Parish Register Curiosities 1

I thought it would be interesting to show some unusual parish register entries this time around.

The first comes from the Llanfihangel Esceifiog (Anglesey) burial register, and concerns the hapless Owen Owens of Geirwen Ganol, who was buried on the 5^th of April, 1827, aged 45. A comment added beneath his name notes “Killed in consequence of rashly adventuring himself between the Arms of the Windmill at Geirwen.”

Next we have the title page of the Dolbenmaen register. Here the Rector, Jeffrey Holland, has attempted to explain the poor record keeping within the parish: “There has been a most shameful neglect for 20 years in this Parish without any account of Burials, Marriages & Christenings owing to a Drunken Curate Mr Davies lately Dead. Octbr. 9^th 1790. Jeffry. Holland, Rector.”

Finally we come to the “Old Man of Caernarfon.” According to the Llanbeblig burial register on the 8^th of March, 1902, Robert Roberts, of 59 South Penrallt, Caernarfon was buried. Nothing unusual you might say, except that the register records his age as 769! It turns out that Mr. Roberts was actually 69 years old, so obviously a ‘senior moment’ from the vicar, J. W. Wynne-Jones.

Thomas Edgar Morris

Twm (second from right) with siblings Noel, Bonnie, Katie and Jack

Thomas Edgar Morris was born at Garregwen, Morfa Bychan, Porthmadog, on the 4^th of December 1921. He was the eldest of the five children of Edward Edgar and Maggie Morris, the others being Jack, Katie, Bonnie and Noel. Edward and Maggie had not long been married and they were living with Maggie’s parents at Garregwen.

Twm’s childhood was mostly spent at his ancestral home, Llain, in Bryncroes on the Lleyn Peninsula. At the time Llain was the home of his grandfather, Hugh Thomas Hughes, but the family had lived there since the late 18^th Century at least; his 3x Gt. Grandfather, Thomas Griffith, is known to have resided at Llain after his marriage in the early 1780s. In the early 1930s the family moved when Edward Morris found work as a gamekeeper for the Vaynol Estate, the job taking him to Rhyd Ddu, a tiny village not far from Beddgelert. It was here, at a large Georgian house called Glanrafon, that the children grew into adulthood.

After his schooling was over Twm went to work with his uncle, Morris Roberts, who was in business as a builder and undertaker at Porthmadog. When war broke out in 1939 Twm was working as a trainee undertaker.

Enlisting as Fusilier 4209140 in the 8^th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) Twm was eventually posted to Italy and saw action at Monte Cassino. It was during this battle that he lost his life on the 16^th of February 1944, at the age of 22.

He has no known grave, but is commemorated on Panel 5 of the Cassino Memorial at the Cassino War Cemetery.

Still kept by the family are two of his last letters home to Edward and Maggie, as well as the telegram advising them he was missing in action. His medals are also safely in the family’s possession.

A short life, but his memory lives on.

Thomas Edgar Morris 1921-1944

Adams Confectioners Barmouth

This little pot, with its elegant green print, once contained meat paste. This was a popular foodstuff at the seaside resorts of Victorian Britain and later, and many of the larger producers were located at some of these resorts. The town of Southport in Lancashire seems to have been the source of most of the meat paste in the country if the number of their pots is anything to go by.

The largest of these producers were Springfield and G. W. Plumtree, both of Southport, and their pots are to be found all over the country. The popularity of collecting antique bottles and its associated pastime of digging them up from old rubbish dumps has turned up literally thousands of these little pots over the last forty years. The Barmouth pot is comparatively rare in the scheme of things.

The confectionery business was founded by Jane Richards Adams at her home in Llys Meirion, South Avenue, Barmouth, in the early years of the 20^th Century. In 1901 Jane was learning her craft in Cheadle, Cheshire, at the confectionery establishment of the Mallalieu sisters, Mary Ellen and Charlotte, and it would have been soon after that she returned to her home town to begin trading. Helping with the business was her sister Gwenfron, both describing themselves as ‘Confectioners & Pastry Cooks.’

