Villagers write their own history
Post categories: Flintshire,ÌýHistory & Memories,Ìýgoodnews
| 15:49 UK time, Thursday, 18 November 2010
Local history books made up of stories shared from memory are being compiled in Flintshire with tales about unlikely tourist attractions and football heroes.
Ysceifiog will be featured in the newest addition to the series and will be launched at the village hall today.
The other booklets already published feature , , and .
The booklet featuring Caergwrle looks back to the time when the village was a tourist attraction with its own spa.
At one point the spa was generating 14,000 bottles of "saline fizzy water" a day and attracting visitors from Liverpool and Manchester.
Other visitors also travelled to villages such as Nannerch by train before the station closed in 1962 and holidaymakers such as Pat Gore share memories of their time there, in far from luxurious accommodation:
"The cottage just had two large rooms, one downstairs and one upstairs. Cooking and heating were done with a range and there was no electricity, running water or sewage system."
The booklets also celebrate village life in the more recent past.
Community events in Gwernaffield and Pantymwyn feature in black and white and colour photos with a visit by England football hero Kevin Keegan to open a 1975 fete one of the highlights!
He had relatives in the area and settled down for a while on the outskirts of Mold and became a familiar face in town while playing for Liverpool.
Postman on his rounds in Ysceifiog in the 60s, courtesy Hazel Formby
One of the photos contributed by Ms Formby [top] shows a postman on his rounds in the 1960s.
"He used to come round in a little Morris van," she said. "I knew things were going to alter - the type of van and uniform - so I took the photo."
Ms Formby also contributed information on Ffynnon Fair, the village's only source of water until the early 1930s, and on the Bard of Ysceifiog, also known as Will Ysceifiog, who died in 1855.
The booklets have been produced by with assistance from rural regeneration agency .
