Elizabeth "Bessie" Jones. Parents Pierce & Jane Anne of Tan Y Wal

[ckirkrph]

It looks like he is writing to his sister J.Jones. Saying hello to mother and father. Your bro Will.. I just can't find the connection. I hope it isn't too obvious but my eyes cross sometimes after looking at this stuff too long.

[Annie]

Hi.  I wanted to introduce myself on this thread, which I found by accident yesterday .  And I have subsequently joined the forum so I can contribute to the discussion of the various descendents of Pierce and Jane Anne Jones of Tan Y Wal, LLandudno.  I too am a direct descendant.  Chad at the start of this thread had listed the 9 children of Pierce and Jane Jones.  But missing from that list is the 10th of their children, Mary Jane Jones DOB 24/08/1893.  She married John Charles Calvert on 1st July 1920 in Llandudno.  And together they had seven children:
VERA EMILY CALVERT born 23/5/1923
EDNA GLENYS CALVERT born 7/10/1924
GLADYS JANE born 01/07/1927
BERYL HILDA born 18/08/1929
DORIS CALVERT born 28/12/1931
MAY ENID born 23/07/1933
JOHN CHARLES born 18/05/1935

My mother was Doris Calvert.  Sadly Mary Jane Calvert (nee Jones) died on 9th May 1941, aged 48.  The children were aged between 4 years and 18 years.  Richard Benjamin Jones and his wife, Elizabeth Jane Jones (nee Edwards) who were uncle and aunt to the children offered to adopt Doris, aged 9.  Doris went to live with them and officially adopted her on 8th January 1942.  So my brothers and I knew Richard (everyone called him uncle Dick) and his wife as our grandparents, but we also knew that my mother had five sisters and a brother.   They have all now sadly passed away, but before Auntie Gladys passed away (she was the last one to survive) she dictated her memories of growing up in Llandudno and the hardships that they all endured.  Yesterday my cousin sent me over her memoirs to read, and I will quote this one section you may all find interesting:
"My mam'.s family were local to Llandudno and there were many of them. The Pierce Jones, Tan Wall, Aunty Kitty, Aunty Bessie, Uncle Dick, Uncle Percy, Uncle Harry, Aunty Lell. My mam was the youngestin the family, had the most children and also the poorest of them all. My Uncle Percy was the Coxwain of the Llandudno Life Boat 1939?? Uncle Dick he was Richard Benjamin, and was very well known in Llandudno. He worked for the Post Office from a very young man.  Uncle Harry another brother of Mam's lived in the next street to us and his wife Aunty Susie. They had 2 sons much older than  us, John Henry and Richard Jones. Both were choir boys in church.  One of them went to the Navy and was  a petty officer and John was in the army as an officer. They were a lovely family.  My Mam had 3 brothers and 4 sisters all gone now.
 Now there is a big monument in Llandudno by the Pier and this monument has the names of 2 of my cousins who where in the 1939-1945 war. I think both were in the Navy, Glyn Jones and Gwilym jones  who were twins,  were killed at sea  coming home. Both were lovely boys, Uncle Percy was their dad, Mams brother. Im trying to remember most of my family, well relations, cousins to us.  Cousin Glyn had red hair, Gwilym had dark hair. My family the Calverts, were so humble, very poor, but happy, had nothing only each other, no Mam, but life was so different for us seven. 
Memories keep coming back and the kindness of our Mam's family and neighbours stays with me. "

Auntie Gladys dictated this about five years ago, and I am not sure how accurate her recall is, but I am hoping that many of you posting on here will find it interesting.

I certainly remember many stories about the 'Tan Wal' family growing up, and also have some photos , which I will try and share.  I have not researched a family tree or anything similar, but I looked up Pierce Jones yesterday to see if I could find anything about him being a Coxswain to the LLandudno Lifeboat in 1939 and it let me to this chain of exchanges on the Forum, and I realised that I may both be distantly related to some of the people commentating on here, and also that I may have some photos and information that you would all find useful.  I am really looking forward to hearing more about you and honouring my mums family and particularly the Pierce Jones family from Tan Y Wal, who sound pretty remarkable really.  Anyway I am going to attach a photo of Mary Jane Jones, my maternal grandmother, who I never met, but who seemed to have been very loved by all her family.  I look forward to hearing more from you all .  Annie

[SteveH]

Hello and welcome Annie, glad you could join in.

