Tag Archives: Pembrokeshire

Pembrokeshire for epicures and sybarites

If you’re the kind of person who marks the third Thursday in November with a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau, looks forward to enjoying wild game birds from the Scottish moors in September and the first daffodils from Cornwall in January … Continue reading

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How well do you know your cawl spoons? (A quiz)

Cawl (more of that another time) was traditionally eaten with a wooden spoon. If, like me, you don’t fancy the idea of eating soup from the sort of wooden spoon you might use for stirring cake mixture, let me assure … Continue reading

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Same old same old

Had we kept all the post-cards received over the years, our long-standing family connections with Dinas mean that we would now be able to paper a room with versions of this one. The countryside side around Dinas is one of the … Continue reading

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Rubbish

In the old days, before poor people had much to throw away and before bin men were invented, one Dinas solution was to throw rubbish over the edge of the cliffs. There can’t have been much:  waste food would have gone to … Continue reading

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To Harrods for satin pantaloons

In my role as  a book volunteer in Wilmslow’s Oxfam shop, I’m constantly delighted by the enormous range, quality and quantity of donated books.  When this wonderful book came onto my desk I lingered over it, remembering a childhood experience … Continue reading

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How do you say ‘Eglwyswrw’

I remember, with a pleasing glow of satisfaction, the look of surprise on a stranger’s face when, in a conversation through the car window that occurred because we were well and truly lost in narrow lanes between Newport and Cardigan, … Continue reading

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The first petrol station in Dinas

Remember petrol stations where an attendant waited on the forecourt to serve petrol and accepted payment without the driver having to leave the car? This pump, in Ravenglass, reminded me of the petrol station in Bwlch Mawr, Dinas. The pumps … Continue reading

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Bound apprentice: £35 for four years’ work, with twelve shillings per annum in lieu of washing

At the age of 14, 1n 1891, my Dinas-born grandfather went to sea, apprenticed to the master of the barque Glance. The Glance had recently been to New Zealand but, during my grandfather’s time, before the opening of the Panama Canal, they … Continue reading

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A non-conformist guide to the Middle East

The density of chapels in this sparsely populated corner of Wales repays some study and the names transport the passer-by to the Middle East*. Some chapels survive as places of worship, many have been abandoned and others been converted to residential … Continue reading

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The village shops

If your preparation for a self catering holiday at Tegfan involves tracking down the nearest Tesco and putting in your normal order plus some extras, please pause for a moment. There is an alternative to consider. Driving along Feidr Fawr … Continue reading

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Aberbach in 1930

I think this photo was taken in Dinas’ Aberbach beach in about 1930. Apart from the style of boys’ swimming costumes, nothing much has changed.

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Welsh Quilts

I’m curious to know more about these quilts. They’ve been in our family for 100 years or so. I think they must have come from Dinas (North Pembrokeshire) at the beginning of the 20th century, or perhaps earlier. They are … Continue reading

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