Picking up on the Bodnant comments ... my father worked for the estate as electrician/plumber - a team of four men were based at the saw mill, all spent their entire working life for Bodnant estate - he started in 1935 and retired in 1985, war years and Army service intervening for a while. For the first 5 years of my life (early 1950's) we lived in the white cottage just across the river from the mill, then moved to the house that is now next to the entrance to the Food Centre - my parents were still living there until 1998.
I grew up in the gardens, and when I was a boy my father and his mates used to fish for trout in the river that runs through the dell. I remember seeing salmon trying to leap up the waterfall, which was just too high for them. Eels can travel over ground so did make their way upstream having by-passed the waterfall. As a youngster I would spend many an hour messing about in the river near to the mill, catching sticklebacks and small eels and flatfish that would come in on the head of the tide - that reached the weir by the mill, occasionally coming over.
When my own children were young (1980/1990's) we would visit my parents and spend many a Sunday evening strolling through the gardens, all quiet as no public and seeing all sorts of amazing wildlife - woodpeckers, kingfishers, herons and ducks. My favourite part of the gardens is upstream from the main waterfall - where there is another lake, boathouse and island - I believe they will be opening that area up to the public in the future.
Last year my daughter visited the gardens with her boyfriend, it was her first visit since the day after Dad died a few years ago when we made an emotional visit to the boathouse area. On this latest visit her boyfriend proposed to her in the pin mill - they got married last month. The place has many memories for her, walks with her grandfather on quiet Sunday evenings and the proposal. Really special place for myself and my family.
