In a week’s time, I’m publishing the first of another ten or so brand new Abergele in Shorts on this website, every week or so leading up until the end of 2011.
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I’m really excited about the new series of Abergele in Shorts and I hope you enjoy reading them.
Here’s a short digital story I’ve just made about the old Abergele Show. It was Brian Haynes – my dad’s neighbour – who told me about the ‘swimming’ of horses from boats from Ireland anchored off Pensarn beach.
It’s nice to look back at good old Woolies. When that company came to an end, many high streets in towns around Britain lost their iconic meeting places. I’d say we’ve been luckier than most in Abergele. The Diskos shop that takes the place of Woolworth isn’t all that different from Woolworth. OK, so you can’t buy Ladybird children’s clothes, there’s no record department, there are no stick-on shoe soles and metal sole ‘inserts’, but I think Diskos is a bit of a gem. The staff are friendly and I see people chatting together just as they used to in the old Woolies. The high street shops are vital to the heart of our towns and I think Abergele’s lucky in that respect.
A self-indulgent day. Diwrnod i’r Brenin (day for a king) as we say in Welsh. This morning we walked down the Mount, past Ysgol Glan Morfa, Maes Canol, under the expressway and onto the beach.
On the way back, I met a woman from Tanygrisiau, who’d lived in Abergele most of her life:
“I’m leaving Abergele; I feel like a stranger here. There’s a woman from Birmingham living next door to me. She feeds the seagulls; she actually leaves out a loaf of bread for them. The poor woman next door had just hung her washing out. I’m off to live in Powys. ”
After lunch, I walked up Tan y Gopa. It’s called Coed y Gopa or Coed y Cawr more often nowadays and it’s owned by the Woodland Trust now. They’ve been thinning out the trees and this has revealed the Iron Age fort that crowns the hill. There are some really high walls to the fort which I hadn’t appreciated until today. Good to see the wild Stinking Hellebore still thrives here too.
The Romans are said to have mined lead from the hill. There’s one really long and deep fault called Ceg y Blaidd (wolf’s mouth) – I hope I’ve remembered that name properly.
I’d gone to Tan y Gopa looking for a cave I remembered playing in when I was a child. I usually walked up Tan y Gopa with William Jones (Broadway) and Huw Watkins (Eldon Drive) through Mr Matthews’s farm fields. These fields have now been developed into housing estates.
The cave has two entrances: the first is 20 feet up a sheer rock face, the second drops down from the grass above. I did have to ask directions. The squeeze through the second entrance was tighter than I remember but sitting inside, I imagined I was back again with my childhood friends, Huw and William.
I really enjoyed revisiting the cave. Thanks to the Woodland Trust for taking such good care of Tan y Gopa.
“What’s x in Welsh?”, “Welsh word for y” … I’ve been researching words people search for on Google using phrases like these.
Here’s the Top 18:
1 Wales – Cymru
2 thank you – diolch
3 love – cariad
4 John – Sion
5 blue – glas
6 carrot – moron
7 I love you – dwi’n dy garu di
8 goodbye – hwyl fawr
=8 good morning – bore da
10 microwave – ffwrn meicrodon or popty-ping
11 hello – su’mae?
12 grandmother – nain or mam-gu
13 services – gwasanaethau
14 how are you? – sut wyt ti?
15 family – teulu
16 sheep – dafad (one) or defaid (plural)
17 good luck – pob lwc
18 beautiful – prydferth
Source Google Keyword tool, based on collation of monthly search queries around concepts of English-language keywords connected with ‘welsh’, ‘word’ and ‘translation’. Accessed January 2010 by Gareth Morlais.
P.S. a bit off-topic as far as Abergele news goes, but I hope you’ll share this if you find it interesting.
It was an annual event during the 1980s, Abergele Scout members used to run into the sea every Boxing Day morning. I know because my brother Gwynedd was one of them. He’s the one wrapped in the white towel in this photo.
