His Square Mile

When I was a child, I spent a lot of time with my Grandad. He grew up in a small village in North Wales in the 1930s. He told me all sorts of stories and now, I wanted to tell them to you.

The Most of What Was Had

When he was a child, my Grandad's father, William, worked many jobs: watching the sheep for Bertie at the farm just down the road, helping out the doctor in the next village across, and working in the quarry at the heart of the village. Grandad admired his father’s work ethic and would occasionally go to the farm to help him once he was old enough. One of Hugh’s favourite animals on the farm was Bessy, a tall, black Shire horse that was used to pull carts, trees and anything else that Bertie, the farm owner, needed her to do. He loved to go into the field to catch her and ride her bare back up to the farm yard, especially in the summertime. Grandad gave her all his trust and she returned it.

Grandad’s mother, Winnifred, kept the home and looked after the children, helped by his older sisters, Cath and Flo. Grandad was often ushered out of the house with his older brother, Ted, to stop them making a mess or becoming too boisterous.

My Grandad looked up to his brother Ted a lot. They would go on adventures around the village, playing in the river with makeshift boats and patrolling the fields playing made up games. He liked going to school, he was good at math but no so great at spelling. He struggled with the double letters in Welsh and often got told off for talking too much. When he was six, Grandad’s mother decided she was going to teach the children English she had learnt as a child and with the prospect of war getting more likely, she thought it was something they may need soon and would be helpful for their future. It would allow them to travel outside of Wales and really make something of their lives. Winnifred had lived in Cwm Penmachno for her whole life and she loved the village, but as all mothers do, she wanted more for her children.

In 1939, the second world war broke out. Grandad’s oldest brother Will, enlisted in the army and was taken off to fight for Britain. Trains of evacuees from Liverpool and other cities were brought to the village and taken in by families that had room to spare. No evacuees were taken in by Grandad’s family, their house was already full to bursting, but Bertie took some in and they helped him on the farm. They didn’t like it much, being from the city; most had never seen a real working farm before. It didn’t help matters that the village children would play tricks on them such as locking them in the field with Ivor the bull and throwing things at him to get his attention. The village children laughed as the evacuees ran for their lives and jumped over the wall to escape.

Grandad’s mother began to help with the land army and their garden was turned mostly into a vegetable patch, the only other spaces were the toilet and the Anderson shelter. Grandad was lucky enough to also have his father stay home from the war, being too old to join the army to fight. William stayed in Cwm Penmachno and helped with any building work that needed doing. He helped the women whose husbands and sons had gone to war and worked overtime in the quarry. Grandad and his siblings also joined in the efforts with building shelters and growing fruit and vegetables to help the village combat the rations on food. Hugh would also help his brother, Ted, to collect fish, though Ted found the normal way of fishing boring. He would sneak into the explosives store in the quarry and take a small amount before rounding up his younger brother and some friends. Grandad was often stationed on the bridge just outside the village limits while Ted would stand a little further upstream, with a match taken from the kitchen drawer. Ted would light the explosives, throwing them in the river just as they exploded. It was the quickest and most efficient fishing technique that Hugh had ever seen. He loved it. Completely unaware of the danger they were putting themselves in, Ted, Grandad, and their friends would gather up the floating dead fish, divide it between themselves, and take it home to their mothers for that night’s dinner.

There were a lot of things that Grandad would do, no matter how dangerous, if he were led by Ted. Often it would result in their mother taking him to the doctor’s surgery, such as the time he was dared to put his hands in his mother’s mangle or the time that he rode a bicycle with no seat down the mountain, to make sure that it worked. It would have all been fine, except there were no brakes on the bike and after hitting a rather large bump on the hill, Hugh got the top of his leg caught in the exposed springs, requiring his mother to bandage him up to stop the bleeding.

Occasionally, aeroplanes would pass over the village. They amazed Grandad and he couldn’t help but stop and stare every time one roared across the grey sky. It was during the war that Grandad decided on his first career. He would join the RAF.

In 1948, armed with his English lessons from his mother, a love of aeroplanes, and some pep talks from William after his return from the army, Grandad left Wales for RAF Watton in Norfolk where he became a driver. He came to know many people from different walks of life, including John Beavin, who was also a driver, and his first wife, Jean. Life in the RAF resulted in Grandad being deployed to Cairo, Egypt. He was uncomfortable about leaving his wife but knew the sooner he left, the sooner he’d be able to return. In his time at the RAF, Grandad’s English had improved dramatically and had become his language of choice. Cairo was difficult for Grandad. He was stung by a jellyfish whilst swimming, giving him a lifetime fear of open water. The weather was hotter than anything he had ever endured and he spent a large amount of the day in a truck but at least he was around the machines he loved and he loved the days that he would receive post from his wife and mother. They were usually fretting letters, particularly from his mother. He sent her a photograph of himself sat on some dunes. On the back he wrote: “Don’t worry Mum, just pretend it’s a dream. That’s what I do.” He craved the day that he could return home.

