's headstone, we found Rees Rees’ gravestone with his wife Anne (nee Parry) but it was very hard to read as it was so worn.  Rees Rees was my great-great grandfather.

I did not feel very well and so we returned to the caravan.  We had been there some time searching the gravestones and Ian’s hay fever was beginning to get the better of him with the waist-high grass and meadow flowers. So a cup of tea in the caravan whilst we chatted about times gone by and decided what to do next.  At 1pm Ian and Mum went up to Londis to buy a newspaper.  I think Mum is enjoying the Ship Inn.  She says it’s not 5 star and quite ‘rustic’.  But still she has all the essentials in her room including telly and was able to watch the “White Queen” on BBC1 last night.

Ian went to look at Blaenannerch Chapel and found Elizabeth Jones (nee Rees) older sister of Rees Rees died 1887 aged 69.  Married to James Jones died 1869 aged 57.  Maria Jones died 1861 age 4 years.  Owen Jones died 1888 aged 26 years.  Here is the gravestone.

Tuesday 16^th July

Woke up fairly early to go over to Ship Inn to pick Mimi up by 9am, as we needed to get to Aberystwyth to catch the Vale of Rheidol Railway by 10.30am departure.  This is a narrow gauge railway that goes up to the Falls at Devil’s Bridge.  

The journey took about an hour with some spectacular views over the Rheidol valley on the way.

 








On arrival we walked along the road to the Falls and saw the three bridges one on top of each other with the oldest bridge at the bottom - posibly Roman.  It cost £3.50 to go down into the gorge.  If only we had known what we know now!   The way down to the lookout platform to see the falls. It was very treacherous, made up mainly of shale (slate-like rock), and very uneven.  Thank goodness there was a handrail to hold on to. 

I felt very sorry for Mimi who was worried about falling over and breaking a leg.  If that did happen, how would she be rescued in such treacherous conditions?  Just when we thought we were at the bottom of the ravine, we reached ‘Jacobs Ladder’ a set of very steep stone steps almost ladder-like in their composition.  Should we rather go back the way we had come, against the tide of people coming behind us?  And would the ascent the other side be easier than the way we had come?  After much discussion we decided to press on.  Ian had come here in the past and thought the ascent the other side would be easier.  It was only later when we were all suffering that we asked Ian when he had come here last: “When I was a teenager and much fitter”, he said.  No wonder he did not really remember it as it is!

What made the situation worse was that we had a time pressure on us that made us hurry because the train returned in one hour.  We soon realised that this was going to be impossible.  So we sat down on a bench - the first one we came to!

Lunch break

We had brought some lunch with us, so decided the best thing to do was to forget the train and sit and rest and eat our lunch in a leisurely manner.  The next train was at 4.15pm so we would take our time.  Luckily we had bought the newspapers with us so we sat and read them.  

After resting and having eaten, we continued on our upward ascent. Finally we reached the top and feeling tired after our exertions in the heat.went to a café near the station for ice creams and a cup of tea. 




After resting in the shade we went to the train station and hung around until the train came.  

After arriving back at the station at Aberystwyth, we decided to do a quick drive through the town.  We drove down to the front with its wide expanse of bay and old fashioned hotels and guest houses painted many different colours – very pretty.  Aberystwyth is the home of the Univeristy of Wales and the National Library of Wales.  We then back through the network of winding streets and lanes.

On the way home we went to Londis in Brynhaffod to fill up with diesel and get some supplies and then took mum back to the Ship. End of another day. Had news today on Facebook of Daisy’s Graduation Day – well done Daisy 2.1!

Wednesday 17^th July – our last day 

Today we had a bit of a breakthrough!  Went to pick up Mum and made some enquiries at the Ship Inn about the house next door.  The waitress behind the bar said that the lady who owned the house was there today.  We shot round to the house and knocked on the door and met Di Hadley.  She was a mine of information and seemed very pleased to chat to us as we explained what we were doing.  The house is now divided into three flats  and she lives in one when she comes to Traisaith.  Otherwise she lives at Mickleden, Church Lane, Much Birch, Herefordshire HR2 8HT.  She said she would send us more information and would see if she could see if John Parry or his family were on her deeds.

The house was not the Ship Inn but has another name (need to find this out).


The original inn was a small property to the left of the house and it had a thatched roof and later the front part was built before the photo of 1911 hanging in the bar of the Ship Inn.  Ian took a photo of this at the back

We questioned her about the bar being in the big house and she said that was because there had been a restaurant.  They were actually in the process of reinstating the restaurant due to open later in the year. 


She confirmed that the house behind her house called Brynhaf was were Elizabeth Williams nee Rees (neice of Elizabeth and Evan Parry) and her husband David lived as shown in the census.
For information, Elizabeth was executor of her uncle Capt. Evan Parry's will as he was not married.  Elizabeth and David moved from here to the Ship Inn presumably after Elizabeth Parry (her aunt) died in 1915.  Their son John Parry Williams continued to live at Brynhaf.  We understand this property is now owned by someone who lives in Seattle and works for Microsoft.  He does not come very often, although his sister uses the house sometimes.

Di told us that in late 1900s a solicitor bought Traisaith village except for a few houses and divided the place up into plots in order to sell them on.  We understand that now there are only about 4 people living in the village, the rest are mainly empty as they are holiday homes.

She suggested we buy a book entitled “Welsh Ships and Sailing Men” by J.Geraint Jenkins.  We found a copy of this at Londis and Ian took a photo of the two pages about Tresaith.  Here is the extract :

"Tesaith is not a particularly old village.  Towards the end of the 19^th century a flour mill stood above the magnificent waterfall that pours into the sea from the Afon Bern and there was a row of cottages known as “The Barracks” which were home to the coastguards.  There was also an inn called The Ship.  Although Tre-saith – or Traeth-saith as it is occasionally called – was the site of a lime kiln and a cwlwm (culm) yard, there was little development here prior to the end of the 19^th century.  It became a poplar holiday resort at the end of the 19^th century and a little chapel was built for the visitors.