The sisters were the daughters of builder and joiner John Adams and his wife Jane. Jane was born in 1877 while Gwenfron was the youngest child, being born in 1889. In 1912 Gwenfron married grocer Thomas Jones and she died at Melbourne House, Barmouth, on the 18^th of October, 1944, aged 55. Jane never married and passed away at the age of 74 at Hillside Nursing Home in Faversham, Kent, on the 11^th of March, 1951.

Myvanwy & Olwen

Working with some old editions of the Caernarfon & Denbigh Herald recently I came across an interesting tale from Llanberis. Far better for me to include it in its entirety here:

CDH 30/1/1891

Town and Country Notes

"A charming story reaches me, says a correspondent, from the neighbourhood of Llanberis. It was told in the vernacular, and I faithfully render it in the best English I can command. "If, on leaving Llanberis along the road towards Carnarvon, you looked carefully at the stones in the walls on both sides of the road you would see till lately scratched on them here and there certain monosyllables such as Tad, Mam, Taid, Nain, Ci, Bach, Llyn, Mawr, and the like; they had been there for many years. They were the reading lessons of two little girls named Myvanwy and Olwen who came to spend a part of the summer with their grandparents at Llanberis. Their father and mother used to take the two little maids out for "walks" on that road, and the words were scratched by their father on the stones, which in that neighbourhood are, as everybody knows, of a slaty nature, easy to write on. When they came to a word there was competition between Myvanwy and Olwen who should spell and read it first. Thus two important things were very pleasantly combined - taking the fresh air and learning to read their mother tongue - and in those days they knew no English (or French). People about used to wonder why their father did not teach them it at home, and they came to the conclusion that he wished to show his contempt for schools and schoolrooms, because he was condemned to pass most of the year in the town as a Government Inspector. Be that as it may, the Hedge School undoubtedly pleased Myvanwy and Olwen much better then than sitting down to a book at home. Alas, many changes have taken place since then, and their taid and nain are gone. But Myvanwy and Olwen are still competing, and although it was Myvanwy that got the French medal at the Mansion House, I am not sure but that it is Olwen that oftenest heads the French class at the Oxford High School."

A little research revealed that the girls were in fact Myfanwy and Olwen Rhys, and their father none other than famed Welsh scholar Sir John Rhys. John Rhys was born on the 21^st of June, 1840, at Aberceiro, Cwmrheidol, Cardiganshire, the son of Hugh Rhys, a farmer. He married Elizabeth Hughes-Davies of Llanberis on the 6^th of August, 1872 at the Parish Church Llanberis. The couple had three daughters, all born in Rhyl, where their father was Inspector of Schools for Flint and Denbigh. – Gwladus, who was born in 1873; Myfanwy, born 1874; and Olwen who was born in 1876. Sadly Gwladus died at Llanberis in 1874.

John Rhys was an authority of the early history of the Celts in Britain and wrote a number of books on the subject, some of which were: Celtic Britain (1882); Celtic Heathendom (1886); Studies in the Arthurian Legend (1891); Studies in Early Irish History (1893); Celtic Folklore, Welsh and Manx (1901).

This classical background clearly provided the girls with a thirst for knowledge and both Myfanwy and Olwen received a first rate education at Oxford. At the time of the 1911 census both sisters were living at home with their parents at The Lodgings, Jesus College, Oxford. Myfanwy was described as a ‘Researcher in History,’ while Olwen was performing housekeeping duties for their parents. Elizabeth (or Elspeth as she was known) died in 1911, while Sir John Rhys himself passed away in 1915.

Neither sister ever married. Myfanwy, of the Ivy House Hotel, Marlborough, Wiltshire, passed away at the age of 71 on the 28^th of November, 1945 at 95, Southmoor Road, Oxford. Olwen died on the 10^th of April, 1953 at 3, Brading Avenue, Southsea, aged 77.

Cleaning up the Town - The Beginning of the Tourist Trade

Nowadays a large part of Caernarfon's income comes from the tourist trade, but this is not a modern phenomena; the town, even in the early years of the 19^th Century, was the preferred holiday destination for those hardy pioneers of the tourist trade. The main drawback to the success of this industry was the health and cleanliness of the town.

