Atgofion Mr & Mrs Havard Clive Rd / Mr & Mrs Harvard’s Recollections

Cymeriad o Gwm Abergwaun we Bili Basher – neu Wili Howells y Siop gynt. Wedd e’n byw gyda’i fam yn siop y gornel (ar y gornel sy’n troi am Glyn-y-mêl) Wedd e’n hoff iawn o gyfeirio’r traffic yno ac we Counsilor Richards wedi rhoi par o fenig gwyn polismon iddo, er mwyn iddo gael ‘neud y job yn iawn’. Wedd e wrth’i fodd wedyn te!

Do’dd Sysneg Wili ddim yn dda ond wedd e’n dueddol o ddefnyddio peth Sysneg, trwyddi-draw gyda’i Gwmrag, er mwyn dangos bod e’n medru.

Pan we ffws yn y papure am ‘Edward & Mrs Simpson’, wedd e’n gweud wrth hwn a’r llall bo ‘Prins Edward yn mynd i gael ‘marry’. Ond we un wag yn tynnu ‘i glun e wrth weud – ‘O na! na! Geith e ddim Mari, achos fi sy’ pia Mari!’

Cymeriade cofiadwy er’ill  we Mr Havard yn cofio o’i blentyndod odd y tri brawd we’n byw yn Trelawney gerllaw Tafarn y Pendre pan wedd e’n grwt. We son’u bod nhw wedi gneud eu harian amser Rhyfel Mowr yn y busnes ‘uniforms’. We’r ddou frawd ifanca yn eitha bartneriaid, ond dodd Oliver byth i’w weld yn mynd am dro gyda nhw. Fe we’r dyn cynta welodd plant y dre erio’d yn gwisgo modrwy, ac wedd e’n beth rhyfedd i weld dyn yn gwisgo un bryd hynny. We sôn ymysg morwyr bo gwisgo ‘tamed o our’ ar eich corff yn helpu’r llyged!

We Oliver yn gyfrifol am weithio pwmp yr organ yn yr Eglwys adeg gwasanaeth. We sôn, un bore, iddo greu damed o wherthin yn ystod y gwasanaeth wrth wrthod pwmpo’r organ gan bo’r ffeirad wedi anghofio rhoi rhif yr emyn mas – ‘When you tell me what number it is, I can start pumping!’

• Cofiai Mr Havard am D J Williams, Penucha’r Dre yn trefnu gang o fois i gyflawni’r gwaith o dynnu clawdd i lawr ym Mharc Lota. Hyd heddiw, mae pen ucha’r parc yn uwch na’r pen isha, a cwmpo’r clawdd rhwng y ddou ben we’r dasg.

We’r tir agosa at ‘High Street, yn perthyn i fferm ‘Yr lard’, lle we’r teulu Howells yn ffarm. ( We Foundry House, hefyd yn un o’r hen dai odd yn sefyll yma cyn i ystad dai Penbanc cael ei greu. ) We’r dynion yn defnyddio tipyn o nerth, gyda chaib a rhaw a wilber, i gario’r pridd o’r fan, a phacyn o Woodbines yr un we’r tâl am y gwaith. We John yn grwt bach bryd hyn (tua pump oed yn 1916) ac wedd e hefyd yn teimlo bod e’n haeddu tâl am ei waith – ond dodd dim Woodbines iddo fe!

We garddio yn beth mowr yn y dre bryd hynny, felly mae’n siwr mai i erddi’r bois y cariwyd pridd y clawdd.

Mae John yn cofio ei dad yng nghyfraith yn cadw tua 5 o erddi ar yr un pryd ac yn defnyddio ei feic i gario sacheidi o wymon o’r creigie yn Wdig nôl i bob gardd. We ganddo ardd yn Clive Rd, un arall yn ymyl tŷ ei ferch, pishyn wrth y reilwe yn Wdig a darn o dir yn Fferm Tregroes lle wedd e’n cael garddio, ond iddo ddod i helpu gyda’r cynhaea pob Hydref.

Mae Mr Havard yn cofio mai Miss Edwards a Miss Williams we’r ddwy athrawes gynta arno yn nosbarth babanod Ysgol y Cyngor. We Miss Edwards yn organyddes yn Hermon. We gofalydd yr ysgol Mr C______ yn derbyn llwythi o ‘coke’ i losgi yn y boiler. We’n rhaid iddo rhofio’r llwyth i lawr i’r seler o dan stafell y prifathro .

A character who stood out in their memories was Billie Basher of Lower Town. His proper name was  Willie Howells who lived at the corner shop in Bridge Street, on the turning towards Glyn-y-mêl) He liked to direct the traffic on the corner and Councillor Richards had given him a pair of policeman’s white gloves so that he could ‘do the job properly’. He was delighted with them!

Willie was Welsh speaking at home, as were most Lower Town folk at the time. His English was not good but he tended to use some, through and through with Welsh, in order to show that he could.

When there was a big fuss in the papers about the abdication of ‘Edward & Mrs Simpson’, he would chat, here and there, saying that  ‘Prince Edward yn mynd i ‘marry’. (The Prince will marry) But one old wag would confuse Willie completely by insisting  – ‘Oh no! no! The Prince can’t have Mari, because  Mari is mine, all mine!’.

Three more memorable characters that  Mr Havard recalls from his childhood were the three brothers living at Trelawney near the Pendre Inn, when he was a boy. It was thought that they made their money during the Great War in the ‘uniforms’ business. The two younger brothers, Arthur and _______, were quite sociable, but Oliver was never seen out walking with them. He was the first man the children of the town had ever seen wearing a ring, and it was a strange thing to see a man wearing one at that time. It was said among sailors that wearing ‘a little gold’ on your person helped your eyesight!

Oliver was responsible for working the organ pump in the Church during services. It was mentioned that one morning, he created a lot of laughter during the service when he refused to pump the organ because the priest had forgotten to give the number of the hymn – ‘When you tell me what number it is, I can start pumping!’

Mr Havard remembered D J Williams, schoolmaster of High Street, organizing a gang of men to carry out the work of pulling down a hedge in Lota Park. To this day, the upper end of the park is higher than the lower end, and demolishing the bank between the two ends was the task in hand.

The land close to ‘High Street’ belonged to ‘The Yard’ farm, where the Howells family farmed. (Foundry House, was another of the old houses standing here before the Penbanc housing estate was created. ) The workmen used a lot of strength, with shovels and spades and wheelbarrows, to carry the soil from the park, and their payment for all their effort was a pack of Woodbines for each man.  John was a small boy at this time (about five years old in 1916) and he also felt that he deserved payment for his work – but he didn’t get any Woodbines!

Gardening was a big thing in the town at that time, so it is certain that the earth from the bank was carried to each man’s gardens.

John remembered his father in law keeping about 5 gardens, all at the same time, and using his bike to carry sacks of seaweed from the rocks in Goodwick back to each garden. He had a garden in Clive Rd, another one near his daughter’s house, a piece of land by the railway in Goodwick and a piece of land at Tregroes Farm where he was allowed to garden, as long as he would come to help with the harvest every October.

Mr Havard remembered that Miss Edwards and Miss Williams were his first two teachers in the infant class at the Council School. Miss Edwards was an organist at Hermon Chapel. The school caretaker Mr C______ receiving loads of ‘coke’ to burn in the boiler. He had to shovel the load down to the cellar under the headmaster’s room.