Anita Morgan: “I’ve Just had a charming conversation with
a small boy about 3 (my bother), who speaks no English, I speak no Welsh but he
very kindly and patiently got me to understand that his great grandmother Mary
Hughes, his grandma Marie Robert and mother Emrysia Jones were waiting for me
inside this house, on a smallholding on the outskirts of Nefyn. Great
grandmother Mary, I know your family goes back around 400 years in Nefyn but
what was the main family trade?”
Mary Hughes: “My father and family were Master Masons...
stones.”
Anita Morgan: “What sort of stone would they work on
around here?"
Mary Hughes: “Well there is only one kind of stone in the
world isn’t there? One in Nefyn, the Gwylwyr quarry and one in India and that’s
real granite!”
Marie Roberts: “And giving lots of work for the local
people, that was then before they closed at the beginning of the last war when
the Gwylwyr quarry closed, as I understand... I was just a baby then myself!"
Anita Morgan: “Mary’s daughter, Marie. I’ve said that
this is a third generation interview, grandmother, mother and daughter and
you’ve got a lovely name...”
Emrysia Jones: “Yes, Emrysia.”
Anita Morgan: “Is that Welsh?”
Emrysia Jones: “It is Welsh, it’s my father’s name, he’s
called Emrys with an “I A” added on... Emrysia.”
Anita Morgan: “You have an interest in the tourism
industry in this place surely?"
Emrysia Jones: “Yes, we do let out our houses in the
summer...”
Anita Morgan: “Houses?!”
Emrysia Jones: “Yes, like we said it’s a family affair
you know”
Anita Morgan: “And how many houses do you have?”
Emrysia Jones: “four”
Anita Morgan: “Do you find it lively enough as a younger
woman with a child?"
Emrysia Jones: “Personally it doesn’t bother me; I’m
married- I married young. But for other
younger people, no I don’t think there is enough life here for them, they do
tend to stand on the streets, Really they only have the pubs. But again it
depends on the people and the kind of life you like, its fine for me.”
Anita Morgan: “It’s fine for the three of you? The three
of you enjoy Nefyn?”
Marie Roberts: “Yes definitely”
Anita Morgan: “Have you ever lived away from Nefyn Mary?”
Mary Hughes: “No, but I traveled quite allot..." (Laughs)
Anita Morgan: “Where have you been?”
Mary Hughes: “Through bombs! And shells!” (Laughs)
Anita Morgan: “During the war time?”
Mary Hughes: “yes!”
Anita Morgan: “What sort of vehicle were you in?”
Mary Hughes: “Lorries”
Anita Morgan: “As a passenger?”
Mary Hughes: “No dear, driving it.”
Anita Morgan: “You were driving the lorry?!"
Mary Hughes: “Oh yes... you sound surprised?”
Anita Morgan: “I am surprised! ...Where would you be
travelling then? ...Where would you drive?”
Mary Hughes: “Liverpool. Manchester. Birmingham... (*In
welsh to my grandmother “translate for me”)
Marie Roberts: “You would get a phone call saying that
there was a ship able to come in and that it needed emptying. These ships with
the planes flying over Liverpool, it was important that they got as much off
the ships as possible so they... there were also local men as well working on
the Lorries as haulage contractors in the district"
Anita Morgan: “So the area was quite busy with haulage?”
Marie Roberts: “Yes, that’s right... Quite a lot of
haulage but because of the quarries closing down then that was decline of the
haulage, the decline of everything... “
Anita Morgan: “What about otherwise, apart from that the
decline of Nefyn as a place to live in... Has it declined? Can you still get
everything you want here in the way of shops, entertainment and so on”
Marie Roberts: “Nefyn itself, if something has prospered
really, during the last fifteen years I would say. Because now we have a very
fashionable shop in the village, a very nice fashionable shoe shop in the
village, you needn’t go really, anywhere but if you’d like to go for a day out
to Llandudno then yes, fair enough you’ve got ‘Marks & Sparks’ but if you
really didn’t want to travel out of the village then you wouldn’t have to if
you patronise local people.”
Anita Morgan: “No more trips to Liverpool driving the
lorry for you Mary?”
Mary Hughes: “Why not?”
Anita Morgan: “Why not? She says!”
Marie Roberts: “Why not? She says at 79!”
Anita Morgan: “79! ...Great Caesar!”
Mary Hughes: “I’d been driving since I was ten, eleven
years old! Motorbikes...”
Anita Morgan: “Motorbikes?!”
Mary Hughes: “...Lorries, all sorts of things...”
Marie Roberts: “She was a 1929 Rally winner... tell them
about that”
Anita Morgan: “Rally winner?”
Marie Roberts: “ Yes, motorbike in the race... Black
rocks in Porthmadog. We have a picture of her here, with her motorbike that she
won the first prize with."
Anita Morgan: “Against all the men?”
Mary Hughes: “Oh yes”
Anita Morgan: “Who’s’ going to choose the music, of the
three ladies?”
Marie Roberts:
“Anything by Sir Geraint Evans anything classical would go with the village we
live in.”
Anita Morgan: “They like good music in Nefyn do they?”
*Closes with The Duke of Plaza-Toro by Gilbert &
Sullivan.
© Arfon Jones 2019. All images are copyrighted throughout
the world.
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