Author Topic: Pen Morfa Cottages  (Read 42601 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline rog

  • Member
  • Posts: 21
Re: Pen Morfa Cottages
« Reply #75 on: May 03, 2012, 03:29:20 pm »
#73

Thank you for the update Hugo.  :)

Roger

Offline lizcj

  • Member
  • Posts: 11
Re: Pen Morfa Cottages
« Reply #76 on: July 11, 2014, 07:25:02 am »
Hugo, my family also lived there and from your photos on the "people" page obviously knew your family well,  John Thomas was my great Taid and Gwyneth was my great Aunt. My Grandad, John Edgar Thomas was born in Pen Morfa Cotfages. Last night was a bit of a revalation to say the least as Taid was dead before my mum was born, it was lovely to meet him and to see Auntie Gwyneth as a child, I knew her as a fabulously dressed older lady.
Anything you know of their time in Pen Morfa would be of great interest!


Offline Hugo

  • Management board member
  • *
  • Posts: 13884
Re: Pen Morfa Cottages
« Reply #77 on: July 11, 2014, 09:06:36 am »
Lizcj    Your Taid lived at No 5 Penmorfa Cottages and my Taid & Nain lived at the end terrace No 6.      My mother and Gwyneth were best friends and attended the old St Georges School in Church Walks.
The cottages were demolished in 1936 and your Taid and my Taid lived in adjoining semi's in Cwm Place when they moved.  I've a lot of info about the family and photos too but will have to post them later as I have a few things to do today.

Offline lizcj

  • Member
  • Posts: 11
Re: Pen Morfa Cottages
« Reply #78 on: July 11, 2014, 09:48:03 am »
Lizcj    Your Taid lived at No 5 Penmorfa Cottages and my Taid & Nain lived at the end terrace No 6.      My mother and Gwyneth were best friends and attended the old St Georges School in Church Walks.
The cottages were demolished in 1936 and your Taid and my Taid lived in adjoining semi's in Cwm Place when they moved.  I've a lot of info about the family and photos too but will have to post them later as I have a few things to do today.
Wow, you've made my day, thank you,  have just texted my mum to tell her!

Offline Hugo

  • Management board member
  • *
  • Posts: 13884
Re: Pen Morfa Cottages
« Reply #79 on: July 11, 2014, 11:53:03 am »
Lizcj,  I don't really know where to start as there is so much to say.    The families were so close and my memories of your family are still very clear.   Times were very hard in those Penmorfa Cottages and I seem to remember my Mam saying that the terrace shared a communal WC  and washroom.    My Nain and Taid had 7 children there and I can remember Gwyneth, Adelaine, Peris and John Edgar from your family.
My mother Nancy and Gwyneth were best friends as were my Uncle Bobby Sam and Peris. 
I'll start with 3 photos of the cottages, my Taid lived at the end on the right and your Great Taid lived next door
The next photo is of my Taid Samuel Hughes with John Thomas your Great Taid (on the right) outside the cottages.
next is Gwyneth (on the right)  with my Mam again outside the cottages 

Offline Hugo

  • Management board member
  • *
  • Posts: 13884
Re: Pen Morfa Cottages
« Reply #80 on: July 11, 2014, 12:08:56 pm »
Gwyneth and my Mam were best friends and went out together all the time.  Here are some photos of the pair of them as young women out in Llandudno.
My mother got married in 1943 and Gwynethh was her Bridesmaid 

Offline Hugo

  • Management board member
  • *
  • Posts: 13884
Re: Pen Morfa Cottages
« Reply #81 on: July 11, 2014, 12:17:39 pm »
I can remember Mervyn, Gwyneth's first husband very well.  He was a really nice guy and it looks like this photo may have been taken at a wedding but I'm not sure is it was their wedding or not.  It was so sad when Mervyn died so young.
The second photo is of Mervyn and Gwynedd and it looks like they were on the pier and with Penrhyn ( or Spud as we all called him)
They were a lovely family as were all the Thomas' and I've nice childhood memories of living next door to them in Cwm Place.

Offline lizcj

  • Member
  • Posts: 11
Re: Pen Morfa Cottages
« Reply #82 on: July 11, 2014, 02:35:31 pm »
Thank you , they are great! Mum refers to Penrhyn as spud too. It was years before we found out Adalaide was called Adalaide as my Grandad always called her  "our Adaline".Were your family welsh speaking? I know Grandad was but he didn't raise the children as welsh speakers. I'm fluent.