It wasn’t until 1869 that the town had a supply of clean water, when the fountain was opened on Castle Square, and this supply was only provided after the scare of the cholera epidemic of 1866/67. Previously water had been supplied through public pumps or from age-old wells, indeed St. Helen’s Well on South Road had to be closed on health grounds after the cholera epidemic.

A more immediate problem for the town in the early days of tourism was the filthy state of its streets; organised refuse collection was first recorded in 1879 which meant that before this date household and commercial waste would have been thrown out into the street. Piles of stinking muck were the norm, as was the practice of keeping pigs in pens in the street outside the front door.

Before the Reform Act of 1835 changed the role of local councils, the Town Council appointed Inspectors of Nuisances to roam the town checking for these illegal deposits. Their reports to the Town Council, the Presentments of Nuisances, survive from 1786 to 1832 and reveal exactly how filthy the town really was.

The presentment of 1791 reads “We also Present Mr. Morris Griffith Shoemaker for encroaching on the Land of the said Borough by building a Pig Stye thereon (the Nuisance of which is great, that the Dross, and Filth from it runs to the Neighbours's Houses),” while in 1819 one complaint was that “Glan y mor - That the blood running from a Slauter house in this place is a Nuisance and that it is in every other respect a filthy unwholesome place.”

Gradually the state of the town improved. More of the inspectors’ time was spent investigating other nuisances such as encroaching upon Corporation land or building unauthorized structures, and controlling travelling pedlars who set up their stalls in the streets without permission. However, there were still reports of filth in the streets, as in 1827, “…..a certain called Crown Street the said Street being the Kings Common Highway a certain Slaughterhouse did use and a great quantity of Dung & other filth continue and the Blood from the said Slaughterhouse there & within the Jurisdiction afr^d did present & suffer & still do present & suffer to run and overflow into and upon the s^d Kings Highway and the same Blood Dung and other filth (...?...) afr^d from the Slaughterhouse afr^d by reason whereof divers hurtful & unwholesome smells from the s^d Blood Dung & other filth did then & there arise and thereby the air there & within the Jurisdiction afr^d became (...?...) & is corrupted & infested to the Common Nuisance of all the Lieges and Subjects of our Said Lord the King…..”

The last presentment, dated the second of January 1832, is a petition signed by sixteen of the town’s Grand Jurors. This petition demands that the Corporation cleans up the town; “…..and more likely to cause all nuisances which are at present a source of great disgrace to the Town and which owing to the rapid increase in number of inhabitants and the great influx of Visitors during the Summer Months, will if not timely abated present infectious diseases and cause strangers to abstain from making Carnarvon a place of summer resort…..”

This clearly shows the townspeople were concerned that unless the streets were cleaned the embryonic tourist trade could be irreparably damaged. Thankfully over the years conditions improved, and today we are still reaping the benefits from the efforts of these health pioneers of the 19^th Century.

Caernarfon & the "Inja Rock" trade

History has a habit of finding itself compartmentalised into tidy little boxes, all bearing neatly handwritten labels: Stone Age, Iron Age, Bronze Age, Roman,Norman, Mediaeval, Tudor, Victorian; but what is often forgotten is that history is all around us, each passing day has entered into history, what could be called recent history. It’s all well and good knowing what happen in the town in 1850, but is anybody recording what happened in 1950? If not, it will soon fade away and be forgotten.

An under-used source of historical knowledge are the minutes of the Caernarfon Town Council. Within their dusty covers one can find all aspects of the day to day running of the town all the way back to the early 19^th Century, and the Council Order Books stretch back even further.

During the 1930’s the Council held a series of discussions regarding a cottage industry that is little-known today, but at the time provided vital income to its progenitors, an industry beloved of all schoolboys at the time – the manufacture of rock.

‘Inja-roc,” as it was known, is a boiled, sugary, sweet, best known locally today in the form of the ‘No. 8’ from Pwllheli. But the minutes show that in 1938 a thriving cottage industry was present in the town, and it confirms a story my late father used to tell of coming into town after school and buying a piece of rock from a shop in Turf Square run by a ‘little old lady.’