[Hugo]

Thank you very much for posting all that information Annie, it was fascinating and  very interesting to read.   I have no connection with the Jones family but your article brought many memories back.
I know that Richard Benjamin Jones worked for the Post Office and lived on the estate but did he live in Conway Road?    The reason I ask this is because I have a friend called Richard Jones and we played football together for the Llandudno Youth Club.    My memory may be playing tricks but I think that Richard had a younger brother who I think was called John Henry.
If I'm correct they may have been named after the twins that died in the war

[Annie]

Hi Hugo

I certainly remember that there used to be a lot of talk about 'John Henry' when I was very young.  Taid LLandudno ( as we called Richard Benjamin Jones, or Dick the Post as he was known locally) certainly was a big football fan.  But as you can imagine, I was only 10 years old when he died in 1968 and for the whole of my life he had lived at Sunbeams, Howard Place Llandudno, so I don;t know whether he had previously lived in Conway Road, but he may well have done,  There seemed to be  a lot of John's in the family.  There was John Henry, John Owen, and a lot of the Johns were sometimes called Jack too.  I am pleased it brought back memories for you.  He was such a kind and caring man, we all loved him very dearly - do you think there were more children in the family after Mary Jane Jones?

Many thanks

Annie

[mull]

Hi Annie,
Thank you for posting this information , now just trying to take it all in.
I can confirm Uncle Dick was my nain's brother and did live in Sunbeams , 8 Howard Place. I can not say when they moved there, all my childhood in the late 1940's that is were they lived.
Hugo has done a lot of searching for me and found pictures of Uncle Percy but according to the RNLI record he is not shown as the Coxswain , although I had been told from very young that he was.

If you are looking for more information go to Grace Ellen Jones who was my nain.

[Annie]

Hi Mull.

Was Grace Ellen they one they always called, Lel?  Growing up I remember Nain and Taid (So Richard Benjamin and his wife Elizabeth Jane Jones) always referred to Auntie Lel, auntie Bessie etc, so I'm assuming the Lel is from the Ellen in Grace Ellen?  I think I may have  some family photos with her in, if that is the case, I will take a look at the thread now and thank you

Annie

I've corrected the original post and deleted the extra one.
Ian

[Cambrian]

Annie

This may be a pure coincidence but there was a locomotive driver at Llandudno Junction called John Cavert - the day and month of his birth match but not the year - 1936 rather than 1935.

[Annie]

Hi, that would be John Calvert, the youngest of all the Calverts.  He lived in the junction and drove the trains.  So that will be him!  Auntie Gladys did not remember all the dates correctly.  I think Uncle John was the driver of the train that took the queen from Llandudno to Prince Charles' investiture in Caernarfon, - this is what Auntie Gladys remembers, but not sure if that is true ! 

Thank you

[Hugo]

Hi Annie,  thank you for posting that info regarding Richard Benjamin as it confirms that he was not the Postman that I remembered from the estate
Although I was teenage friends with Richard and John Henry Jones who lived in Conway Road Llandudno I never knew their parents.
Richard was born about 1945 and his brother was a few years younger.
When Richard left school he also started working for the GPO but I think that he worked on the counter at the main Post Office.

I've attached a couple of recent photos of Tan Y Wal for you

[mull]

Hi Hugo,

When did you take those photos ? 
Looks as though work about to start, tarmac looks new.

[Hugo]

Hi Mull,  I took those photos on the 30th April 2021 but I haven't been up there since.
The access to the site is much bigger than when I last went up there but I saw no sign of any building activity going on then.
I'll pop up there again soon and post some more photos after I have been there

[Annie]

Hi Hugo

Have you noticed that my Auntie Gladys in the memoirs I quoted said  that Uncle Harry (one of the ten children of Pierce Jones and Jane Anne of Tan Y Wal) and his wife Susie, had two sons called Richard and John Henry.  Of course I don't know anything about them, but I wonder if they were the teenagers with whom you were friends?  I also have a recollection of a John Henry, married to Ceinwen, who lived in Maelgwyn Road (in the 1960s this would have been).

Thanks for the recent photos of Tan Y Wal.  I never went there as a child, I just heard numerous references to it.  One of my distinct memories is that everyone used to comment that my elder brother had the 'Tan Y Wal' walk.  I think this referred to his gait - and apparently Uncle Percy had this same 'walk' as did Richard Benjamin.  It would only be a 15 minute drive for me to go to Penrhynside and look for Tan Y wal, and this whole thread has made me more curious to go and find the house/cottage and also look for the graves mentioned earlier.  I live on Anglesey, so it would not take long.

And thanks to Mull for the tip off about reading through the Grace Ellen thread which I have now done.  It has been quite fascinating to see the references to the family and to my parents Maurice and Doris.  I also enjoyed seeing the photos of Mull's family.  I distinctly remember Myfanwy and Gwennie.  I know we did meet up with them, possibly at Sunbeams.  I have photos of them in the back garden on Sunbeams Howard Place LLandudno.  I shall dig them out.
Annie

[Annie]

Hi Chad. 

I found some photos, I have kept ever since Nain and Taid passed away.  Many of them are unlabelled and I don't know who they are, though some I can guess.  Anyway, there are a few of 'Kirk' labelled.  Here is one with writing on the back, which I am posting too.  Hope it is of interest.

[Annie]

William Kirk 1928