These are pictures of Rhosneigr school children with some of Alan’s work and Ysgol y Tywyn studying them.
Our Wednesday Archaeology group is still 100% attendance most weeks. This reflects well on our tutor Rhys Mwyn’s ability as an interesting lecturer. One of the friends I’ve made is a Polish lady called Dana. I had been given a book to read by my daughter Delyth by Joy Mawby from Benllech. This was about a young girl being evacuated from Warsaw to Siberia during WW2. One Saturday evening this month I was at a play in Ucheldre, Holyhead when I met Dana and she introduced me to her cousin Joy Mawby, The book Joy had written was about Dana’s mother! It is called “Footsteps to Freedom” and an incredible read – I could hardly put it down. She based the story on the diary Dana’s mother had written which is kept in the Polish Archives in London. Joy has since written a second book, “Broken Warrior”. This is about Dana’s father’s experiences during the same journey. You can visit her website for details - www.jomawby.co.uk .
I still enjoy my walks along the Llanfaelog side of Llyn Maelog, especially with my granddaughters. However it became very wet and muddy where a little stream enters the lake. I e-mailed a picture of the area to Arwel Evans of the Paths and Highways. Thankfully he has solved the problem by diverting the stream through a pipe and the area is drying up nicely now.These are before and after pictures.
I still enjoy my walks along the Llanfaelog side of Llyn Maelog, especially with my granddaughters. However it became very wet and muddy where a little stream enters the lake. I e-mailed a picture of the area to Arwel Evans of the Paths and Highways. Thankfully he has solved the problem by diverting the stream through a pipe and the area is drying up nicely now.These are before and after pictures.
After our lecture in Llanfairpwll, Alan and I decided to go for lunch to Tŷ Golchi, Tudur Owen’s new restaurant venture. The food was excellent and the place was very well supported. Many like ourselves regard Tudur as our favourite TV comedian. We had been close friends with Tudur’s parents from when they ran the restaurant at Glantraeth, Bodorgan and we had also been members of Operation Friendship together. This is an organisation that allows teenagers from Wales to exchange holidays for a month with teenagers in American homes. Both my daughters visited America twice, whilst we enjoyed welcoming American youngsters to stay with us on alternate years.
On March 23rd, I took a group of over 30 members of the Anglesey U3A to Newborough. First we visited the newly refurbished John Pritchard Jones Institute. We were taken upstairs to a large room to have our talk. It is possible now to book this room for concerts, dances etc. Here, we were given an excellent talk on John Pritchard Jones’ life by Enid Mummery, one of the centre’s twelve trustees. He was born in 1841 and brought up as one of seven children in a cottage in Newborough. He became an apprentice draper in Caernarfon, then Yorkshire and finally in London where he eventually became the partner of the large department store in Regents St – Dickins & Jones. Consequently, he became a very wealthy man. He decided to donate large sums of his wealth back to his local community by building the Institute and six alms houses. It was he that financed the Pritchard Jones Hall at Bangor University which is named after him. He became Sheriff of Anglesey and was also knighted.
Amongst the varied rooms at the Institute there is a unique Cotgrave library system.
There is only one other in the UK and its worth a visit to see just this. Pritchard Jones donated all the books to the library and he used to top it up each time he visited from London. It would take too long to mention everything we saw, so my advice is to put it on your list of places to visit this summer. There is a café there during the summer season, from 11am to 6.30pm.Tues – Sun. Many walkers to Llanddwyn make use of this facility. We as a group had an excellent lunch there provided by Arlwyo Môn, run by Menter Môn. (booking for outside catering by them phone Wendy on 01407 840940.
After lunch, Rhys Mwyn took us along the road to visit Rhosyr.
This is an archaeological site which was unearthed by Neil Johnston in 1992. This is where one of the Royal Courts of Prince Llywelyn the Last was sited. Another is unfortunately buried under an estate of houses in Aberffraw. Edward 1 came here when he was surveying the kingdom he had defeated. Lots of the masonary and wood he transported over the Menai Straits to use in the construction of Caernarfon Castle. Edward built the castle at Caernarfon on top of the old Welsh castle that was there previously. For a full insight into the story of Rhosyr you can watch an excellent DVD at the Institute.