In October 1938, when the subject was raised in committee, four tenants were said to be manufacturing the sweet in their homes. The result of this first discussion was that the Council resolved to find suitable, fully equipped premises in the town, and let them to the tenants for their business. The Property Manager was also to interview the tenants to see how willing they were to be tenants in this way.

A month later the Property Manager reported that the tenants all refused to consider the Council’s suggestion. In December one of the tenants, a Mr. James Roberts, was interviewed by the Committee set up to look into the matter. He requested permission to build a hut in the back garden of his home so that he could boil the rock. Mr. Roberts showed a sketch of the shed he proposed to purchase and build; a structure 9 feet by 6 feet, fitted with a chimney. A coke fire would be used to run the boiler and he was prepared to insure the hut and its contents against fire and, if necessary, to use a gas fire instead of coke.
After a full discussion it was resolved that ‘certain houses on the Ysgubor Goch and/or Maes Barcer Estates, with sufficient garden land attached thereto to allow of the erection of huts of standardised specification, be allocated for the occupation of persons engaged in the manufacture of rock.’ The Borough Surveyor was to submit a specification for a standardised hut.

In early 1939 it was recommended that No. 76 Maes Barcer and Nos. 52-68 Caer Saint be allocated to the rock makers. A standard hut was to measure 10 feet by 7 feet, constructed of timber, and have an asbestos roof.

In February it was resolved to interview the tenants concerned with a view to arranging an exchange of their tenancies with those properties mentioned. The builder of the original shed had been ordered to remove the structure but had so far ignored the order.

The final mention of the rock producers is in March 1939 when it was reported that the tenants in question had been interviewed, but each of them had strongly objected to moving from the house they currently occupied.

So there the matter ended; but did the huts ever get built, and did the tenants continue with their production line?

These relatively recent events are still within memory, perhaps there are those reading now who can remember the Caernarfon rock manufacturers?

Christmas Events in Carnarvon 1893

From the Carnarvon & Denbigh Herald: December 29th. 1893.

CHRISTMAS EVENTS

CHORAL SERVICES

At the evening service held at Christ Church on Sunday a portion of Handel's oratorio, "The Messiah," was rendered by the choir, under the able leadership of Mr. John Williams, the organist. Mr. T. H. Rawson gave the recit "Comfort ye," while the choir followed with the chorus "And the glory of the Lord," in fine style. The recit, by Mr. Edward Lloyd, "Behold! a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son," and the air "O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion," were well executed, the choir taking up the chorus, which followed with spirit. The fine bass voice of the Rev. F. Lampitt, B. A., was heard to the best advantage in the recit "For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth," and the air "The people that walked in darkness." The rendering of the chorus "For unto us a child is born," by the choir, was all that could be desired. A pastoral symphony on the organ followed. several recits were given by Master J. H. Evans, namely, "There were shepherds," And lo! the Angel of the Lord," And the Angel said unto them, fear not;" and "And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God." The chorus, "Glory to God in the highest," was then effectually rendered by the choir. The offertory hymn having been sung, the service was brought to a close by the rendering of the "Hallelujah" chorus in a manner that thoroughly justified the appreciation of the audience. The same evening, and at the same hour, a musical service was conducted at St. Mary's Church by a powerful choir under the leadership of Mr. Pughe Griffith and a well chosen instrumental band. Dr. W. G. Owen presiding at the organ. In addition to a number of carols and hymn tunes which were sung by Mrs. Flynn and Mr. Tom Harris, the following choruses were rendered by the choir: "A gogoniant yr Arglwydd" (Handel); "Oherwydd ganwyd i ni had" (Handel); "Mawl i Dduw" (Mozart); and Hallelujah Chorus.

A PREACHING MEETING

The annual preaching meeting of Pendref Chapel was held on Sunday and Monday. The Revs. O. L. Roberts, Pwllheli; D. S. Davies, Carmarthen; and D. Rees, Capel Mawr, preached to crowded congregations.