When Grandad did return home, he received somewhat of a shock as his wife, Jean, was heavily pregnant. She insisted that the child was his and he wanted to believe her. A few weeks went by and Grandad realised that he couldn’t keep lying to himself, the child was not his. He knew that and so did she. Grandad moved onto the camp for a little while until he was able to leave the RAF. Jean admitted that the child was not Grandad’s and they began proceedings for a divorce.

While he had been in Cairo, Grandad’s sister, Flo, had moved to Barking in Essex. When she heard about Jean and the divorce, she offered Grandad a place to stay and a new start if he didn’t want to return to Wales. Grandad was enjoying his life in England, with exception to what he would later refer to as a little hiccup. Once he was able to leave the RAF, Grandad moved into his sister’s house in Barking with her husband and two children.

Grandad took a job using his driving experience to deliver cars in 1961. It was there that he met Sybil, my Grandmother. He asked her out for dinner and a year later, they married. Grandad felt more love for Sybil than he ever had for Jean and in 1963, they welcomed their first child, David, into the world. Both Grandad and Sybil had large families and it was a happy occasion with aunts and uncles coming from all over Essex, Wales, and Liverpool to greet the new family member. It wasn’t long until they decided to expand the family again. In 1965, they had their second son, Paul, my father. When the children were young, they often took them back to North Wales to visit Hugh’s mother. His father had passed away in the years before Hugh had made the move from Norfolk to Essex. The children loved running around in the fresh country air. They loved to visit Grandad’s friend Myfi and camped in the front garden of Grandad’s mother’s house.

Family was a big thing for Grandad and his family. They bought a caravan which they pitched on a site in Maldon. All of Sybil’s family had caravans on the same site and weekends would be spent playing on the beach and barbecuing together.

Despite having grown older, Grandad never really grew up. He worked in a pharmaceutical company, a place that he met his best friend, Brian. Together they would go through packaging to one another and run over products they were meant to be packing, such as breast implants, to see how long it would take for them to pop. Wherever Grandad was, he was laughing.

As his children grew up, they began to find partners. David found Alice and Paul found Jane, my mother. In 1989, Grandad and Sybil made the decision to move from Essex where the streets were getting busier and noisier. Grandad’s friend had recently moved to South Wales and on visits, he and Sybil fell in love with the area. It was less rural than Grandad was used to in North Wales, but much calmer than Essex was becoming. They found a large, three-bedroom house and put in an offer. David no longer lived with them, but Paul still lived at home. He had to make the decision whether to stay in Essex or move to Wales. He left for a new start with his parents. Shortly after the move, Grandad found out that they were to be grandparents for the first time. In early 1990, Jane had a baby boy named Jay. He was the first grandchild. They doted on him and not long after he was born, Jane made the decision to move to Wales as well. Soon the three-bedroom house was getting full. In the short years that followed, Paul and Jane moved out of the house to a small flat in the next town over they visited weekly. In late 1993, David and Alice had their only daughter, Chloe. They lived in Gloucester, which meant that Grandad and Sybil were unable to visit Chloe as often as they were Jay but they loved her just the same. The family was quickly expanding as Jane and Paul had another child, this time a girl, named Sian. Life was going well for the family, Jane and Paul bought their own home, and the children often spent time with their grandparents.

Unfortunately, Sybil discovered in 1998 that she had cancer. By the time the doctors had found it, it was already too late. She passed away in early July 1998. Grandad’s heart broke as he lost his one true love. The family rallied around him, supporting him as best as they could. He had the family dog, Laddie, to keep him company. Paul would visit on his lunch breaks from work and Jane and Paul came to dinner with the children every Sunday.

Three weeks after Sybil died, Jane and Paul got married. It was a small wedding but perfect for the family.

Grandad watched his grandchildren grow up, telling them stories of his past and his life in the village when he was young. He told them jokes and took them on outings to the mountain near the house. He was adored by all three. It was in 2010 when Hugh began to get ill. He had emphysema and it was beginning to take its toll on him. Paul and Jane did everything they could to help him, from doing his shopping to cooking the dinner. Brian visited Hugh daily to keep him company with a cup of tea, a chocolate biscuit, and the day’s newspapers and David visited when he could. In 2012, Hugh took a turn for the worse and was in hospital for a while. Paul, Jane, and Sian moved into the house to help him daily when he was home but it wasn’t long before he returned to hospital. He passed away in June at the age of 83. Hugh was outlived by his older sister, Flo, and both his children. His funeral was filled with laughter and people telling the stories about how this incredible but ordinary man had touched their lives for the better. He reminded everyone not to look at things and be sad, but to see the good and the funny. When it came time to spread his ashes, David and Paul took Jay and Sian in David’s aeroplane. They flew over the village of Cwm Penmachno as they released the ashes over the mountains that had seen Hugh grow up into an incredible, strong person that, no matter what, made the most of what he had in life.