Childhood Memories Of Penrhyn Bay

A Memory of Penrhyn.

My grandmother and grandfather lived at "Oaklands", in Maesgwyn Road, opposite a corrugated iron church. The road was unmade and beyond the church to the sea was a large meadow where cattle and sheep grazed. On the other side of the road were quarrymen's terraced cottages. My grandparents moved there in the 1920s after Grandad retired. Born in 1925, I spent much of my early childhood with them in the summer months. My last holiday there was in 1935. Afterwards they moved to the Midlands. Most of my days when the weather was fine were spent down on the beach. When the tide was out some patches of sand were exposed and many rockpools. I spent hours exploring these and finding small crabs and fish left behind when the tide went out. Memory has it that the weather was always warm and sunny although there were undoubtedly wet and unpleasant days. I was fascinated too by the tramway which ran from Llandudno to Craig y Don, and then over the shoulder of the Little Orme, through Penrhyn Bay to Rhos and on to Colwyn Bay. It was a great treat to ride on these and especially on the "toastracks" - the open cars which ran in the summer. A visit to Llandudno with my mother held with it the chance of going on the pier to watch the steamer "St Tudno" come alongside the jetty at the pier's end to disembark and take on passengers.Those days were perhaps the happiest of my early childhood, so much so that in later years my family and I returned year after year to Wales for holidays, principally in the Bala, Towyn and Aberdyfi areas. My favourite mountain is Cadair Idris. The country around it is superb.