THE WORKHOUSE

The inmates of the workhouse were again this year entertained to a splendid Christmas dinner, consisting of roast beef, mutton, plum pudding, fruit, oranges, delicacies, &c., prepared for them by the master and matron (Mr. and Mrs. Jones). The following gifts were received:- Misses Owen, Ty Coch, a hamper of oranges and Christmas cards; Rev. R. P. Hughes, Waterloo Port, oranges; Misses Preece, illustrated papers; Messrs. Bell and Parnham, do.; Mr. Lewis Rees Thomas, currant bread, nuts; Dr. Taylor Morgan, 5s.; Mr. Francis, apples; Captain Jones, 5s.; Miss Sampson, Christmas cards; Mr. George Owen, 4s. 6d.; Rev. J. W. Wynne Jones, Christmas cards and scrap books; Messrs. Henry Williams, 4s. 6d.; John Jones, apples; John Griffiths, old books and toffee; Captain and Mrs. Wynn Griffiths, Llanfair Hall, tobacco, tea, toys, mufflers, bonbons, crackers, &c. The inmates spent a most enjoyable time, and seemed to thoroughly appreciate the preparations made for the occasion. At a meeting of the guardians, on Tuesday, a hearty vote of thanks was passed to the kind donors of the above gifts.

GENUINE FUN

One of the most comical and humorous of entertainments ever put on the boards at this town took place at the Guild Hall, on boxing Night, when four of the local and favourite comedians, namely Messrs. S. W. Parnham, Owen Edwards, J. A. Ball, and C. J. Kenney - assisted by Mr. Walter Roselle, the renowned vetriloquist and conjuror, who had benne specially engaged for the occasion - kept an uncomfortably crowded house for over two hours in roars of laughter and the happiest of moods. The opening chorus, Strolling in the Moonlight, by Messrs. Parnham, Ball and Edwards, was a good beginning. Mr. Parnham, instead of rendering After the Ball, as announced in the programme, believing it to be too much of a sentimental song and out of touch with the feelings of people during the festive season, followed up in his merry style with Oh! Mr. Porter, the audience heartily joining in the chorus. The Waiter, by Mr. Ball, and The Silent Maiden (in character), by Mr. Edwards, were well received and the soloists highly applauded. Mr. Walter Rosselle entertained the audience to a rich treat with his ventriloquial efforts, in which he introduced a Family of Five Funny Folks. This was Mr. Rosselle's first appearance in Carnarvon, and we have no hesitation in stating that the able manner in which he executed his part of the programme gained for him the approval and the approbation of the public here. Mr. J. C. Kenney rendered two Tyrolean solos, namely, Over the Hills, and Close Your Eyes, Lena. The ability of this promising amateur captivated the audience, and he was loudly encored. A humorous interlude by Mr. Rosselle brought the first part of the programme to a close. The second part was opened by the rendering of Juh Jah by Mr. Parnham (in character). The soloist posed to be a friend of the public, having discovered a certain root in the woods of the Wild West of America, which would cure all kinds of ailments. His manner of advocating the claims of the "medicine," his funny sayings and new jokes quite pleased the audience. Mr. Ball gave a capital descriptive rendering of a serio-comic song entitled Half-past Nine, as did Mr. Owen Edwards (in character) of They All Take After Me. Mr. Rosselle's conjuring tricks were the admiration of all, especially the very amusing manner in which he introduced a number of magical marvels. A most enjoyable Boxing Night entertainment was brought to a close by a screaming negro farce entitled "removing the Obstacles," Messrs. Ball, Parnham, Kenney, and Edwards acquitting themselves worthy of the occasion. Mr. Wilbur acted as accompanist.

