Mum would have been 96 today had she survived; I had hoped, of course, that she would live this long, and for quite some time, thought that she would. Despite three online meetings, it has been a day for memories.
Mum’s 87th birthday was the last that we celebrated with her by a day out on the actual day. I had made a habit of taking her for a day out on or around her birthday for about 25 years. This day involved a modicum of memories for her.
We travelled to North Wales, passing at Sealand the site of the Little Chef cafe at which we had often stopped on journeys with Dad into North Wales. The RAF site opposite, which had brought some customers to the Little Chef, had now been demolished. We headed on towards Holywell, and drove down the hill there to stop at St Winifredes Well, now under the care of Cadw. We walked round the exhibition centre there, with a display of walking sticks that had apparently been left behind when their owners “took the waters ” here and found themselves cured. We noted another display which recorded that the waters in the Well had run dry in 1917, and that the adjacent St Winifrede’s Brewery site had been acquired for redevelopment in 1929. I think that this now formed the site of the exhibition centre.
Mum, herself using her stick, made her way slowly up the slope to the Well itself. I recorded that she was “not too impressed and reluctant”, but when she reached the main well, she recalled that she had been there as a child. She suggested that this had been before her brother Tony was born; since he was born in 1932, then must have been over 80 years ago. She recalled that it was smaller, with a public entrance by the road in a custodian’s house that is now the archive. She noted that people could go down into the small indoor pool using handrails that are still there, but behind a locked gate. There had been people there, in what was “more like a paddling pool”, and that had walked down steps to get to the pool. According to her, the outside pond, more like a swimming bath, was not then there.
Mum suggested that they went there because her mother was called Winifred, and she felt that it was on a holiday. She thought that they had arrived there by train, possibly from Chirk (?); between 1912 and 1954 there was a halt on the line from Holywell Junction, now a footpath). I gather that they did not take the waters on that occasion or later, and indeed noone could be seen there when we visited. Mum said that she was about 6 (thus 1931) and she recalled abandoned sticks all round the walls of the well, and “in those days they had wooden things where you swung your legs; they don’t do that any more, do they?” being there.
My wife bought Mum a little charm for £2-95; the lady behind the counter said she had been in a wheelchair before taking the waters.
We left to go down the road, to follow the main coast road, along which Mum related how she was in an Inner Wheel position and doing an Open University course, often working on both while on trains. After following the Tour Taith route upwards, we stopped in Llanasa at the Red Lion for coffee. We were pleased that our dog was allowed into the bar, where a younger lady there made a fuss of her. We followed the route west out of Llanasa to the main road, and stopped for lunch at Jacksons Garden Centre. Mum had salad, sitting in the conservatory at a marble-topped table, next to a solid fuel stove.
We turned south to pass through Caerwys and through to Nannerch. I was surprised that, when she saw a sign to Ysciefiog, she recalled school outings there, although there wasn’t much there. We turned to go towards Cilcain, where I took a back road to “The View” (a layby with a good view of Moel Famau). Although Moel Famau was very familiar, as my grandparents and aunt had lived nearby between 1963 and 1994, Mum had never been up to this particular point. We called at the church, which she also hardly recalled; she had last been there at my aunt’s funeral in 1999. We took the road to Loggerheads, she recalled telling someone about school trips to Loggerheads and a fairground there, and how, in junior school, they went on a walk with a sheer drop on one side. This would be the Leete Walk, popularised by the bus company Crosville from 1927.
As it was getting later now, we headed along to Nercwys, and down to the Butchers Arms. At first she said she didn’t know it, then she recalled being in my Grandad’s caravan at the back, on a rather grim holiday in 1951. One could never be quite sure if Mum did enjoy days out – she always talked about family matters – but on the way back she told my wife that that she had greatly enjoyed it. I hope she did.
The day was not over. Back in Wallasey, we joined her and my sister’s family at the Derby Pool restaurant – one of her favourite places. Then the family went to her home with presents – a set of new tea towels went down well. At 1025 the lights went off, and a cake with candles was brought in, and we (and Mum) sang “Happy Birthday” and “For She’s A Jolly Good Fellow”. My sister, keen on genealogy, showed her a folder with the fruits of family history research. She showed Mum a photograph of Mum, aged one, in Barnstaple – “Of course, Mother always talked about being in Barnstaple”, Mum said.
There were other birthdays, but this perhaps one of the most enjoyable and poignant for that – I have several short videos of it. At the time of writing, none of this can be visited, but I was to visit part of this trip after her funeral. The Red Lion later closed, but seems to have been renovated since, while Jacksons cafe has been moved to a larger unit. St Winifredes holds a special place because of this trip, and I will revisit once it is legal and safe to do so.
Joan Boughey Recalled 