Offline Hugo

  • Management board member
  • *
  • Posts: 13884
Re: Pen Morfa Cottages
« Reply #83 on: July 11, 2014, 03:21:25 pm »
I'm glad that you like the photos. I've a few more somewhere but couldn't find them when I looked this morning.   My Nain came from Amlwch when she was 17 and couldn't speak any English and then met my Taid who was bilingual and he taught her to speak English
Unfortunately they only spoke English to the children so consequently my Mam couldn't speak Welsh.       My Dad was fluent in Welsh but had to speak English to Mam so I'm unable to speak Welsh either.  I'm lucky though as Nain lived with us and I can understand a bit of Welsh.
Did your Nain have a coffee bar in Pleasant Street Llandudno in the 60's ?   It was where Carlo's is now and we used to go there and play cards downstairs.
Gwynedd and Mam went to St Georges School in Church Walks in the 1920's and 1930's and by coincidence a lady who had been in there at the same time put an advert in the North Wales Weekly News asking if anyone knew Gwyneth .   I replied to her but sadly by then Gwynethh had passed away but I was able to let her have some old photos and told her what had happened to Gwynethh over the years.   I haven't seen Spud for a while and Gillian his sister lived near me at one time but I believe emigrated to New Zealand

Offline lizcj

  • Member
  • Posts: 11
Re: Pen Morfa Cottages
« Reply #84 on: July 11, 2014, 03:33:43 pm »
That's right, they had the Floral Cafe up until I was about 7 (so 1979/80ish) fabulously psychadelic murals on the cellar walls and a jukebox. My mum is the middle child, John was the eldest (he passed away last year) my mum is Sandra and my auntie Jackie lives in Llandudno with my Nanna (chapel st).

Offline Hugo

  • Management board member
  • *
  • Posts: 13884
Re: Pen Morfa Cottages
« Reply #85 on: July 11, 2014, 11:07:28 pm »
Lizcj,   When you mentioned John, are you talking about John who lived in Colwyn Bay and would have been about 67 now?

Offline lizcj

  • Member
  • Posts: 11
Re: Pen Morfa Cottages
« Reply #86 on: July 12, 2014, 08:10:12 am »
Yes, that's right, he lived in Colwyn Heights. He died a year ago today.


Offline Hugo

  • Management board member
  • *
  • Posts: 13884
Re: Pen Morfa Cottages
« Reply #87 on: July 12, 2014, 09:41:00 am »
I'm so sorry to have heard that news.  John was a nice guy and although I didn't know him as well as other members of the family I knew him to talk to.  In fact when I stayed on an extra year at John Brights, we were in the same class.
About 5 years ago I was delivering leaflets in his street and handed one to him and had a chat with him about his Taid from Pen Morfa Cottages. I remember John saying that he hadn't seen a photo of his Taid and I did promise to give him a photo but could't find it at the time and then time passed on.

Offline Hugo

  • Management board member
  • *
  • Posts: 13884
Re: Pen Morfa Cottages
« Reply #88 on: July 12, 2014, 05:45:51 pm »
The first photo is of 34 Cwm Place where Nain Thomas as everyone called her lived.  I believe that she was in the doorway when I took the photo but you'd never be able to tell from the old photo
Next, a very angelic looking Spud taken at a May Day Carnival in the town and the third one shows Spud lying on the wall of Jeff Berrington's house.   Left to right in the photo sitting down are  Jeff, me and Micky Kirkham

Offline Hugo

  • Management board member
  • *
  • Posts: 13884
Re: Pen Morfa Cottages
« Reply #89 on: July 14, 2014, 04:57:31 pm »
My Nain & Taid moved to Penmorfa Cottages in 1906 and stayed there until 1936 when the cottages were demolished.  They then moved to Cwm Place the same year.   The first phase of the Council Houses for Cwm Place (No's 7- 38) were build to house people from "impoverished homes" and I know three families that lived in Penmorfa Cottages that were moved to Cwm Place and they were our family the Hughes, the Thomas' and the Robinsons who lived in a flat at No29.
I don't know when John Thomas and his wife moved to Penmorfa Cottages but I did look at the Street Indexes in the Conwy Archives today and the Street Indexes only show one name and that is the breadwinner usually.
The 1911 index had Mrs Sarah Jones  living at No 5
The 1922   "         "    John Thomas  living at No 5 and had his occupation as a gardener
The  1922  "          "           ditto

The topic of Penmorfa Cottages originally came into being following a request from Rog a forum member who now lives in Holland.   Rog asked the question "does anyone know where Min Y Don Cottages are"    no one on the forum had an answer and my Mam always called them Penmorfa Cottages.     I remembered that my Nain used to say that she lived at Min Y Don so I went to the Conwy Archives and had a look at the 1906 rates book and found that Min Y Don Cottages is the official name for the cottages and Penmorfa Cottages was given that name because they were near the Penmorfa House.   My Taid Samuel had just moved there in 1906 when the previous tenant left.  The Cottages were described as small tenement cottages and owned by Lord Mostyn