THE BAPTISTS

On Christmas Day the Baptists of this town held their annual meetings, this year, in the from of a tea meeting, in the school-room, of Caersalem Chapel, in the afternoon, and a grand concert at the Victoria Drill Hall in the evening. There were eight tables arranged in the nicely decorated school-room, which were filled with the usual dainties supplied at this old established tea meeting (this being its 25th anniversary), each table being presided over by the following ladies and a host of young ladies and gentlemen helpers:- Mrs. Jones, Victoria-street; Mrs. Captain Roberts, Segontium-terrace; Mrs. J. D. Jones, Post Office; Mrs. Tom Litherland, Mrs. J. Williams, Newborough-street; Misses Davies, Cefnfaes; Mrs. J. Griffith Williams, Gelert-street; Mrs. Davies, Nant Farm. This meeting was a great success, about 500 people having sat down for tea, the excellent quality and management of which was highly praised. The evening concert proved successful in every way, the spacious Drill Hall being crowded with a most enthusiastic audience. The following were the artistes:- Misses Lizzie Dew, Polly Williams, Sydney Williams, Dottie Pritchard (violin), J. and M. K. Davies (pianoforte); Messrs. T. Rogers Jones, Henry J. Roberts, David Jones, Richard Prichard (accompanist), and a splendid choir under the conductorship of Mr. Williams Jones, High-street, all of whom acquitted themselves to the great satisfaction of the audience, who showed their appreciation by demanding several encores. The Chairman was Mr. Norman Davies, Ty Fry, who was well received upon his opening address and proved himself most efficient, and undoubtedly after this meeting we shall hear more of him in a public capacity. We quite agree with him that he has been too much of a "stay at home" man. Upon the motion of the Rev. O. Davies, in a stirring and pithy address, which was seconded by Mr. E. Evans, county surveyor, a cordial vote of thanks was passed to the chairman, bringing this, the jubilee meeting of our Baptist friends to a happy and successful termination. The secretary this year again was Mr. David Jones, chemist.

ANNUAL FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT

The fourteenth annual football tournament was held as the Oval, Marcus-street, on Boxing Day, when prizes to the value of 25 guineas were offered to the best teams. The weather was chilly, damp, and unpleasant for football playing; but some hundreds assembled to witness the games. These annual matches are organised by an energetic committee, having Mr. Edward Griffiths as its secretary. This year 10 teams entered the respective classes, namely, the Holyhead Football Club, Penygroes Wanderers, Carnarvon Ironopolis, and the Llanrwst Town in the senior competition, while the Portmadoc Glaslyn Rovers, Carnarvon High-street Swifts, Pwllheli Heli Rangers, Penygroes Rangers, Carnarvon Junior Swifts, and the Carnarvon Rangers entered in the junior class, in which the players were to be under 20 years of age. The play was good throughout, and sometimes exciting. The final tie in the senior class was played by the Carnarvon Ironopolis and the Penygroes Wanderers, and resulted in a win for the former by seven goals to none. The members of the winning team were awarded 11 silver watches. In the junior class, the Carnarvon Rangers beat the Penygroes Rangers by five goals to none in the final tie, and thus earned eleven silver medals.

Family Legends

A large percentage of us have family legends; stories which have been handed down through the generations. Most of these stories have a grain of truth to them, but many have changed beyond recognition with each retelling. One such story is the one describing the events which befell the Ellis family of Clynnog in March 1875.

The Ellis family consisted of parents William and Jane and their five children: Catherine, Jane, William, Elizabeth, and Robert. William senior was born in Llangybi but moved with his wife and eldest daughter to Clynnog in the early 1850’s. They initially lived on a farm by the name of Pentwr in Capel Uchaf, but eventually moved to nearby Foel Isaf.

The tale handed down to the present generation told of how “a brother of Robert” had killed another man in an argument over a girl and subsequently fled toAmerica. Hours of fruitless research had been unable to confirm or deny this story although William junior did indeed appear to vanish from home some time after the 1871 census was taken.

Eventually two family graves were located in Capel Uchaf; one for William and Jane, and one for their offspring William and Catherine. According to the inscription William died on the 4^th of March 1875, at the age of 18.

Armed with this date a copy of the death certificate could now be obtained, and this made interesting reading. William died at Foel Isaf, the cause of death being recorded as “Lacerations of the lungs and blood vessels from a gunshot wound. Accidental.”

Sadly the Coroner’s records have not survived, but the 1875 Easter Quarter Sessions papers contain the Coroner’s Returns of Inquests for the Pwllheli Division. These do not contain many details, but they do note the finding of the jury. In this case the verdict was “Accidentally shot himself.”