Long before the days of the holiday village, the sheltered beach at Tre-saith had acted as a small harbour, and the Parry Family at The Ship owned a ship that was employed locally to bring in agricultural and domestic supplies.

A small amount of ship building took place here, and in 1785 the 20 ton smack Nancy was built on the beach.  In 1827 John Parry from The Ship built another smack – the 25 ton Hope – which sank near Ynys Dewi in 1845.  Following this tragedy a ship, the Ruth – was acquired from New Quay and for a quarter of a century this vessel traded along the whole length of the coast.  The most famous of the ships belonging to John Parry and his son Evan was the Margaret Ann built by John Williams of Cardigan in 1877.  Apart from the daily trade in lime and cwlwm to Tre-saith, this ship sailed once a year to Connah’s Quay on the Dee to collect a cargo of crockery, bricks and water pipes from the Bwcle Potteries, which would be sold at the China Store in LLangrannog (on the site of the present day Glynafon Stores).  To the villagers of Llangrannog the Margaret Ann was known as Y Llong Lestri (The China Ship) and sailed on a regular basis until 1918 when she sank near Fishguard.

The next page then had something about Penbryn. 

Looking at golden Penbryn beach full of summer visitors it is hard to believe that this area was once the site of a very different form of activity.  Many years ago, Penbryn was a favourite haunt of smugglers running salt and other contraband goods, which they landed on the beach at the dead of night.  To this day, the narrow valley which leads from Llanborth to the sea is known as Cwm Lladron (The Robber’s Valley) because along its narrow track, local people would bring heavily-laden carts full of contraband from Ireland."

The barque - Ruth

Ian took some more photos of the photograph in the bar of the beach with the Ruth boat on it. 

The Ship Inn, left of the big house

See lime kiln to right of slipway

We then went to a National Trust property called Llanerchaeron. It was a most interesting house, described as late 18th century Welsh country estate belonging to the Lewis family.




 We then went on to Aberaeron and Mum treated us to a lovely lunch at the Harbourmaster which was situated right on the harbour.

Harbourmaster at Aberaeron

From there we made our way south in order to visit some of the villages in Pembrokshire that Rees Rees lived in as Police Constable.  

Bush Cottage, Star

 These included Bush House at Star where we met the current owner and she kindly showed us around the house.  The original house is the gable end part on the right hand side and the attic part was re built after a fire.  There used to be a lean-to kitchen where the present entrance door is. She said that she had spoken to Sharon who lives nearby and whom Ian had correspondended with last year through Ancestry.co.uk.  According to 1871 census, Rees Rees lived here (aged 46) with his wife and the 6 youngest of his 10 children.




Then on to Lampter Velfrey, a tiny hamlet, where he is recorded in the 1881 census (aged 56) as living with his wife and 3 children and two very young granddaughters Mfyanwy and Mary A Rees.  We did not know which house he might have lived in as only the nearby Post office is recorded in the census which is no longer there.  

Maenclochog Church

We then went on to Maenclochog and spoke to some of the residents there.  They remembered a police station beyond the shop behind the church, but this had been demolished, so a police house in 1860’s was a bit difficult to know about.  We know Rees Rees lived here and was  a Police Constable because this is recorded on Meredydd's birth certificate - he was born in 1865.







Finally up to St Dogmaels across the river Teifi from Cardigan.  According to 1861 census Rees lived at ?oidirfawr, Pantygroes, St Dogmaels.  He joined the Penbrokshire Police at St Dogmaels on 9th June 1857 and according to his Police entry record from Pembrokeshire County Record Office, he is described as being aged 34 having a fresh complexion, grey eyes and light brown hair.  He was 5ft 8and half inches tall and his former occupation was shown as labourer.  (However in 1851 census whilst he and Ann were living with his father-in-law, John Parry, he was shown as a mason.)

By then it was about 7 o’clock in the evening so we didn't have time to go to Blaenporth were he lived as a retired Police Constable at a house called Fronheligmade with Anne and granddaughter Myfannwy.  We made our way home, through the town of Cardigan, to Aberporth and then to Trethsaith.  We dropped Mum at the Ship Inn and returned somewhat weary to our caravan.  Tomorrow is another day.

Thursday 18^th July

Today we return home.  We left the caravan site at about 9.30am and travelled cross country for some distance and at about 11.30am stopped in a lay-by and made some coffee and stretched our legs.  We went passed Breacon, through Abergavenny and then onto the M50 near Ross on Wye which took us onto the M5 towards Birmingham and then the M42.  We stopped for about an hour on the southbound M40 at Warwick Services for lunch which we ate in the caravan and filled up with fuel.  We continued on the M40 with a tea break at Beaconsfield Services just before going onto the M25.  Unfortunately there was a bit of hold-up before the St Albans turn off which continued all the way to the Enfield exit.  (It was even worse in the other direction).

We eventually arrived at the mill at about 7.00pm where we were greeted by Susie and Katy.  We had drinks outside and were then joined by David and Helen.  Supper was roast chicken and vegetables from the garden, followed by raspberries and cake.  Thanks to Katy for making it all.  After supper back on the road again and home James don't spare the horses!  The traffic was stationery as far as the M11 on the opposite carriageway.

We got back home at about 10pm.  JN came out to move his car so we could get the caravan in and watched while Ian operated the caravan mover.  We then parked the caravan at the back of the house - will unpack it all in the morning.