A brief report of the inquest was carried in the Herald Cymraeg on the 17^th of March and everything seems to point to an accidental death. There is no indication as to who attended the inquest, or who gave evidence, but the report states that William and his friends were in the habit of concealing a shotgun in a gorse bush in the field behind the farm. On this particular day he had grabbed the gun by its barrel and pulled it out of the bush, only for the gun to go off and shoot him in the chest. He was killed instantly. His body was found early the following morning by his father.

All well and good you might say, a tragic accident the details of which have been embellished over the years, but a closer look reveals inconsistencies in the official version of events.

The Herald Cymraeg clearly states that the related events are conjecture only, nobody knew exactly what happened. It was a version of events that the jury thought most likely to have happened. But they could not prove conclusively exactly where the shooting took place, not whether there was anybody else involved.
They came to the conclusion that William was killed instantly, yet the next day his body was found thirty feet from the gun. Did he in fact live for a short time and managed to crawl away from the scene, or did someone else deliberately shoot him and throw the gun away while fleeing the crime? Would the boy, born and bred on a farm and well-versed in the craft of hunting and shooting, be so careless as to handle a shotgun by the barrel, knowing full well that it was loaded?

Now was it a tragic accident that took the life of a popular young man, or was there an attempt to cover up the real facts? Was William in fact the victim of murder, maybe in an argument over a girl, and if so, did the killer flee to America?


The grave of William and his sister Catherine at Capel Uchaf, Clynnog.



The Coming of the Railway and the Disruption of the Town

Since early 2011 major disruption has been caused to Caernarfon’s inhabitants by the regeneration work being carried on in the town. Although we all like to moan occasionally, it is, of course, only the latest in a long line of changes the town has experienced over the years.

What would we have done were we living in Caernarfon in 1869, when the then latest project was to extend the Bangor to Caernarfon railway line to join those of Porthmadog and Llanberis? By its sheer scale, that scheme would put today’s to shame.

Work began that May under the watchful eye of contractor Mr. Ridley, and barely a month into the project extensive embankments were being constructed on Morfa Seiont and the base for the track was being laid along the intended path by the gasworks and down to the Quay. Several houses in the vicinity of Segontium Terrace were in the process of being demolished and in the coming few weeks more were to be pulled down. At the time the intention was to build a new station, a “pick-up station” as it was called, under Segontium Terrace.

In late July a terrible event occurred which showed the consequences of such large-scale excavations in the centre of a built-up town; at noon on Tuesday the 21^st a huge landslip took place at the cutting near Turf Square, the Herald reporting that “the back buildings of two or three houses in Bangor-street gave way, and the whole mass came down with a tremendous crash.” It was known the structures were unsafe as they had been propped up with beams, but evidently the weight had been too much for them. Just before the collapse a servant girl had been inside one of the buildings; a narrow escape.

Shortly after eleven o’clock on Wednesday the 9^th of September, the residents of Segontium Terrace were alarmed to hear loud rumblings noises which resembled the roll of thunder. It was later found that part of the entrance arch of the new tunnel below theAlbertInn had collapsed, leaving a breach some dozen yards long and many feet high. The debris, which included a considerable quantity of earth and “seven strong cast iron girders,” lay in a heap on the track bed. It was presumed that recent heavy rain had loosened the soil above the tunnel, resulting in pressure on the new wall and causing it to bulge outward. It was also thought that resting the girders on walls which were not sufficiently strong and well-pinned could have contributed.

In December the Town Council discussed the possibility of covering the railway cutting fromTurf SquaretoCastle Squareand building a new street along its path, which would have added a handsome new shopping thoroughfare to the town.

By April 1870 most of the work had been completed, a barrier of earth by Hugh Humphreys’ premises in Castle Squarebeing the last remaining section to be removed. A month later, on the 29^th of May, a ballast engine made the first journey from one end of town to the other. Large crowds turned out to witness the event; many perched precariously on the wagons.

The final leg of the year long contract was the opening ceremony, which took place on the 6^th of July 1870 when the great and the good of Caernarfon joined the directors of the L.N.W.R. to celebrate its completion.